I am in the process of putting new pickup covers on some old humbucker pickups. When I pulled the humbuckers and flipped them over, I found that the actual pickups were sealed into the covers with some serious wax that had been melted around all of the edges. Doing subsequent reading regarding humbuckers and covers, I have found several references to pickups being sealed in with wax to prevent feedback, rattle, etc.

My question is, what's the best way to get that pickup out of the old cover? There's a lot of wax in there. Should I just tilt it sideways and then heat the wax carefully with one of those long-necked butane grill lighters and hope it runs out?

And then, of course, I assume that I would want to re-wax the pickups once I have them into the new gold covers...

When it comes to guitars, there's always something more to learn!

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

I did this one time with good results.
I first broke the solder connection loose. then placed the pickup in the freezer for a few hours. then i took it out and tapped the cover off with the handle of a butter knife. put the new one back on and applied heat with a blow dryer to get the wax to stick to it. was actually really easy.

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Hi CR: I think if you warm the cover just enough to losen the contact with the wax it will come off, if, as bizarredude says, you've also broken the solder joint first. You probably don't want to heat it enough to melt the wax off the coils if you can help it: re-potting (waxing) pickups is perfectly do-able, but a tiresome extra step you'd prefer to avoid if you can.

You may even find that just warming the cover thoroughly with a hair dryer is enough. The butane thing sounds like overkill to me. But see how it goes.

And it might be good if you can hold off for a day or so, because if someone like Martian looks in they may have additional useful tips from decades of experience at this stuff.

Cheers - C

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The butane thing is right out. The freezing thing is risky as contraction from the cold may cause part of a coil or one of its lead to snap.

Do this: Separate the solder joints; warm the pickup with a hairdryer. You don't have to have the wax in a molten state, just enough to where the wax is tacky and you can walk the cover off. I usually use a ruler to alternately lift the cover in increments at its bottom, next to the pickups legs, side to side until the cover if free.

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Gentlemen, thank you for your suggestions. I'll be taking these things apart this weekend and I will try gentle heat first and make every effort to be patient in the process. This will be a first for me - nothing at all like swapping Fender single coil pickup covers.

I'll take pics and report back. Thanks again!

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

Martian has a good point about the freeze method, might not be good to try that one.
I had good results but i may have just been lucky. I did observe some lite flaking of the wax around the coil but they dryer fixed that. I didn't even think about causing separation in the wingdings and such.

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Well, I got the backs off the pickups and then found that the entire pickup was covered with wax inside the cover - more than I was expecting. But with the careful use of my wife's high-tech hair dryer I managed to soften the contents enough to gently pull/slide the pickup and all that wax out of the cover.

Then I carefully slipped the new golf Gibson cover on and... CRAP! The holes in the new cover don't match the spacing of the screws on the old pickup! Yes, bridge and neck covers are different, but neither worked at either end, so for now I am stymied.

I just went online and ordered a replacement set of gold humbucker pickups, complete with new black rings and gold screws. I'll get the old pickups back together and bag and tag them and stick them in the case for the next owner... when I die, that is.

Thanks for the advice - it worked.

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

You're welcome but in a way, I owe you an apology. I had read this thread rather quickly, focusing solely on cover removal aspects. I didn't even think to mention that all humbucker and cover polepiece spacings are not universal as you've unfortunately just found out.

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that slipped my mind aswell. Sorry

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No apologies required, gents, though I appreciate the kindness. I went to my local guitar center and dealt with my usual salesman there, a guitarist of considerable ability and experience. I told him that I owned a '93 Epiphone Les Paul Custom and that I needed new gold pickup covers. He phoned their Gibson rep and explained the situation and supposedly, the Gibson rep gave him the exact part numbers for the covers I needed. They were a special order and $24 apiece, plus shipping and handling and tax.

With all of the above, I really expected them to fit my needs. Since they didn't, I returned the covers and got back my purchase price, less the shipping and handling - special order and all that. Live and learn.

Again, I appreciate your advice. I did learn a few things from this experience and at my age, all learning is good.

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

All's well that ends well then!

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