The science: Why does wax potting work? If a pickup isn't wax potted then the wires used to wrap the pickup can move. The way a microphone works, is that your voice (or other sound) moves a small diaphragm connected to a wire winding that is in a magnetic field. That movement of the wire coil through the magnetic field, induces electrical signals, which correlate to the sound that caused the movement. Wax potting a pickup encases the wires inside it, so that they cannot move; this prevents their movement from the sound of your voice (or amp or drums or horns...) from inducing electro-magnetic signals, stabilizing the pickups so that they are "deaf" to sound, and only react to the guitar's metal strings ringing through the magnetic field. Also, another quick science fact: Once water starts to boil, it won't get any hotter without increasing the atmospheric pressure - like in a pressure cooker; so a simmer like that is exactly what you want. There's no need to make it boil harder because it won't make the water any hotter.
I am about to pull the trigger on a new bridge pickup because of this for my 8 string agile guitar, I do like to sound of the stock pickups actually so I will give this a try and maybe save a few bucks.
Thank you! I've seen a few of these videos -- and yours is the first that I've seen to demonstrate a before-and-after to see the results of the wax potting. Well done! The process doesn't seem quite as daunting having seen you successfully do it.
I recently bought a loaded hss pickguard, however they forgot to put nickel humbucker cover on it which I wanted,anyway they said they need to repot it in wax,I don’t want to send it back so I’m looking to do it myself , this video is great , simple detailed instructions , thanks👍
Takes a while to heat up, but I picked up an old crock pot that I put my jar of wax into and once the wax is melted, give the pickups a good soak. Works like a charm. I also re-purposed a cheap sewing machine into a pickup winder. I wound two pickups purely by hand and that was enough of that! :)
+Dan Osper The two I did by hand sound okay. They were just for learning and were built out of household junk and neo magnets. I did three telecaster bridge pickups on the winder. Two are a bit over 7k, Alnico 5 and sound very traditional tele. The third, which I ended up using in my tele, is 10k, A5, early Broadcaster style. Still sounds like a tele, but a bit more drive and a little less high end.
No, 250. It's smaller 43 gauge wire, like the original Broadcaster/nocaster, so it's about equivalant to 8-9k of standard 42, output wise. And it's wired Broadcaster style, so no tone control. Instead, it's a blend pot in the bridge position, to blend in any or all of the neck.
I did everything literally the same way like in this video, with spoon and transparent bowl, I just take them out and clean, (btw I hold them in for 6-7 min) process of cooling will last couple of hours more I guess...I'm so nervous and have 2 fears, first that they will not work 😬 and second that they will work but still be microphonic 😂 EDIT: I thought first that I kill both humbuckers, but I wired it wrong, then I thought that just neck humb. is dead, but today I discover that it works as well but some wire was on the lose inside it..so glad that they work 😀 I only have problem now, (they're not microphonic the way they were before) but high pitch sound as feedback start to squeal abnormally soon as I put volume pot on amplifier more than 2.5, it never happened before 🤔
I liked your straight forward demonstration of pick-up waxing, and you answered one of my questions: what about the tape wrapped around the coils? I see you just dipped in the pick-up with the tape on it-cool, as I know it could be a big mistake to try and remove the tape and damage the windings. thanks! and I like that Charvel- looks like a good one - take care and greetings from Switzerland.
I'm no expert, but was researching this and found other "how to" guides suggesting a rubber band around humbuckers because tape can fail when heated in the wax causing the pickups to separate At least, that's what I think I understood those other articles to say. One of those others said after you first dip in, you take rubber bands off and then can re-dip (I think he said the first wax coat would help hold them together), but the other "how to" guide did not suggest any re-dipping in the wax. I guess, from what I've read, you want to wax-coat the wire coil, you don't care about coating the pickup exterior, so I don't see a reason to worry about not getting the exterior totally wax-coated where you had rubber bands (since you'll be wiping off the exterior wax anyway).
