Removing old neck pup - advice please

[Tim1]

I would normally feel confident with this, but the bass in question is a 63 jazz and I am wary of what I may find when I lift the pup. I have a Seymour Duncan Antiquity on order to replace the neck pup until I get it rewound, I have been told it is wiser to (unsolder pots first) undo the screws then lift the pickup in the pickguard. My concerns are that the foam underneath may have adhered to both the pickup and the ground plate and I do not want to risk any damage.
Also, does anyone know if the Antiquities come with the underfoam attached or will I have to remove it from the old pup? Or if this is not possible what is a good alternative material?
Sorry about all the variables, I have swapped out plenty of pups before, but never in a bass this old and I am a little wary of the effects of ageing or that they may have done things differently back in the day and I will encounter the unknown.
Any advice gratefully received.

 

[line6man]

Antiquities come with foam, so you don't have to worry about damage to the old foam. Even if they didn't, you could always get foam elsewhere. Some use mousepads, some use weatherstripping, and some buy it from places like BestBassGear.

 

[RobbieK]

Well I can tell you if she still has her original foam rubber, it will be a solid black lump by now. So just gently work it from side to side to take it out.

It may come out with its brass plate stuck to the bobbin with the solid rubber. If you are nervous about trying to pry this off, then just snip the wires and send the whole thing off to your rewinder.

The thing is, though, if the pickup is coming out for a rewind, it doesn't matter. Even if you ripped the bottom of the bobbin right off the magnets (extremely unlikely!), your rewinder could reassemble the bobbin in minutes.

 

[walterw]

the thing to worry about is the pickguard, which has been trying to shrink for decades now but has been "blocked" by the screws and the pickup itself. free it up and you might have a hard time getting a pickup back into the hole, or the pickguard back onto the bass!

pull the pickguard with the pickup cover left in it (that cover should slide off the pickup, which will probably be stuck to the shriveled-up black foam under it), get the pickup out of there (along with all of the old foam), slap the new pickup into the old cover and get the whole thing buttoned back up fairly quickly.

 

[RobbieK]

the thing to worry about is the pickguard,

Oh yeah. That's a great point. Those celluloid 'guards shrink a lot.

 

[Pimmsley]

I thought I had a dead pup in my 64' jazz and it turned out to be a bad connection to ground between the vol pot and the control plate....

Under the pups on my 64' the (brass?) plate shields are fixed to the bottom of the pup and control cavity.

Other advice is to go slow and use the correct size screwdriver for the screw to avoid any nasty chewing up of the screw heads...

Good luck !

 

[walterw]

I thought I had a dead pup in my 64' jazz and it turned out to be a bad connection to ground between the vol pot and the control plate....

yep, sometimes you get lucky and it's just a connection thing. the other place to check and re-flow solder is the eyelets on the pickup bobbin itself, where the coil wire meets the hookup leads.