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Well, most of you know WHY you would change a pickup. a lot of you know HOW to change a pickup, and finally, some of you HAVE changed a pickup. I've installed a few so I'll give the first and 2nd category of people more information on how to proceed. First of course, the guide to using a soldering iron!

What wattage?
Anything between 20 and 40 watts. Ideally you'd have 2: 15/20 for wires and pot's lugs, and 40 for the back of the pots (they take longer to heat). Mine is a 30 watter. It doesn't take too long to heat whatever I want it too. Its only bad point is that the alimentation cord is too short. Don't make the same mistake! Get one you feel comfortable using, and don't forget the accessories:
A humidified sponge.
Solder (DUH!). Use flux core solder. I believe acid core is no good.
A solder wick (VERY useful)
Tweezers or such (to act as heat sink, and because it's handy)
Wire strippers if needed (I use scisors...)
Wire holding stands. I don't know better ways to call these, but they'll save your fingers from a few burns. How many times do I wish I had 3 hands... I need to get some of these.
Before you use the soldering iron for the first time, you need to 'tin' it. That is, apply a little solder to its tip, then wipe it away on the wet sponge. Use little, but enough (there's no real other ways to say this... if you're reasonable and interested, it's something that's easily figured out for yourselves )

When you solder a wire to a part, don't heat the wire. Heat the part. Then put the solder to the part itself. Not on the wire, not on the iron.
A nice solder looks shiny and silver. A bad one looks grey and dull. As simple as this Most of mine are... er... let's say in the middle. I need to work on it.
When you solder to the back of a pot, do the same! If the pot is new and no wire has ever been attached to its back, you may need to use sandpaper to make the back gritty so the solder can adhere to it. Heat the pot itself, close to where you'll apply the solder, but not directly on the wire.
WATCH YOUR FINGERS.
PROTECT YOUR GUITAR.

Ok... I think that's it. If you have any questions on this, do ask READ SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS! All the time. They're there for a reason.

Now... the pickup! DUN DUN!

First thing to do is, protect your guitar. Apply masking tape around the electronics cavity if you're doing any soldering on it. If the tape is too stiky, use it first on a plastic surface, take it on and off a few times... It should take away some of the stickyness.
Protect yourself.
Have a nice, comfortable, wide and practical working space.
Secure the iron. Unplug it when you don't use it (or turn it off if it has a switch).

Whatever you can do with the iron being unplugged, do. I.e:
Slacken the strings enough to let the old pickup being taken off.
Take off the electronics cavity cover.
Take note of where the old pickup is wired, and how.
Then plug the soldering iron, let it heat enough (WATCH IT!) and when it is ready, gently heat the components to which the pickup is attached. It will take longer for the ground wires (the ones at the back of a volume pot).
Unplug the soldering iron/secure it/turn it off. (Or don't. Your risks)
Take off the old pickup with the pickup ring (if any of course). Then, away from the guitar to minimize risk of a screwdriving marring the finish, or of a spring jumping somewhere you don't want it to, attach the new pickup to its ring, slide the wire through its proper hole towards the electronics cavity, and screw back the ring. Make sure you hold the screwdriver in 2 places so it doesn't slip!

Ok... looks new and shiny! (or old and battered in some cases). Cool.
Turn the guitar over and look at the cavity (but don't smell).
If you're unlucky, it'll look like this:

'Oh god, how do you work in this mess?' will you say... it's simple. If you're smart, before desoldering the first pickup, you'll have noted the color if its wires and where they go!
's color code:
Black = hot
Green = ground
Bare = goes to ground with red
Red and white = for splitting or tapping if it's a single coil.
So Green and bare are soldered together, and so are red and white. If you're just installing the pickup without splitting it, you can (should) put masking tape around the red and white. It'll prevent it from getting into contact with any metallic parts.
Bareknuckle color code:
Red = hot
Black = ground
Bare = ground (with black)
Green and White = for splitting/tapping
Jackson pickups use the same code as SD, and I have no idea about DiMarzio or EMG.
Some humbuckers only have 2 conductors. On Gibson humbuckers for instance, the hot wire is INSIDE the ground wire. Try and find a picture and you'll see what I mean.

The Hot wire goes to the proper switch lug, or if the guitar has one pickup only, to the appropriate volume pot's lug. The bare wire and ground wire are soldered together at the back of a volume pot, or wherever you use as a grounding point.
The two spare wires go together and are masked.

There are the wires...Bare (ground), black (ground), green/white together (masked by a plastic sleeve. THAT'S customer service) and red (hot).
All the pictures I tried to take turned out very blury... so you won't see any at this stage But I didn't know about Bareknuckle's color code being different, simply because I didn't look at the instructions... Don't do the same :P I had reversed the black and red wires. It's back to how it should be now.
Your solder points should look shiny and silver. If so, congratulations! If not, start again. Use the iron to melt any excess solder and the wick to suck it in. Then do it again better.
Don't miss out any wires. Buzz may come from bad soldering (happened to me once).
Once you're done with the soldering iron, unplug it. Then you can cover up again the hell cavity.
Then tune up again, plug the guitar in, rock out, and notice (or not...) the difference. Then do a review on here of the new pickup, of course
I'll try and snap better pictures when I do it again. Today they were pretty bad.
Anything you want to ask, I'll do my best to answer. Anything you want to add, and I shall. Anything you wish to comment, please do so.

quot;alimentation chord (cord)quot; Great term!
I'm going to use it at work from now on.



thanks dude!
'you know you play guitar too long when...'

BEFOREAFTERGood article Pierre, I like your style.

Nice work GS. Is that copper loaded screening paint?

Dimarzios use the same cable, but it's black and white together, green to earth, red signal (output)

Thanks dudes One day I'll try and use those white connector thingies (dunno how to call them) for less messy wirings. I wish my electronics cavity looked like GS'