Works best with earwax; I’ve used my own and had my friends save theirs for this very purpose. Also, nasal discharge i# excellent for cleaning rosewood fretboards....
This man just saved me hours of research plus freed up a set of Tom Anderson' pups, that are too good for the guitar they were going into, now the originals will be put back in squeal free and make them work like they should as they sounded great but are noisy.
I know nothing about wax potting pickups so dont bash me for asking a question and making a comment. Wax potting my own pickups is something I want to learn to do. Wouldnt dobbing/patting the pickup with a paper towel remove wax from the surface? If there were excessively noticeable amounts of wax it would make sense but that would be difficult to see until dry. Also, can too much wax cause any issues?
Patting dry the excess wax doesn’t remove the wax from the vast majority of the pickup itself, especially on the insides. Wax potting is essentially adding a micro layer of wax on the copper to reduce the reverberation. I don’t think it’s possibly to add too much wax since a lot drips out when you remove it from the pot.
@@TechStuff1 Thanks for the quick reply and explanation. Before I bought my Les Paul I had a cheap $125 Silvertone SLK1 I bought new, 16 years ago, to get back into playing guitar. Actually, I still have it. For a budget guitar it plays surprisingly well after being properly set-up. The only issue was you could hear yourself in the pickup and thats how I found your channel. Thanks to you Im going to give it a shot. It might be a cheap guitar but I really like how it plays and even the cheap pickups sound good in it. Thanks!
seemed cool..i have 2 extreme v models and they both are squeeling like hell when playing at rehearsal place with loud volume..i have a noice gate in my amp and even thou i touch the strings demping them with left hand fingers and with right hand on where the pickups are it still does this squeeling..the other guitar has tone knob on it and it doesn't squeel when i turn it halfway or off..if i turn it more on than halfway then it starts to squeel..i have dimarzio evolution II pickup in it and the neck pickup is not connected..there was one wire cut off from the tone knob but i don't think that it helps if i reconnect it..still gonna try thou..i thought about foiling both the guitars too if that would help if reconnectin wires doesn't..but this pickup waxing seems good idea too so i might do it too for just to be sure..thanks for the good tutorial
I bought a set of cheap, generic pickups for a project guitar that I've been using just to learn how to work on my own guitars without damaging the ones I'm actually proud of. I get a decent clean tone when I amp it up, but with any kind of effect pedals added, I get some ear-piercing feedback. Would wax potting those pickups help to remedy the sound or is it just a byproduct of buying cheap, generic pickups?
From my understanding, wax potting should reduce feedback. Feedback usually comes from a self-induced sound loop. A speaker makes a noise, which the microphone picks up, and plays out the speaker, which is then heard by the microphone... you get the idea. By reducing the microphonic properties of the pickup, it loses the ability to hear anything, and therefore can't resend it through the speaker.
+Dan Osper If the covers are soldered on, and you desolder the joints, enough wax will usually melt to get the covers off. But really, any way that you can apply heat to soften the wax will work.
SquierStrat72 OK. I was afraid of breaking something. These things are 20 years old with staggered poles. I think they might be worth keeping if the paint job is anything to go by. it has factory poly on it like a tank. I'm gonna clean em up and put em back in after I refinish it. Thanks for the heads up.
+Dan Osper Just don't force anything or overheat the pickup, whatever means you use. Given that they are wax potted at around 140 degrees, brief solder iron contact or something like a heat gun or hair dryer to soften the wax should be fine.
SquierStrat72 Yeah I was thinking a hair dryer would be perfect.. The plate came off pretty easy. i think it was just a dab of glue on the dog ear and had perished. I can only try.
I wouldn’t do that since you don’t know if there are any additives in the candle. When you use paraffin, at least you know you’re using the ingredients stated on the box.
