Effects Bay

The following a guest post by Brian Porter of Porter Pickups. The guest post is a very detailed procedure on how to replace pickups in your Fender Strat! If you’re looking to change/replace pickups, please take a look at Porter Pickups, he makes some fantastic pickups that are starting to find themselves in boutique guitars and in guitars of musicians looking to improve their tone. Check out PorterPickups.com for sound clips and make sure you follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

If you are interested in guest posting or submitting a guest review, please contact me!

Installing Strat Pickups. Step by step for putting new pickups in a strat style guitar.

Tools for the Job: -25-40Watt Soldering Iron-Solder -Phillips Screwdriver -String Winder -Tweezers (Optional) -Wire Cutters
Remove the Strings String Winders can save some time here.
Remove Pickguard Screws Remove all screws around the perimeter of the pickguard. Don’t touch the pickup or selector switch screws yet. If the strings can’t get out of the holes in the backplate, you might need to remove this as well.
Keep Screws in a Safe Place Put all the pickguard screws in a safe place, so you don’t lose them. Nothing like having a pickguard with one missing screw!
Pickguard is off….
Flip Pickguard Over…. It will still be attached with the jack wires, and the ground wire to the bridge, so make sure you carefully turn it over and don’t pull too hard on it.
Find where the wires go One wire from each pickup will go the the selector switch… Usually the white or “hot” from the pickup. In this case, the middle pickups “Hot” is yellow.
And one wire from each pickup will be soldered to the back of the volume pot…. The black wires from the pickups will be the “ground” Refer to wiring diagrams from places like www.guitarelectronics.com to make sure everything will go back in the right place. Watch where the neck, middle and bridge wires connect to the switch!
Unsolder Old Pickups Touch your soldering iron to the metal portion of the switch. The solder will heat up, and you can remove the wires from the old pickups. Eye protection is a good idea here.
Repeat the same process and unsolder black ground wires from the back of the volume pot…
Wires are now off! Time for some new tone!
Remove old pickups from pickguard Unscrew the pickups from each side, and keep the existing screws for mounting the pickups (We’ll use these again)
Pickups are out!
Spring or Tube? Many Pickups come with either a spring or a tube. We prefer to use the tube for pickup mounting, but you can use the same springs from the old pickups if you would like.
New pickups ready We’re installing our Porter 1960′s Strat pickups for this one.
Time to give this guitar a great new sound….
Install new Pickups Spring tube shown here with the cover on
It compresses and works to raise and lower the pickup height… For now, just make sure the pickups are sticking above the pickguard, we’ll fine tune the height later.
Pickups in!
Tape wires To make a neat wire path
Route the black ground wires Pull them past the bridge pickup, and tape them together near the volume pot.
Cut black wires to length Remember, they will solder to the back of the volume pot, so cut them near the middle of the volume pot.
Prep wires for soldering Here we are using vintage style cloth “push back” wire. You can push back the outer cloth to reveal the wire inside. For other plastic coated pickup wires, you.ll need to use a wire stripper. Leave about 1/4″ for soldering.
Solder to volume pot Put some solder on your wires before soldering to the back of the volume pot. This will make the connection easier. You might also need to put some more solder on the volume pot. Heat up the solder with your iron, and attach all three wires. Tweezers come in hand here since the wires can get hot.
Solder wires to switch Repeat the cutting, push back/ stripping of the white (Hot) wires and solder them to the appropriate lugs of the 5-way switch. Refer to a wiring diagram if you get lost. In this picture it is Bridge, Middle, Neck (Left to right)
Check your wiring job Turn the pickguard over and tap on the pickup magnets with your screwdriver to make sure they are making a sound at the right positions (1-5 on the selector switch). Shown here is the checking of the bridge pickup. If the neck and bridge are backwards, you can reverse the wires on your selector switch.
If it works right , put it back together Put in all the pickguard screws, and restring the guitar. After you have the strings on and can play it a bit, adjust the pickups heights to taste. Usually a nice balance between all three pickups volume wise is a good idea. Some people like the bridge “hotter” so they will raise that pickup higher than the other.

Enjoy your new pickups Often times a great playing guitar can be upgraded with new pickups for a lot less than buying a new guitar. If you have questions about pickups, please visit us online at www.porterpickups.com

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The following is a guest post by Brian Porter of Porter Pickups. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

As guitarists, we’re obsessed with tone and finding the right gear to work for the sound we are after, for our band, or for the studio. We’ve tried a whole lot of guitars, amps, pedals and everything else looking for that “it” thing. We’ve come across some things that have worked for us, and some that have been a frustrating purchase because the hype didn’t match the gear. For every good gear purchase we’ve made, there’s probably a few we’ve regretted making. Since one can never have enough gear, we are always looking for what can improve our sound and our setup.

The part of the setup that often gets overlooked or ignored is the pickups. We’ve spent a lot of money on guitars, cables, pedals, and amps, but so often replacing the pickups has not been a part of the equation for seeking better tone. The basic job of a pickup is the translating of the string vibration into a small electric signal that goes through the rest of the setup and then gets amplified. A well made and designed pickup can be crafted to more accurately translate what is being played. Since the pickups job is to capture what you are playing, it is crucial to your tone.

Pickups can be custom designed to capture and translate your tone through a variety of ways: Each magnet type used in a pickup has certain tonal qualities. Pickups can be wound with different wire types and sizes to match vintage specs, or give you a modern sound. Each wire type can also be wound with different tension and number of turns, and the pattern of the wire can effect the tone as well. All of these design factors can be matched with styles of the player and the woods in the guitar to make a truly custom tone translation for the player. All of the sudden your guitar will sound better, and you might end up holding on to some of the rest of your gear line since a more custom and accurate translation is now headed through it!

There’s a wide range of great pickup companies out there. Spend some time researching what each offers and learning more about what you are looking for. Chances are the more you know ahead of time, the closer a pickup maker can get you what you are after. Just make sure to warn others of the impending face melting (See: Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark).

Brian Porter is the owner of Porter Pickups. He started Porter Pickups as part of his obsession for tone, and the desire to offer others custom made pickups at an affordable price with the look and sound they are after. Visit his website at www.porterpickups.com

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