Thanks so much! Really appreciate the kind words! Also check out my new video I published today about how to measure guitar pickups: ruclips.net/video/lHYsQGK5PoY/видео.html I'm going to keep posting more content, so stay tuned. Would love to do more videos on pickup winding and pickup specifications. Thanks again so much for the comment!
Thanks so much! Be sure to check out my Pickup Building, Rewinding, Testing & Repair playlist here if you're interested. I keep it updated with the newest versions of all my videos: ruclips.net/p/PLN0ZS8PEGeRYHbxoypl6B8tRj0kVU41Na I have a lot more on the way as well. Always working on more. Thanks again for the support!
@@guitar_md yea I ended up just sending them back for a replacement set but I definitely learned a lot by watching and listening to you. I just got back into guitars about 2 years ago and honestly the tech side of it is where I spend most of my time. When I finally setup a guitar correctly and felt that difference, the victory lap inside my brain was something else lolololol
I'm in big trouble. This video is a great learning tool. I simply pushed all the wires into the coil, taped them waxed them and now I might not try them. I do however know a lot more about it now, Thank you.
Millions of thanks. I have already swapped the pickup switch, the volume and tone knobs when after your video i gave a try and re-soldered (actually just melted) the solder points on the pickup. Everything works.
Cool content ! Just a little coment , O.L is not zero resistance , it is infinite resistance . In another words - 'open circuit' . Thank you for sharing .
Would be curious for your input as I'm having trouble understanding this: (repost from another reply I wrote recently): The meter defaults to O.L when it's in Ohm mode, meaning the default reading when there is no continuity between the probes. I took this to mean "open line" in Ohm mode, or "open circuit." The interruption in the case of a broken pickup is a severed coil. So imagine you have one probe touching a piece of wire, then the other probe touching another piece of wire, and the pieces of wire are not connected to each other. This is the case in a broken pickup. In my mind, this might as well be 'zero resistance,' as the DCR of a coil is dependent on the coil being continuous and unbroken. DCR is in this case basically a measure of how long the wire is. When the coil is broken, you might as well be putting the probe on two separate, unconnected wires -- there is no resistance in the coil, because the coil is broken, and is therefore incapable of forming continuity between the probes. So the meter defaults to O.L, meaning "open line" or "open circuit." My semantics are probably off. I think I've read that in default on Ohm mode, the meter is trying to read infinite resistance, which is why by default, the meter reads O.L in ohm mode when the probes are not connected to anything. I'm not brushed up on all that, but for simplicity's sake, 'zero resistance' seems to make more sense to me. The meter gets no reading because the wire is broken, and one end is not connected to the other. So it's defaulting to its native infinite resistance in OL mode on the Ohm setting, but the coil itself is not creating infinite resistance -- how could it when it's effectively two separate strands of wire not connected to each other? Even if infinite resistance is the technically correct term, it's hard to wrap my head around it and I think it makes what's happening here seem more confusing. It makes it seem like the break in the coil is creating an overload of resistance, when in reality the meter is simply defaulting back to its native OL reading in Ohm mode, because the two ends of the coil are no longer connected to each other and are not able to create DS resistance from one end to the other as a result. Sorry for the huge writeup here but this has been on my mind for a while. Would appreciate if you could clarify this for me and see what you think, and if my reasoning makes sense to you. I like to be as accurate as possible and I hate it when I miss things in my videos but I also want things to be clear and easy to understand for my viewers who might not be so well acquainted with these concepts.
Great video. My modified 50s Strat randomly had the humbucker stop working (really quiet and thin). So I tested the resistance and got a 0 reading. It's a new guitar that was stored safely, and just stopped working overnight. The pickguard doesn't make a complete seal around that pickup so I thought maybe some dust/hair got inside. I hit it with the electric fan duster (on a low setting) and checked the resistance again. It actually worked and sounds great now lol. Hopefully that helps somebody.
Liked and subscribed! This is all the basic info for beginners like me to start dig into pickup. Thanks for all the super helpful tips and the detail explaination man! I'm going to buy a winding machine and some wires to repair pickup real soon.
Thanks so much for your detailed and very good video production I recently acquired a Samick KJ-640 and it has a Single in the neck and an Humbucker in the bridge position and overall it's an amazing 24 year old guitar. The problem is whenever the neck pickup is either selected by itself or blended with the bridge, I get a ton of extra (not normal) noise. So in my setup of it and after pulling the neck pickup and upon close inspection, I found the start & finish wire floating around inside the pickup cover, attached to the start and finish wires. I also discovered that someone had wrapped the bobbin with conductive aluminum tape over the black nonconductive tape. That's odd I said to myself. After testing with an ohms meter after the removal of the two tapes, i got no (0) reading. The finish (positive) lead wire then promptly broke while handling it. My plan is to repair it. I'd like to keep it as close to stock looking (and sounding) as possible. The bobbin width on it is quite a bit thinner than what's available on the marketplace now, so I want the original Samick cover to fit and reparing or rewinding seems like the best option. So I'm going to try your great techniques suggested and see if I can repair it. If not, then I would consider having it rewound, and you sound like the details oriented person who could do it. Do you have some contact info, where I could contact you and discuss the details? Thanks again
Sorry I didn't see this earlier! You can reach me at: guitarmdofficial@gmail.com I'd be curious to take a look to see what you're dealing with here. Feel free to contact me at that e-mail address. I'd like to see some pictures if possible. Thanks for reaching out!
I just fixed a rare jazz bass pickup using the soldering techniques you demonstrated in this video. 5 minutes of watching, 5 minutes of soldering, and BAM, a refurbished $100+ pickup. Thanks, you da Man!
You are a master at explaining clearly. I have a Phatcat style P90 that is doing the same thing.(thin weak sound and no reading). I can now see what may be wrong but I lack the skills and the tools to fix it. It's going to die in a drawyer.
Thanks so much for the comment! If you'd like to send it to me for a rewind, let me know. My e-mail is md101089@hotmail.com. I haven't seen a Phatcat P90 before but I'd be curious to see if I could get it up and running again. Could be better than letting it waste away!
I don't know how I thought pickups were made but I'm suddenly finding it very difficult to spend $200 on some new ones. What could could possibly be different about a set of fender pickups that cost $100 and a set that costs $300? I'd at least want like the box to say something like "wound by trained butterflies" or "each inch of our wire is kissed by a priest", but I can't imagine what's actually different. This was interesting and cool btw. I'll assume you weren't just making this all up
Basically: inductance and resonant frequency, and amplitude at that frequency, for a given pickup model (Strat, Tele, PAF style humbucker, etc.), is the best indicator of tone in a pickup. The challenge? These specs are almost never listed. Inductance is occasionally listed, but resonant frequency and amplitude at that frequency are never listed. I use a USB oscilloscope and a Ken Willmott Integrator and an "exciter coil" (dummy coil), as well as an LCR meter, to run tests on my pickups: inductance and capacitance tests, and bode plots. This all sounds like gibberish to the layperson. Think of it like this: EQ. Pickups have a flat EQ, but have a resonant peak -- one frequency where they will generate the most amplitude. This is the "voice" of the pickup. Its character. Much like your own voice. However, unlike humans, pickups are much simpler. In general, they have one resonant frequency, and a pickup of the same make and model (Strat, Tele, PAF, etc.) that has the same or a very similar resonant frequency, will sound the same or very similar. For the most part, how many turns of wire you use is what makes the difference here. 7,000 turns of wire will sound brighter and have a higher resonant frequency than 8,000 turns of wire. More turns of wire = less high end, and Less turns of wire = more high end. That's why "underwound" pickups are clear and bright and sparkly, and "overwound" pickups are fat and thick and punchy. More wire also means more output. There is no "magic," but the mystique serves the purpose of smoke and mirrors, and keeps people thinking there is something special about a $500 set of pickups. I've been winding pickups for years now and I cannot get on board with dishonest marketing. Though there is plenty of room for novel designs and pickups that achieve sounds that others don't. But it's all a fine line, and all has to do with EQ of the pickup -- which is, keep in mind, a single resonant frequency, or its "voice." There is no such thing as deliberately winding "lows" or "highs" into a coil. The method of winding, in my opinion, is most likely irrelevant. The design of the pickup is what matters, and its resonant frequency or "voice." Anyway. I could keep going, but let me know if any of this made sense to you or helped you. Or confused you more! It's a very deep topic and it makes my head kinda hurt just thinking about it!
I have a bridge pickup on a new bass which works expect for the high string. The magnet under that particular string doesn’t seem to be working. Other than that I’d imagine the wiring is ok. Thoughts ??
I had similar feelings believing it's all propaganda just to show the majority of us how pathetic we are on guitar so we would just forget the whole thing and take up stained glass window construction. I've heard left handed guitarists are the one really pushing that agenda. yep!!
Contact me at *guitarmdofficial@gmail.com* if you're interested in having a pickup rewound. I also offer a limited selection of custom handwound pickups. Thanks so much for watching!
Hi, thanks for the video, it is very informative! I have a Tribute Comanche which was mighty fine out of the box, but like a few weeks later ( didn't play much) the vridge pickup was completely dead. No sound at all. So i just wanted to tap it with my pick to check it... Nothing. Then for no reason i tried with a small metal tool and the pickup went back to life instantly! The. A few weeks later it was dead again, but it revived with the same trick. That was last year. Didn't have time to play sonce but today i picked the guitar to test an amp and then surprise (!) the neck pickup is very quiet.... Couldn't being ot back this time, and bridge is ok lol. Nightmarish. Do you think this is tje same problem as in your vid? Thanks
Great explanation. My only problem is the wire is likely broken (its a JB humbucker, somehow none if the bobbins appear to be working) but i really dont know where, and if things het unlucky is likely at the beginning of the winding
WOW your so cool I knew this was possible thank you Ive subscribed glad I found your channel. I got a telecaster advertised spanky Twangler pickups but neck sounds dull I think must be break in line would send it back but guitar is perfect just going to order a set of Toneriders anyway. Any tip on what type of pickups out there that sound like Jimi Hendrix style I could buy? cheers
I occasionally make a Jimi Hendrix set. You can shoot me an e-mail at guitarmdofficial@gmail.com if you're interested. However, if you check out my recent cover of "Machine Gun" (the intro), I did that with a flat, non-staggered polepiece neck pickup. I made it with 7600 turns, and a .500' coil. Traditionally Strat coils are around .430" tall, and Jimi's pickups were effectively flipped upside down, because he strung a righty Strat backwards. So...I've made a Hendrix set that emulates that, like basically a lefty set with gray bottoms and plain enamel wire, same bobbin dimensions as he would've had on his Strat. But I've gotten some great Hendrix tones using pickups I've made to different specifications using more modern components. I think one of the keys to the Hendrix sound is having a slightly underwound neck pickup, which makes it very clear sounding, which works well when rolling the tone knob back. I prefer a .047uF tone cap for the neck pickup and find it works great for nailing Hendrix tones. Another thing to consider is the coil cable. He used those live and it dropped the resonant frequency of his pickups -- fancy talk for, it made them sound a lot darker. That was live, though. But the coil cable can help with getting that tone if that's what you're after.
Thank you! I've got more on the way as well. I'd like to make a new "Wiring" playlist and make some videos about diagnosing and repairing faulty cables, guitar circuits including ground issues, and an updated pickup testing video. I'd especially love to do a simple multimeter 101 guitar tech video showing how to diagnose grounding problems and basic wiring issues very quickly. Lots more on the way. Thanks for the support!
First, congrats for the good work and for helping people. I have a question. The neck pickup of my strat suddenly lost output and sounds thin. It was fine a few months ago but I don't play this guitar, it was on a stand, and next time I plugged it in, the neck pickup was this way. It's not the nasaly "out of phase" sound. It sounds like a neck pickup which has lost bass and volume. I checked all the circuit, re-soldered many points that looked weird, even soldered the pickup hot lead directly to the volume pot, and the problem persists. So it's more likely a problem with the pickup and not something else in the circuit. When i choose position 4 of the switch, neck and middle, and perform the screwdriver test on the poles, the middle pickup produces a bang with more low and more volume, and the neck pickup produces a quieter and thinner sound. I've also noticed this: when I touch the pole pieces with my finger, the neck pickup produces a loud hum, whereas the other 2 pickups also make a hum but it's quieter. Before I go further and start unwinding my pickup, do you have any idea what it could be?
