Wilkinson Vintage 60s MWVS and Hot Humbucker MWHB review

Wilkinson single coil and humbucker pickups

I had hard time deciding on what pickup to buy to upgrade my stock pickup on my Lyon by Washburn guitar. I bought this guitar around 2009. So it's been a long while and I've used this guitar a lot from gigs, recordings and home videos. Anyways, Im not expert on pickups moreso on changing stuff on my guitar. Im scared of soldering things.

My first challenge was the wiring of the stock pickup. So I took a photo of the pickup and the wiring setup. Then I also checked on YouTube some videos on how to change pickups. The second challenge was the 5 way switch was wired differently from most videos on YouTube. So I had to learn the concept behind it. Pen and paper plus a bit of drawing came handy.


I got the original photo of the wiring positions, etc. and I got my drawing of the switch and connections, I think Im ready to dismantle my guitar. Strings removed, I started with the neck pickup. Unscrew and removed the wires. It was straight forward. Just solder the wires from where the original pickups were attached.


Now, with the humbucker, I had to go back to YouTube because I got 4 wires on Wilkinson's and only 2 wires on my stock pickup. Again try to learn some concept on humbuckers between 2 wires vs 4 wires. Good thing, Wilkinson's got a piece of paper that came with the pickups saying what colour the wires and what it's for. But obviously, like myself, being new to this 4 wires couldn't get it at an instant by just reading that piece of paper. That's when YouTube came to place and helped a lot. So, to cut the story short, 4 wires is for coil split or coil tap and all I needed to do is to just left the red and white wires soldered together and just wrap it with an electrical tape and just solder the yellow wire to the selector switch and solder the black wire to the pot.

Put the guitar back together and I used my old strings back. Because I haven't bought a replacement strings yet and was too excited to put the pickups and try it. Hence, the video was done for my own reference to know the difference between the old and the newly fitted Wilkinson pickups.

CONCLUSION: There's a subtle difference between the two pickups. If you are not too techy and sensitive sound differences, I think there's no need to change your pickups. It saves you all the hassle. Unless you really got a crap guitar or a knackered pickups that's making a lot of noise or feedbacks a lot. But if your pickups are functional, I think it's best to just leave it.

I think the sound that you produce from your guitar is a combination of a lot of things. Like what type of guitar your using i.e. strat vs les paul or other brands, shape, size, etc. of a guitar. Strings that you put. Amp you use. Effects pedal you use.  So, if you are that particular, then go for it. You have to really chase that tone and experiment from one pickup brand, style, customisation, etc. to get your tone right. Because there's really a lot to learn and even with subtle differences, you can decipher the changes in your tone.