Active pickups conundrum/problem on an 80s Kawai F3

Ainsley

Hi All,

I have an Alembic-esque early-80s Kawai F3, which doesn't sound right. All the parts are there, as are the wires. According to a knowledgeable friend, they appear to be going where they should. The pickups are sealed units and each have an associated 3-way toggle which should correspond to off/normal/boost. This in reality, sounds like almost off/quite crap/quite crap but different! I'm a massive fan of Japanese guitars of this period, so would like it to stay original. Can anyone help?

Many Thanks,

Ains

TTony

Can you get output readings at the different stages of the internal circuit, and then I could compare to mine and maybe work out where the problem is.

IF the wires are all connected properly (ie they go where they should AND the joints are sound) then maybe the p'ups themselves are faulty?  Hope not though because the chances of finding original replacement units are smaller than a very small thing indeed.

But I'll freely admit that electrics are not my strong point, so someone like @theGuitarWeasel might have a better idea