Thanks! As for your pickup: You need to remove the pickup from the circuit completely, and test it outside of the circuit, to confirm if the pickup is the problem. An easy way to do this if you don't want to disassemble everything would be to disconnect the hot *and* ground leads from the output jack, then solder the hot and ground leads from the pickup directly to the output jack. Or just do a quick soldering of the neck pickup leads to the hot and ground leads coming off of the output jack, after you disconnect them from the circuit. *Then* do the tap test. Also, before you solder the wires from the pickup directly to the output jack, set a multimeter to 20k ohms and test the pickup. If you get no reading at all, the problem is likely the pickup. But if you get an expected reading, like 6.0k for example, you'll know it's the circuit, not the pickup. The most important thing is to isolate the pickup for testing. No volume pots, no tone pots, no other pickups anywhere in the circuit -- test that pickup all by itself. It does seem unlikely that it's a wire break, as how could that happen? But it's possible. Sometimes the magnets corrode and eat away at the wire deep inside the coil. All it takes is one tiny little break anywhere in that wire to kill a pickup. I also offer very reasonable rates for pickup rewinds if you need extra assistance. Just hit me up at guitarmdofficial@gmail.com and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. I've done many, many pickup rewinds and would be happy to help you out if it comes to that. Keep me posted! Just let me know if you test that pickup outside the circuit and confirm that it's the pickup itself that's not working. Sometimes pots and switches can go bad in very bizarre ways, and you'd never know. So the only way to diagnose a pickup is to test it in complete isolation. Re-flowing the solder joints on the pickup eyelets can sometimes work as well. That's always the first thing to try as it's the safest, and least invasive, compared to un-winding. I always just re-wind, by the way. Unwinding is possible but once you know how to rewind a pickup, it's much easier to just tear the whole coil down and do it right. Unwinding a pickup turn by turn is insanely time consuming and is something I would *personally* never do -- but included it in the video as I'm aware some people do this.
@@guitar_md Hi! So, I've performed the tests with a multimeter. I disconnected all pickups from the circuit, but I did not remove them from the pickguard because the leads are held together by this big rubber tubing, which came from factory, and I didn't want to remove it. But, I guess it would not make much difference? Anyway, here are the results I got. Bridge reads 6.50, middle reads 6.30, and neck gives me a reading of O.L. So I suppose the problem is problably in the neck pickup itself? What could be my next step? Try to reflow the solder points in the pickup leads?
@@rafaelzengo5534 Yes. Re-flowing the solder leads is always a good idea. And make sure that the leads are connected -- the thin magnet wire going to the eyelets. Sometimes that breaks off and is the reason the pickup doesn't work. I'd say that's actually the *most* common break. Breaks deeper in the coil typically only happen on much older pickups. Leaving them in the pickguard is OK. If the break isn't immediately obvious, usually a rewind is in order. I recently did a repair for someone where I was able to salvage the pickup by splicing on a new lead to the broken magnet wire. Currently working on a video about it. It'll take a while to finish -- but in the works!
@@guitar_md Hi, good morning. I've re-flown the solder points on the leads and the pickup Is still giving a reading of O.L. I'd love to send it to someone like you to have it repaired, but I live in Brazil, and there is virtually no one in this whole country that does this kind of service. Well, there might be, but very few, and it would be probably far away from me anyway, and cost me a fortune. So I guess my only option now is a) hope that the break is at the end of the coil, so I can start unwrapping it until I find the break, and re-solder again from there; and b) if the break is buried deep in the coil, I'll have to completely re-wind it. It could be willing to do the whole thing if that comes to be, my only doubt is if I can find the coil wire easily. These sort of specialized goods are very difficult to find here, we do not have a diversified industry like you guys do over there. Does it need to be a special wire to wind a pickup, or could I just grab any copper thin bobbin wire at the store and start winding it? 7 thousand turns, right? I guess I could do a thousand a day by hand. I liked this pickup very much, it's an alnico 3 single coil that came in the Squier Classic Vibe 50's, the first version. SOme say it's a Tonerider Surfari pickup, but I don't know, it just sounded very good. Repolacing the pickup is not an option to me now, I'm very short on resources.
Thanks so much! I really appreciate this. Was a ton of work to make this even though it was fun, so I'm thrilled to know someone got value out of it. Thank you!
Thank you for this beautifully produced video. I have a 60s Strat pickup that I’m hoping to get repaired without rewinding. Do you do this kind of work for other people? Thanks again, James
You're welcome. I do, but every time I've worked on a vintage pickup, I ended up having to rewind it. In theory you can trace a wire back to the break, but in 100% of the cases I've seen so far, the problem with older pickups is corrosion, which damages the wire closest to the magnets -- meaning a complete rewind will be necessary, as the wire damage is very likely within the first few hundred wraps. '60s Jaguar, Strat, Tele and Jazz Bass pickups I've worked on all had that same problem. The good news is there's no reason to fear a rewind -- as long as the turn count is accurate, the DCR doesn't mean anything. I could always take a look, but just as a heads up I can nearly guarantee a rewind would be in order. If the break isn't at the finish eyelet it's most likely very deep in there.
I have a Lindy Fralin blues special set for a Strat. The neck pick up is dead, it has been for years. I'm trying to solve the problem and found your video. I am getting a connection from the start and end wires to the wire terminals on the pickup and re-flowing the solder with flux may have helped that but didn't fix the pickup. I am getting some readings with a multi meter. With the positive/red lead (from meter) on the white wire connection point on the pickup... i'm getting 14M, 46M 34M on three of the magnet poles. They decrease in value the longer the connection to the meter is maintained. I'm not sure i'm doing this correctly, in your opinion does this mean I have a short against the magnets inside the pick up windings, and the pickup needs rewinding? Thanks for any help or advice.
I've never tested a pickup like that, but there shouldn't be any electrical connection between either of the wires and the polepieces. If you set your meter to continuity mode and test, that's basically the same thing -- and it'll beep if you're touching one of the wires and the polepieces at the same time, if the wire is shorting to the polepieces. I can almost guarantee the problem is that the magnets corroded, part of the wire broke inside the coil, *and* the wire is making electrical contact with a few of the polepieces as a result. The only real solution in that case would be a full rewind. I do rewinds all the time and can rewind that pickup for you if you're interested. I have a bunch of 42 gauge single poly nylon wire in stock, which is what the Fralin Blues Specials are wound with. If you'd like to contact me privately, my e-mail address is md101089@hotmail.com. Thanks again for the comment!
@Giller9 I invented a technique that I call the "knot splice" for exactly this problem: ruclips.net/video/cNKcELHM_2s/видео.htmlsi=Aer1v1q8v_gI0F8R Tricky, but it works. The only issue is you'll need separate 42AWG wire to do it. Another pickup winder named Dale suggested the idea to me of alternatively using copper tape. That should also work, though I haven't tried it yet. It's very tricky and delicate no matter how you do it, but it is manageable. Sometimes you can tease out a little more length from the start lead with a toothpick if you're very careful. But basically, the fix involves splicing to that broken start lead so you have enough length to tie around the eyelet and re-solder. I've done this 10 times or so, so far. And it works great, though it is very delicate and finnicky work. Let me know if you get it!
You're welcome. And haha. Just as well! 90% of the time a pickup comes in for repair, it needs to be completely rewound. It was fun designing this little experiment and seeing all the ways pickups can screw up....but the solution is the same *almost* all the time. Cut it all off, and wind it from scratch. Some guys charge more for a rewind than the price of a new pickup to boot!
Really informative. When you splice the pick up wire together (after a break) should you re-insulate the splice before rewinding it? I can see that the surrounding wires will still be insulated, is that enough? Odd question I guess.
Video here showing a wire splice repair on a Seymour Duncan pickup: ruclips.net/video/ltoMOXsJU2w/видео.html When splicing pickup magnet wire, there's no need to re-insulate it. Magnet wire is all insulated, so if you splice a break, the un-insulated splice will still not be in electrical contact with any of the other wire. The insulation on the rest of the wire is absolutely enough, so no extra coating is needed. And thanks for the comment! I appreciate it! Helps boost my videos in the algorithm and get this out to more people. I also have a revised version of my pickup testing video using an oscilloscope on the way, and I'm very excited about it. Better resolution, image quality, and better instructions and demonstrations. I'm looking forward to showing that in practice as well with choosing a 'recipe' for building a pickup. More on the way -- thanks again!
Do you repair pickups ? I recently purchased a loaded bass body with Fender vintage noiseless jazz pickups and on the bridge pu , the wire that crosses from the top to the bottom halves is broken as well as a 3rd wire that appears to be the end of the winding and I think goes to the terminal. I have been unsuccessful in removing the coating and soldering the wires together. Your video was very helpful in finding the problem and explaining how to attempt the repair, but I'm just not having much luck as I can't unwind the middle break to get any slack. When I try to remove the coating on the wire, it just breaks.
Yes, I do repair pickups! If you want to reach out to me personally, you can e-mail me at md101089@hotmail.com. One example is my other video here: ruclips.net/video/1V6MWrivDio/видео.html However, I got very lucky there, and 99 times out of 100 the pickup will need to be completely rewound. When there's not enough slack, it can sometimes be impossible to splice new wire on even if you're extremely careful.
Thanks for the great content. Maybe you can help me. There's a problem with my J90C humbucker out of a 1990 Charvel. I followed along your video and see that all poles pass the tap test and there's no shorts to the poles. one coil show 8.7K ohms and the other shows 0L on my Klein MM700. Capacitance shows 0 on the 8.7K coil. Actually the numbers jump around a bit and settle on zero. The 0L coil show 90pF. I think maybe there's an internal break but haven't completely taken it apart. Can you confirm with that info? The sound of the humbucker is weak compared to the 2 single coils in the guitar sound that sound fuller and louder. If the coil is open I'll take it apart and keep my fingers crossed that it's not completely buried.
How are the lead wires? Anything frayed or coming apart? If all the poles are passing the test, it's possible the coil is open. I'd also double check to make sure the humbucker isn't out of phase with itself. That can happen sometimes. That would mean the wrong wires are joined for the connection of the two coils. It should be finish to finish or start to start for a series connection between the two coils. If it's anything other than that, they'll be out of phase. Humbuckers are tricky because they're fragile. Have to be very careful on disassembly. Sometimes the internal wires can short out, and the coils will test normally when the pickups are removed from the baseplate/magnets/etc. Short of unwinding to a break on one coil, all you can do is make sure everything is wired correctly, that no wires are fatigued or stripped, and make sure any exposed leads are fully insulated. I also don't think I've ever even unwound to a break, though I understand it in theory. I'm working on a dereeler for my winding machine so I can unwind pickups with a machine and turn counter, bur until then, when I get a dead coil, it's rewind time. I've had a couple humbucker builds go awry when I didn't tape over the "pigtail" leads coming right off the coils. I mean the 28awg hookup wire attached to the magnet wire leads coming off each coil. It's possible they didn't tape over the coil with those, and they're shorting out. It's the most bizarre thing, but it does happen. Tough to test. You have to be extremely careful taking humbuckers apart. But that would be the next big step is disassembly and testing the coils separately. Let me know if you make any more progress. Your big hope here is it might not be an actual open circuit, but a contact shorting to ground when it shouldn't be.
@@guitar_md Thanks so much for the in depth response. I pulled it apart and the wiring looks correct with no obvious shorts. I also checked shorts to the baseplate before pulling it apart. Everything looks good. And still 0L resistance on the one coil. Do you think it's worth rewinding the one coil? I could find a suitable replacement for $100.
@badass30gmailcom If you can rewind it cheaply enough it would be worth it. Could be a fun project. If you want, I could do it for you, or give you some tips if you want to try doing it yourself. I'd have to measure the other coil to know how much to wind the broken one. Could be a fun project. If you want, shoot me an email at md101089@hotmail.com and we can discuss that further. Even including shipping I could take care of that for a lot less $$$ than a new pickup would cost.
