Anyone that works on Pickups in South Africa?

Styles

Greetings people. Are there anyone in South Africa that does work on pickups?

I bought a set of 57/08 pickups for my PRS but they can not be coil tapped and if I can't use them they are just expensive paperweights.
I know some of the guys around here can work wonders on amps. I'm just looking for someone that can remove the covers,
and attach a wire to the proper coil so I can get my single coil tones.

Any info would be appreciated ?

Keira-WitherKay

not sure where you based, but call manus at Oosthavens music in Montana , pretoria they have a website with contact details...........and ask him re the pickup tech ....cos i had a pup that needed rewinding on a strat and he had someone who rewinds and even makes custom pickups.......... afraid i don't know his name but manus should be able to furnish the details and put you in touch with him

nick

Maybe try contact the tonerider guys (www.tonerider.co.za) I seem to recall he was able to repair pickups, could be mistaken though.

Nicholas-L

The 57/08 should be coil tapped.... If there are four wires (or even 5 one which will be a ground) sticking out the bottom then it should be coiled tap-able. Which area are you in?

BassBarry

Andries at Musica in Atterbury (Lynwood) does wonders with anything electric guitar.

Styles

Thanx guys and lady. I'm going up to Jozi end of the month so I'll swing past Atterbury? I'll give Manus a call as well.

The pickups are engraved on top 57/08. These only have one cable inside the braided wire. I didn't know you got 57/08's that you couldn't coil tap.
Sucks balls.

Nicholas-L

Luckily not too difficult a mod to do.... just dig in through the wax ? and solder it in

Styles

Hahaaa! Awesome to hear that!

tonerider

Any standard humbucker can be coil tapped provided that one has access to the undersides of the bobbins (where they coil wires are connected) and they aren't sealed in rock hard resin or some other unbreakable compound.
I can look at it for you!

The thing to consider is how you want to activate the tapping of the coil - through the use of a push-pull pot, a mini-toggle switch, push button, no-load potentiometer etc

AlanRatcliffe

Just one thing to note: it is a delicate and slightly tricky job to do - needs a light touch not to break the coil wires; break the inner wires from either of the coils and they'll need a rewind. So best done by someone who has done it before.

MoJo-JoJoe

Hey Styles. Post or PM me some pics and I'll try help you out. 57/08's should be tapable stock.

Nicholas-L

I agree with Mojo JoJoe.

It should be tapable stock... maybe some of the wire shielding/insulation needs to be trimmed back?

Styles

I checked for that first. Hoping that I might see the white cable peek out under braided wire, but no joy☹
I'll Post some pics up tonight.

Styles

As far as i know there is supposed to be a white cable that comes out separate from the braided cable . . . no joy!

Nicholas-L

From the look of that wire I don't think this pick up would work ??? unless I'm missing something? Normal humbucker = 2 wires and coil tap = 4 wires if I'm not mistaken?
Maybe my eye sight just really really sucks. I think you might just need to trim that shielding back a bit.

AlanRatcliffe

Nicholas L wrote From the look of that wire I don't think this pick up would work ???

That's been the point of this whole thread. ?

Normal humbucker = 2 wires and coil tap = 4 wires if I'm not mistaken?

The original PAF humbuckers were exactly like these - one conductor, one shield. Most newer pickups have four conductors and a shield to give access to any wiring possibility from the two coils. You only really need one extra wire than the conductor/shield combo for a coil-cut (not a coil tap, BTW - which is a completely different thing).

tonerider

There appears to be nothing wrong with the pickup. Like Alan says, its classic PAF wiring with the hot wire surrounded by a negative shielded braided cable, similar to pickups on new Gibson guitars. Colour coded 4 to 5 wire pickups are usually only sold as aftermarket parts, as Gibson themselves does.

Here's my guide if you intend on doing it yourself:

You unsolder the cover, then warm it up with a heat gun (careful here to overheat) and remove it when the wax starts giving a bit
Next you remove the cloth tape from the outsides of the bobbin pair and keep it in a safe place for re-use. Then you loosen the screws at the bottom of the base plate that holds the bobbins together, but just enough to allow you to lift the bobbins a fraction and push the magnet out of the way a bit. (makes the soldering job a little easier and prevents the magnet from attracting the soldering iron)
Now comes the tricky part - to identify the connection point where the coil wire of the first coil is connected to the coil wire of the second coil. The positive wire of the first coil will be connected to the centre of the braided cable and the positive wire of the second coil will be connected to the shielding of the braided cable. The other two wires will be the centre point between the coils (wired out-of-phase, negative to negative) - this is where you will solder a new wire to!
Remove the cloth tape gently (we're talking tweezers and magnifying glass here) from the centre point connection, solder the new wire to this point with the utmost care (solder hot and quick)
Tape the new connection up with whatever insulation tape you have handy and gently push all the wiring back into the positions that they were in before, taking GREAT care not to break the coil wiring going to the inner part of the coils. If you break any of these you will have to rewind the coil from scratch.
Once in position, push the magnet back into place, tighten the bobbin screws under the base plate and re-apply the cloth tape around the outer bobbins. You should now have the original braided lead coming out of the pickup together with your new wire of equal length.
Now is a good time to get your multimeter out and check continuity of the coils. If you take a reading (KiloOhm scale) between the hot and the shield you should get the full DC resistance of the pickup (say 12KiloOhm for 2 bobbins in series). Then measure between the hot and your new wire and you should get a reading roughly half of the full reading. Do the same between your new wire and the shield and you should also get half the output of the full pickup. If it's like this you're OK, if not you're in trouble and have broken something.
If all is OK its now only a matter of re-installing the pickup as it was before and connecting the new wire to a switch/pot/button that will connect it (and short it out) to ground, creating a single coil sound
Your pickups will still be correctly phased since they were in the guitar before.
Lastly you can experiment by physically turning the pickup upside down in the pickup ring to hear in which position the pickup sounds best when in single coil mode, either by itself or in the middle position with the other pickup

Hope this helps!

Styles

The #6 pickups in my SCT trem has the braided part + one white wire that runs to the push-pull tone. My motorcity pickups Afwayu and 2nd degree black belt Has the four wires. The 57/08 that you normally get are coil tapped, that is why I was very taken aback when I received them and no white wire as in my SCT Trem

I would not even think about trying to do this myself. My soldering abilities are way above average but I would rather trust someone who has done this before? The

AlanRatcliffe

AndreM wrote Here's my guide if you intend on doing it yourself:

Great post Andre. Thanked.

If all is OK its now only a matter of re-installing the pickup as it was before and connecting the new wire to a switch/pot/button that will connect it (and short it out) to ground, creating a single coil sound

Just a quick addendum of my own (if I may): You can also connect the new wire to the hot output and it will short the other coil. If you use a three way on/off/on switch with outer lugs connected to ground and hot, the switch will give you inner coil/humbucking/outer coil.

tonerider

Alan Ratcliffe wrote Just a quick addendum of my own (if I may): You can also connect the new wire to the hot output and it will short the other coil. If you use a three way on/off/on switch with outer lugs connected to ground and hot, the switch will give you inner coil/humbucking/outer coil.

+1

I should also have mentioned that when a mini-toggle (spdt, dpdt etc) is going to be used the owner must consider it carefully. On a guitar with a scratchplate a 8-10mm drilled hole (or two) is not going to spoil the looks of the guitar too much if you intend removing it again for re-selling. I would keep the original in a safe place and do the mods on a new aftermarket scratchplate. On a guitar without a scratchplate it's a different proposition altogether, and once a hole has been drilled through the wood its there forever and can only be hidden again by a skilled luthier, at cost!