How would you work on this Ibanez RG7620 tiny cavity?

[Innervision]

Hey guys,

I would like to replace my stock bridge pickup (new7) on my Ibanez RG7620 (7 strings) with a D Activator. This is my first time doing a pickup replacement. I read many articles covering the subject and watched videos on youtube. When I decided to take the plunge, I opened the back of my RG7 and was puzzled by how tiny the cavity is... and it's very hard to imagine myself working with a soldering iron in this tiny space.

When I see how it's done in the Seymour Duncan vid posted on youtube, the working space seems quite bigger and easy to work with.
How To Change Guitar Pickups - YouTube

Here's mine:

Here's the pickup I would like to install in the guitar:

I'm lucky that the wire colors are the same as the new7 stock pickup, so this is the easy part. But I honestly have no clue how to solder in a such tiny cavity without burning/cutting/soldering wrong cables, especially while working on the volume knob. Everything is packed there!

Do you guys have any tips that could make the job easier? Remember it's my first time changing pickups.
Thanks

 

[1b4n3z]

A regular pen-type soldering iron should be slim enough to work - I should know, I put DiMarzios in my 7420 just recently

The main thing is to keep the leads in place while applying heat and solder, so an extra helping hand is very useful (try to search for helping hand alligator clip). Then heat the connection for a few seconds and apply a bit of 60-40 solder, very easy. But the important bit is to keep the lead immobile. It speeds up the process immeasurably and helps to keep the parts from cooking

 

[Larrikin666]

I find this to be invaluable when some on anything that requires soldering.

Soldering Helping Hands Tool

 

[yellowv]

Pull the switch and pots out and solder on them outside the cavity.

 

[ECGuitars]

Pull the switch and pots out and solder on them outside the cavity.

Basically this, solder everything you can OUTSIDE of the cavity, return everything to their respective places and then solder what you couldn't before.

 

[Innervision]

Thanks for the tip, I guess now I'll have to figure out how to pull out the volume knob and switch without breaking everything

 

[Daf57]

You shouldn't break anything - the wires will somewhat hold things in place. You only need to move the individual pieces a short way up to clear the cavity. You will get the hang of it!

 

[wallfahrt]

doublecheck the wiring before starting as the color code of the wires doesn't need to match exactly between those pups even if the same colors are used...