I tried this and got the same exact feedback effect as before. Nothing changed when I wired the pickups back in the guitar wasn't microphonic though I just assumed it was because of the feedback issues maybe less squeal but the feedback still sucks.
if you can talk into the pickup and hear yourself on the amp its microphonic. Older guitars used these pickups a lot and they are easy to fix, new pickups are wound so tight by machines that your problems isnt the copper windings moving around. Just buy a sound gate pedal that kills off high freq. or an EQ
Not really, the wax on the outside somewhat gets removed when you towel dry it. The main purpose of the wax is to coat the copper coils inside which you can’t get to.
Ronnie nazim depends on the melting point of the wax. Paraffin wax is good because when liquid it has a low surface tension and because it has a low boiling point. Last thing you want to do is get everything too hot as the insulation on the pickup wire can melt; short circuit, dead pickup.
It happens to the best pickups. Humidity or temp changes can make the wax in pickups dry or crumble and create air pockets that turn pickups microphonic. Especially if they're decades old. I've even seen it happen in EMGs which are caked in thick epoxy. Less of a pickup quality thing and more of a what the guitar has been through thing.
Doesn't do anything. When the wax is melted it will seep into the coils just fine. The heat relaxes the winds a bit since they're copper so it penetrates.
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Now here's someone who actually knows how to give a tutorial. Well done.
Same here short and sweet.
Ya the other guy at the top was awful
The science: Why does wax potting work?
If a pickup isn't wax potted then the wires used to wrap the pickup can move. The way a microphone works, is that your voice (or other sound) moves a small diaphragm connected to a wire winding that is in a magnetic field. That movement of the wire coil through the magnetic field, induces electrical signals, which correlate to the sound that caused the movement.
Wax potting a pickup encases the wires inside it, so that they cannot move; this prevents their movement from the sound of your voice (or amp or drums or horns...) from inducing electro-magnetic signals, stabilizing the pickups so that they are "deaf" to sound, and only react to the guitar's metal strings ringing through the magnetic field.
Also, another quick science fact: Once water starts to boil, it won't get any hotter without increasing the atmospheric pressure - like in a pressure cooker; so a simmer like that is exactly what you want. There's no need to make it boil harder because it won't make the water any hotter.
Instructions unclear. Guitar on fire.
Shit works!! I did it on my 1940's Sherwood. Thanks brotha
Very thorough and informative video. Nicely done. I watched several other videos on this procedure and found yours to be the most specific. 9.9
I am about to pull the trigger on a new bridge pickup because of this for my 8 string agile guitar, I do like to sound of the stock pickups actually so I will give this a try and maybe save a few bucks.
Thank you! I've seen a few of these videos -- and yours is the first that I've seen to demonstrate a before-and-after to see the results of the wax potting. Well done! The process doesn't seem quite as daunting having seen you successfully do it.
+Anthony Zierhut you’re welcome!
Yo this worked like a charm. Turned my crappiest guitar into my best guitar
This is just what I was looking for. It's short, clear, and the components are inexpensive.
I recently bought a loaded hss pickguard, however they forgot to put nickel humbucker cover on it which I wanted,anyway they said they need to repot it in wax,I don’t want to send it back so I’m looking to do it myself , this video is great , simple detailed instructions , thanks👍
Glad I could help!
Thanks man! I have a awesome sounding tele bridge pup that needs potting. I'll give it a try!
Keep temp at 120 a140 degrees so you dont distort your bobbins, leave in in only till it doesnt bubble and more, like 3-8 minutes.
No nonsense tutorial thank you.
man that guitar just rules
very good video - comes down to the nitty gritty and doesnt take too much time like alle the other mr. knowit all shit. really good post. thank you.
You’re welcome!
Nice quick easy to do method Thanks! Get faster cool down by putting pickup in fridge or freezer!
I bought a Chinese single sized rail pick-up that is terrible. I'm going to give this a shot. I have that exact wax too.
Takes a while to heat up, but I picked up an old crock pot that I put my jar of wax into and once the wax is melted, give the pickups a good soak. Works like a charm. I also re-purposed a cheap sewing machine into a pickup winder. I wound two pickups purely by hand and that was enough of that! :)
+SquierStrat72 That genius dude. What do they sound like?
