I installed a set of EMG pickups into my Parker NiteFly guitar and documented the process.

1. By Jeff Kinkaid March 2008 Kinkaid (at) honnold (dot) org

7. REMOVE KEEP

8. Output jack 9V battery These connections are not pre-soldered. I planned on using my existing stereo jack.

10. This is my NiteFly after removing the strings and pickguard screws. Wimpy stock DeMarzio pickups Goofy dice being used as knobs; original rubber knobs melted away long ago

11. Another view, same stage.

12. Here is the set of EMGs in the box. I’ll use everything but the Strat® pickguard.

13. Closeup of same.

14. Here is the underside of the EMG pickguard. This is the output Jack I won’t be using These are the wires that need attachment

15. The (nicely shielded) pickguard is now off the NiteFly Preamp Piezo Volume 3-way switch (mag/ mix/ piezo) Mysterious unfinished routing and drilling by previous owner

16. Closeup of cavity 9V Battery Compartment To output jack

17. NiteFly Controls closeup. I labeled the mag control pots with a handy labeler.

18. More closeup around the preamp chip. These wires need cut to remove magnetic circuit and leave piezo Note the solder joints to the output jack connection and signal from piezos (gray and black wires at top of chip) have no strain relief (this is visible in many other photos, too). That means that every time the pickguard is taken on and off, the joints are bent back and forth. Like a paperclip, this fatigue weakens them until they break. Literary theorists out there should recognize my foreshadowing.

19. A closeup of the piezo volume pot attached to the preamp.

20. Closeup of cavity. Strange vestiges of previous owner visible. Routing and drilling Small patch of conductive paint

21. Note the 2 cavities—for the pickups on the left and for the controls on the right. The piezo signal wire (black) passes through a shallow channel between them.

22. Stock pickups are removed.

23. Remnants of the original protective film on the pickguard were still under the pickup screws.

24. To free the old magnetic circuit, I’d need to cut two wires. Here’s the first. Bare wire from tone pot shell (ground) to center terminal of 3-way switch.

25. Here is the second wire to be cut. Black wire from center terminal of volume pot to preamp chip

26. Magnetic circuit removed. Piezo circuit remains.

27. I now take the time to add conductive-adhesive copper tape to shield the cavity.

28. This is actually harder to do than I thought it would be.

29. It doesn’t have to be pretty (no one will ever see it), but I should’ve pressed out the wrinkles a bit more.

31. Both cavities finished (except for under tremolo springs). Strip to contact pickguard shielding and screw Voltmeter used to test continuity among all shielded areas

32. One more view.

33. The pickguard will hide the sloppy shielding (once I fill the holes with electronics).

34. First problem—EMG 85 humbucker won’t fit in NiteFly pickguard. I used the Strat® pickguard as a template by pinning the two together (you see the shielded backside of the NiteFly guard) with the pickup adjustment screws, then filing away at the NiteFly guard until it was the same size.

35. Finally, it fits, and the EMG hardware can be mounted on the NiteFly pickguard.

36. I did have to make one modification—adding a wire so that the spacing between the volume and tone pots could be stretched to fit the NiteFly layout. This mess of solder, heatshrink, and wire between the cap and pot is my handiwork

37. View of the EMG hardware on the back of the NiteFly pickguard. I probably now have a ton of ground loops (like shell of one pot to the other) but unless I start getting hum from it, I don’t know enough of what I’m doing to fix it.

38. The pickguard is starting to take shape.

39. Pickup screws are now in. So are the control knobs for the magnetic circuit.

40. Piezo controls now mounted, as well. The StewMac black Strat® volume knob actually doesn’t fit very well on the piezo volume pot shaft (shaft too big).

42. It’s hard to see, but the new wire is there. I also replaced the wire from the circuit board to the center terminal, because I managed to rip it off.

44. Yes, splicing a white wire to a black one may be heresy, but I did it. Somehow the vital connection is made. The fatiguing solder joints (look closely)—more on next slide

46. Those strands are the only thing holding my sound together. That could be an apt metaphor for my life—the fragility of the forces holding me together and my refusal to try to repair things for fear of destroying it all forever…but I digress.

47. One last view of that carnage.

49. Y-split in battery wire

50. The wiring is done; and the pickguard is back on.

52. Everything is now screwed together.

53. When I restrung it, I found it works just fine—actually, better than just fine.