Replacing pickups in a Hollowbody

[greatmutah]

I did it once, had no idea what I was doing, hated every minute of it lol. That guitar was an Epiphone with quick connect wires and I ended up having to splice pickup wires into them to reuse the metric components.

I would probably try the rubber tubing method if I had to do it again, and just mentally prepare for two hours worth of frustration. I find that if I take my time and focus on doing each step right it's not so bad. I'd also get good components like Switchcraft and CTS so you hopefully never have to touch it again!

I did the same thing on my Sheraton. It worked out because the alpha pots actually still work well with zero issue. Same with the switch and jack. The 57 Classics I put in came from a friend and they had their leads cut short a while ago and had separate hot and ground wires wired to the braid and hot wire already so I just made a clean splice on the hot and ground on the pickups going to the controls. Cut the quick connects off and stripped the coax wire to the hot and ground and did my splice. Taped everything up and stuffed it back in the cavity.

I keep thinking about doing TV Jones for my Gretsch G5422TG but if I do go that route I'm going to do the tubing method and swap out all the components. The switch on that one is kinda iffy sometimes so if I did do that pickups, I'd just do everything.

 

[JiveTurkey]

"You thought working on Floyd's was bad? Try rewiring a semi-hollow!"


Much mojo sent if you're still plugging away!

 

[Mikael Dez]

"You thought working on Floyd's was bad? Try rewiring a semi-hollow!"


Much mojo sent if you're still plugging away!

I haven’t ordered them yet - that’s my Father’s Day gift this year just doing my research and ultimately going the easy route I think.

 

[ragingplatypi]

I’ve been wondering why modern semi-hollows don’t just have cavity openings in the back, since acoustic tone is not really a big concern. I’m guessing it’s just hard to manage body curvature where the electronics are?

 

[Mikael Dez]

Just ordered a SD Custom (TB-5) and Jazz.

 

[Mikael Dez]

I’ve been wondering why modern semi-hollows don’t just have cavity openings in the back, since acoustic tone is not really a big concern. I’m guessing it’s just hard to manage body curvature where the electronics are?

I really would rather deal with the headache than have some more plastic screwed onto this guitar

 

[Chocol8]

I really would rather deal with the headache than have some more plastic screwed onto this guitar

The cover could be wood.

 

[Frankencat]

On my personal guitars or customers who know they are going to swap out pickups a bunch of times, I will bring the leads up to the pickup cavities and tie them off. That way, the next time you swap you don't have to pull the entire harness. I normally take this opportunity to build a new harness with high quality parts if it uses cheapo stuff.