+Dan Osper The two I did by hand sound okay. They were just for learning and were built out of household junk and neo magnets. I did three telecaster bridge pickups on the winder. Two are a bit over 7k, Alnico 5 and sound very traditional tele. The third, which I ended up using in my tele, is 10k, A5, early Broadcaster style. Still sounds like a tele, but a bit more drive and a little less high end.
SquierStrat72 10 k sounds like fun. 500k pots no doubt?
No, 250. It's smaller 43 gauge wire, like the original Broadcaster/nocaster, so it's about equivalant to 8-9k of standard 42, output wise. And it's wired Broadcaster style, so no tone control. Instead, it's a blend pot in the bridge position, to blend in any or all of the neck.
SquierStrat72 Interesting set up. i'll keep that in mind on my next build.
Very helpful video. My son's tele is feeding back bad at med-hi volume. Pickups are microphonic and seems like the solution
+Martin Keller it's definitely worth a try. It can change mediocre pickups into good ones for virtually zero cost!
Yeh - The pickups are fine at nominal volume.
So my guitars get this GOD AFUL high pitched squel when im not playing any notes. Well two of them do. Is it safe to assume I need to do this?
Over 165 degrees - good-by pickup. USE A THERMOMETER!!
What should the temperature be?
@@davidvalens3337 around 65c
I did everything literally the same way like in this video, with spoon and transparent bowl, I just take them out and clean, (btw I hold them in for 6-7 min) process of cooling will last couple of hours more I guess...I'm so nervous and have 2 fears, first that they will not work 😬 and second that they will work but still be microphonic 😂
EDIT: I thought first that I kill both humbuckers, but I wired it wrong, then I thought that just neck humb. is dead, but today I discover that it works as well but some wire was on the lose inside it..so glad that they work 😀 I only have problem now, (they're not microphonic the way they were before) but high pitch sound as feedback start to squeal abnormally soon as I put volume pot on amplifier more than 2.5, it never happened before 🤔
I wax potted my friends finger so I won’t hear him picking his nose or scratching his ass….. successful potting!!!
Excellent video. Very hepful!
I liked your straight forward demonstration of pick-up waxing, and you answered one of my questions: what about the tape wrapped around the coils? I see you just dipped in the pick-up with the tape on it-cool, as I know it could be a big mistake to try and remove the tape and damage the windings. thanks! and I like that Charvel- looks like a good one - take care and greetings from Switzerland.
I'm no expert, but was researching this and found other "how to" guides suggesting a rubber band around humbuckers because tape can fail when heated in the wax causing the pickups to separate At least, that's what I think I understood those other articles to say. One of those others said after you first dip in, you take rubber bands off and then can re-dip (I think he said the first wax coat would help hold them together), but the other "how to" guide did not suggest any re-dipping in the wax. I guess, from what I've read, you want to wax-coat the wire coil, you don't care about coating the pickup exterior, so I don't see a reason to worry about not getting the exterior totally wax-coated where you had rubber bands (since you'll be wiping off the exterior wax anyway).
I use 3M cloth tape, measure the size you need for your pickups and buy that size tape. works wonderful looks wonderful
mission accomplished , so easy many thanks.
+TheAngello120 awesome!
Might save me some money to do this on a pickup that squeals like crazy... Gonna try this.
If you hear squealing, then this should fix it. Give it a try and reply back!
Johnny Vette
Seems to have done the trick mate, thanks :D.
Awesome!
Thanks. Very nicely explained.
? How did you get the wax off of the top of the pickup (plastic and pole pieces)? Thank you for your help.
Nice tutorial Man
I've got a set of Seymour Duncans I'm gonna try this with. I get a lot of microphonic noise from them in my Rhoades V.
Great! there's no need to take off the masking tape? and there's no risk to melt the bobbins? thanks!
could you just melt the wax in a microwave? awesome vid, btw. Thanks!
