Fitting new pickups to a semi-acoustic! If there’s a job that’s more of a faff, I don’t want anything to do with it. Anyhow, I replaced the pickups on my Epiphone Casino Coupé. Nothing fancy, just a pair of Artec do gear P90s, for a mere £30. I much prefer the black covers to the Epi chrome ones and they sound much clearer too. The only drawback has been that the bridge pickup sits too low (5mm) and the outputs are wildly different, so I’ve ordered a couple of shims. However, all in all, I’m very pleased. Oh, what’s that I hear you say?
Very well then...
In terms of the work, I attached thick, cotton threads to each of the pots and then pulled them (one at a time) through the bridge pickup hole (they were too big to get through the f holes!) soldered the new neck pickup on, then repeated for the bridge pickup. Pulling on the attached threads, plus a little wiggling re-sited the pots. The shallowness and compact size of the body made manoeuvring the pots very fiddly, plus the original pickup leads were run through bendy cable clamps (releasing these was an additional PITA). If Epiphone had used mini, Alpha pots, instead of full size, it would’ve been so much easier.
The new Artecs are so much more powerful and clear than the originals, I’d definitely try some of their pickups in the future.