New Pickup leads….

[sugarandopium]

So the pickup and picture below is just a reference….. not the pickup in question.
I need some advice, I’ve never had to really take apart pickup wiring in all my time modding guitars….

So, have a ground lead that’s a bit short on my neck pickup.

Is putting new leads on a pickup just a matter of heating the solder connection circled in the picture, pulling off the old lead and just putting on a new one?

Is there any danger in doing this to where it would be better to just ground the neck pickup to the ground on the 3 way toggles’ ground connection rather than attempting this?
Something like releasing the the connection to the windings on the opposite side of the bobbin by heating that solder joint??

It’s not an easily replaceable pickup should something go wrong.

[Embenny]

Yes, it's entirely possible that you could disconnect or break the coil wire on the other side of that solder joint while attempting to change the lead. If you're not very experienced with soldering, it is not a job I'd suggest undertaking.

The safe thing is to simply splice the wire with a new one to extend it.

[GilmourD]

Yes, it's entirely possible that you could disconnect or break the coil wire on the other side of that solder joint while attempting to change the lead. If you're not very experienced with soldering, it is not a job I'd suggest undertaking.

The safe thing is to simply splice the wire with a new one to extend it.

To Embenny's point, it's definitely something I would do and have done, but I've also been soldering circuits in guitars, amps, and various other electronics for 20+ years. In fact, I have a set of Classic Vibe Jazzmaster pickps I have to do that to at some point since they were snipped out of the guitar in the middle of the wire instead of where they were soldered (or unsoldered), but that can wait since I don't have a guitar to put them in.

A good hot iron (NOT gun, iron) with a clean tip is your friend. You don't want to linger too long, but also make sure that the solder does completely melt through because cold solder joints suck.

If you don't have the experience a good tech should be able to do that easy peasy lemon squeezy.

That said... That's the ground connection. If that's the neck pickup that's more than enough wire to ground it to the back of the rhythm circuit pots since that will lead back to ground at the output jack anyway.

[sugarandopium]

Yes, it's entirely possible that you could disconnect or break the coil wire on the other side of that solder joint while attempting to change the lead. If you're not very experienced with soldering, it is not a job I'd suggest undertaking.

The safe thing is to simply splice the wire with a new one to extend it.

Thanks gentlemen.

This is my last set of 62AVRI pups I’ve got kicking around so while they’re not expensive, you don’t see them for sale very often anymore so I really don’t want to damage it.

I’m confident with regular soldering, pots and switches are a non issue, but the thought of having to work inside that narrow coil is a little off putting.

Maybe I will just extend it…
Would grounding to the 3way be feasible for a pickup?

[Embenny]

Yes, grounding it to any available grounded part that it can reach is fine, just check the continuity with the output jack and you're good to go. There are no concerns regarding ground loops in a passive guitar.

[sugarandopium]

Yes, grounding it to any available grounded part that it can reach is fine, just check the continuity with the output jack and you're good to go. There are no concerns regarding ground loops in a passive guitar.

Sweet, thank you!

[Yngwie Springsteen]

Not a good idea to have multiple grounding points, can usually cause grounding loops(noise) Star grounding is your friend....

[Embenny]

Not a good idea to have multiple grounding points, can usually cause grounding loops(noise) Star grounding is your friend....

Not a factor in a passive guitar. Ground loops as a source of noise require a potential difference (voltage) between two different paths to ground. A passive guitar has no such potential. The only power source is the pickups, which themselves produce mere millivolts (and do so intermittently at that).

It's one of those pervasive guitar myths. In an amp? Absolutely. In an active guitar? Unlikely but possible. But in a passive guitar? Not a thing.

[GilmourD]

Not a good idea to have multiple grounding points, can usually cause grounding loops(noise) Star grounding is your friend....

Not a factor in a passive guitar. Ground loops as a source of noise require a potential difference (voltage) between two different paths to ground. A passive guitar has no such potential. The only power source is the pickups, which themselves produce mere millivolts (and do so intermittently at that).

It's one of those pervasive guitar myths. In an amp? Absolutely. In an active guitar? Unlikely but possible. But in a passive guitar? Not a thing.

But even at that point, you're joining it to a path that's going to the jack, not running a whole separate line to the jack. Not really any different than grounding it to the back of the lead circuit pots, right?

[Yngwie Springsteen]

Either way pot or jack should be the star grounding point, usually the pot in most cases....

[andy_tchp]

Embenny's comments are correct.

Ground is ground in this case, wherever it happens to be (ideally somewhere close by for factors of neatness/lead dress/packaging/not having unnecessary wire length left floating around inside the instrument).

Why?

Because there is only one ground path - the output jack sleeve. So: it is implicitly 'star grounded' - all grounds converge here and are at the same potential.

It does not matter where individual ground wires/pot casings/switch bodies happen to be grounded to as long as there is solid connection (soldered wire or mechanically fixed) and continuity.

[Yngwie Springsteen]

Dunno, I had a thinline tele that had multiple grounding points and was noisy as hell....Once I isolated all to grounding points to a a single star ground, all the excessive noise was gone....I've done this with many other guitars and they all with the same results....Anyways that's just from my own personal experience.

[Yngwie Springsteen]

Not a good idea to have multiple grounding points, can usually cause grounding loops(noise) Star grounding is your friend....

Not a factor in a passive guitar. Ground loops as a source of noise require a potential difference (voltage) between two different paths to ground. A passive guitar has no such potential. The only power source is the pickups, which themselves produce mere millivolts (and do so intermittently at that).

It's one of those pervasive guitar myths. In an amp? Absolutely. In an active guitar? Unlikely but possible. But in a passive guitar? Not a thing.

https://youtu.be/Hrm-rPSCIBw

[Yngwie Springsteen]

^
Anyways....I didn't see you replied to my response until today as I got no notification until much later....

[Yngwie Springsteen]