I recently bought a cheap squier strat to learn on... and then later realized that the neck pickup is dead (that is, when the selector switch is in the neck position, I get no sound out of the guitar). Positions two (neck-middle) and three (middle) sound identical to me, so I'm convinced that the problem is with the pickup, and not the selector switch, though I could be wrong.
I opened up the guitar and looked around a bit - there are no obvious broken connections or short circuits. Anyone have any suggestions on how to get the pickup picking up again? I know I could just take it to a guitar shop, but part of the reason I got a cheap guitar is so I could get under the hood and learn about how it's put together without too much worry. I like fixing things, and would prefer to fix this myself.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
S.
i've got a 98 MIM standard strat with a similar problem... when you switch to the neck pup you get NO sound, UNLESS youre running overdrive, which will give it a very quiet signal.. . ive not been able to decide if the pickup is dying or if the switch is bad, on account of, in the inbetween position between the neck and the middle pickup, the neck tone control still colors the sound as it should, which means that the neck pickup is still working in that position... any ideas?
ah, and i, too, have opened it up and checked... no bad connections, so im sure it's either the switch or the pup, likely the pickup... but is there any way to be SURE?
There must be some way of isolating the faults with a micrometer, but I have no idea what the precise sequence of testing would be.
(I have got to get my father to show me how to use one of those things on a guitar)
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Steely Dan
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There must be some way of isolating the faults with a micrometer, but I have no idea what the precise sequence of testing would be.
(I have got to get my father to show me how to use one of those things on a guitar)
you mean a multimeter... you can use it to test the resistance across wires and such... in a good connection there should be ZERO resistance across a wire, if there IS any then theres a bad connection... as far as resistance across a magnetic pickup... i have NO idea...
I keep forgetting :-[ It's my fatrher who's worked on such things most of his life.
You may have seen this already but it looks worth posting
http://www.guitarnuts.com/technical/electrical/trouble/strat.php
unfortunately only the strat version is up but it might give someone an idea :)
"Things may get a whole lot worse/ Before suddenly falling apart"
Steely Dan
"Look at me coyote, don't let a little road dust put you off" Knopfler
there should be ZERO resistance across a wire
This is a practical impossibility, as all wire creates some resistance. "Very little" resistance would be more correct and this will increase, more or less, in inverse proportion to it's diameter (the thinner the wire, the more resistance, all other things being equal)
If you have a multimeter (if not, then buy one, they're very useful), check the resistance across the two wires coming out of the pickup - you need to know if you, at least, have a functioning circuit (neither of the wires has broken inside the sheathing/pickup)
If you have a circuit, I would look very closely at the switch.
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I'll agree with start looking at the switch and move to the pickups. Could also be the pickup height is to low and not picking up vibrations from the strings.
joe
Well, I got a multimeter and did some troubleshooting based on the guitarnuts page... with the switch in the neck position, I get a very high but not open resistance, which means, "Open pickup coil, bad switch, broken wiring between pickup and switch."
Next time I change my strings, I'll open up the guitar and use the multimeter to see if I can further isolate the problem. Thanks, everyone, for all of the suggestions!
I've seen more times than not that the switch may need cleaned or replaced, maybe a wire or solder connection.
Joe
