What type of quick disconnect for pickup swapping

GotMetalBoy

Power User
I'm looking to buy some small 5 pin connectors to use as quick disconnects so I can swap out humbucker pickups. I figure I can dive bomb the Floyd Rose, so the strings are loose and then quickly swap the humbuckers on my guitar that has pickup bezels and not pickups directly screwed into the body. I want to get small connectors, so they fit under the pickups, so they don't cause any issues with the pickup height.

I have a ton of guitars but it's a PITA maintaining them and costly changing strings.

I don't know much about electronic connectors but from my searching I've found 2 that seem to be what I'm looking for.

The first connectors are called W.S. Deans Micro WSD1005 5 pin connectors and they come in a male and female pair with 5 small heat shrink tubes for each pin to cover the solder joints.

The second connectors are called JST 5 pin connectors and they come in male and female pairs with the wires already crimped to the connectors.

Has anyone done this to their guitars or have any recommendations or suggestions?
 
I do something similar to this with most of my guitars. I use Dupont jumper wires, clip the ends off retaining a short bit of cable on each side, then solder the female end to the each individual pickup wire and the males to the various pots, switches, and ground. The pickup wire is then fed through the existing hole in the guitar body like normal and then simply plugged into the pots/switches. This makes it an easy thing to swap out pickups though more often I just change around the configuration such as series/parallel and push/pull options.
 
It takes much longer to swap a pickup mounting screw and spring setup than it does to fire up the soldering station and do it right. I’d just stay tried and true personally.

The pickups are already attached to the pickup bezel/mounting ring, so all I'll need to do is remove 4 screws, disconnect the pickup quick disconnect and then do the reverse to install them. The pickup height will already be set for all my pickups.

Do you remove your guitar output jack and remove the Axe-Fx input jack and then cut the 1/4" plugs off your guitar cable and solder the cable directly to your guitar and Axe-Fx? If you use any pedals in between would you do the same and remove the jacks and solder cables directly?

I guarantee in a listening test no one could hear the difference between a soldered pickup or a quick disconnect. EMG uses quick disconnects for all their pickups, pots, switches and jacks.
 
I do something similar to this with most of my guitars. I use Dupont jumper wires, clip the ends off retaining a short bit of cable on each side, then solder the female end to the each individual pickup wire and the males to the various pots, switches, and ground. The pickup wire is then fed through the existing hole in the guitar body like normal and then simply plugged into the pots/switches. This makes it an easy thing to swap out pickups though more often I just change around the configuration such as series/parallel and push/pull options.

That's a great idea! I have a ton of those connectors already for my Arduino. The only thing is they don't seem to have a tight connection but I think I bought the cheapest ones I could find at the time.

Are the connections tight with the ones you linked to? I know the W.S. Deans Micro 2pin and 4pin connectors have really tight connections bc a local RC Car store had some in stock but no 5 pin.

Thanks for the info!
 
I use Seymour Duncan Liberator in a couple of guitars and find it works great. You replace one of the pots with the Liberator pot and then you just add the pickups by screwing them in, instead of soldering. In these particular guitars I have series/parallel switching and a Freeway switch in the other, so not having to solder lots of wires makes it a lot easier.
 
Are the connections tight with the ones you linked to?
The link was just an example and not necessarily the exact ones I have ordered in the past (also from Arduino projects). The connectors from various merchants I have purchased from do seem to be inconsistent with some being quite tight and others almost worthless. I pick through them to get the best fit and if I find they need to be snugged up a gentle flattening of the male works well.

The only drawback I can think of with using connectors with multiple contacts is it is going to have to be located in the pickup cavity rather than the control cavity (at least with rear route bodies) unless you greatly widen the hole that goes between the two that the wire passes through. It will also mean any rewiring in the control cavity will require soldering.

I do use the two prong JST connectors on my Strat style guitars for connecting the pickguard to the output jack. With that single connector I can just unplug the pickguard if I want to mess with it off the guitar or quickly swap it out. They work great and are excellent quality.
 
I picked up a pickup that had connector on it. When I asked the seller about it, he sent me a link to THIS informative thread where he discussed the connectors.
 
I'm gonna go with minus one for the Liberator. the screws strip out too easily (I'm a big feller). I like to use 5 pin JST micro connectors for this purpose. I have a Mick Thompson Jackson that feels fan-friggin-tastic now that I had a stainless jumbo fret job done on it. It has the kind of neck that feels like it's faster than my fingers can move if that makes sense. I swap between The Blackout EMTY, Standard Blackout, and EMG 81/60 just by plugging in the pickups to the factory harness for the EMTY. I have a secondary wiring harness for passives to the same pot (1 Volume) With those, I can drop in My TB-4, TB-6, Black Winter, Nazgul, or Pegasus in about 5 minutes by just taking the tension off my strings and unscrewing the bridge (It's basically a solid mounted floyd, but non trem. It's only there to have a floyd style intonation adjustment). So no matter what tone I'm trying to record I can take that little amount of time to swap out. The only time I take more time is when I change string gauges and that's super fast too. Another cool thing is being able to run an Active bridge and passive neck or the reverse of such a configuration. Sometimes I like an Air Norton DiMarzio in the neck and a Tone Zone in the bridge and once you figure out DiMarzio Pup wiring, You've got it licked. Either way, It's Super fast pickup swaps into my most comfortable guitar by soldering and heat shrinking a connector to a new pup
 
