Removing pickup and its volume/tone knob

[AntonLogic]

Hi!

I am looking to get a Gretsch 5222 as an alternative to the Malcolm Young replica, since it is to expensive for me. To make it look more like his, I want to remove the pick guard, the neck pickup and the volume and tone knobs that are connected to that pickup. All to make it look as alike as possible.

I have not done anything like this, so I wonder what to think about when doing it and how to do it the most efficient way.

How do I remove the knobs, and how do I remove the pickup switch (since I will not need it)?

Thanks in advance!

[bodhi]

Nothing much to be concerned about. Minimally you'll need two different screwdrivers and a soldering iron of some kind to move some of the wires around. You can do an online search for a single pickup wiring diagram, which will show you how to wire everything up again.

You'll need a small head (hobbyist?) screwdriver for the side of the Gretsch knobs, from what I can tell from an image search. A slightly larger philips head screwdriver to remove the pickup and the surrounding mount. The toggle switch will unscrew with finger tension.

If you're looking to purchase something, then a guitar or bass multitool (kind of like a specialist Swiss army knife or cycle tool variant) would typically have the required bits to sort out most jobs.

The only thing to potentitally think about is to not scratch the surface unduly, and perhaps have a freezer bag handy to collect the unused parts and screws in, so they don't get lost. This really isn't anything to be concerned about, and there should be a bunch of videos on youtube and similar that can show basic procedures.

[AntonLogic]

Thank you bodhi!