Dropping a bridge humbucker into a Player Tele

[SausageMeat]

Hi All,

I'm considering replacing the stock bridge pickup on my Player Tele with something like a a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails or Little 59 humbucker. I'll keep the stock single-coil neck pickup.

As of yesterday I replaced the stock tone pot with a Fender 250k No-Load tone pot and a 500k volume pot. The volume pot was dead and no one in town had a 250k pot in stock but from what I understand 500k is prefereable for humbuckers anyway. First time I've soldered my own guitar wiring. Did some pretty neat lug solders but the ground wires on the volume pot is a bit of an ugly mess. Still works so great success for a first time solderer.

I'm chasing a blackgaze/black metal tone and will be smearing this signal with masses of overdrive, distortion, reverb and delay. It's gonna sound filthy but I'm thinking I might need a nice and controlled humbucker tone to start with.

So, any considerations I need to make when adding a humbucker? There's at least one extra wire running from a humbucker that I'm aware of. Where am I sticking that? Can I otherwise stick with the standard 3 way switch and two pots standard Tele wiring?

 

[SausageMeat]

I realise this is probs a pretty regular question, I'm reading through some previous posts too.

 

[pipthepilot]

Regarding the wires on SD humbuckers, the bare wire is the ground wire connected to the pickup base plate, this needs to be soldered to the back of one of the pots.

The Red and White wires are the link wires between the coils. These can be separated if you want to coil split, otherwise they need to be connected to each other.

The Green and Black wires are the start and end wires. So one needs to be connected to ground and the other to the switch. Typically, the Green wire goes to ground and black to the switch but you can swap these around if you find the bridge and neck are out of phase.

When soldering the wires to the back of the pot, make sure your soldering iron is really hot. You typically solder at 340°C but when soldering to the pot, it helps to have it over 400°C so if you have an adjustable iron turn the heat up.

It's really important that you tin a spot on the pot before you try and add the wires. Hold the tip of the iron to the pot for a few seconds then add some solder, do not move the iron just wait until the solder flows. If your soldering iron isn't hot enough, getting the solder to flow on a pot can be tricky, if this is the case you need to add extra flux. Once you have a small patch of solder on the pot, hold the wires in place with the tip of the iron and wait a few seconds before adding solder and just keep the iron still until the solder starts to flow. Again extra flux is your friend here.

 

[SausageMeat]

Thanks Pip. That was essentially the process I was aiming for with my ground wires on the pot. The result is just not very pretty. I might clean up the dead volume pot I removed and practice on that.

On the point of heat, I've got an old hand-me-down soldering iron which is adjustable up to 450C (in theory, can't be sure if it still does hit that). I maxed it out while doing the ground wires but was slightly concerned that I might cook the pot. Legitimate concern? How much heat can I put into the pot before it's "burnt out" or something to that effect?

The Red and White wires are the link wires between the coils. These can be separated if you want to coil split, otherwise they need to be connected to each other.

So if I have no need to coil-split they'll be soldered together onto the same switch lug?

 

[pipthepilot]

So if I have no need to coil-split they'll be soldered together onto the same switch lug?

No, they aren't connected to anything, just each other. Make sure the actual wires are touching and then wrap them with electrical tape.

I maxed it out while doing the ground wires but was slightly concerned that I might cook the pot. Legitimate concern?

You don't need to worry. As you're attaching them to the back of the pot which is just the casing, there's quite a big air gap to the brown circuit board on the other side.

If you think about it, if its that hard to get the solder flowing where the tip of the soldering iron is placed, its going to take an really really long time until you've heated the entire pot hot enough to melt solder on the other side of it

 

[SausageMeat]

Ok gotcha!

Excellent and useful info. When I get around to grabbing a humbucker and am getting ready to install I'll do a follow up post.

Cheers Pip

 

[Tele_Tom64]

Hi All,

I'm considering replacing the stock bridge pickup on my Player Tele with something like a a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails or Little 59 humbucker. I'll keep the stock single-coil neck pickup.

As of yesterday I replaced the stock tone pot with a Fender 250k No-Load tone pot and a 500k volume pot. The volume pot was dead and no one in town had a 250k pot in stock but from what I understand 500k is prefereable for humbuckers anyway. First time I've soldered my own guitar wiring. Did some pretty neat lug solders but the ground wires on the volume pot is a bit of an ugly mess. Still works so great success for a first time solderer.

I'm chasing a blackgaze/black metal tone and will be smearing this signal with masses of overdrive, distortion, reverb and delay. It's gonna sound filthy but I'm thinking I might need a nice and controlled humbucker tone to start with.

So, any considerations I need to make when adding a humbucker? There's at least one extra wire running from a humbucker that I'm aware of. Where am I sticking that? Can I otherwise stick with the standard 3 way switch and two pots standard Tele wiring?

Next time, put a puddle of solder on the pot first. Then heat it up, dunk the wires in it, and let it cool. That works TONS better than trying to hold the wires down while you add enough solder to hold it/them

Doing it this way, you're almost guaranteed not to burn the pot out. It only takes seconds, especially if you use a dab of soldering flux paste to make it even easier. The solder sticks almost immediately that way. Brush a little on the pot and the solder will work better than ever. Same goes for anything you need to solder to like that. A little flux and you don't have to heat it up to oblivion.

 

[Solaris moon]

Here's the very best way that I know to make a neat solder joint. Heat up your iron for no less that ten minutes. Then touch your solder to the tip of the iron. This is a practice called "tinning" which allows the solder to flow a little easier. Then heat your component for about eight seconds. Then apply the solder while still holding the iron against the part you want to solder. There are "helping hands" soldering soldering stands to hold small parts so that you don't burn yourself. Try practicing with old electronics that have not been in working order for some time. This is easy to do. I don't know how many things I've had to fix over the years but electronics and I just don't have a good relationship! It seems as though they only break on me and not much else. So I've had lots of practice. Let us know how this goes when you get it finished.