My neck pickup on my 5 year old strat appears to have died. not really sure, but it doesnt come on when switched to the 5 position. in the 4 position, only the middle pickup works. is it common for new strats to have pickups die so soon. this guitar has not been abused or taken out of my house. doesn't have a scratch on it. the switch and pots are clean sounding and not scratchy. i have a 68 strat as well which never had a pickup issue till this day... hmmm thanks for the insight my friend, guess i'll dive in and see what i can see.
They can die very quickly. The most common problem is the finish lead coming loose, which fortunately is a very straightforward repair. If the pickup isn't working, I'd take the pickguard off and test the pickup at the eyelets and/or disconnected from the circuit. If you're not getting a readout then the coil is broken somewhere -- either disconnected from one of the eyelets, or a break inside the coil. Cold solder joints in the actual circuit are another possibility, and sometimes you get lucky. But if you test the pickup separately, you'll know if that's where the problem lies or not. Let me know how it goes.
@@guitar_md hi, thanks for the reply. lol, i got sidetracked and didn't realize you responded to my question almost a full year ago... anyway, i just decided to open up the pick guard today and put my multi meter on the solder joints of each pickup. the 2 good pickups read 6.9 k ohms, the one that isn't working right read 244k ohms... i'm guessing based on your video, its a broken wire... also, i did the 'tapping the magnets test with the screwdriver through the amp. nice loud sound comes from each magnet, but i remember you saying in the vid that there is still ac conductance going on due to the the wire still contacting and completing the circuit.... anyway, so what would you suspect based on that and what should be my next step? if you see this, your opinion would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance!
Neck pickup reads 0.0 and I heated where the lead strands come in contact with the eyelets...it will then work fine for 2 or 3 days then it will have significant volume drop and sound weak like its shorted. What is the diagnosis? Thanks
If it's working fine for a couple days then not working again, it sounds like there isn't a solid electrical connection at the eyelets. I've had this happen occasionally, and the solution for me has always been tinning the magnet wire *before* tying it around the eyelets. In order to do this on a finished pickup, you'd have to remove the finish lead, suck the solder out of the eyelet, unwrap the wire a couple turns, then tin it, tie it around the eyelet, reload it with solder, and re-solder the lead wire. If you're not comfortable doing this, you can also try dabbing a little flux on the joint first, before re-flowing the solder, Then tin your iron, re-flux the joint around the *edge* of the flatwork, on that tiny wrap of wire, then very quickly and lightly touch that with the iron. Very, very light and quick touch. Sometimes that can saturate the magnet wire with solder enough to make a more solid connection. I've rarely had pickups stop working where this wouldn't fix it. It does happen occasionally. But the fact that you're getting it working for *some* of the time is very encouraging. If it was an internal break, re-flowing the eyelet solder joints wouldn't do anything to fix that. Almost *nobody* tins the magnet wire before tying it onto the eyelets. My friend Rob DiStefano from TDPRI taught me that trick. He *always* tins the magnet wire before tying it around the eyelets, which is a practice nobody else uses -- but prevents problems exactly like the one you're having. In my early days on eBay, I wasn't tinning the wire, and I had a couple people say they had to re-flow one of the solder joints to get the pickup working again. Ever since I started tinning the wire, I've never had that issue again. But of course, unless you're winding your own pickups, you have no control over this. If I had my way, everyone would be doing it from the factory!
Excellent video. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge. Please can you answer a question. Within what resistance values do the pickups of a stratocaster have to have to get that vintage sound from the 50s?. I mean that bright, but not thin, full-bodied sound. Greetings.
You're welcome! Turn count is far more accurate than DCR -- 7600 turns has been my usual for neck pickups and it works beautifully. I've rewound multiple vintage Strat neck pickups with that turn count (formvar as well as plain enamel) with great results. DCR can vary depending on winding tension and ambient temperature while testing. Generally speaking though a lot of my neck pickups would end up around 5.7k to 6.0k where they get that clear vintage sound without being too thin. The inductance will be right about 2.0 Henries. That is a bit on the lower side so for a slightly fuller sound you might try 6.2k or around 8200 turns of wire -- that also works great. But 5.7k 7600 turns was my go to for years. Lately I'm preferring a little more thickness but I also don't play out anymore. The extra clarity from 5.7k / lower turn count is nice when cranking a 4x12. And you can always tame it with the tone control
Thank you very much for answering. Your help is very valuable to me. It has indicated to me that for the neck pickup the ideal resistance would be 5.7K with a margin of up to 6.0K. For the bridge pickup what resistance would you recommend to maintain the output balance with the other pickups but always keeping that vintage sound?. In the supposed case that the neck has 5.7K, the middle 5.9K, what resistance should the bridge have without being too bright?. (as that position usually sounds). Also, I want to keep as much quack as possible in positions 2 and 4. I'm asking all of this because I'm deciding to have a custom set made for my fender american deluxe with a rosewood fingerboard. Sorry for the inconvenience. I hope you can answer.
@@niltoneduardoalayochavez4395 I'd say 6.4 is good for a bridge pickup. I used to make a set with a 6.7k bridge and I used that for years, other people liked it a lot too. But doing vintage rewinds, I'd usually use around 8400 turns on the bridge pickup, or 8600, around 6.4 or 6.5k. The bridge is naturally very bright sounding and for me personally I wouldn't want below 6.4. Many vintage Strat pickups were the same as the neck and middle, but to my ear that doesn't sound as good as at least a slight overwind. 5.7 neck, 5.9 middle, and 6.4k bridge should work brilliantly. I'm sure you would be happy with a set like that!
@@guitar_md I am very grateful to you for your help, it helps me a lot. Thanks for sharing what you know. It's not very normal for someone to do that. Greetings from Peru.
Hey, great video, very usefull indeed. Even so, I still have a question, ¿is there any sort of rule for the number of turns that the pickup has to have? (I apologize beforehand if there are any errors in this text, english isn't my natal language)
Yes, though this is all based on existing and historical pickup models. Most Fender pickups used 8,000 turns of wire, for example. And most humbuckers used 5,000 turns per coil. There are no rules, but standards to go by. Generally, variations in pickups are measured against historical standards, meaning the pickups made in the '50s and '60s. Only for the sake of comparison though. When you get into making your own pickups there are no rules, and the only limit is your imagination
Also, generally, you can increase by 1,000 turns at a time for a thicker, stronger tone with less treble. So a Strat pickup you might try 9,000 turns, then 10,000, 11,000, etc. To see what you like best. I make some models of pickups with as much as 18,000 turns of wire
@@cesar7907 ET270's are around 9 to 9.5k DCR. I don't know how many turns they use. But based on the DCR, I would suspect they're wound with 43AWG, and maybe around 8,500 to 9,000 turns. Having never worked on one before, that's a total guess. But not a bad place to start. The best way is to have a known DCR of the pickup, and then test your guess by winding it out. I'd probably wind to 7,000 turns of 43 and then see what the DCR was, and keep adding wire accordingly until I got to the 9 - 9.5k range. But a reading that high leads me to believe it's 43. I recently rewound a Univox single coil bass pickup that actually has 8,000 turns of 44AWG. That DCR reading came out to around 11k. I used 8500 turns to beef it up. Traditionally they're about 10.5k in the bridge and around 10.2k in the neck. So again, total guess, but try 8,000 of 43 to start. Most single coil pickups, especially vintage ones, use around 8,000 turns. Even with the much thinner wire gauges it seemed to be a standard, at least as far as I've seen, on single coils.
@@guitar_md Hey, thanks a lot, you really saved me a bunch of time on research. By the way, I measured the DCR when it still worked (I accidentally broke it down by cutting a section of the winding while trying to check the electronics. I just bought the guitar 4 days ago) and it measured 14 KiloOhms; just to clarify, I used a $16 digital multimeter.
Ive got a question. As it seems, you want the AlNiCo 5 magnets in a strat pickup to have the same amount of magnetization in Gauss. Does that also apply to the staggered Fender Pickups where each magnet has a different height, or are they magnetized with different amounts of Gauss/Tesla? Or does fender charge them all with the same magnet and then every single one has a different Amount of Gauss but that's how they leave it?
All charged the same. I think at factories they use a capacitor discharge machine, or something like that. I use two neodymium magnets but I think this is only what home-based pickup builders do. An original 69 Fender pickup I measured was as follows: E: 1030 Gauss (.693" tall magnet) A: 750 Gauss (.688" tall magnet) D: 950 Gauss (.722" tall magnet) G: 780 Gauss (.720" tall magnet) B: 670 Gauss (.630" tall magnet) E: 950 Gauss (.670" tall magnet) All magnets were .193" in width. I've seen similar variations in a 1955 Strat pickup set, though not as drastic. The 1955 was 1000, 900, 1000, 870, 830, 900, measuring EADGBE. So actually close to what I get now with modern magnets. Variations of a couple hundred Gauss seems to be normal and the meter is also very sensitive to where you hold it so there's some user error as well. Gauss can vary by quite a lot depending on the magnet dimensions. Shorter magnets will hold less of a full charge, and so on. But sometimes even magnets of the same size can hold different charges -- no idea why. I tried re-magnetizing that 69 pickup and it stayed just about exactly the same. It's possible some Alnico 2 rods got mixed up with the Alnico 5. 670 Gauss is very low even for a short magnet and seems like an alnico 2 or alnico 3. So very possible Fender was even mixing them up back in the day.
@@guitar_md ok thx. I was messing around with neodyme magnets in my guitar to attach a slide bar like Paul gilbert does, and messed up my Texas special staggered every time I flipped the pick guard upside down to solder something with the pickup magnets directly touching the neodymes. So to fix them I can just get a simple pickup charger magnet and go through piece by piece? Did I understand that correct? Thanks for your detailed answer. I very much liked the video as well ♥️
@@nickfleiwer5272 I've only personally used the Mojotone pickup magnetizer. Just as easily you could get a small vise and some powerful neodymium magnets and put them on -- making sure you've got the opposite poles facing each other. I show the process -- which is very quick -- in my Pickup Bobbin Assembly video. I clamp it all the way in the vise loosely, then back off a little, and move the pickup back and forth a few times before pulling it out.
@@guitar_md lets pretend i had the mojotone magnitizer, do you think its a problem, that the staggered magnets cant touch the neodyme at once? Or do they just get magnetized fine, because the magnet field is still strong enough and must not touch the magnet?
At 5:19 you say your cheap multimeter measures zero resistance. But it doesn't. " 0.L" reading is not zero resistance but "overload" meaning the measured resistance is higher than the current range setting is capable of. It's telling you the resistance is greater than 2MΩ. That you get a reading using the pickup leads suggests you were not getting electrical connection through the surface of solder at the terminals.
Good catch! Wasn't aware of the "overload" reading. On this multimeter, with the probes touching absolutely nothing, by default it reads 0.L or 0L depending on the setting (20k or 200k), so I just assumed it was not getting a reading. Upon further reading, apparently this means "open loop" or "open line" as well. I suppose "overload" is the same thing -- an open circuit/open loop, not connected at either end and with extremely high resistance. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for catching this and letting me know! I depend on commenters like you to catch any mistakes I make, and it greatly contributes to the quality of my videos.
Some days ago my Rick 620 neck pickup doesn't work. I unscrewed plastic cover checked wire but found nothing wrong. Assembly back the cover and the neck pickup is back to work. Wondering what's wrong...
Most likely a shoddy solder joint or a ground wire touching something it shouldn't be. I'd double check the pickup with a multimeter, disconnected from the guitar circuit, to verify that it's working correctly -- -- but any time I've seen this, the problem is either that the solder joint on one of the pickup leads is not solid enough and it intermittently cuts out, or a ground in the guitar circuit is touching a hot connection it shouldn't be touching. Let me know if the issue persists after you've reassembled it. Intermittent cutting out is always one of the two. Weak solder joint, a wire that's twisted and coming loose, or a ground touching something it shouldn't.
