How much for a pickup swap?

[Chuckracer]

Re: How much for a pickup swap?

Cool...that would be a hell of a lot easier!
Where's his shop?

[rjohnstone]

Re: How much for a pickup swap?

His shop is just down the street from Guitar and Keyboard City's main store.
Around 16th St. and Indian School. He does all their bench work for them now.
Called Ye Old Guitar Shop or something like that.
I haven't had a chance to talk to him in a while.
This would give me an excuse to drive down there and say hey.
He and I worked together in the same shop for a few years back in the early/mid 90's.
Great guy and has a wicked sense of humor.

[YetAnotherOne]

Re: How much for a pickup swap?

[ QUOTE ]
How much for a pickup swap?

[/ QUOTE ]

$0 if you'd caught me last week when I was in Eugene. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Newc]

Re: How much for a pickup swap?

Hit Radio Shack and grab some quick-connectors like you find on EMGs or PC parts, wire everything to those, and swap pickups all day and only have to solder once (or not at all if you can find some "push-in" types) [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Anyone tried rigging a guitar for screw terminals? Or maybe those speaker wire clamping connectors?

[Inazone]

Re: How much for a pickup swap?

The guy I go to charges quite a bit for a pickup swap (not $50 though), but I've come to the conclusion that he prefers true luthier work and that the trade-off for higher prices on "tech" work is lower prices on "luthier" work. For instance, he came in well below his estimate for my recent inlay work, sold me locking Sperzels at cost, and did some custom wiring work for my brother for cheap. His setups are pricey, so I am exploring other shops for the routine stuff.

[shreddermon]

Re: How much for a pickup swap?

I just paid about $15 for a 2 hum PU swap. ..Although I took the old ones out and mounted the new ones myself. All the tech had to do was solder up the wires and test it.

If you DIY, though, it's no big deal. Train yourself by soldering a couple of scrap wires together once or twice, before tackling the actual job. Assuming you know which wires go where, it should take all of 10 minutes or so. Factor in maybe another 15 mins. to take out the old / mount the new PUs.

Unless you've got some special wiring set-up, $50-plus would be absurd for this kind of job.

[Niccolai]

Re: How much for a pickup swap?

If it's the soldering part of the pickup swap you can't do, than take out your old pickup by either cliping or unsoldering the pickup wires at the controll pots, unscrew the four screws on your pickup rings, remove the pickup from the pickup rings and pull the wire out of the cavity. Do that to both pickups and you've successfully removed them. Than take the new pickups, and thread them onto the two pickup rings, put the wires through the routing in the pickup cavity, and screw the pickup rings back in... All you haveto do is take it to your guitar tech and have him solder it. Since the removal of the old pickups and instalation of the new pickups is done, theres no way he should charge 50 bucks... even 20 is a ripoff considering many guitar techs charge jobs by the hour.


Make sure you tell the tech that you installed the new pickups already and all you want is the measly soldering job, otherwise they might try and charge you a bundle still. I don't know how it's like where you are, but around Boston, lost of guitar techs are greedy assholes when it comes to a 5 minute soldring job... They put the job off for 2 months with your guitar hanging in the shop for everyone to touch and when they finally get around to doing the instalation (wich can run like 35-40 bucks PER pickup) There's all sorts of 'extra' things they had to do to your controlls (oh, I put new knobs on for you because your old ones were scratched... that'll be an extra 20 bucks). Once you get the guitar back, there's all sorts of scratches that were 'already there'... the migranes never end. That actually happened to my friend Matt... the guitar tech reminded me of the little girl's dad in the movie Matilda.


Edit: Shreddermon hit the nail on the head, I missed his post before posting that. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Newc]

Re: How much for a pickup swap?

But then some shops have a flat rate to "catch" people who install them and only want the wires soldered.

[Hellswrath]

Re: How much for a pickup swap?

So, does anyone have good tutorials on the matter to recommend ? Such as how to install a push-pull in addition to "just" installing the pickup ?
Thanks for the great infos, as usual!

[TheSteveMan]

Re: How much for a pickup swap?

