SAFE SHIPPING AND HANDLING

Last Update: 2024.07.03

How many times have I seen pickups destroyed by improper handling? Either during resoldering, mounting, or shipping and handling? The answer: way too many. So I decided it’s time to share some “safety” knowledge when dealing with pickups.

In general, keep in mind, the windings on pickups are rather like fine hair so if you touch them, bang them or otherwise mishandle them, the pickup make likely become a rewind scenario. 

Let’s start with Shipping

The following situations will result in pickups with broken winding or other issues

• Pickups without covers, even in a box.
• Pickups without covers, in a box with other components like pots
• Pickups in a box that are not secure even if they have covers (cover CAN get dislodged and come off if not secure).
• Pre-shipping mishandling (see below).

Safe Shipping (assume they have a cover on them or are otherwise secured in foam)

• Shipping in a regular pickup container with foam (like the ones that Fender comes in).
• Shipping in baggie with bubble wrap around them.
• Wrapping each pickup independently if not secured
• Single coils are more risky than humbuckers because of the coil exposure issue, but humbuckers are not immune to damage. (mostly when removing them or installing them).

I don’t know of any GOOD safe way to ship pickups without a cover on them. So if you do that, make sure each one is separately covered and you figure out a way to protect the windings. At the VERY least put each one in it’s own thick baggie.

Measuring and Repair

Detailed repair is out of the scope of this page but in general when measuring, handling, pickups the following apply.

Safe Measuring

• Do not use alligator clips directly on a pickup wire connect, probes ONLY.
• If any windings are loose they are ESPECIALLY fragile!
• It’s very unlikely a wire has broken FROM the pickup (they are HUGE compared to a winding wire), So if it is open, the issue is likely a broken pickup wire, a shorted wire (in the winding) or a connection point (stacked buckers).
• Always measure from the leads unless it’s completely open.
• When measuring in circuit, isolate the pickup so you can be sure there isn’t a short across it or a broken wire to a switch, pot, etc, if it measures zero or infinite resistance

Safe Handling

• When taking pickups (single coil especially) in and out of a pickguard be very care that the coil does not get bumped by screws, other parts, etc,
• Do not apply tape around or to any part of the winding, unless your a professional tape dude.
• With uncovered humbuckers or even covered ones there is a VERY small wire going to the solder point. The solder point can look big and safe but if you break that wire, good luck getting length to solder the tiny wire back on.  Oh no, back to “rewind the sucker”

In general, single coils can be fixed a bit easier unless it’s been potted or such around the winding then good luck with that. Pickups like MIM are easier to fix.

Helpful Tip

Sometimes when working with pickups that are preconnected I often apply some painter tape to hold the cover on until I’m ready to mount. Make sure the tape doesn’t touch the wires that are going to the output wire connection points. If they are all connected to wires (all 3 pickups) then I definitely like to be careful with the other ones I haven’t mounted yet.

ADDITIONAL

• Try not to drop them, dropping isn’t good for magnets and you run the risk of hitting something and damaging the wires.
• Store them securely in baggies or a proper pickup box with foam.
• In general, don’t just throw them in a box unless it’s a broken pickup box.
• When stacking pickguards try to not lay the pickups so they are touching each other. I’ll let you figure out why.