@@guitar_md thanks for your reply. No I didn't do any troubleshooting yet. But I noticed the treble knobs don't work once selecting neck while bass knobs don't work once selecting bridge. Cause I earned the used Rick lately, now I am in confusion. Shall I disconnect all 5 potentiometers for troubleshooting?🏳️
@@蔡正蓁 Sometimes I'll do that. Disconnecting everything and testing them individually to make sure they work is always a foolproof method. Though in this case it sounds like an incorrect wiring issue. I'd double and triple check to make sure every single wire is going exactly where it should be. Sometimes it's a single wire going to the wrong connection point that you didn't catch. Worst case scenario you can always disconnect everything completely and then wire it from scratch using an accurate diagram.
I'm not sure I understand the question completely, but I do have another video where I splice some wire onto the start lead, and got it to work again, if that's what you mean. If it's a baseplate with a separate ground wire, you can move that wire to a separate ground and the pickup will still work. That would be like on a Telecaster with a metal baseplate, if it has two wires (start and finish) and a separate ground wire for the baseplate. Most of the time the baseplate is soldered directly to the start eyelet. For the eyelet connections: there's a start and finish lead for every single coil. They both have to be solidly connected for the pickup to work. Sometimes re-soldering is necessary to re-flow the joints. If the delicate wire gets disconnected from one of the eyelets at *either* end, the pickup will not work. You can verify this with a multimeter -- you'll get no DCR reading at all if one of those wires is disconnected. Let me know if that answered your question or if I misunderstood. Thank you!
@@guitar_md I've found the answer in this video, and my PU is working again. Sorry to confuse you, because I'm not very good at English. So thank you very much sir. AUTO SUB
@@ellpapz6082 You're welcome! Thank you for reaching out, and don't hesitate to do so in the future. And no need to apologize. I apologize if I came off as rude! That's awesome you got your pickup working again. I'm so glad to have helped! Thank you again!
i would like to buy an electric guitar and learn how to play but i’m hesitant to spend a lot of money on something i don’t i’ll stick with. i found a guy selling a used guitar and amp for only 50 dollars but he says that one of the pickups is defective but that “it still sounds great” would it be worth it to buy? or is a defective pickup something quite bad?? 😭
Defective pickup is a very easy fix, though it does require the ability to solder. As long as one pickup works and you can plug it in, I'd say it's definitely worth it. Soldering is not that hard -- I'd actually love to make an instructional video on it for beginners -- and these days you can buy replacement pickups for very, very cheap. I've been making and rewinding pickups for over 5 years now and so for me it's easy! But even for a beginner, all you need to fix is a pickup is some basic soldering skills, and a replacement pickup. My only other advice is if you want a fully functioning guitar, you can get one *without* an amp, and then spend some money on a basic audio interface for your computer. You can use a program like Reaper and some free plugins to get some great tones out of your guitar without the need for a dedicated amp. Audio interfaces are also excellent for general use, like with movies, shows, and videogames, when you pair them with a couple studio monitors. I use an old Gen 2 Scarlett 2i2 interface, and some Presonus Erris 3.5" speaker studio monitors. I think the studio monitors were around $90 when I bought them on eBay, and the interface I got for around $120, also on eBay. Plugs into the USB port on your computer or laptop. The studio monitors get crystal clear audio and paired with the interface, just great audio quality all around, including for your guitar. Anyway. As long as one pickup works, you'll be OK. And 50 bucks is a great deal. Replacing a pickup yourself is cheap but does require a soldering gun or soldering iron, some flux and solder, and some wire cutters/strippers. So not the smallest investment. But man. 50 bucks for both. That's a deal! If you can live with the working pickup until you get the skills to replace the broken one, I'd do it. Other alternative is get a guitar for 50 dollars that's fully functional, or less if you can find one -- then invest the money you save into an audio interface and some studio monitors. You won't regret it. PreSonus Eris 3.5 -- that's it. I misspelled it as "Erris" earlier. But you get the idea! Hope this helps.
You don’t have to spend $500 on a guitar most important part is the amp and equipment! “I should be able to hand you any guitar and it be slamming” as long as it is set up to your preference tbh a guitar is a guitar
I've had the same issue. I always rely on my DE5000 LCR meter for accurate measurements, including DCR. Never owned an analog multimeter, but my friend has used nothing but analog multimeters for decades. I have an Etekcity multimeter that I use for continuity testing and quick DCR measurements, and find it works much better than my Harbor Freight dirt cheap multimeter.
I have an issue with fender strat. The neck pickup doesn’t seem to react on the low E, A and D lower strings. If I measure the ohms it seems normal. When i was tapping the pickup with a screwdriver to hear how it was reacting to it I noticed the pickup is not magnetic or hardly. I’m guessing the pickup needs replacement, but I’d like to know what is exactly broken about it.
If it's working fine on the G/B/E strings, it's possible the magnets were never charged, or somehow lost their charge. For alnico poles, I use the Mojotone magnetizer, which is two strong neo bar mags epoxied to the jaws of a small vise. Tighten it until it touches both ends of the polepieces, loosen slightly and remove the pickup. For bar mags, like the ceramic mags in Mexican or other Strat pickups with steel poles, they'd need to be replaced. Uncharged magnets are extremely uncommon but it can happen. One way to know for sure is with a WT10A or other gauss meter. On the cheaper side, you can get a Schatten polarity tester. They're handy to have on hand anyway. It isn't precise, but you can feel the magnetic pull and gauge the strength by feel. It'll also show you if all the poles are the same polarity as they should be. You could also use a refrigerator magnet or any other weak magnet to test it. If you're not getting any pull on the EAD strings, the gauss is either not there or not high enough.
@@guitar_md Thanks for the response, but I opened te guitar and found out the magnets were all over the place, cause the glue was probably very bad. Never crossed my mind that was a possibilty.
@@elspoocho4637 Were they ceramic bar magnets? That can happen, sometimes I've seen simple hot melt glue holding those on, which can fail. Were you able to get them back on? Great if you got it working again!
@@guitar_md Yeah I think they were, I managed to glue them back in the right way. They were like this: images.reverb.com/image/upload/s--FbgGztvs--/f_auto,t_large/v1539712487/hroesz2uavd0bxmomw8t.jpg It's not my own guitar, so I won't be playing it, but it sounded ok enough and not out of phase.
I have a pickup problem, hoping someone can take a guess... I had out of town music store work on my HSS Stratocaster (Select series), after I gotta it back, the middle and neck pickups sounded weak and thin while the bridge pickup sounds muddy, (all on their own), The work was done out of town and it's next to impossible to get back to this so-called music store, can anybody take a guess as to what is going on? I lifted the pickguard and all the wire connections look good, I'm going to change the pickup selector just because it's been used a lot, but then again if somebody has any information as to help me assess this problem I really would appreciate it 👍
Sorry I took so long to reply! Did you get it sorted out? First thing is to desolder the pickups from the circuit and test them independently. You want to rule that out first.
I use it to magnetize non-magnetized polepieces when I'm building pickups. Generally, lack of Gauss strength is only an issue when you're building your own pickups, and forget to magnetize the polepieces. In already assembled pickups, I've only seen really low Gauss strength on one polepiece one time -- and it was due to either a defective magnet, or damage that caused it to lose its magnetism. At that point you just need to replace the magnet, but it's extremely rare that this would happen. However, you *can* use the magnetize to flip the magnetic polarity as well. Sometimes that's a problem. If people want two pickups to be hum-cancelling when used together, but they're both the same magnetic polarity, you can't do that. So in that case, charging the poles in the opposite direction will do the trick.
@guitar_md thank you. But you are talking about ferrite polepieces. Iron. Not magnetic ones. Not AlNiCo or Neodymium. I have a question. Does exist a diy way to add enamell to wire where it misses?
@@christianurgese I don't know of any way to add enamel to wire -- there might be, but the polyurethane-nylon coating they use that's applied at the factory might be hard to come by and I'm not sure if just brushing it on would be adequate. The polepieces I'm talking about are AlNiCo polepieces, specifically, on Fender style pickups. I have made pickups with iron polepieces, usually using a neodymium bar magnet permanently attached to the bottom to magnetize them
I just installed some fat 50s and my neck pickup won’t work , the bottom side tap tests but it’s like it’s shorting out … I gotta get batteries for my meter in the morning so figured I’d try to ask here ….. hard to know anything without my meter
@@guitar_md no dice , I sent a message to where I bought them for a refund /exchange…. Brand new custom shop pups, I shouldn’t have to monkey with them for the cash a guy pays
My finish wire broke even after I heated it up , it was broken at the eyelet that’s why I’m trying to finish it , I can’t find the end of the finish wire ?
Check out my Seymour Duncan pickup repair video here: ruclips.net/video/1V6MWrivDio/видео.html I also am going to be uploading a video about how to splice magnet wire. I wasn't able to show it in that video, though I do show the end result and explain the process. Start wires can get completely buried in the coil if they break. You can see in the Seymour Duncan pickup repair video that I got very lucky -- there was just enough wire lead left for me to dig it out carefully with an Xacto knife, and then splice some new magnet wire onto it. If you really cannot find the lead for the finish wire, there isn't much you can do, but I will say that if the finish wire broke, it should be somewhere on the outside of the coil. There is no way for the finish wire to get buried in the coil if it breaks, so it has to be on the outside somewhere. You might be able to prod around carefully with a toothpick or your thumbnail of fingernail. Magnet wire is very delicate but it can stand up to some degree of stress if you're careful, especially after it's been wax potted, which 99% of pickups are. But again, if the finish wire broke, it has to be somewhere on the outside of the coil, right around the top layer. There's no way for it go any deeper, so check the entire surface of the coil. Once you find it, it's simply a matter of unwrapping it a few turns, then tying it around the finish eyelet once you've removed the finish eyelet hookup wire *and* the solder from the finish eyelet joint. The start wire breaking is usually a death sentence for a pickup, unless you can dig it out like I did in the Seymour Duncan pickup repair video. Let me know how it goes!
@@christylasure7072 Let me know if you'd want to get in touch with me to rewind it for you. Done many, many Strat pickups in my time and am a huge fan of them
Thank you. This is correct. And one reason I'm displeased that RUclips doesn't allow re-uploading of video files (like Vimeo does), while retaining views/comments -- it also doesn't have annotations anymore, so I can't overlay text pointing out the error over the video footage itself. A great example of an open circuit was from yesterday. I had a fantastic opportunity to rewind an original 1951 Nocaster neck pickup. The tap test and the multimeter test both confirmed an open circuit -- due to the parasitic capacitance, a very small amount of AC can make its way through the coil. But it results in a very weak, anemic tone without *almost* no output. Like 1/10th or less the volume that it's supposed to be. Interestingly, the magnets were not very rusted. There were a couple very small spots of rust. That's all it takes. But I think most people expect to find severe, grotesque corrosion on these relatively ancient pickups. The few true vintage rewinds I've done, there was no super obvious corrosion. But all it takes is a little bit to cause an open circuit. One strand of wire gets disconnected and then the only signal that gets through is riding on that capacitance. Anyway, thanks again for the comment! Comments help boost my channel and I also appreciate that it adds a lot to my videos. Comments like yours are the next best thing to annotations in the video showing corrections to incorrect information. I'm a stickler for perfection and I do appreciate that you pointed out this mistake, and I only hope people look through these comments so they don't think 0L means 0 resistance. Wish I had known that at the time!
