Thanks again, Beej. Dunno if I'll do it or not, but it's on the burner. It's not that hard to find that in-between spot as it is, and I reeeally don't want to alter the rest of the guitar's tone.
Here's yet another question, in case anyone cares to field it. I've never used those whatchamacallit connectors. When switching p'ups, how are the wires attached to the connector? Do they just pull out and push in, or is there a lock of some kind? Thinking of changing from white to black covers and knobs, and would have to replace the humbucker.
Beej, yes, I know they snap together and apart, but how do the pickup wires attach to the connector? And, do you need to buy a new connector with the new pickup, or can you reuse the old one?
Ah, gotcha. The molex connector isn't wired directly to the pickups. It goes to a wire off the volume pot, ground and the battery. You won't need to solder those.
The p'ups are soldered to the 5-way switch and ground. So you'll have to solder multiple wires to the switch. (The output of the switch goes to the volume and tone pots, and then the molex connector.)
I'm really lame when it comes to visualizing this stuff. I'll have to pull the pg again during the next string change and take a closer look. Thanks for your patience, Senor Beej. If I'm understanding, though, it's no different than replacing any other pickup: wires solder directly to the 5-way switch. That even I can do. The molex would be for changing out or removing the entire pg assembly.
umm, not all. For example, I still don't know how wires connect to the molex. If one were to set up an entirely new pg assembly, how would they connect wires "into" the molex? Does each wire just push or screw into the connector? Sorry if this sounds dumb, I'm just askin'...
With the molex, there are the metal bits housed by the plastic connector. The wires crimp to the metal bits, which are then pushed inside the plastic housing.
You don't necessarily need to replace the molex to use this system if you want to wire up a new guard. I did one once with some quick disconnects from Radio Shack. I crimped wires from the pickguard assembly to the male quick disconnects (pegs). These fit perfectly into the female molex housing. It's probably easier if you can find the right connectors (MM customer service?). I couldn't so I went that route.
Candid, if I can help you out at any point please feel free to email or PM me.