I did it for the first time.. and it worked !!

[Mockbel]

Hi friends

I got this Epi last year (inspired by Gibson series) and had the plan to upgrade pickups.. finally did it.. the best part of the story is that I did pickup swap myself for the first time.. first time to use soldering iron

It took me hours and was 100% sure that I will fail.. under most optimistic wish was to have it sounds but with lots of noise.. surprisingly it went well.. I confess it was just about soldering the pickups wires to the Epi Quick Connect wires but for me it was like a brain surgery

I am so happy with results…

 

[rosssurf]

Congrats! It's always nice to try something new and succeed. Plus working on one's guitar is fun once you get past the " I'm gonna screw this up thinking". It's only wood and wire. Tinker away and have fun!

 

[pondcaster]

Way to go!

Nothing beats working on your own stuff.

You get to know your gear, you (usually) know it's done correctly and you (usually) save a bunch of cash.

Hate to think of all the $$ I wasted years ago taking it to luthier/techs for these types of things.

 

[Dilver]

Good for you. It’s the only way you learn. Keep trying to do new things - guitars aren’t that complicated and the more you can learn to do yourself, the more you can set things up perfectly to your liking.

 

[judson]

great move...always fun to learn something new.

but watch out....next step you will be hunting down pickups on ebay, Reverb and MLP classifieds telling yourself it will take 10 mins to swap them out and then i am sure I will sound like (enter fav player name).

then your buying storage trays to keep them all in ....

good news your soldering skills will improve the more you do it.

stevie wonder can solder better than i but i do enjoy tinkering with all my guitars but now its hard to leave them along as i always think i can improve them..

good job!

 

[Mockbel]

Yes it was fun thing to do… The surprise when I plugged it and what !!?? It works with no noise even with high gain !!?? I was sure that my soldering work is like shit but it turned to be done good

Now I think this baby is next ! It has awful noise so I may take it as a practice and rewire it all again !

 

[kysrsoze]

Nice job! It gets easier each time and there are diagrams for everything. Sweet-looking Explorer Too.

What kind of pups did you install?

 

[DeafDumbBlind Kid]

I haven't had to pay anybody to work on my guitars for over 20 years since I started learning how to do it myself. Nothing like building a few guitars to hone setup skills from scratch, either.

That said, I haven't done any in a while. Got a pair of pickups (still in the packaging) and only one guitar I can put them in.

 

[Mockbel]

Nice job! It gets easier each time and there are diagrams for everything. Sweet-looking Explorer Too.

What kind of pups did you install?

Dimarzio Super Distortion / Super 2

 

[BRMarshall]

Congratulations on mission accomplished. The Super Distortion is probably my favorite rock bridge pickup. I only have it in one guitar with an Air Norton in the neck. I’ve thought of getting an Epi. LP Classic to put that combo in.
Your Explorer looks great and hope you continue to enjoy it. I don’t have the playing chops to rock an Explorer or V.

 

[Mockbel]

I don’t have the playing chops to rock an Explorer or V.

Neither do I

I just love rock and enjoy my sloppy playing with high gain !