Would be curious for your input as I'm having trouble understanding this: The meter defaults to O.L when it's in Ohm mode, meaning the default reading when there is no continuity between the probes. I took this to mean "open line" in Ohm mode, or "open circuit." The interruption in the case of a broken pickup is a severed coil. So imagine you have one probe touching a piece of wire, then the other probe touching another piece of wire, and the pieces of wire are not connected to each other. This is the case in a broken pickup. In my mind, this might as well be 'zero resistance,' as the DCR of a coil is dependent on the coil being continuous and unbroken. DCR is in this case basically a measure of how long the wire is. When the coil is broken, you might as well be putting the probe on two separate, unconnected wires -- there is no resistance in the coil, because the coil is broken, and is therefore incapable of forming continuity between the probes. So the meter defaults to O.L, meaning "open line" or "open circuit." My semantics are probably off. I think I've read that in default on Ohm mode, the meter is trying to read infinite resistance, which is why by default, the meter reads O.L in ohm mode when the probes are not connected to anything. I'm not brushed up on all that, but for simplicity's sake, 'zero resistance' seems to make more sense to me. The meter gets no reading because the wire is broken, and one end is not connected to the other. So it's defaulting to its native infinite resistance in OL mode on the Ohm setting, but the coil itself is not creating infinite resistance -- how could it when it's effectively two separate strands of wire not connected to each other? Even if infinite resistance is the technically correct term, it's hard to wrap my head around it and I think it makes what's happening here seem more confusing. It makes it seem like the break in the coil is creating an overload of resistance, when in reality the meter is simply defaulting back to its native OL reading in Ohm mode, because the two ends of the coil are no longer connected to each other and are not able to create DS resistance from one end to the other as a result. Sorry for the huge writeup here but this has been on my mind for a while. Would appreciate if you could clarify this for me and see what you think, and if my reasoning makes sense to you. I like to be as accurate as possible and I hate it when I miss things in my videos but I also want things to be clear and easy to understand for my viewers who might not be so well acquainted with these concepts.
"In my mind, this might as well be 'zero resistance,' as the DCR of a coil is dependent on the coil being continuous and unbroken. DCR is in this case basically a measure of how long the wire is." I honestly do not get your ways of thought here. Resistance is the capability of a medium to let electrons flow from one point to another. If there is no connection between the two points the resistance is infinite, if they are connected the resistance approaches zero. Anything between gives an according resistance value. This is independant on the application, the medium or the connectivity. @@guitar_md
@@Andreas_Straub I appreciate the clarification! My thoughts simply come from not being formally educated in any electrical theory at all. It's an embarrassing mistake, but hopefully you can understand how a layperson would mistake "infinite resistance" for "zero resistance." For a layperson like me, you set the multimeter to measure Ohms, you see a "O," and you just assume it means zero resistance, because the meter is set to measure resistance. I didn't even think about what the "L" meant! I just ignored it. Embarrassing, I know. But again, I'm a layperson. If the screen displays could show an infinity symbol instead of 0.L that would make things much clearer. I simply was unfamiliar with O.L meaning open line / open circuit. Now I know if you touch both probes together, you'll get 0.00 resistance, as you said, and when the probes are not touching, the resistance is infinite, not zero. Now this makes a whole lot more sense. Again I thank you for your explanation and clarification, it's really helped me a lot. Fortunately, despite the semantic error, pickup coils are simple enough that one can successfully use a multimeter as a diagnostic even without any knowledge of these things. However, I will not make this mistake again if I do future videos on similar topics. Your comment was very helpful to me and I appreciate you taking the time to explain this concept to me to help me understand. Thank you again!
Yes, that's right. Or "open line" or "open loop" meaning an incomplete circuit. I was unaware of that definition at the time but it would have been nice to include that! The confusion came from my cheaper multimeter showing OL, though since it defaults to OL when not touching anything I thought it just meant "zero resistance" - but open line or open loop is the correct term, and you could say they default to OL because on default, the probes are not touching anything and are not forming a circuit. So zero resistance is incorrect, as you pointed out. My more accurate meter showing very high resistance in the Mega Ohms range depicts what's actually going on more clearly. Very high resistance, as you said. Just another reason I wish RUclips would allow re-uploading of video files while keeping view count and comments. I'm currently redoing many other videos as I usually come into new or more accurate information a while after posting my videos. They also don't have annotations anymore, which used to allow text overlays containing updated information. It's definitely very frustrating especially having OCD and wanting all my information to be correct -- I hope at least people can see comments like yours, and that can take the place of annotations as far as corrections/edits go. Appreciate the input and correction!
@knoflookmetui Thank you! Just please don't hesitate to point out anything inaccurate anywhere else -- I rely on comments like yours for the sake of my viewers. Sometimes I get things wrong and having it pointed out to me really helps a lot. All that matters is that the information is accurate so if I ever get anything wrong I always want someone to let me know
$600 on my guitar and it still sounds like crap. It sounds like its made from a tin can. This video makes me realize that maybe my pickups are just trash... guess my first clue could have been the solder on the corner of the pickups... New pickups it is!
Pickups are definitely a personal preference. I've been making my own for many years and, for example, have come to prefer much higher output bridge pickups with a fat, aggressive tone. Sounding like it's in a tin can implies a resonant frequency that's much higher than you'd like -- either that or it has a wire break similar to the pickup in this video, which lost all low end and had very low output. High resonant frequency is just fancy talk for fewer turns of wire, resulting in a lower output pickup with more high end -- certainly, for some people, too much high end!
@@guitar_md Its hard for me to explain what the sound issue is other than saying, I know something is wrong lol The theory behind it being a break in the wire and only passively sending signal makes sense to me because the sound lacks punch and overall tone but it still makes sound... Also, my tone knob only works on max and cuts out when you try to adjust it... Fun times. Oh and never mind the fact that the pickups have no covers over them... just some cheap cloth covering the wire wrap...
@@michaelpaynotta7873 I'd definitely try some new pots or redoing the wiring on the current ones you have -- occasionally I've run into very bizarre issues that only resolved upon using new components. I actually am having an issue, too, with some brand new push/pull CTS volume pots. The taper seems off on the volume pot, and I can tell when I use a Fuzz Face, as they're extremely sensitive to volume pot taper. I have yet to figure out exactly what's causing this, but I'm thinking it must be a wiring issue as I've never had a single issue, ever, with a brand new CTS pot, and two of them in a row are having this issue. If the tone pot is only working on max, it's possible that the carbon path is worn out, so as you turn it down the wiper isn't contacting anything and it's bypassing the pot. Have you tested the DCR of the pickup? As a diagnostic tool it can be quite useful. If it's measuring within the normal range, it might be something going on with your wiring/control section, such as a bad pot. Let me know if you find anything!
It doesn't explain what to do if the pickup copper wire has broken 1mm away from the bobbin, you can't grab 1mm of wire with any tweezers well enough to pull it out to unwind.... Broken by the eyelet is not a problem sure we can all do that...
I actually made a video doing a repair exactly like that here a couple months later: ruclips.net/video/1V6MWrivDio/видео.html What you're describing is a *start* wire break, which means unwinding the wire is *NOT POSSIBLE,* and attempting to do so *WILL KILL YOUR PICKUP PERMANENTLY.* The *ONLY* repair is to splice new wire onto the broken wire. Notice how carefully I work to coax out the broken wire, to expose just enough length to splice to. And I do mention in the title that I got lucky. Most of the time, if the start wire breaks, it's going to be buried in the coil so far that it's impossible to get out. There simply may not be enough length to splice to. That means all you can do is tear down the entire coil and rewind it from scratch. However, it may be possible to splice using an ultra fine tip on the soldering iron, with even less wire length than I showed in that video. Think of it like this: if it can't be spliced, the pickup needs to be rewound anyway, so you have nothing to lose by attempting to splice. It's either that or a full rewind, period. Now, if the *FINISH* wire is broken, you can *always* unwind it -- it will simply peel off of the coil with very little effort. Start wire breaks are a death sentence for a pickup unless you have the skills to expose the broken wire *and* splice new wire on *AND* enough luck to have enough wire left to do all of the above. Hope this helps. I am working on a new video going over wire splicing magnet wire in great detail. In the above video, unfortunately, I couldn't show the actual splicing, only the aftermath. In the new video I'm working on, I show the actual splice in real-time, and in great detail with a high clarity macro lens. In that case, it's a break in the wire mid-wind, so I'm using much greater lengths of wire -- but the process is still exactly the same. Check out my playlist called "Pickup Building, Testing & Repair" for all the videos I have about this stuff so far, and to stay up-to-date. I'm always adding to my playlists as I compile more videos, and my intention is for them to be a repository of information for people like you that want their questions answered. I'm doing my best to organize my playlists and keep them up-to-date. Again, hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions! ruclips.net/p/PLN0ZS8PEGeRYHbxoypl6B8tRj0kVU41Na
I agree. In reality, I always end up tearing down and rewinding coils with very, very few exceptions if I ever run into issues with a pickup not functioning properly. The ins and outs of what's wrong can get complicated, but the solution is almost always very simple and the same for every one...tear it down and do it over the right way. Although I don't have a setup yet for unwinding pickups on my PenPal lathe. That would speed things up considerably -- unwinding pickups by hand is absolute lunacy beyond a few turns, in my opinion!
@@guitar_md I bet Fender had winders, would have been a nightmare winding pickups by hand. I arrived at your video searching for pickup repair. My neck pickup has a very low output / volume compared to the middle and bridge. I thought to just replace it, they are cheap enough, as in $15. each. But I also would like to repair it. Just don't know what the problem is but will try refreshing the solder points, which is simple. Thank you.
@@zurdoremi They absolutely did. Just a lot of people advise unwinding pickups by hand to find the wire break, but I think 99% of the time it's an exercise in futility unless you find a break within a few dozen turns. Unwinding pickups is much trickier than winding them and most people I've heard of unwind by hand -- not for me. In your case, the first thing to do is to detach the pickup from the circuit. Then test DC resistance. A visual inspection helps too, though if the start or finish wire were disconnected, you'd get no sound at all. Weaker output makes me think there's either a wire break or a cold solder joint either in the circuit or on one of the pickup eyelets. Re flowing the solder joints and re testing DCR is usually all you need to see whether a rewind is in order or not. Always keep in mind, no matter the issue, a single coil pickup is simply a single long strand of wire soldered at each end. If it gets detached from either end, or there's a break anywhere in that strand, it won't work. Very simple but sometimes very difficult to identify exactly where the issue is!
I can 100% assure you that this is not remotely an issue. And it's easy to verify this with a Gauss or Teslameter. The model i use is a WT10A Teslameter. A screwdriver tap test will have absolutely no impact on the Gauss of the magnets whatsoever and will not damage the pickup in any way whatsoever. To deliberately de-Gauss pickups, I use Alnico polepieces with the same polarity as the polepiece I want to de-magnetize. You can feel the magnetic repulsion, and then you force the magnet down on top of it anyway. Magnetic attraction will not de-gauss, and magnetic attraction is what happens with the pickup tap test. The magnetic repulsion mentioned earlier *will* de-magnetize a pickup, but also not that much, maybe 150-200 Gauss. For example, when degaussing an A5 mag with another A5 mag, I commonly see reductions to about 800 Gauss from 1000 Gauss.And that's with taking a fully charged A5 polepiece of the same polarity and forcing it down directly on top of the polepiece I want to de-gauss. You'll also notice that the polepiece used to de-gauss the other polepiece will lose a ton of Gauss strength, and will need to be re-charged in order to de-Gauss further polepieces. A tap test with a metal screwdriver will magnetize the metal, but you'll notice that the screwdriver tip is actually attracted to the polepiece, not repelled by it. This is similar to how two pickups being attracted to each other and having their polepieces in direct contact will also not de-gauss them. It looks scary, but magnets getting attracted to each other and touching each other directly will not affect their Gauss strength whatsoever. You can test this with two pickups, let their polepieces attract and stick to each other directly -- measure them before and after, and you'll see zero change in Gauss strength on either pickup. It's the forcing together of two same-polarity magnets that de-gausses them. Forcing together two magnets that have *magnetic repulsion* -- *that* will result in a loss of magnetism.
The most understandable and complete video I've seen on guitar pickups. Simply Amazing!!! Thanks for that kind of videos!!!!
Thanks so much! Really appreciate the kind words! Also check out my new video I published today about how to measure guitar pickups:
ruclips.net/video/lHYsQGK5PoY/видео.html
I'm going to keep posting more content, so stay tuned. Would love to do more videos on pickup winding and pickup specifications. Thanks again so much for the comment!
You’ve restored my faith in the internet. Thanks. I think.
Thanks so much! Be sure to check out my Pickup Building, Rewinding, Testing & Repair playlist here if you're interested. I keep it updated with the newest versions of all my videos:
ruclips.net/p/PLN0ZS8PEGeRYHbxoypl6B8tRj0kVU41Na
I have a lot more on the way as well. Always working on more. Thanks again for the support!
