how do you change pickups on guitar?

[livingtodie]

I recently bought two humbuckers for my guitar (one for bridge and one for neck). And I noticed that I had a problem... I don't know how to install them. I searched online in attempt to find websites that may be able provide me with information on installing pickups but I had no luck. People say that I should go ask a pro to install it for me but I asked around and they say they'll charge $100 on installing them. I thought that was bullshit because I could practicaly buy another set of my pickups with that much money.

Can anyone here help me out by providing me a website or any kind of information on installing pickups? Or do I just have to pay $100 to get them installed...?
(By the way, I have a B.C. Rich Beast guitar with a Floyd Rose Tremolo)

 

[Sunbane]

You need to know how to solder. It's quite an art in itself, but you should be able to learn it with some proper instructions and the right tools. I'm sure there are sites out there about soldering electronics. I learnt it in school though. It's good to practice on scrap first, so you get the basic skills down. This is the hardest part of the installation process, but if you're dedicated and make sure to learn it properly, it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

As for equipment, you'll need:
* A soldering iron, of at least 25 watts.
* Some radio electronics solder.
* A wet sponge for cleaning the tip of the iron when it gets "gunky".

There are other items that may also be good to have handy, but these are the essential ones. Some spare wire is also good to have sometimes.

You also need to figure out what wires should go where. Hopefully the pickups you bought came with a diagram?

Apart from those points, installing shouldn't be more difficult than:

1) Desolder the old pickup wires from the controls (take note of how they were wired!).
2) Pull the old pickups out of the guitar.
3) Mount the new neck pickup in, and solder its wires to the appropriate controls.
4) Mount the new bridge pickup, and solder it in.

Make sure to find a good soldering tutorial for beginners and read up on it carefully. Soldering is often tricky (and potentially hazardous) business.

A lot of people won't bother with learning the craft of soldering just to install a couple of pickups. If you belong to this category, maybe you can find someone (a friend) who can solder them in for you in exchange for a beer or two?

 

[Opus(sy)]

What Sunbane said...

Although if you've never done this before, and you're worried about messing it up, i'd highly recommend getting it done by a pro. I know it costs quite a bit of money, but it's worth it...you want to get a proper job done right?