i had a couple of gigs over the weekend, and hadn't finished pimping the guitar i wanted to use. it was all a bit last minute, so i decided to pot the pickups in the guitar myself rather than sending them to bkp.
actually, it went really well. i dont know if its the way these things are supposed to be done, but the pickups (some old gibson dirty fingers) aren't the slightest bit microphonic anymore. heres what i did, for comments from the experts, and inspiration to the guys who didn't do it before.
1) took the pickups out the guitar
2) i washed out an old tin can, and drilled four holes in the top edge (see pic). the can was the 'standard' size and was totally ok, but i think maybe a wider can would make things a bit easier.
3) called some art shops, to see if they had any candlemaking wax
4) went to said art shop, and instead of buying standard paraffin candlemaking wax, i saw they had a batik wax. no idea what its for, but its a mix of paraffin and beeswax, which i read online is meant to be better. 250g tuned out to be an ideal amount, not too much, and should be enough for quite a few pups i reckon. the wax cost a fiver.
5) boiled some water in a pan, and suspended the tin can in it, using chopsticks (see pic). then i put in the wax
6) it took ages to melt enough wax to fully submerge a pickup - this was the most boring bit. probably a good idea to pot as many pickups at once as possible. the wax smelled really nice of honey. i was careful to keep the heat low - not to cause the wax to set on fire.
7) i dipped each pickup in the melted wax. i dipped them in 4 or 5 different positions, and left them until the air bubbles stopped coming, tapping them occasionally to encourage air bubbles to escape. overall, each pickup took about 20 minutes to fully pot.
8) i let the pickups drip melted wax back into the can, although there was not much. the pickups were hot, but i could easily handle them shortly with the hard skin on my guitar hand.
9) i then left the pickups on old newspaper to cool for a few hours. i wiped them with toliet paper, to remove surplus wax whilst it was still hot and melted.
10) the pickups do sound a bit different now, but i cant put my finger on what exactly. there are totally non-microphonic.