You’ve answered a number of my questions regarding pickups. Very informative. Great presentation.
You're most welcome. Thanks so much for letting me know this video was helpful to you!
@@guitar_md yea I ended up just sending them back for a replacement set but I definitely learned a lot by watching and listening to you. I just got back into guitars about 2 years ago and honestly the tech side of it is where I spend most of my time. When I finally setup a guitar correctly and felt that difference, the victory lap inside my brain was something else lolololol
I'm in big trouble. This video is a great learning tool. I simply pushed all the wires into the coil, taped them waxed them and now I might not try them. I do however know a lot more about it now, Thank you.
I don’t know anything about guitars and even I’m learning. Another awesome video.
Thank you so much!
Probably one of the best videos on RUclips.
Thanks so much. This means a lot to me! Got a lot more videos on the way, and a lot more videos about pickups planned. Stay tuned!
My pickup is back alive thanks to you.
Awesome, glad to hear it!
Excellent demonstration and information on pickup operation and repair!! Thanks! 👍🙏
You're welcome. Thanks so much for the comment, it helps a lot to spread this information to other curious people. Appreciate you!
Millions of thanks. I have already swapped the pickup switch, the volume and tone knobs when after your video i gave a try and re-soldered (actually just melted) the solder points on the pickup. Everything works.
You're welcome! I'm so happy that this video helped you. Thanks so much for letting me know, made my day!
Cool content !
Just a little coment , O.L is not zero resistance , it is infinite resistance . In another words - 'open circuit' .
Thank you for sharing .
Would be curious for your input as I'm having trouble understanding this: (repost from another reply I wrote recently):
The meter defaults to O.L when it's in Ohm mode, meaning the default reading when there is no continuity between the probes. I took this to mean "open line" in Ohm mode, or "open circuit."
The interruption in the case of a broken pickup is a severed coil. So imagine you have one probe touching a piece of wire, then the other probe touching another piece of wire, and the pieces of wire are not connected to each other.
This is the case in a broken pickup.
In my mind, this might as well be 'zero resistance,' as the DCR of a coil is dependent on the coil being continuous and unbroken. DCR is in this case basically a measure of how long the wire is.
When the coil is broken, you might as well be putting the probe on two separate, unconnected wires -- there is no resistance in the coil, because the coil is broken, and is therefore incapable of forming continuity between the probes. So the meter defaults to O.L, meaning "open line" or "open circuit."
My semantics are probably off. I think I've read that in default on Ohm mode, the meter is trying to read infinite resistance, which is why by default, the meter reads O.L in ohm mode when the probes are not connected to anything.
I'm not brushed up on all that, but for simplicity's sake, 'zero resistance' seems to make more sense to me. The meter gets no reading because the wire is broken, and one end is not connected to the other.
So it's defaulting to its native infinite resistance in OL mode on the Ohm setting, but the coil itself is not creating infinite resistance -- how could it when it's effectively two separate strands of wire not connected to each other?
Even if infinite resistance is the technically correct term, it's hard to wrap my head around it and I think it makes what's happening here seem more confusing.
It makes it seem like the break in the coil is creating an overload of resistance, when in reality the meter is simply defaulting back to its native OL reading in Ohm mode, because the two ends of the coil are no longer connected to each other and are not able to create DS resistance from one end to the other as a result.
Sorry for the huge writeup here but this has been on my mind for a while. Would appreciate if you could clarify this for me and see what you think, and if my reasoning makes sense to you.
I like to be as accurate as possible and I hate it when I miss things in my videos but I also want things to be clear and easy to understand for my viewers who might not be so well acquainted with these concepts.
Great video. My modified 50s Strat randomly had the humbucker stop working (really quiet and thin). So I tested the resistance and got a 0 reading. It's a new guitar that was stored safely, and just stopped working overnight. The pickguard doesn't make a complete seal around that pickup so I thought maybe some dust/hair got inside. I hit it with the electric fan duster (on a low setting) and checked the resistance again. It actually worked and sounds great now lol. Hopefully that helps somebody.
That was a great video very informative. Thank you for your expert explanations.
Liked and subscribed! This is all the basic info for beginners like me to start dig into pickup.
Thanks for all the super helpful tips and the detail explaination man! I'm going to buy a winding machine and some wires to repair pickup real soon.
More than happy to help! So thrilled you found this video useful. Thank you!
Thanks so much for your detailed and very good video production
I recently acquired a Samick KJ-640 and it has a Single in the neck and an Humbucker in the bridge position and overall it's an amazing 24 year old guitar.
The problem is whenever the neck pickup is either selected by itself or blended with the bridge, I get a ton of extra (not normal) noise.
So in my setup of it and after pulling the neck pickup and upon close inspection, I found the start & finish wire floating around inside the pickup cover, attached to the start and finish wires.
I also discovered that someone had wrapped the bobbin with conductive aluminum tape over the black nonconductive tape.
That's odd I said to myself. After testing with an ohms meter after the removal of the two tapes, i got no (0) reading. The finish (positive) lead wire then promptly broke while handling it.
My plan is to repair it. I'd like to keep it as close to stock looking (and sounding) as possible.
The bobbin width on it is quite a bit thinner than what's available on the marketplace now, so I want the original Samick cover to fit and reparing or rewinding seems like the best option.
So I'm going to try your great techniques suggested and see if I can repair it.
If not, then I would consider having it rewound, and you sound like the details oriented person who could do it.
Do you have some contact info, where I could contact you and discuss the details?
Thanks again
Sorry I didn't see this earlier! You can reach me at:
guitarmdofficial@gmail.com
I'd be curious to take a look to see what you're dealing with here. Feel free to contact me at that e-mail address. I'd like to see some pictures if possible. Thanks for reaching out!
I just fixed a rare jazz bass pickup using the soldering techniques you demonstrated in this video. 5 minutes of watching, 5 minutes of soldering, and BAM, a refurbished $100+ pickup. Thanks, you da Man!
You are a master at explaining clearly. I have a Phatcat style P90 that is doing the same thing.(thin weak sound and no reading). I can now see what may be wrong but I lack the skills and the tools to fix it. It's going to die in a drawyer.
Thanks so much for the comment! If you'd like to send it to me for a rewind, let me know. My e-mail is md101089@hotmail.com.
I haven't seen a Phatcat P90 before but I'd be curious to see if I could get it up and running again. Could be better than letting it waste away!
I don't know how I thought pickups were made but I'm suddenly finding it very difficult to spend $200 on some new ones. What could could possibly be different about a set of fender pickups that cost $100 and a set that costs $300? I'd at least want like the box to say something like "wound by trained butterflies" or "each inch of our wire is kissed by a priest", but I can't imagine what's actually different.
This was interesting and cool btw. I'll assume you weren't just making this all up
Basically: inductance and resonant frequency, and amplitude at that frequency, for a given pickup model (Strat, Tele, PAF style humbucker, etc.), is the best indicator of tone in a pickup.
The challenge? These specs are almost never listed. Inductance is occasionally listed, but resonant frequency and amplitude at that frequency are never listed. I use a USB oscilloscope and a Ken Willmott Integrator and an "exciter coil" (dummy coil), as well as an LCR meter, to run tests on my pickups: inductance and capacitance tests, and bode plots.
This all sounds like gibberish to the layperson. Think of it like this: EQ. Pickups have a flat EQ, but have a resonant peak -- one frequency where they will generate the most amplitude. This is the "voice" of the pickup. Its character. Much like your own voice.
However, unlike humans, pickups are much simpler. In general, they have one resonant frequency, and a pickup of the same make and model (Strat, Tele, PAF, etc.) that has the same or a very similar resonant frequency, will sound the same or very similar.
For the most part, how many turns of wire you use is what makes the difference here. 7,000 turns of wire will sound brighter and have a higher resonant frequency than 8,000 turns of wire. More turns of wire = less high end, and Less turns of wire = more high end.
That's why "underwound" pickups are clear and bright and sparkly, and "overwound" pickups are fat and thick and punchy. More wire also means more output.
There is no "magic," but the mystique serves the purpose of smoke and mirrors, and keeps people thinking there is something special about a $500 set of pickups. I've been winding pickups for years now and I cannot get on board with dishonest marketing. Though there is plenty of room for novel designs and pickups that achieve sounds that others don't.
But it's all a fine line, and all has to do with EQ of the pickup -- which is, keep in mind, a single resonant frequency, or its "voice." There is no such thing as deliberately winding "lows" or "highs" into a coil. The method of winding, in my opinion, is most likely irrelevant. The design of the pickup is what matters, and its resonant frequency or "voice."
Anyway. I could keep going, but let me know if any of this made sense to you or helped you. Or confused you more! It's a very deep topic and it makes my head kinda hurt just thinking about it!
I have a bridge pickup on a new bass which works expect for the high string. The magnet under that particular string doesn’t seem to be working. Other than that I’d imagine the wiring is ok. Thoughts ??
I had similar feelings believing it's all propaganda just to show the majority of us how pathetic we are on guitar so we would just forget the whole thing and take up stained glass window construction. I've heard left handed guitarists are the one really pushing that agenda. yep!!
You’ve answered every question about pickups I’ve had ,,,thank you
You're welcome. Glad you enjoyed it and found it educational!
Contact me at *guitarmdofficial@gmail.com* if you're interested in having a pickup rewound. I also offer a limited selection of custom handwound pickups. Thanks so much for watching!
Hi, thanks for the video, it is very informative! I have a Tribute Comanche which was mighty fine out of the box, but like a few weeks later ( didn't play much) the vridge pickup was completely dead. No sound at all. So i just wanted to tap it with my pick to check it... Nothing. Then for no reason i tried with a small metal tool and the pickup went back to life instantly! The. A few weeks later it was dead again, but it revived with the same trick. That was last year. Didn't have time to play sonce but today i picked the guitar to test an amp and then surprise (!) the neck pickup is very quiet.... Couldn't being ot back this time, and bridge is ok lol. Nightmarish. Do you think this is tje same problem as in your vid?
Thanks
Thank you, well done and very informative!
You're welcome! So thrilled you found this video and found it helpful!
O.L is not zero resistance. it is infinite resistance.
Yes Open Loop
Great explanation. My only problem is the wire is likely broken (its a JB humbucker, somehow none if the bobbins appear to be working) but i really dont know where, and if things het unlucky is likely at the beginning of the winding
Many Thanks! This info is for me very good! Waldemar from Poland Europe.
You're welcome. Thanks for letting me know!
Brilliant. I learned a lot there, thank you.
You're welcome!
WOW your so cool I knew this was possible thank you Ive subscribed glad I found your channel.
I got a telecaster advertised spanky Twangler pickups but neck sounds dull I think must be break in line would send it back but guitar is perfect just going to order a set of Toneriders anyway.
Any tip on what type of pickups out there that sound like Jimi Hendrix style I could buy? cheers
I occasionally make a Jimi Hendrix set. You can shoot me an e-mail at guitarmdofficial@gmail.com if you're interested.
However, if you check out my recent cover of "Machine Gun" (the intro), I did that with a flat, non-staggered polepiece neck pickup. I made it with 7600 turns, and a .500' coil. Traditionally Strat coils are around .430" tall, and Jimi's pickups were effectively flipped upside down, because he strung a righty Strat backwards.
So...I've made a Hendrix set that emulates that, like basically a lefty set with gray bottoms and plain enamel wire, same bobbin dimensions as he would've had on his Strat.
But I've gotten some great Hendrix tones using pickups I've made to different specifications using more modern components. I think one of the keys to the Hendrix sound is having a slightly underwound neck pickup, which makes it very clear sounding, which works well when rolling the tone knob back. I prefer a .047uF tone cap for the neck pickup and find it works great for nailing Hendrix tones.
Another thing to consider is the coil cable. He used those live and it dropped the resonant frequency of his pickups -- fancy talk for, it made them sound a lot darker. That was live, though. But the coil cable can help with getting that tone if that's what you're after.
excellent video,,ya got down to it,,,,,,,outstanding
A true valued video.
