Best way to add length to a pickup lead...???

[TroyHamilton]

I have an unknown pickup that has floating in/out of my Les Paul's for years... I have no idea what brand it is, but it's extremely high output (think it was somewhere around 18-21 on a meter the last I looked). I'm not a high-output guy, but it sounds wonderful.

I ran across it the other day and had a hankering to get it back into something to play, but unfortunately the lead on it has gotten to the point where it will barely reach the controls to get it wired in.

Do people fix this? Do you just create a shielded splice of some type? (Seems messy to me...)

Any suggestions would be appreciated...

Thanks,
Troy

[mike80]

I have one that I lengthened with the leads from another pickup that was dead. If you have a dead pickup laying around, that would be a possibility.

Otherwise, maybe a piece cut from an RCA cable (If it's a 2 conductor cable)?

You could always take the pickup apart and solder the new lead on too.

[rockinlespaul]

Is it a regular two wire connection? Just buy some braided wire and fix it.

[WrapAround]

You can always solder additional cable in appropriate gauge and shrink wrap the solder joints.

[Ed Alvarado]

You can always solder additional cable in appropriate gauge and shrink wrap the solder joints.

I've done this with no issues at all.

[TroyHamilton]

Cool... thanks for the tips guys... that was the obvious answer, but seemed too easy.

[frankencat]

On the 4-wire jobs you can buy pickup wire from Stew-Mac that is the same stuff as on Seymour Duncans. You can replace the whole lead if you are careful. I have done this a few times with good results.

[sonvolt]

Just solder new wire to the original wire....then slip some shrink wrap tubing over the connection. Use a blow dryer to to heat the shrink wrap !