Guitar-X Pickup Mounting Installation Guide

This guide explains how to prepare and mount a pickup onto the patented Guitar-X system, creating a hot swappable guitar pickup that can be swapped in seconds using the Guitar-X system.

Whether you're building a collection of interchangeable pickups or expanding your guitar pickup swapping setup, this manual provides the step-by-step instructions needed to install the Guitar-X Pickup Back Plate onto an existing pickup.

Please note that this process permanently modifies the pickup. Installation requires shortening the pickup wire and removing the pickup baseplate legs. Pickups with centralised pole pieces, such as humbucker-sized P90s, may also require the pole pieces to be shortened. This procedure is not covered in this manual.

This instruction manual is for use with Guitar-X Pickup Back Plates and is compatible with passive pickups only.

Please read the instructions carefully before beginning installation.

Parts

  • Ground Plate

  • Fix Plate

  • Golden Bolt

  • Fix Plate Cover

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Instructions

    Sand the connectors

    Sand the bottom of the spring connectors on the fix plate to remove any excess glue and ensure a clean surface ready for soldering. Use at least a 120 grit sand paper.

    Lubricate the bolt thread

    Apply a light coating of oil or similar lubricant to the bottom of the gold bolt.

    Remove pickup screws

    Remove the four screws from the back of the pickup. If necessary, remove the baseplate legs.

    Mount the ground plate

    Position the gold bolt on the pickup and place the ground plate over the top, threading the bolt through the hole. Use the pickup screws to fix the ground plate over the top, ensuring the bolt turns freely.

    Pass the pickups wires through the fix plate

    Cut pickup wire to approximately 8cm, then strip 1cm of outer casing from the end. Strip approx 2mm from each smaller wire to leave enough for soldering. Then pass the wire through the fix plate hole.

    Mount fix plate

    Place the fix plate onto the bolt, then turn the bolt counter-clockwise using a 3mm allen key. This will draw the plate down onto the bolt.

    Place rubber ring

    Place the rubber ring on the top of the golden bolt.

    Pre-solder the fix plate spring connectors

    Pre-solder the bottom of each spring connector at 310 degrees. Only solder for a maximum of 3 seconds on each connector.

    Pre-solder the pickup wires

    Pre-solder the tip of each wire, joining the south start and the ground wire together.

    Solder the wires to the fix plate spring connectors

    Solder the wires to the back of the spring connectors. Ensure this is done as quickly as possible so that the spring connectors don’t get too hot.

    Use the wiring guide in the next step.

    Fix plate wiring guide (4 conductor pickup)

    For a 4 conductor pickup, with spring connectors facing away from you, attach wires from left-right as follows:

    1. Ground wire (usually bare)
    2. South Start (pre-soldered to ground)
    3. South Finish
    4. North Finish
    5. North Start

    If you do not know how your pickup is wired, please refer to this pickup wiring colour code chart.

    Fix plate wiring guide (2 conductor pickup)

    For a 2 conductor pickup, with spring connectors facing away from you, attach wires from left-right as follows:

    1. Ground wire
    2. Empty
    3. Empty
    4. Hot wire

    If you do not know how your pickup is wired, please refer to this pickup wiring colour code chart.

    Trim excess and fit cover plate

    Trim any excess wire and fit cover plate over the fix plate spring connectors.