Works best with earwax; I’ve used my own and had my friends save theirs for this very purpose. Also, nasal discharge i# excellent for cleaning rosewood fretboards....
That's how its done.
dont shake the pickup and get the wax out of it when you take it out of the pan!! the idea is to keep the wax in the pickup!
You don’t remove the tape first?
This man just saved me hours of research plus freed up a set of Tom Anderson' pups, that are too good for the guitar they were going into, now the originals will be put back in squeal free and make them work like they should as they sounded great but are noisy.
Glad I could be of assistance!
I know nothing about wax potting pickups so dont bash me for asking a question and making a comment. Wax potting my own pickups is something I want to learn to do. Wouldnt dobbing/patting the pickup with a paper towel remove wax from the surface? If there were excessively noticeable amounts of wax it would make sense but that would be difficult to see until dry. Also, can too much wax cause any issues?
Patting dry the excess wax doesn’t remove the wax from the vast majority of the pickup itself, especially on the insides. Wax potting is essentially adding a micro layer of wax on the copper to reduce the reverberation. I don’t think it’s possibly to add too much wax since a lot drips out when you remove it from the pot.
@@TechStuff1 Thanks for the quick reply and explanation. Before I bought my Les Paul I had a cheap $125 Silvertone SLK1 I bought new, 16 years ago, to get back into playing guitar. Actually, I still have it. For a budget guitar it plays surprisingly well after being properly set-up. The only issue was you could hear yourself in the pickup and thats how I found your channel. Thanks to you Im going to give it a shot. It might be a cheap guitar but I really like how it plays and even the cheap pickups sound good in it. Thanks!
I figured out that all the feedback was from the pedals but not the amp.
Tried this and it’s still microphonic.. any tips?
can i just use a candle?
Thanks for the vid. :-) ok, so what Wax shall I use ? Transparent or candle wax is good enough...? Thanks
seemed cool..i have 2 extreme v models and they both are squeeling like hell when playing at rehearsal place with loud volume..i have a noice gate in my amp and even thou i touch the strings demping them with left hand fingers and with right hand on where the pickups are it still does this squeeling..the other guitar has tone knob on it and it doesn't squeel when i turn it halfway or off..if i turn it more on than halfway then it starts to squeel..i have dimarzio evolution II pickup in it and the neck pickup is not connected..there was one wire cut off from the tone knob but i don't think that it helps if i reconnect it..still gonna try thou..i thought about foiling both the guitars too if that would help if reconnectin wires doesn't..but this pickup waxing seems good idea too so i might do it too for just to be sure..thanks for the good tutorial
very good tutorial thank you
I bought a set of cheap, generic pickups for a project guitar that I've been using just to learn how to work on my own guitars without damaging the ones I'm actually proud of. I get a decent clean tone when I amp it up, but with any kind of effect pedals added, I get some ear-piercing feedback. Would wax potting those pickups help to remedy the sound or is it just a byproduct of buying cheap, generic pickups?
From my understanding, wax potting should reduce feedback. Feedback usually comes from a self-induced sound loop. A speaker makes a noise, which the microphone picks up, and plays out the speaker, which is then heard by the microphone... you get the idea. By reducing the microphonic properties of the pickup, it loses the ability to hear anything, and therefore can't resend it through the speaker.
Would this work with high output Chinese made hexbuckers?
ok can i do this on dimarzio super distortion from the 70s??or is it unsafe??
doesnt matter you arent going to burn the copper coils or magnets, just dip it a few times. dont let it soak long
Can i pour candle wax on all over pickups and inside components to reduce noise
Thank you for the video!
Does this compromise the tone though? Or change it in anyway?
only if you use Bee´s wax , that thing darkens a bit the tone but Candle wax do not affect the tone
What about changing covers on pickups that are waxed in. How would you melt the wax to get the pickup out?
+Dan Osper If the covers are soldered on, and you desolder the joints, enough wax will usually melt to get the covers off. But really, any way that you can apply heat to soften the wax will work.
