How To Change Your Guitar's Pickups

This is a complete step-by-step guide on how to replace a humbucker pickup using a Les Paul guitar as an example.

Is it time to try out a new pickup in your favorite guitar? Gibson’s Master Luthier Jim DeCola is here to help. In this episode of “Gibson’s Guide to Guitar Setup and Maintenance,” Jim takes you step-by-step through the process of swapping your pickups with advice, tricks, and MacGyver tech tips to get you rockin’ in no time.

Watch as Jim walks you through each step of replacing a humbucker pickup in your guitar, including how to solder a guitar pickup and which pots you need to wire and solder on your guitar. Jim also shows you why you should use a soldering iron instead of a soldering gun when soldering guitar pickups and how much wattage you need to solder guitar pickups safely. In addition, Jim shows you how to test your guitar pickups to make sure you’ve installed them correctly, how to test the polarity and phase of pickups and what to do if you find your pickups are out of phase.

If you need a step-by-step guide on replacing Les paul pickups or swapping out humbucker pickups on your guitar - this is the tutorial for you!

Chapters:
0:00 Do you need to adjust your pickups?
0:57 Preparing your guitar
2:14 Soldering and installing pickups
9:55 Testing the pickups
11:14 Phase and testing polarity
13:48 Replacing QuickConnect Pickups

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[thelemonones_band]

I've changed pickups dozens of times but I somehow found myself watching this video all the way through haha

[musicsucks]

Can we get a rundown and demo of all the different pickups Gibson offers? Tone comparison, history lesson etc. That would be really cool

[Anthony-qhxv]

The rhythm pickup in my Gibson 50s Les Paul standard, sounds so good, that I would never change it 😂 I don’t even know why am watching this. I think I just love Jim.

[guyprovost]

Love that guy. His passion is contagious.

[MOOBLOB]

Love the guide wire tip! I've soldered many things, but I was a little spooked to fool with my class 5 LP 😬 this alleviated the worry.

[nathanielpersohn]

Decola is the man!! Helluva history!!! Peavey, Fender and now Thank goodness Gibson!! And worked with EVH!!!

[musicsoundgear]

Another great video from Gibson. I don't own a Gibson, but I appreciate these videos. -- Every time I do any work on a guitar, I get frantic and think that I ruined it. Nice to see a calm and cool guitar mod :)

[AvnerRosenstein-ULTRA-LXV]

I have a Solomon SR-965 Soldering Iron that I live by. I have used that thing for so much and it's an amazing Soldering Iron. It's 40 watts, heats quickly and does a fantastic job overall.

[BXGuitars]

Thanks Jim & Gibson! Although I already gutted one of my quick connect Gibson's, I do wish that you all offered a wider range of your actual pickups in the Quick Connect format on your site.

[stevenohata]

I think this is a great series. The MacGyver tips are helpful. I think you should have included a tip on installing the pickup ring. All the pickups I’ve installed did not have pickup rings and those are a pain in the butt to install. Also maybe show how to solder quick connect to new pickup since they don’t come with them.

[SimonHaestoe]

awesome, again! about organizing your parts: get something like a "project mat", which is a magnetic mat made from plastic which has "painted" lines that divide into different compartments. your screws etc will stick to it. it's dirt cheap.

[michaelpeterson]

Jim. Very nicely done sir! Your technique is smooth and no wasted movement. You could probably do this with your eyes closed with muscle memory. I look forward to the next video. Thanks.

[PhoenixGuitars]

Good pro tip on pickup height and wire channel. I’m a firm believer of experimenting with pickup height.

[arustydodge]

Thank you Jim!
Always appreciate these informative lessons. I truly learn from you. Please reveal what type of solder and flux (if used) that you use. With all of these lead free solders and different types of flux out there, things get tricky. Thank you.

[mst]

Hi Jim, let me tell you first that you're the man! I really appreciate these videos and the time and effort you put into doing them, so thank you very much.
I have a question:
You talked about soldering irons wattage and that's really good but I was just wondering what kind of solder Gibson uses or you would recommend/suggest? Any brand/diameter?
Thanks in advance!

[ericchin]

I want to know about some of the topics you mentioned. How to rotate the magnet of the quick connect pickup. How do adjust the height of the pickup to get different tones

[davidtownend]

Good luck trying to find pickups with a quick connect! Especially the 2 pin versions.

[ChrisEck]

Thanks Jim. I would really like to see Gibson come out with replacement Quick Connect pickups again. You talk here about how to change them, but the hard part isn't changing them, it's finding them. I know that I could rip the whole pcb out and put a new wiring harness in, or cut the quick connects off and solder them into a new pickup, but I really don't want to do either of those. I would really like to just be able to get a set of Burstbuckers with quick connects and pop them in.

[johnholloway]

Splendid vid, Jim! Always look forward to this tutorials!

[dantea]

about the quick connect thing, too bad that no one sells pickups with quick connect molex connectors