Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Tech => Topic started by: gwEm on December 24, 2010, 02:00:58 PM

Title: changing the pickup cable
Post by: gwEm on December 24, 2010, 02:00:58 PM
i'm tempted to rewire an old dirty fingers i have for 4 conductor wiring. i'm aware tim can do this, but i don't mind having a go myself to be honest.

has anyone else done this? any pitfalls to be aware of?
Title: Re: changing the pickup cable
Post by: FELINEGUITARS on December 24, 2010, 02:07:23 PM
I have and it's not too difficult for someone like yourself

Get some very fine bits of heat shrink too - to seal the coil ends to the 4 con wies when soldering
Got to keep it neat to pack it all in there


You may just want us to wax dip it all when you are done to make it solid
Title: Re: changing the pickup cable
Post by: WezV on December 24, 2010, 02:07:45 PM
those wires coming out of the coils can be very delicate - generally you have the pickup cable attached to 28 awg lead wires attached to the 42/43 awg coil wire.

Tug on the 28 too much and its really easy to break the 42.

other than that its pretty straight forward - just quite delicate work

Title: Re: changing the pickup cable
Post by: gwEm on December 24, 2010, 02:32:34 PM
those are really good tips guys - thanks alot!

i'm going to man up and do it after christmas
Title: Re: changing the pickup cable
Post by: Nolly on December 24, 2010, 02:57:38 PM
Yep, it should be easy enough, just be very careful not to break the start coil wire - if you do, the pickup is pretty much a write-off!
Title: Re: changing the pickup cable
Post by: HTH AMPS on December 24, 2010, 11:08:03 PM
I'm generally a 'can do' type of guy, but for stuff like this I say leave it to the professionals - especially since old dirty fingers are a bit tough to get hold of and do sound really nice.

The Dirty Fingers I have is tapped at 7.5k - I'm assuming they all were and am therefore a little confused at why you want 4-conductor wiring ????  If yours isn't tapped, well that of course would explain it.

btw, my BC Rich rawk-machine is back with an old made in Germany Floyd installed and the Dirty Fingers - its a great rock guitar.  which BKP (at the risk of a thread de-rail) is closest to the Dirty Fingers? - Holy Diver maybe?

Title: Re: changing the pickup cable
Post by: gwEm on December 24, 2010, 11:52:06 PM
Yeah, I was surprised to read online that many of them were tapped. I have 6 Dirty Fingers now and none of them are tapped. I want to wire one in parallel and try it in the neck position.
Title: Re: changing the pickup cable
Post by: gwEm on December 27, 2010, 08:04:14 PM
one vintage dirty fingers butchered with a 4 conductor lead. now to wax pot it in my tin can  :D

edit: parallel wired dirty fingers now fitted - sounds good and bright but kind of hollow.
Title: Re: changing the pickup cable
Post by: FELINEGUITARS on December 29, 2010, 01:51:02 AM
I'm generally a 'can do' type of guy, but for stuff like this I say leave it to the professionals - especially since old dirty fingers are a bit tough to get hold of and do sound really nice.

The Dirty Fingers I have is tapped at 7.5k - I'm assuming they all were and am therefore a little confused at why you want 4-conductor wiring ????  If yours isn't tapped, well that of course would explain it.

btw, my BC Rich rawk-machine is back with an old made in Germany Floyd installed and the Dirty Fingers - its a great rock guitar.  which BKP (at the risk of a thread de-rail) is closest to the Dirty Fingers? - Holy Diver maybe?



Ha - there is a whole thread already running on this and there is a mixed consensus
http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=23090.0 (http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=23090.0)
I'm torn between Cold Sweat vs Aftermath in many ways - although both sound clearer