Thank you! I've got more on the way as well. I'd like to make a new "Wiring" playlist and make some videos about diagnosing and repairing faulty cables, guitar circuits including ground issues, and an updated pickup testing video.
I'd especially love to do a simple multimeter 101 guitar tech video showing how to diagnose grounding problems and basic wiring issues very quickly.
Lots more on the way. Thanks for the support!
Thank you!! Luckily I just had a cold solder joint
Thank you for this informative video. 🙏🙏🙏
Absolutely, and thank you for the comment!
My fav guitar tech even on Insta. Thank you bro,.
Thank you so much for all the ongoing support. I really appreciate it a lot!
Thank you for the video
insanely helpful. Thank you!
Absolutely. You're welcome. Thanks for letting me know!
First, congrats for the good work and for helping people. I have a question. The neck pickup of my strat suddenly lost output and sounds thin. It was fine a few months ago but I don't play this guitar, it was on a stand, and next time I plugged it in, the neck pickup was this way. It's not the nasaly "out of phase" sound. It sounds like a neck pickup which has lost bass and volume. I checked all the circuit, re-soldered many points that looked weird, even soldered the pickup hot lead directly to the volume pot, and the problem persists. So it's more likely a problem with the pickup and not something else in the circuit. When i choose position 4 of the switch, neck and middle, and perform the screwdriver test on the poles, the middle pickup produces a bang with more low and more volume, and the neck pickup produces a quieter and thinner sound. I've also noticed this: when I touch the pole pieces with my finger, the neck pickup produces a loud hum, whereas the other 2 pickups also make a hum but it's quieter. Before I go further and start unwinding my pickup, do you have any idea what it could be?
Thanks! As for your pickup:
You need to remove the pickup from the circuit completely, and test it outside of the circuit, to confirm if the pickup is the problem.
An easy way to do this if you don't want to disassemble everything would be to disconnect the hot *and* ground leads from the output jack, then solder the hot and ground leads from the pickup directly to the output jack.
Or just do a quick soldering of the neck pickup leads to the hot and ground leads coming off of the output jack, after you disconnect them from the circuit.
*Then* do the tap test. Also, before you solder the wires from the pickup directly to the output jack, set a multimeter to 20k ohms and test the pickup. If you get no reading at all, the problem is likely the pickup.
But if you get an expected reading, like 6.0k for example, you'll know it's the circuit, not the pickup.
The most important thing is to isolate the pickup for testing. No volume pots, no tone pots, no other pickups anywhere in the circuit -- test that pickup all by itself.
It does seem unlikely that it's a wire break, as how could that happen? But it's possible. Sometimes the magnets corrode and eat away at the wire deep inside the coil. All it takes is one tiny little break anywhere in that wire to kill a pickup.
I also offer very reasonable rates for pickup rewinds if you need extra assistance. Just hit me up at guitarmdofficial@gmail.com and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. I've done many, many pickup rewinds and would be happy to help you out if it comes to that.
Keep me posted! Just let me know if you test that pickup outside the circuit and confirm that it's the pickup itself that's not working. Sometimes pots and switches can go bad in very bizarre ways, and you'd never know.
So the only way to diagnose a pickup is to test it in complete isolation. Re-flowing the solder joints on the pickup eyelets can sometimes work as well. That's always the first thing to try as it's the safest, and least invasive, compared to un-winding.
I always just re-wind, by the way. Unwinding is possible but once you know how to rewind a pickup, it's much easier to just tear the whole coil down and do it right. Unwinding a pickup turn by turn is insanely time consuming and is something I would *personally* never do -- but included it in the video as I'm aware some people do this.
@@guitar_md thanks so much! I’ll do that and post the results.
@@guitar_md Hi! So, I've performed the tests with a multimeter. I disconnected all pickups from the circuit, but I did not remove them from the pickguard because the leads are held together by this big rubber tubing, which came from factory, and I didn't want to remove it. But, I guess it would not make much difference? Anyway, here are the results I got. Bridge reads 6.50, middle reads 6.30, and neck gives me a reading of O.L. So I suppose the problem is problably in the neck pickup itself? What could be my next step? Try to reflow the solder points in the pickup leads?
@@rafaelzengo5534 Yes. Re-flowing the solder leads is always a good idea. And make sure that the leads are connected -- the thin magnet wire going to the eyelets. Sometimes that breaks off and is the reason the pickup doesn't work.
I'd say that's actually the *most* common break. Breaks deeper in the coil typically only happen on much older pickups.
Leaving them in the pickguard is OK.
If the break isn't immediately obvious, usually a rewind is in order. I recently did a repair for someone where I was able to salvage the pickup by splicing on a new lead to the broken magnet wire.
Currently working on a video about it. It'll take a while to finish -- but in the works!
@@guitar_md Hi, good morning. I've re-flown the solder points on the leads and the pickup Is still giving a reading of O.L. I'd love to send it to someone like you to have it repaired, but I live in Brazil, and there is virtually no one in this whole country that does this kind of service. Well, there might be, but very few, and it would be probably far away from me anyway, and cost me a fortune.
So I guess my only option now is a) hope that the break is at the end of the coil, so I can start unwrapping it until I find the break, and re-solder again from there; and b) if the break is buried deep in the coil, I'll have to completely re-wind it.
It could be willing to do the whole thing if that comes to be, my only doubt is if I can find the coil wire easily. These sort of specialized goods are very difficult to find here, we do not have a diversified industry like you guys do over there. Does it need to be a special wire to wind a pickup, or could I just grab any copper thin bobbin wire at the store and start winding it? 7 thousand turns, right? I guess I could do a thousand a day by hand.
I liked this pickup very much, it's an alnico 3 single coil that came in the Squier Classic Vibe 50's, the first version. SOme say it's a Tonerider Surfari pickup, but I don't know, it just sounded very good. Repolacing the pickup is not an option to me now, I'm very short on resources.
Dude that was informative that was good dude I mean dang thanks
Thank you! Very helpful.
Absolutely, glad you enjoyed it!
Excellent video!
Thanks so much! I really appreciate this. Was a ton of work to make this even though it was fun, so I'm thrilled to know someone got value out of it. Thank you!
Thank you for this beautifully produced video. I have a 60s Strat pickup that I’m hoping to get repaired without rewinding.
Do you do this kind of work for other people?
Thanks again,
James
You're welcome. I do, but every time I've worked on a vintage pickup, I ended up having to rewind it. In theory you can trace a wire back to the break, but in 100% of the cases I've seen so far, the problem with older pickups is corrosion, which damages the wire closest to the magnets -- meaning a complete rewind will be necessary, as the wire damage is very likely within the first few hundred wraps.
'60s Jaguar, Strat, Tele and Jazz Bass pickups I've worked on all had that same problem. The good news is there's no reason to fear a rewind -- as long as the turn count is accurate, the DCR doesn't mean anything.
I could always take a look, but just as a heads up I can nearly guarantee a rewind would be in order. If the break isn't at the finish eyelet it's most likely very deep in there.
thank you that was informative. 👏
You've Brian May'd your Trisonics.
This is excellent... thanks!
Absolutely, thanks for letting me know you enjoyed it. Helps get this channel and my videos out to more people!
Thank you! Btw OL = overload
Great information
I have a Lindy Fralin blues special set for a Strat. The neck pick up is dead, it has been for years. I'm trying to solve the problem and found your video. I am getting a connection from the start and end wires to the wire terminals on the pickup and re-flowing the solder with flux may have helped that but didn't fix the pickup. I am getting some readings with a multi meter. With the positive/red lead (from meter) on the white wire connection point on the pickup... i'm getting 14M, 46M 34M on three of the magnet poles. They decrease in value the longer the connection to the meter is maintained. I'm not sure i'm doing this correctly, in your opinion does this mean I have a short against the magnets inside the pick up windings, and the pickup needs rewinding? Thanks for any help or advice.
I've never tested a pickup like that, but there shouldn't be any electrical connection between either of the wires and the polepieces. If you set your meter to continuity mode and test, that's basically the same thing -- and it'll beep if you're touching one of the wires and the polepieces at the same time, if the wire is shorting to the polepieces.
I can almost guarantee the problem is that the magnets corroded, part of the wire broke inside the coil, *and* the wire is making electrical contact with a few of the polepieces as a result. The only real solution in that case would be a full rewind.
I do rewinds all the time and can rewind that pickup for you if you're interested. I have a bunch of 42 gauge single poly nylon wire in stock, which is what the Fralin Blues Specials are wound with. If you'd like to contact me privately, my e-mail address is md101089@hotmail.com. Thanks again for the comment!
Thank you for sharing! outstanding video sub+like bro! keep them coming!
Thank you so much!
great video 😃
Thanks!
What you you recommend if the break is at the start lead. Can’t pull off any slack because all the winds are on top of it
@Giller9 I invented a technique that I call the "knot splice" for exactly this problem:
ruclips.net/video/cNKcELHM_2s/видео.htmlsi=Aer1v1q8v_gI0F8R
Tricky, but it works. The only issue is you'll need separate 42AWG wire to do it.
Another pickup winder named Dale suggested the idea to me of alternatively using copper tape. That should also work, though I haven't tried it yet.
It's very tricky and delicate no matter how you do it, but it is manageable. Sometimes you can tease out a little more length from the start lead with a toothpick if you're very careful.
But basically, the fix involves splicing to that broken start lead so you have enough length to tie around the eyelet and re-solder. I've done this 10 times or so, so far. And it works great, though it is very delicate and finnicky work.
Let me know if you get it!
hi friend...just want to ask why the last three strings of my guitar(lower string G B and E) sound very low that the upper strings,E A and D...
So informative!
Thanks so much! Tried to cram in as much here as I could 🤓
i think ill buy a new one !! haha thanks for the video very educational
You're welcome. And haha. Just as well! 90% of the time a pickup comes in for repair, it needs to be completely rewound.
It was fun designing this little experiment and seeing all the ways pickups can screw up....but the solution is the same *almost* all the time. Cut it all off, and wind it from scratch. Some guys charge more for a rewind than the price of a new pickup to boot!
Thank you so much!! 💕💕💕💕
You're welcome! Thanks so much for the comment and letting me know you enjoyed this video!
Really informative. When you splice the pick up wire together (after a break) should you re-insulate the splice before rewinding it? I can see that the surrounding wires will still be insulated, is that enough? Odd question I guess.
Video here showing a wire splice repair on a Seymour Duncan pickup:
ruclips.net/video/ltoMOXsJU2w/видео.html
When splicing pickup magnet wire, there's no need to re-insulate it. Magnet wire is all insulated, so if you splice a break, the un-insulated splice will still not be in electrical contact with any of the other wire. The insulation on the rest of the wire is absolutely enough, so no extra coating is needed.
And thanks for the comment! I appreciate it! Helps boost my videos in the algorithm and get this out to more people. I also have a revised version of my pickup testing video using an oscilloscope on the way, and I'm very excited about it. Better resolution, image quality, and better instructions and demonstrations. I'm looking forward to showing that in practice as well with choosing a 'recipe' for building a pickup. More on the way -- thanks again!
thank you
FYI, OL is not zero resistance, that is infinite resistance...an open circuit.
Do you repair pickups ? I recently purchased a loaded bass body with Fender vintage noiseless jazz pickups and on the bridge pu , the wire that crosses from the top to the bottom halves is broken as well as a 3rd wire that appears to be the end of the winding and I think goes to the terminal. I have been unsuccessful in removing the coating and soldering the wires together. Your video was very helpful in finding the problem and explaining how to attempt the repair, but I'm just not having much luck as I can't unwind the middle break to get any slack. When I try to remove the coating on the wire, it just breaks.
Yes, I do repair pickups! If you want to reach out to me personally, you can e-mail me at md101089@hotmail.com.
One example is my other video here:
ruclips.net/video/1V6MWrivDio/видео.html
However, I got very lucky there, and 99 times out of 100 the pickup will need to be completely rewound. When there's not enough slack, it can sometimes be impossible to splice new wire on even if you're extremely careful.
