Pickup wiring question - removing a pickup

Ok, I am a total noob when it comes to any tech work. My question is really basic and I have a photo to show what I am talking about though.

Ok a little history. I bought an Artcore with Bill Larewnce pickups in it. I know they are nice, but they are not what I am looking for. I am going to sell them for enough money to buy the GFS pickups I want, and get them installed.

Basically I just need help to properly remove them. In the photo the big red wire is coming from the pickup. And the black wire goes up to the knob (pot?). Am I ok just to cut the red wire about .5" from the black wire and remove the pickup?

I am getting someone else to install the pickups, so I just want to take them out without leaving a mess for them or breaking anything.

http://www.berzerker.net/torndownunits/question.jpg

Thanks for any help!

Don't cut the leads. Unsolder them, instead.

First I don't know what a lead is...yes I am that much of a noob with electrical stuff. Second where the red wire meets the black wire, I can't see any solder.

I can try to take a more detailed photo of where the 2 wires meet if it helps to explain things to me at all.

That is why I was wondering if I could just cut the red wire and leave the rest for whoever installs the new pickups to fix.

ok I think I see what you mean Jim. There's 3 little wires that come out of the big one and the are soldered to switches and pots and stuff. o I should try to remove them at THAT point.

Man, I have no idea how I am going to get at the OTHER pickup. I can't even see where it's wires go through he F-Holes. Do I have to remove the knobs or something?

Sounds to me like you should have the pickup removed by someone with a little more experience than yourself. If you can swing the purchase of the pickups you want before selling these, hand it all over to a guitar tech and let him do the complete replacement.

jwells, I am a noob but I am pretty good at figuring stuff out when I get some direction. I can totally see where all the wires are soldered now. It was just really hard to see through the F-hole when I first looked at it.

I can handle using a soldering iron to remove the wires. When it comes to installing them though you are totally correct....there is no way I am trying that. I have an old beater guitar that I am going to practice my soldering skills on.

You gotta learn this stuff at some point. I am not paying a tech to remove AND install the new pickups. They already quoted me $50 a piece just for the install. Also I am seeing my Dad this weekend and he is really good at soldering and electrical work. He can give me a hand.

I hadn't even noticed before, but both volume knobs are push-pull which I am assuming means it was setup to split the blades on the Bill Lawrence pickups. I can't believe I didn't notice this till now.

Does this mean I will need new pots to install GFS Liverpools?

Heck, the Liverpools will split, too, why not just use EVERYTHING you already have, and do it up right?

I don't mean to restate the obvious, but so far no one has mentioned that the best way to do this pup swap is to REMOVE the pots (and pickups) from the guitar... do the wiring on the workbench... and then "fish" the controls back into the guitar. This is how it is done on hollowbodies.

Your axe has two volumes, yes? You MIGHT be able to accomplish this by just sneaking the volume pots out the f-holes to do the re-wire, and leave everything else mounted - if there is enough slack. You don't need to rewire the tone pots or pup selector switch for a straight pup swap.

Hey guys. I got the stuff removed. I removed everything through the f-holes and broke the solder joints with a soldering iron. I left the other wires that weren't related to pickups in tact because I plan on rewiring it the same way.

As a bonus the guy who owned it previously disabled the tone knobs. I didn't know this till I went to remove the pots. I planned on doing this anyway because I don't really use the tone knobs on my guitars.

It was kinda fun. I look forward to trying the wiring as well. Plus I will save a ton of cash.