Replacement Pickups

Hi Y'all, new here.
I was given a very nice 1983 Concord II-T as a gift a few weeks ago. It's a delight to play, all original hardware, sounds great, but there's quite an immense amount of hum that needs bucking and i've been looking at some Seymour Duncan Vintage Rails or Classic Stack, single coild sized humbuckers.
So I would very much like to know if:
1) Will they fit?, they are listed as being for a Strat.
2) Will they melt my electronics/set fire to my guitar?
3) What are your experiences of switching pickups/any general advice.

Thankyou in advance for any input.
My name is Phil and i look forward to your replies.

First up, check the electronics - sounds like a ground hum happening someplace and just might need the earthing checked?

There should be no worries swapping p'ups out but do keep the OEM ones for re-sale etc!!

I would keep the originals for nothing else than IF you ever sell it. Some collectors want a vintage axe like that to be ALL original. Just a thought.....
I would also make sure the ground wire has a good connection on the trem spring claw. I've had that issue before and it was an easy fix. As far as switching pick-ups....i've never had an issue fitting them except for once with an F spaced humbucker. Or another time with a humbucker that was not meant to be mounted straight to the body, that required a pick-up ring. And no, your electronics won't fry or catch on fire.

All of the previous posts are good advice for curing buzz in a single-coil pickup guitar.

Additionally, you may want to shield the cavities and the back of the pickguard.

I recently shielded my Warmoth strat that has a Seymour Duncan Classic fifties strat pickup set in it. I used heavy-duty aluminum foil with some spray adhesive on the back of the pickguard and some self-adhesive copper foil from Warmoth inside the body cavities. I do not have an RWRP pickup in the middle, so there are no humbucking positions on this guitar (like fifties and sixties vintage strats). This guitar is very quiet now and it also sounds like a vintage strat instead of a modern strat - SWEET!!!!!

There are also some grounding mods that will greatly reduce your buzz. Check out Guitar Nuts.

Thanks guys. theat GuitarNuts site is great so i'll follow the advice on there before I go for new pickups.

Hi,

I was all set to start a new thread, but this one sort of fits with what I was going to ask-hope no-one minds!
If i've got it wrong, I apologise!

2 things really:

1. I've got a thunder 1a, which i'm thinking of changing the pickups on. are there any problems with regard to putting passive pickups in an 'active' guitar? would it knacker the replacement pickups? I don't really use the active circuit, so I could leave the batteries out and use it purely in passive mode, if it would be a problem.

2. This query is non-westone... sorry! I bought a wesley explorer copy off the bay a while back, which plays great, but hummed like a b*****d! I got rid of the stock pickups, and put in a gordon smith and a gibson sg pickup, and it was a lot better, but not perfect at low volume. however, i used it at my weekly 'band' jam session the other week, and at cranked up levels, it (yes, you gessed it) hummed like a b*****d... I went over the pots with a soldering iron, and made sure everything was ok as far as i could tell. I was wondering where the problem could be. I've shielded the control cavity with copper tape, and I'm going to put a 'proper' lever switch in.

any ideas?

cheers,
bob

p.s. the humming doesn't stop when i touch the strings/bridge, or whatever, so, i'm thinking dodgy components...?

Firstly, I don't think you'll damage the p'ups, by putting passive into an active circuit but it might sound odd; I really don't know... :?:

The humming really does sound like a ground loop somewhere... someone's bound to know something in here, eh!!

thanks!

as i say, i'll most likely use it without the active circuit, anyway....

i'll await the flood of replies regarding the hum....!

The active circuit wont damage the p/ups, its an active filter/amplifier which gives more breadth of tone than a passive one (and of course louder). Ive never seen one that sqiurts fire breathing eletrickery into the pickups.

The hum will be down to poor grounding. Sounds like you will have a bad earth connection somewhere. I had similar on a hohner strat and it was because the way it was wired relied on the screening under the scratch plate for part of the signal return path, bad practise. So the addition of a wire between pot cans and hey presto, silence.

Also is an earth wire trapped under the bridge, it should be? If it is and theres an earth fault you should notice a difference when you touch the strings one way or the other.

Hi have you thought about fitting active pickups...

Rid of that hum in one fell swoop.

I use EMGs on my basses....they sound great, very loud and wide tone..and of course NO hum

CAn be a little pricey in the uk, but Ebay is a good place to look....might even be worth getting from USA

Pete

peterscott wrote:Hi have you thought about fitting active pickups...

Rid of that hum in one fell swoop.

I use EMGs on my basses....they sound great, very loud and wide tone..and of course NO hum

CAn be a little pricey in the uk, but Ebay is a good place to look....might even be worth getting from USA

Pete

Personally, I do like the way EMG bass pickups sound.

But for guitar I do not like them. Sterile is the best way I can describe EMGs in a guitar.

I've tried the 81/85 set and also the strat pickups and I don't like them.