Sweet 16 Floating Pickup Swap

[alcottawa]

Hi folks,

brand spankin' new here... its too bad I didn't know this site was here until something went wrong, I love this place.

 

I broke my floating full size humbucker out of place on my sweet 16, I managed to pull the pickup apart, work a little magic and get it working again, but I fear I've messed up a little bit as I now get a bad ground hum (when I'm not touching the strings)

 

I was thinking about replacing the pickup with one of the kent armstrong handmade full size floaters, has anyone tried this? does it fit? Does it sound any better?

I have always liked the sound of the heritage pickup (#3 I believe, made in 1990) and would't want to get too far away from that.

the other option may be trying to make my own conversion of a standard humbucker into the floating case or even ordering a replacement pickup from heritage,,

any comments, advice, scoldings or insights are always greatly appreciated,

thanks guys

[Patrick]

Hi folks,

brand spankin' new here... its too bad I didn't know this site was here until something went wrong, I love this place.

 

I broke my floating full size humbucker out of place on my sweet 16, I managed to pull the pickup apart, work a little magic and get it working again, but I fear I've messed up a little bit as I now get a bad ground hum (when I'm not touching the strings)

 

I was thinking about replacing the pickup with one of the kent armstrong handmade full size floaters, has anyone tried this? does it fit? Does it sound any better?

I have always liked the sound of the heritage pickup (#3 I believe, made in 1990) and would't want to get too far away from that.

the other option may be trying to make my own conversion of a standard humbucker into the floating case or even ordering a replacement pickup from heritage,,

any comments, advice, scoldings or insights are always greatly appreciated,

thanks guys

 

Welcome on board alcottowa. I can't help you on the pick up issue . . . but, it's always good to see a new face. Sweet Sixteens are great boxes. Ya can't go wrong with Kent Armstrong pups. How the hell did you break your original pup? Maybe you'd be better off letting a guitar tech do your work.

[Gitfiddler]

Welcome aboard the good ship HOC. Or whatever.

 

If you have a problem with your wiring, ground or pickup installation, I'm with Patrick. Get it to a tech. I had a KA floater installed on my Golden Eagle and it was relatively painless...since all I did was pay for it to be done right. The hard part was getting just the right pickup. Contact Kent directly or go through www.archtop.com for the real deal. Let him know what you are installing it on and about how far away from the strings your pickup will be. After a floater is installed, it cannot be raised or lowered. If it is too close to the strings it may be too hot. I prefer floaters as far away from the strings as possible. Then if there is a string needing more volume/balance to the others, you can raise a pole piece. KA's paf comes with 12 adjustment screws for even more balance.

 

Another option is to contact Rendall Wall at Heritage and get his advice on your specific problem.

 

Good luck with your Sweetie.

 

Oh, and by the way...............

[morg21279]

Here's the simplest option - on my Golden Eagle, I just mailed the pickguard with #3 pickup to Kent Armstrong. He ripped out the guts, and replaced the #3 with his floating PAF (no string adjustment screws), and shipped it back. No changes to the pickguard or pickup mounting housing -- just sounds better .. probably at less then half the cost of the archtop.com pickup ---- less adjustability, but less cost and no modifications.

[alcottawa]

Thanks for the replies fella's,

I've got the pickup working noise free once again, not sure exactly what went wrong, I just de-soldered and re-soldered the connections and voila... it was fine.

I initially broke the pickup connections by being too curious,, as in I noticed that the pickup just slides out of the pickguard,, (actually I was trying to align it a little better).. I pulled a little too hard and quick, then I swore a whole bunch, then I notice the connection was broken off inside the pickup itself.

I'm an electronics technician by trade, but I don't deal with guitar stuff (which are pretty simple electronically speaking)

 

sooo... now is where I've been inspired to start experimenting,,, I've got a few old junker humbuckers kicking around here, I'm going to try my hand at converting one of them into a floating pickup and cram it into a cover I have lying around,,, if this goes well I'm going to convert a seymour duncan paf I haven't used for awhile and cram it into one of the ebony pickup covers from allparts... then see how she goes.

I'll keep you guys posted on my progress,

once again any tips or suggestions are welcomed and appreciated,,,

and heres a couple pics of my sweetheart(s):