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

  1. #1
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    Default Picture guide to replacing pickups in a CV 60's Strat

    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)


    First step - strings off (that's Rosie, Sadie's mom)


    Next remove the pick guard screws ONLY THE ONES AROUND THE OUTSIDE EDGE OF THE PICKGUARD


    Screws removed...


    Gently lift the pickguard - we will see the next step under the pickguard


    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.


    Gently turn the guitar over, and remove the cover (cool pic of Rosie in the reflection>


    Here's the solder point


    Use your soldering iron to remove the ground wire from the connection


    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)
    Dave
    Guitars: Ibanez AF-75, Schecter Solo-6 Custom, Douglas SG
    Amps: Fender Princeton 65, Marshall AVT50
    Pedals: Metal Muff, MXR Smart Gate, EHX Cathedral Reverb, Digitech RP-255

  2. #2
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    Turn the guitar over and pull the disonnected wire through the route


    One wire left, attached with the screw


    Remove the screw


    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)


    Use the soldering iron to remove the black wire from the top of the volume pot


    Can't see it too well, but the wire is now disconnected


    Next disconnect the white wire from the volume pot


    White and black wire removed


    The pickguard can now be removed from the guitar with the switch, pickups and tone/volume pots still attached


    I'm removing the heat shrink so we can get a clear view of the wires
    Dave
    Guitars: Ibanez AF-75, Schecter Solo-6 Custom, Douglas SG
    Amps: Fender Princeton 65, Marshall AVT50
    Pedals: Metal Muff, MXR Smart Gate, EHX Cathedral Reverb, Digitech RP-255

  3. #3
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    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




    Use the soldering iron to disconnect the colored wires, one for each pickup


    Colored wires disconnected, now it's much easier to get at the ground wires



    Now disconnect the three ground wires, one for each pickup


    Ground wires disconnected

    Dave
    Guitars: Ibanez AF-75, Schecter Solo-6 Custom, Douglas SG
    Amps: Fender Princeton 65, Marshall AVT50
    Pedals: Metal Muff, MXR Smart Gate, EHX Cathedral Reverb, Digitech RP-255

  4. #4
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    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




    Once all three pickups have been removed for the pickguard, we're ready to begin installing the new pickups
    Dave
    Guitars: Ibanez AF-75, Schecter Solo-6 Custom, Douglas SG
    Amps: Fender Princeton 65, Marshall AVT50
    Pedals: Metal Muff, MXR Smart Gate, EHX Cathedral Reverb, Digitech RP-255

  5. #5
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    Are you planning on keeping the stock pots and cap?

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by otaypanky
    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.
    Dave
    Guitars: Ibanez AF-75, Schecter Solo-6 Custom, Douglas SG
    Amps: Fender Princeton 65, Marshall AVT50
    Pedals: Metal Muff, MXR Smart Gate, EHX Cathedral Reverb, Digitech RP-255

  7. #7
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    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.

  8. #8
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    ^ 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!
    Dave
    Guitars: Ibanez AF-75, Schecter Solo-6 Custom, Douglas SG
    Amps: Fender Princeton 65, Marshall AVT50
    Pedals: Metal Muff, MXR Smart Gate, EHX Cathedral Reverb, Digitech RP-255

  9. #9
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    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.

  10. #10
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    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.
    Dave
    Guitars: Ibanez AF-75, Schecter Solo-6 Custom, Douglas SG
    Amps: Fender Princeton 65, Marshall AVT50
    Pedals: Metal Muff, MXR Smart Gate, EHX Cathedral Reverb, Digitech RP-255

  11. #11
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    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.

  12. #12
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    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)
    Last edited by Andy; December 4th, 2010 at 01:00 PM.
    guitars-esp m1,esp vintage plus strat,85 gibson LP std,Hamer std,hagstrom xl-5,takamine 330r
    amps-egnater tweaker,epi vj w/brat mod
    efx-byoc/dvm comp, j cantrell wah,ocd,catalinbread dls,wampler plextortion,ibanez chorus,tech21 boost dla

  13. #13
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    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
    guitars-esp m1,esp vintage plus strat,85 gibson LP std,Hamer std,hagstrom xl-5,takamine 330r
    amps-egnater tweaker,epi vj w/brat mod
    efx-byoc/dvm comp, j cantrell wah,ocd,catalinbread dls,wampler plextortion,ibanez chorus,tech21 boost dla

  14. #14
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    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.
    Dave
    Guitars: Ibanez AF-75, Schecter Solo-6 Custom, Douglas SG
    Amps: Fender Princeton 65, Marshall AVT50
    Pedals: Metal Muff, MXR Smart Gate, EHX Cathedral Reverb, Digitech RP-255

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