I think I broke my pickup.

Paddy

Hey all.

So in the enteral restlessness of the search for the perfect tone I couldn't leave well enough alone.

This is the setup: 3 Hot noiseless pickups with middle pickup without a tone for added sparkle in the in between positions. And then two modded TBX tone controls for added Sparkle ?. And then a push pull for the seven sound Strat setup.

Ok problem started when I remembered that a while ago I swopped the neck and middle pickups because i found the neck too boomy(this was before the modded TBX). It stayed that way for quite a while. Till I changed strings and string size. I wanted to swop them back because the original neck had a slightly lower output.

Anyway long story short. The pickup is more buzzy and squeels when I touch the solder point on the switch for that pup, and it has a thin sound and much lower output then the other pickups, and when combined with a pickup it sounds out of phase.

Trouble shooting that I've tried. Swopped the the white and black leads, no change. Swopped back to middle position again, no change. And then tried it on another position on the 5 way switch, no change. Put the soldering iron on the soldered magnets wires hoping for dry dodgy soldering, no change.

Should I try remove the cover(which I feel it a snug fit) and look for a broken winding wire?

Or is there a pickup guru in SA I can send it to to have a look and fix it if possible.

Sorry for long post.

peterleroux

Check the resistance of that pickup before you try open it up- if it's much lower than it should be, then there's a short somewhere. If not, the problem is with the wiring somewhere along the line. It's best to measure it out of circuit- easiest way is to unsolder the leads from the switch and ground to avoid damage to the pickup

Paddy

Hi Peter

I thought of that. I just don't have a multimeter or do any of my friends. I'll maybe contact my local music shop in Bloem and ask if they have one to let me use.

I suppose I should get myself one.

I used my dads multimeters to measure the pickups output a while ago. That's when I was living in Kimberley close to him.

psyx

Buy a cheapie... Better than nothing! You can get one for less than R100
R100

AlanRatcliffe

If they are anything like the Vintage noiseless, be very careful removing the cover. I've seen pickups wrecked by guys pulling the cover on those - the windings are often loose and messy and sometimes stick up from behind the tape.

Agree on checking the DC resistance first - IIRC they should read about 10K.

Paddy

Well went to the local shop and used their multimeter.... NO OUTPUT. Nothing, Nada, Niks.

Would it be worth it to send it to one of the pickup guys and see if they can work some magic. Or do I chalk this up to a bad experience and start looking for replacement pickups?

Attila

contact

Rude Rock Pickups Little falls Jhb west
Neil Pincus 072 301 2143
ruderocknrollpups@gmail.com

Or take a magnifying glass and light and see if you can pickup the broken strand, IF its the outside coil you can unwind and resolder it, IF its the inner wire and there is no chance of resoldering it, then I am afraid its a rewind

AlanRatcliffe

Speak to Neil first - some guys hate working on stacked single-coils. But yeah, no harm in asking...

Paddy

Spoke to Neil, who is a really nice guy btw. He said he'd take a crack at the pup even though he hasn't had much experience with noiseless pups.

Sent it up and he said that a winding on the ghost coil broke and he did his magic voodoo and rewound the coil.

Got them back just in time to put then into a brand new Strat. Read the story "NGD Times Two" in Your Gear section

So thanks to everyone for the help.