Installation & Wiring
Installation (Braided 2-conductor)
Sonic Soup Pickups come with vintage style braided/shielded lead wire by default. This style of wiring is designed to fit hand wired guitar control cavities. At a basic level, think of the shielded cover of the lead wire to be its own signal (ground) and the singular end of your lead to be the hot signal. The shielded cover needs to be soldered to the exterior of the pot or any other ground surface within the control cavity. The hot end of your lead should be soldered to your pot lug per the illustration.
There are numerous methods or wiring up a guitar’s electronics; however, the methods illustrated here only show a couple popular approaches. The internet is full of wiring diagrams so don’t be shy to ask Mr. Google if you are interested in additional information.
Soldering Tips
When soldering your pickups to your volume pot, it’s prudent to sand or scratch the surface of the pot where one intends to solder the braided wire to the pot to ensure a strong electrical connection. Further, it is important to ensure the braided cover does not touch the hot end of the lead wire or the pickup can short out and fail to produce a signal. If you test your guitar signal using a multi-meter (through the guitar output jack) and receive a reading of “0”, you likely have a short in your signal.
Installation (4-conductor)
If you elect to order your pickups with 4-conductor lead wire, this illustration shows how Sonic Soup pickups are wired by color code.
Pickup Height
Sonic Soup recommends adjusting your newly installed pickups to the default heights below (initially). Press down on the last fret of the low and high E string and set the height such that the string clears the pole piece by the following clearances.
Neck Low E: US Nickel
Neck High E: US Penny
Bridge Low E: US Penny
Bridge High E: US Dime
After the default heights have been initiated, adjust pickups up or down to taste. Raising your pickup will provide more output and treble. Lowering your pickups will reduce output and treble while mellowing your tone.