I have a set of pickups that have the leads hacked off. I need to lengthen them before I can use them. My question is how do you handle the shielding on the wires I solder on? Can you buy the braided jacket in bulk? Is there something else people use instead?
Thanks for any help.
Very interesting question Gush.
I dig these types of questions. I have done a lot of work on my own guitars and those of others over the years. I have most of the gear I need and a good work shop.
My first question is what type and brand of pickups are these hacked up examples? Surely no one would chop up a set of premium quality pickups, but then there is another fool born every minute, or so they say.
Hopefully these are less than premium pickups, but still decent pickups that you may wish to use in one or another guitar.
Without looking at the pickups specifically, I can guess that they could probably be easily salvaged by simply stripping back some of the insulation on the wires and doing the same with some new wire (Radio Shack) of comparable quality; or even better quality or braided insulator wire for that matter. The bottom line, however, is going to be that your new pickup wire leads are only going to be as good as their weakest parts.
Hopefully here though, you will be able to make some highly decent pickups with dependable wire leads.
Preparation of the wire leads
First you will have to prepare the wire ends for splicing. Clip off any messed up ends from the existing pickup leads and strip off about a good half to three quarters of an inch of the plastic insulation and expose the nice, clean wire. Do this to all the original pickup wires.
Next determine how long your new pickup wire leads will have to be and strip off about three quarters of an inch of the plastic insulation from each wire.
At this point all of the wires from the pickups and on the ends of the extension wires to be spliced on will be clean and usable, ready to be spliced together with "solder", not cheap wire connectors. Soldered connections are always far better than connections made with those cheap plastic connectors; so don't waste your time with them.
Preparing to solder
At this point you will bring together all of the elements of your home made "soldering kit". If you don't have one now is the time to build a very decent and suitable one for guitar and light amp work.
Assemble these items:
A decent 15 watt "Weller" soldering pencil. No affln., these are good inexpensive soldering tools and are bright orange with a light on the end of the handle to help illuminate your work. These plug right into the wall and are about fifteen bills.
A decent 40 watt "Weller" soldering pencil for getting in there and heating up bulky items "fast". These allow you to heat up the tip of a pot very quickly and get in there, solder the wire(s) on and get out of there without massively heating the bulk of the component. You are in there and out of there fast without lingering around trying to heat up something bulky to get it hot enough to melt leaded solder. You will use the 15 watt soldering pencil much more frequently.
A roll of "electrical solder" from Radio Shack - the only place I can find leaded solder these days. "Electrical solder containing lead" is very superior to work with because it has a very low "melting temperature" - which is important to you. Use this lead containing at your own discretion; bearing in mind that it was the industry standard for around a hundred years before the government got involved and outlawed it except for certain electrical soldering applications.
So, decide what materials you are going to use and then plan out how you are going to solder on the lead extensions to the pickups.
I would look at the pickups and copy what they have on them in terms of wire - plastic coated, cloth covered, raw copper, etc. Keep it simple and go with what is already there.
Follow the exact wiring scheme that is on the guitar you are putting them in.
This should result in the pickups working perfectly the first time; if not then it's possible you have pickups like Seymour Duncans that have a slightly different wiring pattern. This usually involves switching the places that you solder the two other wires besides the ground. In a three wire plan there will be a ground - solder that to the common solder usually on top of a pot; then switch the other two wires you have, one will be going to the switch and the other to the pot. This should straighten things right up and give you a powerful sound.
After trying all of these things if you can't get the pickups to work correctly then it's probably time to take the guitar and pickups to a tech and he will be able to straighten it out in a matter of minutes. You have already done almost all of his work.
I would advise starting out with a simple pickup swap project and leave anything at all complicated until such time that you have more experience under your belt - but you have to start somewhere, so my advice is to start with something simple.
Hacked up leads does not necessarily make this job something difficult. Once you lengthen the leads it should wire right in, if the wiring scheme is a simple one.
Good luck.