Installing Strat pickups with Jason Lollar Part 3

[LollarGuitars]

each spot where the lead wires are connected should have a copper wire coming off the coil so the coil can connect to the lead wires- its extremely easy to break that hair thick wire. One of the most common problems is fender doesnt wrap thier coils with protective tape, if you get a little clumsy or in a hurry its easy to snag the coil with the pickup cover if you take the cover on and off. Once you break a wire anywhere in the coil its a done deal

[AICD1999]

Thank you for the help. Upon examination of the new set I can see that the copper wire coming out of the winding pattern sends a strand to where the connection wires are soldered. There is also several small strands wrapping from underneath the pickup to where the connection wires are soldered, if you can picture it. This was not like the malfunctioning set, even though they are both the same brand and exact pickups. Not sure how that could be but I will test the new ones before I install. TY

[AICD1999]

Thanks for the info. On examination of the pickups with my shiny new multimeter I found that the bridge pickup would not read any number of K that was consistant and in fact didn't even come close to the spec of 7.5K. The mid and neck both read 6.5K everytime. So I believe the pickup is nonfunctioning or has some kind of short in it. Interesting that it would have readings in the 2-300 K range and down to the .XXX range but never steady or consistant. The others where spot on. Sent them back. TY

[LollarGuitars]

@AICD1999 high readings like 200K that vary or drop down over time- a minute or so- down to almost zero indicates there is a break in the coil and the pickup needs rewound.

[AICD1999]

What would you think the problem is when after you put everything back together the guitar still works and sounded great but a couple hours later the bridge pickup was not functioning. I replaced the old switch with a new one as I checked the solder points and replaced the pickguard three times and all three times after a few hours I came back, plugged the guitar in and the bridge isn't working. Maybe the solder is bad.

[LollarGuitars]

@AICD1999 its most likely one of two things- a problem with the switch- bad contact possibly or the pickup could be shorted out. Check the pickup with an ohm meter. If you have a continuity test on your ohm meter you can test to see if you are getting signal through the switch in the bridge position- this is a little complicated to explain in the short replies allowed here. other than that it could be a bad solder joint- hard to say without seeing it in hand

[cloudcally]

@LollarGuitars I have a shell pickguard, agathis body, rosewood freeboard, and maple neck so I just looked that up I you want to know.

[LollarGuitars]

@cloudcally cool daddy!

[cloudcally]

I just noticed I have the same guitar as you

[LollarGuitars]

@cloudcally Couldnt be exactly the same because I made that one from scratch- unless yours says Lollar on the headstock but I havent built that many strats. Pickgaurd on that is real acetate with red tortoise laminated on top my buddy found in leftover stock from the 60's for $200 a sheet. I like the combination if you have the same wood- brazillian rosewood fingerboard with alder body

[cloudcally]

how do you tell where each hotwire goes?

[maac44]

will it make any difference if i want to install two different brands of pickups? say, fender and seymour duncan ones. will i need to do anything different?

[LollarGuitars]

pickups made by different manufaturers may not be in phase with each other and they may or may not humcancel with each other, read my FAQ page on my .com site- I think the first question deals with that.

other than that as long as they have the vintage type lead wires the wring will look the same as demonstrated

[jbcarpio]

i need help, i changed my strat's pickguard. now every time i strum, the "g" string makes a rattling noise. how can i fix that?

[LollarGuitars]

It could be so many things I couldnt tell you- start touching different parts while you play until you touch the part that makes the buzzing stop- then youll know whats causing it

[jbcarpio]

@LollarGuitars dude i just figured it out, it didn't have anything to do with me replacing the pickguard but now i know.... it was the nut...... the g string that goes through the nut seems to have some space in there thats why its rattling. now my problem is how to fix it :(

[LollarGuitars]

mmmm.. you sort of need to have a special file to re cut the nut just a tiny bit if you are lucky to have a little leeway- it would be unusual to have the nut go bad all of a sudden though- could be some dirt in the slot- i dont know

[ledzeppelin4485]

@jbcarpio buy a new nut. graphite $5 at guitar center

[LollarGuitars]

still probably have to cut it with a file to get the string height correct

[ykcor1138]

Is there a way to test for cold solder joints?

[LollarGuitars]

I dont know of a way other than visual inspection but when it happens it can really make your rig sound like a dog. Its pretty hard to get a cold joint once you have some experience.

There may be a way- you could try measuring for any resistance in the joint by measuring the ohms on either side of a joint. Problem is I dont know what kind of resistance to look for- one ohm? a half an ohm? 100 ohms?

[snouter]

Great video! I watched this vid a couple times in preparation for my third Lollar based project . I actually used the excess pickup ground wire after I trimmed them to attach the pots to the switch posts to keep everything consistent.. Thanks Jason for making the sweetest pickups available.

