Install a guitar pickup

It should fit snugly but easily over the pickup, and the pole pieces should fit right through the holes. Not all humbuckers are the same size, so be certain you have the right cover before you proceed. If you have a good fit, pull the cover off the pickup and proceed. Step 2: Use the sandpaper to rough up the inside of the pickup cover.

This helps the solder adhere to it. Step 3: Apply the double sided tape to the pickup. Use your fingers to put pressure on the tape, then carefully remove the backing if your tape has backing. Step 4: Put the cover on and apply pressure with your thumbs to stick it to the tape.

Step 5: Heat up the soldering iron on its highest setting. Wait a few seconds then apply a small amount of solder. If you did everything right, the solder should flow nicely and adhere to both the base plate and the cover. Repeat this step on the opposite side. Warning: be careful not to apply too much heat, as this can damage the pickup. You want to flash fry that pickup, not slow roast it. After the pickup cools, you should have a nice-looking, firmly attached cover.

Pause to admire your fine craftsmanship before you install it in your guitar. One important thing to note with this method: when you buy a covered pickup brand new from Seymour Duncan, the cover is wax potted onto the pickup. Replacing with upgraded models increases power, sustain, and crunch. Log in Social login does not work in incognito and private browsers. Please log in with your username or email to continue. No account yet? Create an account.

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Tips and Warnings. Things You'll Need. Related Articles. Remove electrical covers. You will need to detach any wires leading from the pickguard assembly so you can easily replace any pickup or or other hardware.

Remove the solder. To remove them you need to touch the solder with the soldering gun and pull the wires apart. If you need to, draw a basic schematic if you cannot get a wiring diagram. Remove the pickup s. Take out the two screws on either side of any old pickup.

Now gently remove it, making sure you leave enough lead wire for both positive and ground. If the pole pieces are difficult to turn, stop. The last thing you want to do is break one of these irreplaceable poles. Remember, these are magnets and without them, the pickup is useless. Mission accomplished!

Photo by Ariel Ellis. Sonic Success At first, my client was dismayed that the vintage neck pickup was dead. But after doing some recording sessions and hearing the guitar in action, he reported that the combination of modern neck and vintage bridge WR humbuckers actually makes a very musical combination. Although projects like this one can be challenging, the final result was very satisfying. As an added bonus, I got to install a real Seth Lover pickup and rediscover why he was such a genius!

Nice price. Great range in simple controls. Sweet preamp sounds. Great capacity for high-end detail. Keeley Compressor Mini robertkeeley. I fall in and out of love with compressors all the time. From one night to another, I might be down on my knees, thanking my comp for saving my life and my sloppy picking performance. The morning after is always awkward. It may not be the most extreme compressor in the world or the most versatile.

But it walks the razor-thin line between transparent and potent with aplomb and sounds alive without being overbearing or oppressive. Thankfully, he has a knack for knowing how to set those parameters just right. Keeley also designed the circuit to be especially lively for a comp with so few controls. For one thing, the Compressor Mini uses parallel compression, which allows dry signal to pass before summing at the output, adding detail and presence to softer playing while louder transients are squished more aggressively.

The pedal sounds more balanced and alive for its inclusion. The Compressor Mini, however, is almost startlingly quiet. Even at the highest preamp gain and threshold levels, the Keeley adds little perceptible hiss.

The low noise floor makes it easier to use the level control aggressively, and at minimum threshold levels, the Keeley is a great near-clean boost. And there are lots of near-clean boost colors that add meat to jangly tones without sullying the chime.

Rickenbacker and Telecaster players take note! Humbucker players, too, will enjoy the extra headroom in the level control.

Most settings north of noon lend a fat but tasteful bump in the low-mid zone that make the preamp sound extra sweet, muscular, and growly. The compression effect itself is a delight. And in spite of the extra top end generated by the tone-recovery circuit and parallel compression scheme, you still hear perceptible squish. The extra weight and warm sustain that even modest level and compression threshold levels add to thin first-string output is significant. And it does a cracking job of highlighting string detail in complex chords.

For lots of players in many musical situations, such qualities will be well worth any tradeoff in dynamics. The preamp alone sounds lovely and generates killer boost tones. In traditional pedal-compression settings, like country picking and Byrds-style jangle, it excels. And its low noise floor makes it an ideal pairing for high-gain pedals in need of smoothing or busy pedalboards with lots of noisy gain stages.

At just 20 bucks less than the Compressor Plus, some players may want to pop for the bigger, more feature-rich alternative. Intimate-feeling playing experience.

Nice neck. Easy to play. Body shape well suited to austere appointments. Gibson's history is rich with acoustic instruments built to be accessibly priced. The company's beloved and underrated B series guitars from the '60s, for instance, used laminate mahogany sides to make them more attainable.

Even the legendary J began as a relatively affordable model—cleverly using that beautiful sunburst finish to conceal less-than-perfect spruce pieces that were in short supply around World War II.

For most of recent history, Gibson's acoustics occupied more rarified upmarket territory—largely leaving the mid-price business to their Asia-built Epiphone Masterbilt instruments, Taylor and Martin's Mexico-built entry-level flattops, and a revolving cast of overseas manufacturers. It's easy to understand Gibson's reticence to enter the mid-price acoustic game with a Gibson-branded guitar. It's a brutally competitive market: Asia-built instruments leverage lower manufacturing overhead to ape more expensive American inspirations, while legacy American brands offer less luxuriously ornamented guitars built with alternative and laminate woods—often in facilities in Mexico.

With the Generation Collection of acoustics, Gibson chose a middle path to the mid-price market. Rather than move production to Mexico or overseas, or use laminates or wood composite materials, the Generation guitars are built with solid woods in the same Bozeman, Montana, facility that makes the company's top-shelf flattops.

That means the guitars are pretty austere and more expensive than a lot of the mid-price competition. Yet the G and G offer a compelling playing experience, and each model is built with a side port which Gibson calls the Player Port that enables a subtly more intimate means of relating to each guitar's dynamic potential.

For this review we looked at the two models that bookend the Generation Collection: the G and G For many players, this author included, the Gibson L is a magical little instrument. Not only does it conjure images of Bob Dylan shattering folk convention circa '65 with his very similar Nick Lucas model, but it's one of those flattops that, when built right, occupies a sweet spot between power and sensitivity. They are fantastic fingerstyle instruments, and the Generation Collection incarnation of the L, the G, is particularly well suited for that task.

The slim, compact lines are flattered by the lack of binding, giving the guitar an earthy, elemental essence that suits its folky associations. The volume wheel attaches with self-adhesive, which is easy to do. Install a fresh 9v battery, replace the saddle into the slot and plug into an amp. When you plug into this new strap jack it also powers the system on at the same time.

Now press the saddle down and tap test the output through the amp. You should have level output from each string and you can also test the volume and tone controls. Time to restring.