Pickup swap on a guitar, need some help.

[BitchPudding]

Hey hey y'all.

So recently I put a Squire Affinity on layaway at GC. I was actually quite surprised by the quality and sound it had considering the cost. Plus it had a big 60's style headstock. BONAR.

One of the main reasons I picked it up however, was to possibly Frankenstein it and put the old pickups in it from my first strat that was unfortunately trashed. What im wondering now is if the pickups really differ that much from the stock fender pickups, because if they're practically the same tonally I'd rather leave the strat stock.

Another thing is if I do decide to go through with the swap, how easy is it to swap pups around? especially if you have zero experience with pickup swapping. Maybe someone on here could give me a step by step guide to swapping the pups.

So yeah, any help would be awesome.

[MEC]

Swapping pickups is pretty easy if you have a decent soldering iron and know how to use it (which is easy too with a little practice).

Here are some wiring diagrams: http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/

If you decide to do it and run into any problems or have questions, let me know.

[ryan summit]

swapping pickups was my first soldering project
go for it
aint no thang

[HorseyBoy]

If you can play a guitar, you can swap a pup - it's all in the fingers, man
It really is about as simple a project as you can get. It's also kinda satisfying knowing you can do stuff to your own guitars. Just practise soldering some spare wire together first and you'll be fine. Lots of easy-to-follow how-to solder guides on Youtube, too. Even if you do go wrong somewhere you can always pay somebody later to clean up your mistake.

[Decibill]

Super easy job to do on Strats. Just twist the wires together if you want to test the sound of the pick ups. If you like them, then go ahead and solder. If not, swap em out for something else.

[AxAxSxS]

I would recommend some practice soldering on wires to pots that you are not intending to use before you mod the actual guitar. Like the others have said it's really easy, but you dont want to make you learning mistakes on something you intend to use.
There are also a ton of vids on youtube about soldering technique.