[3FMC3]

Great series of videos. Thanks for putting them together.

[TheWasabiNoodles]

Hi, I'm a total novice at soldering strat pickguards. You're video is really good i'm strating to understand how i'm going to wire it, i just got a couple questions. Firstly, the pickups i'm about to put in are used, so the bridge pickups wires are are not going to reach the pot and the switch, how do I overcome this problem? Also is there a certain height that the pickups should be?

Thanks

[LollarGuitars]

you will have to solder on some extra length of wire at the end of your current wires and put some heat shrink tube or tape over the joints- this will be safer for a novice to add wire on rather than trying to completely replace the lead wires where you could break the pickup coil easily. For height adjustment check out my video on adjusting strat pickups

[skatingequalsPoWeR]

great video, thanks a heap :D i'm doing an acoustic-to-electric conversion for woodwork at school later on in the year, and basically using a telecaster-ish idea (two single-coils, three-way switch, one tone, one volume) i don't have any idea how to wire a tele from scratch though, so could someone please send me a wiring diagram/video for it? also, will common pots from whatever electronics shop work reasonably, or should i buy guitar-designated ones? thanks :D

[LollarGuitars]

you can get that on my website- standard wiring schematic for a tele- look on the front page optional links

[vicvelazzy]

The only solder I found was 0.062" thick...with a 40 watt solder tool, will this work fine?

[LollarGuitars]

That will work- youll just use a little less than it looks like I use in the video- i am working with approximately 1/32 thick. youll see me push maybe 1/2" of length of solder when I make a joint- youll use maybe 1/4" is my guess.

[wungabunga]

Very helpful, about to wire in my first pick ups aged 37!

[EvanN108]

Thanks so much I know live in a place where there is no guitar techs. This will be very helpful in the future.

[SRVisthebest]

So you dont solder anything to the tone pots?

[LollarGuitars]

if I recall this video is about installing a new set of strat pickups into a strat that is already wired up not about completely wiring a strat from scratch so yes you do it just like the video. there are alot of ways you could do it but this is how it would have been done by Fender on a vintage wired strat.

[tehorix789]

This tutorial kills SD's. Thanks, Jason.

[Slayer4skills]

hi im kinda new with the guitar modding thing will this work on any style of single coil pickup

[homersimps1]

Awesome! Thank you very much Mr. Lollar. This is extremely helpful.

[LollarGuitars]

Try our Special S pickups. Stratty, but fat, with more output.

[blues4jesus]

Wow you made that look so easy. I guess I will no longer be paying to have pickups installed in my strats. I assume its the same process with a 3 position switch. I just orderd a set of blackface strat pickups for my MIM Strat. Im looking forward to hearing them. If they sound half as good as that video of sheetsofsound playing them Ill be ecstatic. These will be replacing my fralin blues specials.

[LollarGuitars]

Well I do make it look easy and you may find its like anything - Jeff Beck makes playing guitar look easy but its all in there to help you out.

A 3 way is wired exactly the same as a 5 way- its only lacking indents on the switch to index it between pickup setting- which is purely mechanical not something you have to wire up.

[icemanpaintball8]

I second the vote! Great video, everything explained well!

[Revolutionaryskating]

Thank you for making this video, I just bought a bridge pick up for my old strat, brought new life to that baby. Great Lesson, very complete.

[glennish1972]

i want to put 69 pickups on my left handed mim strat, but they dont do left handed 69 pickups,i havent seen them anyway,does it matter,might get more of a hendrix sound? if i do.

[LollarGuitars]

The 69s are a vintage stagger pole so the previous comment applies "Flat poles will not change in volume balance if you flip them around, vintage pattern stagger poles will give a different volume balance if you flipped them backwards- jimmy hendrix did it. He played right hand stagger pole pickups left handed."

[thojyout23]

this is a good soldering pickups video, you even tell us tips on soldering, COOL MAN!

[wainzo]

hey jason can you flip the pickups around would it make a difference in the sound,im talking about the flat pole p/u's i just bought a set of black face, and my g&l p/u's the middle and bridge were fliped the other way?

[LollarGuitars]

Alot of people think if you flip the pickup around it will change the phase of the pickup and it will be out of phase with the other pickups this is not true in anyway.

Orientation of the pickup makes no difference when it comes to phasing.

Flat poles will not change in volume balance if you flip them around, vintage pattern stagger poles will give a different volume balance if you flipped them backwards- jimmy hendrix did it. He played right hand stagger pole pickups left handed.

[Lollar10]

Great idea- a book on wiring and peculiar details that only someone dealing with thousands of people wiring pickups into a wide variety of guitars would know about. give me a couple years on it!

[Iamthequeenofengland]

I vote Jason Lollar to write "Guitar Modification for Dummies."