Well, I took a look at the duncan schematics, and took a look at both guitars, and the fusion's pickup has the EXACT same color coding as the dimebucker I want to put in. On the dimebucker, the red and white wires are already soldered together and taped as they should be, so it appears that all I have to do is remove the stock pup from the fusion, put the dimebucker in, solder the black wire to the appropriate spot in the selector switch, and solder the green and bare wires to the ground point, just as is already the case in both guitars.
I think I will pull the dimebucker out of the old Kelly body, to start.. Then tomorrow I'm going to ask my TA in physics lab if he would mind setting up a time where I can use a soldering iron in the electronics lab.

I agree that I will need to practice on a couple of loose wires before I do the actual run... the control cavity of the fusion is a big freakin mess of wires due to that active tone control circuit that I don't even really use.... It doesn't appear to change what I need to do to the wiring, but it does mean that I have to be more careful because there is more stuff that can potentially get screwed in there.

I'm not paying a tech 50 bucks to solder three freakin wires... this is something I need to learn to do myself since I do eventually intend to focus in electronics when the time comes to take upper electives.

Thanks guys [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[TheSteveMan]

Re: How much for a pickup swap?

As for the price spread... I called another guy and he said 50 or 60 bucks. I called a luthier that Guitar Center referred me to and he said 20 or 30 bucks, but he has a long waiting list because he has a lot of jobs to do and he's been ill and undergoing therapy and stuff so it takes extra time. He referred me to another guy but I haven't called that guy yet... since I can clearly see what needs to be wired where, and I should have access to a good soldering iron almost any time I want, I'm not gonna bother.

[TheSteveMan]

Re: How much for a pickup swap?

Thanks for the help guys, I got on down to the electronics lab today, and swapped pups! That wasn't so bad after all [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Razor X]

Re: How much for a pickup swap?

Here in The Netherlands you have to be 16 in order to buy some liquor. In the past many shop owners didn’t give you a hard time if you were 14 but you had to look like 16. Since the beginning of this year everyone (14 and up) have to carry an ID easy for the shop owners.
And for weed (cannabis), you have to be 18 but I think most coffee shop owners won’t diss you if your 17/16. If there still bitching, most peeps then let an older friend buy it.
There are some rules involved for the user and seller of soft drugs (in shops).
They can’t sell you more then 5 gram and there stock max have to be is 500 gram, but I’m sure they sell you more then just 5 freaking grams.
Penalty’s (translated in a rush):


Hard drugs:

-Import/Export 12 Years Jail and/or €45.000
-Selling, Transport 8 Years Jail and/or € 45.000
Making
-Planned Import/Export 6 Years Jail and/or € 45.000
Selling Transportation
Making
-Preparing Crimes 6 Years Jail and/or € 45.000
-Laundering money 6 Years Jail and/or € 45.000
-Illegal Making and 6 Years Jail and/or € 45.000
Bringing Precursors
In the Circuit
-Possession 4 Years Jail and/or € 45.000
-Possession 4 Years Jail and/or € 45.000
For Own Usage 1 Years Jail and/or € 11.250

Soft drugs:

-Import/Export 4 Years Jail and/or € 45.000
-To Grow, Selling 2 Years Jail and/or € 11.250
Transporting, Making
-Business/occupation like Growing 4 Years Jail and/or € 45.000
Selling Transporting
Making
-Possession more then 2 Years Jail and/or € 11.250
30 grams
-Selling, Making 1 Month Jail and/or € 11.250
Possession
30 grams

(@$#%^ The board messed up the tabs sorry about that)

I’m 19 but I never drink or smoke [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[Bengal65]

Re: How much for a pickup swap?

[ QUOTE ]
So, does anyone have good tutorials on the matter to recommend ? Such as how to install a push-pull in addition to "just" installing the pickup ?
Thanks for the great infos, as usual!

[/ QUOTE ]
The best books on the planet IMHO are from Dan Erlewine available from Stewart McDonald, www.stewmac.com or possibly a local bookstore in your area. They have some awesome books. They have one that has all the variations including the one you mentioned.
I've been doing all my wiring since I was 12 years old and it doesn't take much to learn. It's quite rewarding and I can do mods really quick.