Telecaster issue - sound cuts out when string touches neck pickup cover

roberty

Hi guys, bit of a strange issue with my tele, when any of the strings touches the neck pickup cover the signal cuts out.  I guess it's shorting the circuit.  Any troubleshooting steps I could try?  Is the pickup knackered?  Cheers

Winny_Pooh

Is the cover grounded? 

roberty

No idea mate, is there a way to check?

richardhomer

1. Lowering the pickup will stop it being an issue. 2. The cover is connected to the 'hot' side - possibly because it's the reverse phase of the bridge pickup.

roberty

Yeah the bridge and neck are wired opposite phase.  Cool so if I reverse the phase of the pickup this will cease to happen?  That's an easy fix.

My bridge pickup is pretty hot so I raised the neck pickup slightly to compensate.  It actually sounds better there anyway.

midlifecrisis

why would you want the string to touch the pickup anyway, surely thats a problem in itself?

roberty

Right, so when I'm speed picking on the treble strings I rest my palm on the bass strings to mute them, sometimes the bass strings brush the neck pickup as my wrist moves up and down and this is causing a crackling noise.  There's a good few mm clearance when the strings are open

midlifecrisis

i think your neck pickup is too high

roberty

Either way there's an electrical issue, I will try reversing the phase.  Thanks all

richardhomer

roberty said:

Either way there's an electrical issue, I will try reversing the phase.  Thanks all

It is possible to connect the cover to ground, without reversing the phase - which would obviously affect the 'both on' tone. 

roberty

@richardhomer how do I do that? Was thinking of reversing phase of both PUs, but I've never heard both pickups together in phase, maybe that's a cool sound

richardhomer

roberty said:

@richardhomer how do I do that? Was thinking of reversing phase of both PUs, but I've never heard both pickups together in phase, maybe that's a cool sound

Both on in phase is a great sound - you don't need to do anything with the cover - just swap the hot and ground leads over on the switch/back of the volume pot. You only need to do this on the neck pickup.

ICBM

As richardhomer said - reversing the neck pickup wiring at the control plate end will fix both issues. If the phase isn't an issue and you find you prefer it out of phase, you then need to move the cover connection at the pickup end.

If you take the pickup out and look at the bottom you will see a link wire from one of the eyelets to the cover. You need to move it to the other eyelet - very often it's actually the end of the pickup wire itself pulled through the hole, so you will need to cut it rather than just unsoldering it.

But if you find the neck pickup a bit too dull-sounding - some people do with some Tele neck pickups - leave the cover unconnected, it will brighten the sound a bit.

mr-mac

Wire them correctly and flip the magnet to reverse the phase. Remember wiring wrong way round isn't same as it makes start and end point of coil start at opposite end... Flipping magnet poles does the out of phase without introducing issues

ICBM

It's not exactly easy to flip the magnet on a Tele neck pickup though .

mr-mac

Ah cool, I am a humbucker guy,my apologies thought it could be done

ICBM

mr-mac said:

Ah cool, I am a humbucker guy,my apologies thought it could be done

Well, it can… with a big magnetising machine .

Fender-style single coils have six magnets for the poles, inside the coil. On a vintage-style one the coil is wound directly onto the magnets, so you can't remove them without destroying the coil - although on modern USA Standard-style ones with plastic coil bobbins, you can actually push the magnets out and turn them round.

mr-mac

Thought I'd seen it done so musta been modern ones