Pickup Leads

Bruce Hamilton · Post by **Bruce Hamilton** » 3 Mar 2003 3:06 pm

I decided to try a couple of humbucking pickups I had sitting around forever and found the leads on both of them to be about two inches too short on my D-10. These pickups are basically 705 clones which happen to sound exceptional. Is it possible to have new leads put on them instead of soldering wire extensions to them? These units appear to be completely sealed so that any prying with a screwdriver etc. might be catastrophic.

Darvin Willhoite · Post by **Darvin Willhoite** » 3 Mar 2003 3:23 pm

I've extended the leads on lots of pickups with good results. I always use heat shrink tubing on the conductors and also over the outside of the splice. This is much easier on steel pickups than it is on some dual coil humbuckers which have 4 conductors and a shield.

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Darvin Willhoite
Riva Ridge Recording

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 3 Mar 2003 3:40 pm

Moved to "Electronics" section. Now, if this were about how to play the first few notes of a song, it could have stayed here.

Bruce Hamilton · Post by **Bruce Hamilton** » 3 Mar 2003 6:13 pm

The problem for me of adding the extensions is that they would have to be done on the guitar and disconnected if you change the pickups at a later date. This being because of the small hole the leads have to go through to get to the bottom of the guitar.

jerry wallace · Post by **jerry wallace** » 3 Mar 2003 10:29 pm

Bruce, If I understand what you have correctly, your only choice is to extend the leads..This can be done without increasing the diameter of the wire but just a bit..

You dont need a big twist where you join the wires..End to end with a good solder joint and the smallest heat shrink tubing you can slip over the splice should work..

If your not pretty good at soldering etc,you might take it to an electronics tech and explain your situation..

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Jerry Wallace-2001 Zum: D-10,8+6, "98 Zum: D-10,8+8,Nashville 1000,Session 500 ,Session 400 head only amp,Tubefex,ProfexII, Artesia, New Mexico
http://communities.msn.com/jerrywallacemusic http://www.jerrywallacemusic.com

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 4 Mar 2003 2:03 am

One other solution is to mount a terminal strip somewhere on the guitar, and then solder the wires from the pickup to the terminal strip, and then run other wires from the terminal strip to the switch or controls. IMHO, this gives a more "professional" appearance than splicing the wires.

Bruce Hamilton · Post by **Bruce Hamilton** » 4 Mar 2003 8:47 am

Thanks guys for the information. As I suspected there does not appear to be any way of putting new leads on these pickups. I am going to run adding extensions by the tech that has been maintaining my old 59 Bassman for the last 15 years and see if he wants to tackle it. I suppose another solution would be to run leads from the 3way switch to the pickup cavities and splice them out of sight there. I've done this before but its always is in the back of my mind that this isn't the best solution.