Thanks for the great content. Maybe you can help me. There's a problem with my J90C humbucker out of a 1990 Charvel. I followed along your video and see that all poles pass the tap test and there's no shorts to the poles. one coil show 8.7K ohms and the other shows 0L on my Klein MM700. Capacitance shows 0 on the 8.7K coil. Actually the numbers jump around a bit and settle on zero. The 0L coil show 90pF. I think maybe there's an internal break but haven't completely taken it apart. Can you confirm with that info? The sound of the humbucker is weak compared to the 2 single coils in the guitar sound that sound fuller and louder. If the coil is open I'll take it apart and keep my fingers crossed that it's not completely buried.
How are the lead wires? Anything frayed or coming apart? If all the poles are passing the test, it's possible the coil is open. I'd also double check to make sure the humbucker isn't out of phase with itself. That can happen sometimes. That would mean the wrong wires are joined for the connection of the two coils.
It should be finish to finish or start to start for a series connection between the two coils. If it's anything other than that, they'll be out of phase.
Humbuckers are tricky because they're fragile. Have to be very careful on disassembly. Sometimes the internal wires can short out, and the coils will test normally when the pickups are removed from the baseplate/magnets/etc.
Short of unwinding to a break on one coil, all you can do is make sure everything is wired correctly, that no wires are fatigued or stripped, and make sure any exposed leads are fully insulated.
I also don't think I've ever even unwound to a break, though I understand it in theory. I'm working on a dereeler for my winding machine so I can unwind pickups with a machine and turn counter, bur until then, when I get a dead coil, it's rewind time.
I've had a couple humbucker builds go awry when I didn't tape over the "pigtail" leads coming right off the coils. I mean the 28awg hookup wire attached to the magnet wire leads coming off each coil.
It's possible they didn't tape over the coil with those, and they're shorting out. It's the most bizarre thing, but it does happen. Tough to test. You have to be extremely careful taking humbuckers apart.
But that would be the next big step is disassembly and testing the coils separately. Let me know if you make any more progress. Your big hope here is it might not be an actual open circuit, but a contact shorting to ground when it shouldn't be.
@@guitar_md Thanks so much for the in depth response. I pulled it apart and the wiring looks correct with no obvious shorts. I also checked shorts to the baseplate before pulling it apart. Everything looks good. And still 0L resistance on the one coil. Do you think it's worth rewinding the one coil? I could find a suitable replacement for $100.
@badass30gmailcom If you can rewind it cheaply enough it would be worth it. Could be a fun project. If you want, I could do it for you, or give you some tips if you want to try doing it yourself.
I'd have to measure the other coil to know how much to wind the broken one. Could be a fun project. If you want, shoot me an email at md101089@hotmail.com and we can discuss that further. Even including shipping I could take care of that for a lot less $$$ than a new pickup would cost.
@@guitar_md Thanks again. I sent you an email about the pickup.
Thank you.
You're welcome! Thank you for commenting
My neck pickup on my 5 year old strat appears to have died. not really sure, but it doesnt come on when switched to the 5 position. in the 4 position, only the middle pickup works. is it common for new strats to have pickups die so soon. this guitar has not been abused or taken out of my house. doesn't have a scratch on it. the switch and pots are clean sounding and not scratchy. i have a 68 strat as well which never had a pickup issue till this day... hmmm
thanks for the insight my friend, guess i'll dive in and see what i can see.
They can die very quickly. The most common problem is the finish lead coming loose, which fortunately is a very straightforward repair.
If the pickup isn't working, I'd take the pickguard off and test the pickup at the eyelets and/or disconnected from the circuit. If you're not getting a readout then the coil is broken somewhere -- either disconnected from one of the eyelets, or a break inside the coil.
Cold solder joints in the actual circuit are another possibility, and sometimes you get lucky. But if you test the pickup separately, you'll know if that's where the problem lies or not. Let me know how it goes.
@@guitar_md hi, thanks for the reply. lol, i got sidetracked and didn't realize you responded to my question almost a full year ago... anyway, i just decided to open up the pick guard today and put my multi meter on the solder joints of each pickup. the 2 good pickups read 6.9 k ohms, the one that isn't working right read 244k ohms... i'm guessing based on your video, its a broken wire... also, i did the 'tapping the magnets test with the screwdriver through the amp. nice loud sound comes from each magnet, but i remember you saying in the vid that there is still ac conductance going on due to the the wire still contacting and completing the circuit.... anyway, so what would you suspect based on that and what should be my next step? if you see this, your opinion would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance!
Neck pickup reads 0.0 and I heated where the lead strands come in contact with the eyelets...it will then work fine for 2 or 3 days then it will have significant volume drop and sound weak like its shorted. What is the diagnosis? Thanks
If it's working fine for a couple days then not working again, it sounds like there isn't a solid electrical connection at the eyelets. I've had this happen occasionally, and the solution for me has always been tinning the magnet wire *before* tying it around the eyelets. In order to do this on a finished pickup, you'd have to remove the finish lead, suck the solder out of the eyelet, unwrap the wire a couple turns, then tin it, tie it around the eyelet, reload it with solder, and re-solder the lead wire.
If you're not comfortable doing this, you can also try dabbing a little flux on the joint first, before re-flowing the solder, Then tin your iron, re-flux the joint around the *edge* of the flatwork, on that tiny wrap of wire, then very quickly and lightly touch that with the iron. Very, very light and quick touch. Sometimes that can saturate the magnet wire with solder enough to make a more solid connection.
I've rarely had pickups stop working where this wouldn't fix it. It does happen occasionally. But the fact that you're getting it working for *some* of the time is very encouraging. If it was an internal break, re-flowing the eyelet solder joints wouldn't do anything to fix that. Almost *nobody* tins the magnet wire before tying it onto the eyelets. My friend Rob DiStefano from TDPRI taught me that trick. He *always* tins the magnet wire before tying it around the eyelets, which is a practice nobody else uses -- but prevents problems exactly like the one you're having.
In my early days on eBay, I wasn't tinning the wire, and I had a couple people say they had to re-flow one of the solder joints to get the pickup working again. Ever since I started tinning the wire, I've never had that issue again. But of course, unless you're winding your own pickups, you have no control over this. If I had my way, everyone would be doing it from the factory!
Excellent video. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge.
Please can you answer a question. Within what resistance values do the pickups of a stratocaster have to have to get that vintage sound from the 50s?. I mean that bright, but not thin, full-bodied sound. Greetings.
You're welcome! Turn count is far more accurate than DCR -- 7600 turns has been my usual for neck pickups and it works beautifully. I've rewound multiple vintage Strat neck pickups with that turn count (formvar as well as plain enamel) with great results.
DCR can vary depending on winding tension and ambient temperature while testing. Generally speaking though a lot of my neck pickups would end up around 5.7k to 6.0k where they get that clear vintage sound without being too thin. The inductance will be right about 2.0 Henries. That is a bit on the lower side so for a slightly fuller sound you might try 6.2k or around 8200 turns of wire -- that also works great.
But 5.7k 7600 turns was my go to for years. Lately I'm preferring a little more thickness but I also don't play out anymore. The extra clarity from 5.7k / lower turn count is nice when cranking a 4x12. And you can always tame it with the tone control
Thank you very much for answering. Your help is very valuable to me.
It has indicated to me that for the neck pickup the ideal resistance would be 5.7K with a margin of up to 6.0K. For the bridge pickup what resistance would you recommend to maintain the output balance with the other pickups but always keeping that vintage sound?. In the supposed case that the neck has 5.7K, the middle 5.9K, what resistance should the bridge have without being too bright?. (as that position usually sounds). Also, I want to keep as much quack as possible in positions 2 and 4.
I'm asking all of this because I'm deciding to have a custom set made for my fender american deluxe with a rosewood fingerboard.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
I hope you can answer.
@@niltoneduardoalayochavez4395 I'd say 6.4 is good for a bridge pickup. I used to make a set with a 6.7k bridge and I used that for years, other people liked it a lot too.
But doing vintage rewinds, I'd usually use around 8400 turns on the bridge pickup, or 8600, around 6.4 or 6.5k.
The bridge is naturally very bright sounding and for me personally I wouldn't want below 6.4. Many vintage Strat pickups were the same as the neck and middle, but to my ear that doesn't sound as good as at least a slight overwind.
5.7 neck, 5.9 middle, and 6.4k bridge should work brilliantly. I'm sure you would be happy with a set like that!
@@guitar_md I am very grateful to you for your help, it helps me a lot. Thanks for sharing what you know. It's not very normal for someone to do that. Greetings from Peru.
@@niltoneduardoalayochavez4395 Absolutely. Let me know how everything works out. Thanks for reaching out!
Hey, great video, very usefull indeed. Even so, I still have a question, ¿is there any sort of rule for the number of turns that the pickup has to have? (I apologize beforehand if there are any errors in this text, english isn't my natal language)
Yes, though this is all based on existing and historical pickup models. Most Fender pickups used 8,000 turns of wire, for example. And most humbuckers used 5,000 turns per coil.
There are no rules, but standards to go by. Generally, variations in pickups are measured against historical standards, meaning the pickups made in the '50s and '60s.
Only for the sake of comparison though. When you get into making your own pickups there are no rules, and the only limit is your imagination
Also, generally, you can increase by 1,000 turns at a time for a thicker, stronger tone with less treble. So a Strat pickup you might try 9,000 turns, then 10,000, 11,000, etc. To see what you like best.
I make some models of pickups with as much as 18,000 turns of wire
Thanks!
I also wanted to ask; by any chance, do you know how many turns does Epiphone ET270's single coils have?
@@cesar7907 ET270's are around 9 to 9.5k DCR. I don't know how many turns they use. But based on the DCR, I would suspect they're wound with 43AWG, and maybe around 8,500 to 9,000 turns.
Having never worked on one before, that's a total guess. But not a bad place to start. The best way is to have a known DCR of the pickup, and then test your guess by winding it out. I'd probably wind to 7,000 turns of 43 and then see what the DCR was, and keep adding wire accordingly until I got to the 9 - 9.5k range.
But a reading that high leads me to believe it's 43. I recently rewound a Univox single coil bass pickup that actually has 8,000 turns of 44AWG. That DCR reading came out to around 11k. I used 8500 turns to beef it up. Traditionally they're about 10.5k in the bridge and around 10.2k in the neck.
So again, total guess, but try 8,000 of 43 to start. Most single coil pickups, especially vintage ones, use around 8,000 turns. Even with the much thinner wire gauges it seemed to be a standard, at least as far as I've seen, on single coils.
@@guitar_md Hey, thanks a lot, you really saved me a bunch of time on research.
By the way, I measured the DCR when it still worked (I accidentally broke it down by cutting a section of the winding while trying to check the electronics. I just bought the guitar 4 days ago) and it measured 14 KiloOhms; just to clarify, I used a $16 digital multimeter.
Ive got a question. As it seems, you want the AlNiCo 5 magnets in a strat pickup to have the same amount of magnetization in Gauss. Does that also apply to the staggered Fender Pickups where each magnet has a different height, or are they magnetized with different amounts of Gauss/Tesla?
Or does fender charge them all with the same magnet and then every single one has a different Amount of Gauss but that's how they leave it?
All charged the same. I think at factories they use a capacitor discharge machine, or something like that. I use two neodymium magnets but I think this is only what home-based pickup builders do.
An original 69 Fender pickup I measured was as follows:
E: 1030 Gauss (.693" tall magnet)
A: 750 Gauss (.688" tall magnet)
D: 950 Gauss (.722" tall magnet)
G: 780 Gauss (.720" tall magnet)
B: 670 Gauss (.630" tall magnet)
E: 950 Gauss (.670" tall magnet)
All magnets were .193" in width.
I've seen similar variations in a 1955 Strat pickup set, though not as drastic. The 1955 was 1000, 900, 1000, 870, 830, 900, measuring EADGBE.
So actually close to what I get now with modern magnets. Variations of a couple hundred Gauss seems to be normal and the meter is also very sensitive to where you hold it so there's some user error as well.
Gauss can vary by quite a lot depending on the magnet dimensions. