Pick up problem

TheOtherDennis

A few years ago, I built the Denecaster, a strat-shaped thing I bodged up from various bits. The electrics came from a pickguard pre-loaded with a set of Wilkinsons. All I had to do was solder it to the jack (couldn't even get that right, could I, Sporky?)

When I put them in they sounded absolutely fine (Goji, on hearing Tipton Trev play it at the original Beaglefest said "Fookin ell, Den what did you put in that? It sounds amazing!" Actually, Trev sounded amazing, but still... ).

However, when I played it recently after not having played it for about a year or so, for some reason I suddenly get nothing at all from the neck pup. I get the usual sounds from the bridge and middle, but nothing at all from the neck.

Any ideas on why that could be? I've opened it up and none of the connections have sheared/loosened/snapped or anything like that. It all seems to be together as per.

Me no comprende.

Andyjr1515

Possibly the switch contacts got a bit of oxidation / dust. Do you still get some sound from the middle / neck position?

OilCityPickups

Bung a bit of switch cleaner on the switch contacts and see ...

TheOtherDennis

@Andy - yes, but I assumed that was coming from the neck pup.

@guitarweasel - ta, I'll try that.

ICBM

If the wiring is intact it's either the switch or the pickup - both are possible from corrosion if the guitar hasn't been used for a while.

If you don't have a multimeter, take the pickguard out and plug the guitar into the amp. With the guitar volume up full and the pickup selector in the neck position, touch the neck pickup terminal with your finger (it's usually the third one from the front end of the switch, the rotor turns 'backwards'). If you get a loud buzz through the amp, the switch is working and it's the pickup.

The most common cause of pickup faults is a cold solder joint at the baseplate eyelet and can be fixed by re-heating it with a bit of new solder, although very occasionally it's the coil itself.

TheOtherDennis

Durr. When I said "I assumed that was coming from the neck pup" I did of course mean the middle one, cos the problem's with the neck.

Give me a slap for being a muppet.

And thanks for that, ICBM, I'll give it a try if the switch cleaner thing doesn't work.

TheOtherDennis

Just had a thought - we had some major rebuilding work done in the house a couple of months ago, and even though I covered everything over with blankets and stuff, there was still an awful lot of dust lying on everything everywhere. Could this be the problem, especially as the Epi 335 seems to have picked up the exact same problem? I can't see it managing to get in (well, except on the 335 cos of the f-holes, obviously), but you never know with plaster dust, far king stuff gets everywhere.

Btw, not done anything to solve the probs yet, other than acquire a tin of switch cleaner, I thought I'd ask before I did owt.

ICBM

Dust will easily get into a Strat switch through the slot in the pickguard if the guitar is not in a case.

TheOtherDennis

Well either I didn't do any of that properly or the pup is screwed.

Nothing worked.

ICBM

Did you get buzz from the switch terminal?

If yes then it is the pickup. Does it have a plastic bobbin/baseplate? If so the most likely cause is a cold solder joint at the pickup eyelet, because the assembler can't risk putting enough heat in to really guarantee a good joint without risking melting the bobbin…

TheOtherDennis

No, no buzzing. But then I didn't get anything else, either. I put some new solder on what I believe are the pick up eyelets, but that didn't make any difference either.

Like I said, I probably didn't do any of it properly.

ICBM

TheOtherDennis said:

No, no buzzing. But then I didn't get anything else, either. I put some new solder on what I believe are the pick up eyelets, but that didn't make any difference either.

Like I said, I probably didn't do any of it properly.

If it didn't buzz when you touched the switch terminal - assuming the guitar was plugged into the amp, turned up and the neck pickup was selected, then it's the switch.

TheOtherDennis

Yeah, I thought it might be.

TheOtherDennis

Snot the switch.

Just put a new one in, got the same problem, still no buzzing,

Rats.

Wonder what the problem is? I have a spare strat-style neck pup that I bought some years ago, but the wiring on this is all twirled together (deliberately, it's not a mess, it's cos it's a complete, pre-wired assembly), so it's really difficult to work out which are the right wires to swap out, so I can do it.

Hey ho, I'll see what I can do.

TheOtherDennis

So after much swearing and some rather robust enquiries into the pedigree of whoever thought of soldering as a means of establishing electrical contacts, the other pup is in and working fine.

I wonder what can have gone wrong? it's not like Wilkinson pups to be unreliable, is it?

DeeTee

Could be a cold solder joint maybe? If you redid the joints, you might have got the solder to flow properly between the wire and pot/switch (whichever you redid).

TheOtherDennis

Worth suggesting, but ICBM mentioned it above and I did do that before I switched the switches, as it were. It made no difference until I switched the pups.

ICBM

TheOtherDennis said:

So after much swearing and some rather robust enquiries into the pedigree of whoever thought of soldering as a means of establishing electrical contacts, the other pup is in and working fine.

I wonder what can have gone wrong? it's not like Wilkinson pups to be unreliable, is it?

In that case it must have been the pickup - shorted rather than open circuit if you got no sound from the pickup connection on the switch. Not the usual way they fail...

I don't know about their pickups but I'm not very impressed with the reliability of some other Wilkinson parts, so possibly.