Extending 2 conductor braided pickup wire

SunDevil

Gents, I'm looking to repurpose a  vintage 2 conductor braided wire Humbucker from Bridge to Neck  position

I have a length of braided wire that would give me sufficient length - is this the way to go, or am I better off just running a couple of insulated wires from the end of the core and braid?

Whilst I'm at it, anyone ever converted from vintage wire to a 3 (not 4, I just want to phase flip) conductor? - looks simple enough, but the bit I'm nervous about is removing the existing hot lead from the coil lead?

thegummy

Regarding just extending the length, I just soldered a normal piece of wire to the braided outer and another piece to the inner wire.

No idea about your second question sorry.

P.S. I hate those braided pickup wires, is there any benefit to them over 2(+) separate wires?

SunDevil

Thanks @thegummy - I think the braid shields the inner signal wire and reduces interference?

The 2 wire solution will deffo work, just worried about it snagging in the wire channels in th guitar, so I’ll likely put some heat shrink around them anyway- a braided extension might be better in that regard?

SteveRobinson

What I do ( only when absolutely necessary)  is to solder the inner signal wires together and put heat shrink tubing over the join. Then I push back the outer braid of the extension piece to increase its diameter, push that over join and solder the outer braids together. That way the screen is complete over the whole length of the wire.

If you want to add a third wire for phase reversal you should rewire using a twin and screen cable.

Funkfingers

thegummy said:

I hate those braided pickup wires, is there any benefit to them over 2(+) separate wires?

Yes. The braid gives better screening than a plain insulated conductor. 

Some guitarists with bat Eric Johnson ears reckon that they can hear a difference between humbuckers with the single con + braid cable compared to the same design with modern four-con + shield, plastic-insulated cable.

thegummy

Funkfingers said:

thegummy said:

I hate those braided pickup wires, is there any benefit to them over 2(+) separate wires?

Yes. The braid gives better screening than a plain insulated conductor. 

Some guitarists with bat Eric Johnson ears reckon that they can hear a difference between humbuckers with the single con + braid cable compared to the same design with modern four-con + shield, plastic-insulated cable.

It comforts me that there actually is some benefit to it rather than one of these "it's tradition" things that just annoy me lol.

I'd personally doubt any claims by anyone that they can hear the difference though but I'd (hypothetically) be open to seeing someone scientifically prove it and would be amazed and very impressed if they could

WezV

I like working with braided wire.

i do the same as Steve to extend the wires.  If you can’t get the braids to meet again you can add a short jumper wire between them.

normula1

If you're careful it's fairly easy to swap to 3 or 4 conductor cable.
It can go wrong though. A few years ago as I was (carefully) removing the outer layer of tape going round both coils, one of the pigtails came away. Unfortunately it was the coil start one and I had to get the coil rewound.

SunDevil

Thanks Gents - will attempt the braid extension this week (not on me personally - a bald man with a braided extension would look just plain wrong!)

Might need brave pills (and a cheap humbucker to practice on) before attempting the full re-wire - fat hands!