[Digital Black]

A few secrets:

If you're a vintage/OEM freak and want everything perfect, then don't bother with what follows here. For someone who changes pip's a lot, wants to try out a lot of different pickups quickly or wants an easier time with their "junker" guitar. Here are some shortcuts:

A lot of time you will find that there is a lot a junk all soldered at one point. When installing a new pip, all this stuff comes loose and has to be reconnected. You don't have to use all of the new wire on the new pickup. You can splice it in the middle or near the old pickup wire pickup itself. For someone who changes pickups a lot this is good. This connection can be used over and over, just remember to wrap the bare wire in some black tape to prevent any shorts. The sound quality loss is minimal if a good connection is made.

If you just bought a new pickup and you are really not sure if it's going to work for your sound, add a little bit of wire and use some auick connects (solderless connectors). You can compare pips very fast by changing them. Once you settle on a plan, you can go in, remove the wire extension, and solder them in. Sound quality loss will be minimal if a good connection is made, but I wouldn't leave it like this unless you change sound a lot.