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The majority of pickups can be customized in one way or another. The difficult pickups to alter or customize are the one’s that are epoxies in a hard resin. Pickups can be rewound with a numerous gauges and turns, tapped for in or out of phasing, single coil, split, magnetically modified, various pole arrangements and…

The humbucker bottom plate and cover can act like a heat-sink and it can be difficult trying to heat the solder joint hot enough to remove the solder. If you don’t carefully remove the majority of solder than the solder burrs can damage the coil. Trying to heat the solder joint with a small tip…

Depending on the condition of the covers and the collectability you should always keep or find a place for your covers even if you don’t use them. If the cover is broken or damaged upon repair than I would suggest looking for a replacement, either an original or an aftermarket product. Make sure you check…

Removing humbucker covers will allow slightly higher adjustment to the pickups and can increase unwanted electrical interference. I do not like to remove covers from most Fender guitars as the strings can easily get snagged under the lip of the flatwork. Removing covers on Fender style pickups normally exposes the bare coil or magnet wire…

This can happen if the “pigtails” or connections from the bobbins to the cable are not carefully insulated with tape or shrink tubing and the bare or exposed wire can touch the cover that’s normally soldered to ground. If any wires from the coil are connected to ground they can short out or cut one…

You need to carefully remove the solder joints that connect the bottom plate to the cover. I find it best to heat the solder and tap it gently to release the solder. Do not try to pry the cover off with a screw driver or knife as the coil can be damaged. You need to…

It can be very risky to move the pole pieces in Fender single coil pickups without causing damage to the inner coil of the pickup. Breaking one fine turn of magnet wire will cause the pickup to fail. If you have plastic molded Strat style bobbins it is possible to move the pole pieces. If…

Make sure the problem isn’t with the height adjust screws or springs. Make sure the components are firmly tightened and chatter free. Wax potting would probably be my first choice and that it’s properly done. Silicone can be put inside the top of a metal cover such as on Fender Telecaster Rhythm pickups. If needed…

They are usually made from shim stock or thin gauges of steel fabricated to expand or enhance the magnetic field to the strings. Leo Fender used a ferrous metal claw around the pickup cover on the Jaguar and Bass VI guitar. The metal claw was used to concentrate and retain the magnetic field within close…

You can use various head styles in place of the 12 Allen screws. You need to use the same thread, shaft diameter, alloy (steel or ferrous) and length needed to fit properly. Some of the screw heads you can use are Fillister slotted, Fillister phillips, Socket set screw, Button head, Round head phillips etc. There…