pick up issue

lorez · Post by **lorez** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 12:38 pm

hi folks

i have just had an issue with the bridge pickup on one of my guitars. The volume has dropped significantly on it. I wondered what the issue could be (pick itself, pots or solder joint) and what is the best way of testing it?

Cheers

lorez

Post by **Mike** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 1:00 pm

Check the switch associated with it is still good and not leaking to ground...

What guitar is it, the CP Jaguar?

lorez · Post by **lorez** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 1:05 pm

Mike wrote:Check the switch associated with it is still good and not leaking to ground...

What guitar is it, the CP Jaguar?

Hi Mike, thanks for that. Any clues on how I would do this with a multimetre? I take it that the fact the neck pick up is fine doesn't have a bearing on it?

Its my epi les paul. I might use it as an excuse to upgrade a few things and tinker with it. The Jag is still doing nicely thanks and I love every minute of playing it. Not had one issue with that thank god. I wouldn't mind but at the weekend the jack plate on my tele decided to fall off and I now need to get a replacement I think.

Post by **Mike** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 1:50 pm

I would get your multimeter and set it to Ohms and 20K and check the pickup leads, you should be getting something in the range 7-15k, that'll check the pickups are ok.

lorez · Post by **lorez** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 2:20 pm

thanks mike, I will have a play around testing tomorrow night as I'm out at a gig tonight.

Post by **Mike** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 2:23 pm

Also check out the continuity option on your multimeter (might be a diode symbol) and check for connectivity between your bridge hot line and ground...

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 3:11 pm

I am having a similar issue on my Baja telecaster. The bridge and series options are very quiet. The neck and parallel options are louder but still not as they should be. I checked the ohms before installing them and got normal readings. The tone knob seems to do nothing and volume only works all the way up. I will try some of your suggestions to see if anything works.

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 4:34 pm

I've never owned an Epiphone where the bridge pickup hasn't stopped working due to a faulty stock 3-way, funnily enough.

SKC Willie · Post by **SKC Willie** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 4:48 pm

taylornutt wrote:I am having a similar issue on my Baja telecaster. The bridge and series options are very quiet. The neck and parallel options are louder but still not as they should be. I checked the ohms before installing them and got normal readings. The tone knob seems to do nothing and volume only works all the way up. I will try some of your suggestions to see if anything works.

You mentioned you had problems with the pots and things touching the shielding paint before, if I were you, I would put electrical tape around all of the pots/switch to make sure they are not touching anything. If it fixes it, I would sand off the shielding paint, if it doesn't, I would just rewire the thing. A tele schematic isn't too crazy, you can redo one in an hour and it is worth it to make sure you have good connections every where.

Also, I'm not totally sure but if you mixed pickups, you might trying switching the ground/lead on your bridge pickup. I've heard people doing this before and it fixed their problems, it probably won't do anything but it would take like 30 seconds to do!

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 5:16 pm

portugalwillie wrote:
taylornutt wrote:I am having a similar issue on my Baja telecaster. The bridge and series options are very quiet. The neck and parallel options are louder but still not as they should be. I checked the ohms before installing them and got normal readings. The tone knob seems to do nothing and volume only works all the way up. I will try some of your suggestions to see if anything works.
You mentioned you had problems with the pots and things touching the shielding paint before, if I were you, I would put electrical tape around all of the pots/switch to make sure they are not touching anything. If it fixes it, I would sand off the shielding paint, if it doesn't, I would just rewire the thing. A tele schematic isn't too crazy, you can redo one in an hour and it is worth it to make sure you have good connections every where.

Also, I'm not totally sure but if you mixed pickups, you might trying switching the ground/lead on your bridge pickup. I've heard people doing this before and it fixed their problems, it probably won't do anything but it would take like 30 seconds to do!

Both pickups came from a stock Baja Telecaster, I don't think that is the problem. I sanded the shielding paint away from the controls, but the low volume continues whether or not the electronics are in the control cavity or not.

SKC Willie · Post by **SKC Willie** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 5:26 pm

I would just rewire everything . . .

You'll spend more time trying to figure out what is wrong. You'll seriously save time buy just unwiring EVERYTHING cleaning up everything and starting over. I've had to do it to several guitars and it is frustrating as hell but if you do that and it still doesn't work you'll know that you're either wiring it wrong/the schematic isn't right, which is possible. I tried to write an extra switch on my tele at one point and some guy on tdpri made a schematic for me that just didn't work and I've had some issues when pulling schematics from seymour duncan too.

samuelcotterall · Post by **samuelcotterall** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 6:49 pm

paul_ wrote:I've never owned an Epiphone where the bridge pickup hasn't stopped working due to a faulty stock 3-way, funnily enough.

Ditto.

lorez · Post by **lorez** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 7:04 am

samuelcotterall wrote:
paul_ wrote:I've never owned an Epiphone where the bridge pickup hasn't stopped working due to a faulty stock 3-way, funnily enough.
Ditto.

Thanks for the tip, this will be the first place I check then

lorez · Post by **lorez** » Mon Oct 18, 2010 10:53 am

it was the switch, it seems to have moved and was touching the body, just reset it and jobsagudun

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Mon Oct 18, 2010 2:44 pm

portugalwillie wrote:I would just rewire everything . . .

You'll spend more time trying to figure out what is wrong. You'll seriously save time buy just unwiring EVERYTHING cleaning up everything and starting over. I've had to do it to several guitars and it is frustrating as hell but if you do that and it still doesn't work you'll know that you're either wiring it wrong/the schematic isn't right, which is possible. I tried to write an extra switch on my tele at one point and some guy on tdpri made a schematic for me that just didn't work and I've had some issues when pulling schematics from seymour duncan too.

Fixed the problem. My Electrical engineer ex-roommate came over and we looked over the circuit. The jack and the 4 way switch was grounding out the circuit. I insulated the jack and dremeled out a little bit of the cavity and now she is purring like a kitten.