SquierStrat72 OK. I was afraid of breaking something. These things are 20 years old with staggered poles. I think they might be worth keeping if the paint job is anything to go by. it has factory poly on it like a tank. I'm gonna clean em up and put em back in after I refinish it.
Thanks for the heads up.
+Dan Osper Just don't force anything or overheat the pickup, whatever means you use. Given that they are wax potted at around 140 degrees, brief solder iron contact or something like a heat gun or hair dryer to soften the wax should be fine.
SquierStrat72 Yeah I was thinking a hair dryer would be perfect.. The plate came off pretty easy. i think it was just a dab of glue on the dog ear and had perished. I can only try.
Dan Osper heat gun on low,doesnt take much
Can i do this to lipstick pick ups?
Is this just for humbuckers or will it also benefit single coils
You can use it for single coils too. It won’t get rid of the 60 cycle hum, but it will remove any microphonics.
Take the wrap tape off first.
I know, its stoping so much wax from sticking to the copper with the tape,
I plan on doing this with my single coils so I won't get the more-than-annoying feedback.
Where did you buy your wax?
can we replace the wax with light candle?
I wouldn’t do that since you don’t know if there are any additives in the candle. When you use paraffin, at least you know you’re using the ingredients stated on the box.
Superdistortion!
GOOD VIDEO WHAT KIND OF WAX ARE YOU USING?
+Joe Dov Royal Oak household paraffin wax
+Joe Dov Royal Oak Gulf Wax household paraffin wax
Candles wax
I tried this and got the same exact feedback effect as before. Nothing changed when I wired the pickups back in the guitar wasn't microphonic though I just assumed it was because of the feedback issues maybe less squeal but the feedback still sucks.
hockey14822 what is your signal chain?
if you can talk into the pickup and hear yourself on the amp its microphonic. Older guitars used these pickups a lot and they are easy to fix, new pickups are wound so tight by machines that your problems isnt the copper windings moving around. Just buy a sound gate pedal that kills off high freq. or an EQ
Do you clean the wax off the top of the pickups?
Not really, the wax on the outside somewhat gets removed when you towel dry it. The main purpose of the wax is to coat the copper coils inside which you can’t get to.
What if the humbuckers your waxing have pickup covers
Hahaha not sure if I should laugh or cry
Is thre any risk using candle wax?
Pups are cheap n new -fernandes monitory x
Give some idea
Ronnie nazim candle wax is fine
Ronnie nazim depends on the melting point of the wax. Paraffin wax is good because when liquid it has a low surface tension and because it has a low boiling point. Last thing you want to do is get everything too hot as the insulation on the pickup wire can melt; short circuit, dead pickup.
Just make sure it's not waxless candle. Those have chemicals that cause the wax to burn instead of melt and leave a puddle.
Can I use an actual candle for this?
yes
it must be white color and odorless
Just don't use "waxless" candle. Those have a chemical in the wax that cause it to burn instead of melt.
What if you play when it's really hot? Won't the wax melt and leak out?
by the time you solder it and wind your strings back it will cool down anyway :D
Aleksander Vedom I see, thanks!
I can't believe a Charvel had that shitty pickup in it to begin with! wth Great vid
It happens to the best pickups. Humidity or temp changes can make the wax in pickups dry or crumble and create air pockets that turn pickups microphonic. Especially if they're decades old. I've even seen it happen in EMGs which are caked in thick epoxy. Less of a pickup quality thing and more of a what the guitar has been through thing.
Just bought a chopper t for my telecaster, it squeals......bullshit!
Plot twist.... How to wax pott a Guitar.... 0.o
WAX!
why not take off the back metal plate first?
Cause that's not necessary, you'd get the exact same results.
Doesn't do anything. When the wax is melted it will seep into the coils just fine. The heat relaxes the winds a bit since they're copper so it penetrates.
Do you know some people have cats...?