Hey all -

Switching the leads worked, so it looks like the leads were attached to the pup backwards from the factory. FWIW, the iron I was using was a 40W radio shack one, and a chisel tip isn't available in store, so it was a pencil tip (brand new, and properly tinned). I tried using the side instead of the tip, to no avail. With a higher wattage iron, it worked well.

Moral of the story is that the guitar now sounds fantastic, the pups work as they should, and I am so psyched to play it! And on that note that's what I'm going to do. Thanks for your help!

Joe

Any specific Weller models you recommend? More often than not I'm doing guitar pedals, so I need as fine a tip as I can get. RS seems not to cover that ground - you either have a 15W iron that has the right tip size but isn't hot enough, or a 40W iron where the heat is adequate but the tip's unwieldy.

Also, FWIW, a gun is what I used last night to fix it (a Weller one, 100/140W). Definitely not the tool I'd want to use all the time, but used cautiously it worked like a charm.