Picture guide to replacing pickups in a CV 60's Strat

[progrmr]

Right now just the removal - but will finish once the new pickups come in. I was actually pretty impressed with the quality of the wire and solder work in the guitar.

Here's the before - stock Classic Vibe 60's Strat (that's Sadie, helper #1)
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap1.jpg

First step - strings off (that's Rosie, Sadie's mom)
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap3.jpg

Next remove the pick guard screws ONLY THE ONES AROUND THE OUTSIDE EDGE OF THE PICKGUARD
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap4.jpg

Screws removed...
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap6.jpg

Gently lift the pickguard - we will see the next step under the pickguard
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap7.jpg

There are 2 ground wires attached that must be disconnected so the pickguard can be removed from the body. One wire goes through a route in the body to the back spring plate, the other is attached to the body via a small phillips screw.
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap8.jpg

Gently turn the guitar over, and remove the cover (cool pic of Rosie in the reflection>
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap9.jpg

Here's the solder point
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap10.jpg

Use your soldering iron to remove the ground wire from the connection
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap11.jpg

Wire disconnected (that's Mr. Ed the talking horse cat - he's a big one and likes to meow at you as you talk to him)
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap12.jpg

[progrmr]

Turn the guitar over and pull the disonnected wire through the route
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap13.jpg

One wire left, attached with the screw
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap14.jpg

Remove the screw
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap15.jpg

Now carefully turn the pickguard over, placing it upside down on top of the guitar (place a protective rag over the guitar to protect the finish). Be careful as there are 2 wires connected to the input jack still attached to the pickguard (the white and black wire in the center of the pic)
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap16.jpg

Use the soldering iron to remove the black wire from the top of the volume pot
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap18.jpg

Can't see it too well, but the wire is now disconnected
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap19.jpg

Next disconnect the white wire from the volume pot
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap20.jpg

White and black wire removed
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap21.jpg

The pickguard can now be removed from the guitar with the switch, pickups and tone/volume pots still attached
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap22.jpg

I'm removing the heat shrink so we can get a clear view of the wires
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap23.jpg

[progrmr]

We have a clear view of the wires now, which pickups go to which position on the switch, and where the ground wires are attached to the switch
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap24.jpg
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap25.jpg
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap26.jpg

Use the soldering iron to disconnect the colored wires, one for each pickup
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap27.jpg

Colored wires disconnected, now it's much easier to get at the ground wires
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap28.jpg
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap29.jpg

Now disconnect the three ground wires, one for each pickup
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap30.jpg

Ground wires disconnected
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap32.jpg
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap33.jpg

[progrmr]

Flip the pickguard over, and turn each pickup screw to lower the pickup until it drops out of the pickguard. The springs for each screw will drop off, so be sure to retain these as we'll need them for the new pickups. The pickup covers also come off
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap34.jpg
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap35.jpg
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap36.jpg

Once all three pickups have been removed for the pickguard, we're ready to begin installing the new pickups
http://www.daverancour.com/pickupswap/swap37.jpg

[otaypanky]

Are you planning on keeping the stock pots and cap?

[progrmr]

Are you planning on keeping the stock pots and cap?

For now yes - but I think I'd be pretty comfortable swapping them out too.

Maybe I should just do them at the same time. Are there different pots for volume and tone? I know nothing about the technical differences between these potentiometers and certainly not the capacitor.

[aeolian]

Very thorough visual guide, excellent! I also realized that it can be helpful to be able to look at the 'before' pictures when it comes time to install the new pickups. Thank you for providing a very useful guide.

Pots are different for tone and volume. I believe tone requires a linear pot, and volume requires a logarithmic (or tapered) pot as volume goes up and down in logarithmic fashion.

[progrmr]

^ thanks! Yes, I'm digging into the whole pots/tone cap thing now - I could make this baby a real blues machine with the right components!

[Ch0jin]

Wow, thanks for going to the trouble of posting the pics. I can tell two things right away from the photo's

1. The workmanship in that Squier is FAR superior to the old 80's MiK Squier Strat I have. Everything is better, the wiring, the soldering, the paint, the finishing, the layout, even the wood (mine is made of ply).

2. Look at the third pic. Your drill needs a bikini wax....... :)

On pots and caps, if I were you I'd leave them stock until you've heard the new pickups, then decide if you want to further shape the sound. It's a real pain to reassemble the whole thing and then decide you want to swap the tone cap or pots (been there) but if you change them before you've tried the existing value, you have no benchmark.

Typically, as Aolian said, volume pots are "Audio" taper (logarithmic) and tone pots are Linear taper. Also, Dimarzio make "custom" taper pots that supposedly can be used as volume or tone pots. I have them in my BB1200 with P90's and they work just fine for me.

I notice you have film caps anyway rather than the cheapy ceramics my Squier had so thats a great start too.

[progrmr]

I took a look at the cap - it's a 2A333J which I read is a .033uF. I think I'm going to leave the pots/cap for now and just install the new pickups. That cap should be just right with overwound pickups.

[otaypanky]

Quality pots and caps can make a pretty significant difference. So much so that pickups I thought I would change sounded great and had a much greater range of volume and tone adjustability after changing out the pots and caps.
The first time I realized it, I had installed a real high end set of humbuckers in a LP, along with their wiring kit. One day about a year later I decided to stick the stock pups back in there, just for kicks, but I left the upgraded wiring in. They sounded great. RS Guitarworks has some good sounding kits.

[Andy]

Ditto I would play with the current setup before changing out caps.

often the way I set my strat up is to dial in my desired tone with the>> neck pickup and roll the tone to about 5ish on the bridge.
mine has the vintage Duncans and it really makes a difference compared to using the bridge or mid for the basic dial in tone.
completely changes the vibe and lessens the thin-ness of the bridge pu without any mods(aside from mine having tone pot on the bridge pos)

[Andy]

forgot to add...pickup height has a major effect as well.
I find mine sound better if I lower them a bit from the fender specs.
theres a definate sweet spot

[progrmr]

I wound up going with the Neovin "Fat Vintage" Noisefree Fat Bridge set - I guess their kinda like humbuckers in the single coil size which makes them noise free. Should be interesting - I found several videos of them on youtube and they sound pretty good. Should be here early next week - definitely can't wait to get them installed and try 'em out.