The Electra Forums

Used paraffin and bee's wax, about an 80/20 blend respectively, purchased from JoAnne Fabrics (a craft store chain). The paraffin was "Candy Melts EZ Thin" which is chipped paraffin, and the bee's wax Dritz brand beeswax. I also added a very small amount of Yankee candle "Camping Out" because it smelled good. Smell is a big part of guitar playing for me.

Placed a pot full of water on stove with a ramekin inside. The ramekin created a shelf inside of the pot, on which a smaller pot sat. This smaller pot had marbles in the bottom. I boiled the water, reduced the heat and let it cool a little. I placed my wax inside the smaller inside pot, melted it, and regulated the temp to around 140-150 degrees. Dipped the pickups in one at a time, kept them in there for about 10 minutes each, then removed them to a plate to cool. Wiping them off periodically as they cooled so they were nice and clean.

Potted both of my Outlaw pickups, my X240 bridge pickup, an MMK45 bridge pickup from my Westone Dynasty, and an MMK53 bride pup from my X935. Can't wait to see how it worked, I'll let everyone know. I must say, potting was very, very easy and quite fun.

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"GREAT Googiley moogilie Jack...jumpin jehosephat, hot dang and all".
- jdwhealton

It does make sense to do a bunch at a time. I like your setup.

So far I've tried the Outlaw pickups, which used to squeal like a pig. Turned up the volume on an overdriven channel, and it is better, no hint of squeal. Anything "high gain" will squeal though, so it's still not nearly as squeal resistant my pickups that were factory potted.

Why is that?

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"GREAT Googiley moogilie Jack...jumpin jehosephat, hot dang and all".
- jdwhealton

You may not have left the pups in the wax long enough or agitated them enough to get the wax completely into the coils.

Right on, I'll re-pot.

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"GREAT Googiley moogilie Jack...jumpin jehosephat, hot dang and all".
- jdwhealton

The guy who waxed my Endorser pickups said that he had to wait almost a half hour for the air bubbles to stop coming out on one of my pickups.

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Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch

The tricks are:
- get the wax just hot enough to melt, not way too hot
- it takes time for the inner part of the coil to get hot enough that the wax will be absorbed rather than just surround the outside
- you can gently jostle the pickup to remove more air bubbles

If you get it way too hot you'll melt it. I never had a problem with MMKs before with damage.

Also, there are some situations (high gain and close to the amp) that any pickup will squeal. In those cases you are stuck using a noise-gate to try to squelch the squeal. It is just the way things are. Gate the volume OFF when you are not playing it so it does not howl uncontrollably every time you are not playing notes.

The only way to do better is to pull a vacuum on it while potting it. I never tried it but that is what the big boys use. I don't know now to do safely so I would not recommend unless I knew more. So far, my MMKs have done pretty well with my old-fashioned potting methods.

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Thorny

Thanks men, good tips. I had the wax at 150 degrees. I'll do it again a little hotter, like 165 degrees? And leave them in longer up to 30 min? Let me know if you think that may be overkill.

The MMK53 and MMK45 turned out GREAT. The covered Electra pups didn't turn out as well. First time so there's always the learning curve. Appreciate you all, thanks again for the input.

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"GREAT Googiley moogilie Jack...jumpin jehosephat, hot dang and all".
- jdwhealton

A little hotter might work, but still not too hot. You have to allow the heat to penetrate the coil, and that takes time. I also jostle the pickup slightly to work the bubbles out. Nothing radical to damage it. I usually tap the back of the base of the pickup to the sides of the pot while submersed in the melted wax. I don't know about that long either. Honestly, I usually do several at once when I do it and never really timed it. But I usually do about 15 min. As long as you don't get things so hot that you deform the plastic you should be good.

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Thorny