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Re-solder Firebird Pickup together

gavindale

Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2001
Messages
446
Hello everybody! Thank you in advance for your advise and kindness.

I just scored 1991 Gibson Firebird that is very cool. I am the second owner and it even came with the original case candy!

I was jamming with the guitar with the band when the bridge pickup jumped up and stuck to the strings! Weird. I came to learn that Firebird pickups do not have any screws to hold the bobbin/magnet/cover to the baseplate. It is all held together with simple solder.

Pulled the pickup and mounting plate, removed the old solder, scuffed up the base plate and cover where I was going to solder, used a VERY hot gun, hit it with the thin gage solder I use for electrical connections, it flowed into the cavity, and I let it cool; and put the guitar back together.

Few days later I sat down to play it and after about a half hour he pickup came apart again. SO...


When I was finished the first time I did not end up with a glop of solder that I normally see. Mine began to flow into the cavity between the base and the cover very quickly on my first try so I pulled away the solder so it would not flow down into the pickup. I believe that I did two things wrong...

I may of had my gun too hot for this project. (825 degrees) I had read that this was the optimum setting because you want to heat the base and cover very quickly and not the wax potted pickup. Opinions?

My other mistake may have been the choice of solder. Should I have used ..say...solder I have around the house in my plumbing kit instead of the old light gage Radio Shack solder I did use? Opinions?

I do have a habit of curling my pinky around the bottom of the bridge pickup but I have never had a cover pop before.

I would like to get the Bird to rise from the ashes! Recording on Sunday. Would like to use it.

I just would like to hear a few opinions before I try again. I would like to get better..

Thank you everyone!
 

somebodyelseuk

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 10, 2020
Messages
454
Not overly familiar with these pickup, but...
1. Hotter the better, within reason. You more likely to melt the potting with a colder iron, simply because you'd have to spend longer getting the cover and baseplate hot. The key is to use high temp, work quickly. This way, you get all the heat where you need it, before it dissipates through the pickup.
2. Tin both surfaces and I'd probably solder at either end as well as the usual mid points.
3. Clamp the sides of the cover so there isn't a gap for the solder to flow down, otherwise, you risk hot solder getting on the coil wire.
If in doubt, pay a tech to sort it.
 
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