advice needed on changing a pick up

[bphill]

I just bought a bought a 1962 Harmony

tuxedo guitar off Ebay and want to change the pickup to a Lindy Fralin P-90.

Will I have to change the pots as well? I'm also thinking of installing a Bigsby and was wondering if anybody knows any tips on the installation?

[bphill]

bump

[humbuckerstrat]

I don't know about the pickup change, but as for installing a Bigsby, use dental floss on the low E and High E string retainer pins to line up the Bigsby to the neck and bridge before you drill any holes. Using the floss, tie it on the retainer pin and then string it through the low E tuner and then the high E tuner. This will line up the Bigsby, so that you can drill the holes in the right places.

Then using a piece of cardboard or something, raise the back end of the Bigsby so that the pads under the front end touch the top of your guitar. I didn't do this when I installed a Bigsby on my Hohner hollowbody, and when I take the strings off, the front end of the bottom of the Bigsby lifts off of the top of the guitar. I don't think this is a good thing, but when I put the strings on and tune up to pitch the front end of the Bigsby touches the top of the guitar because of the string tension.

Don't do it like I did in my impatience! Put a piece of cardboard or something so that there is a space at the rear of the Bigsby and the top of the guitar and that the front end of the Bigsby touches the top of the guitar. Then when everything is lined up, drill the holes. And use masking tape to mark where the holes will be. Using masking tape has two purposes, to tell you where the holes need to go, and to keep the drill bit (on the drill or dremel, whichever you'll be using) from sliding around when you try to drill the holes. This is very important. HTH

[cratz2]

Not to be vague, but you never 'have to' change a pot as long as the pot is functional. 500k pots are brighter and have more output than 300k pots which are brighter and have more output than 250k pots. Not sure what pots it has stock, but if you install the new pickup and it sounds too dark for you, go to 500k or 1M pots. If the new pickup sounds too bright, either roll the pot back a bit or install a 250k pots.

 

I'd probably replace the pots and cap while I was in there and I'd install full size 500k pots and a 0.022 orange drop cap or a PIO cap for forum member outtahear.

[Mel Cooley]

The typical Harmony guitar pickups from that era were made by Rowe Industries (the original maker of DeArmond pickups) and are usually punchy single coil units. I suspect the existing wiring/pots would work well with a P-90.

Editorial: The other side of that is most people buy old Harmonys for the sound of their pickups (despite the fact that they were usually microphonic when they left the factory). Playability isn't one of the brand's hallmarks.

[bphill]

[The typical Harmony guitar pickups from that era were made by Rowe Industries (the original maker of DeArmond pickups) and are usually punchy single coil units. I suspect the existing wiring/pots would work well with a P-90.

 

Editorial: The other side of that is most people buy old Harmonys for the sound of their pickups (despite the fact that they were usually microphonic when they left the factory). Playability isn't one of the brand's hallmarks.]

 

 

well I bought the guitar cheap and was thinking of modding it for fun.But I'll tryout the original PU before I change it.