I'm gonna go with minus one for the Liberator. the screws strip out too easily (I'm a big feller). I like to use 5 pin JST micro connectors for this purpose. I have a Mick Thompson Jackson that feels fan-friggin-tastic now that I had a stainless jumbo fret job done on it. It has the kind of neck that feels like it's faster than my fingers can move if that makes sense. I swap between The Blackout EMTY, Standard Blackout, and EMG 81/60 just by plugging in the pickups to the factory harness for the EMTY. I have a secondary wiring harness for passives to the same pot (1 Volume) With those, I can drop in My TB-4, TB-6, Black Winter, Nazgul, or Pegasus in about 5 minutes by just taking the tension off my strings and unscrewing the bridge (It's basically a solid mounted floyd, but non trem. It's only there to have a floyd style intonation adjustment). So no matter what tone I'm trying to record I can take that little amount of time to swap out. The only time I take more time is when I change string gauges and that's super fast too. Another cool thing is being able to run an Active bridge and passive neck or the reverse of such a configuration. Sometimes I like an Air Norton DiMarzio in the neck and a Tone Zone in the bridge and once you figure out DiMarzio Pup wiring, You've got it licked. Either way, It's Super fast pickup swaps into my most comfortable guitar by soldering and heat shrinking a connector to a new pup

Do you have a link to where you get your 5 pin JST micro connectors?
 
Do you have a link to where you get your 5 pin JST micro connectors?
Yes I do.

/Dupont-Connector-Kit-Connectors-Plusivo/dp/B078RRPRQZ/ref=pd_sbs_21_2/143-8045265-9719409?

it wouldn't keep think link up for some reason but it's the forementioned after the amazon address

I Notched the inside of my PU cavities about a cm away from the OEM Harness with a small chisel and an exacto knife. I then hot glued my female connector intp that cavity like a receptacle so they plug right in and I only have to hold onto one plug during the swap. It also keeps me from yanking pins out of the female end on accident. It also keeps unnecessary extra conductors out of the PU cavity. I hope that helps you in your adventure.
 

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Yes I do.

/Dupont-Connector-Kit-Connectors-Plusivo/dp/B078RRPRQZ/ref=pd_sbs_21_2/143-8045265-9719409?

it wouldn't keep think link up for some reason but it's the forementioned after the amazon address

I Notched the inside of my PU cavities about a cm away from the OEM Harness with a small chisel and an exacto knife. I then hot glued my female connector intp that cavity like a receptacle so they plug right in and I only have to hold onto one plug during the swap. It also keeps me from yanking pins out of the female end on accident. It also keeps unnecessary extra conductors out of the PU cavity. I hope that helps you in your adventure.

What kind of crimping tool would I need for those connectors? I have a cheap wire crimping tool that always butchers connectors.
 
What kind of crimping tool would I need for those connectors? I have a cheap wire crimping tool that always butchers connectors.
I solder mine. No crimping required that way. However, I you do want to crimp them or just stink at soldering (I used to). I do have crimpers from a japanese company called "Engineer". They require you to crimp twice, once to install the wire and once to install the pin sleeve into the connector. Their respective Part Numbers are 'PA-20' and PA-09'. The work well as to not destroy the metal like regular crimpers usually do.
 
Thanks for the Info! I usually solder everything because I've never been successful with crimping
No problem brother, It's a pain without the proper tools to crimp. When I built my Oli Herbert Ibanez S Prestige replica I learned a lot of different tech stuff becasue he was my idol for years and I liked ATR up until they went to more rock than metal and he switched to the Jackson Warrior. Active Pups in an S body is not an easy task especially when it's HSS routed from the factory.
 
It takes much longer to swap a pickup mounting screw and spring setup than it does to fire up the soldering station and do it right. I’d just stay tried and true personally.

I came here to give this reply. I also have such a difficult time "unlocking" and end up breaking so many of the plastic retaining clips, that taking 5 or fewer seconds to melt solder and another 15 seconds to re-solder is highly preferred.
 
Maybe it's easy to look up, I don't know. Gibson uses these little clip connectors on their pickups now. You can see the connectors if you look for some of their pickups on Reverb. There are a couple of sellers on Ebay that make conversion kits, so you can adapt other pickups. Look at this ad for example. https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Quick-Co...156776?hash=item340df06168:g:b-UAAOSwxcFegUzH. Obviously that;s only one side, but it's easy to find the mating side on Mouser or something.
 
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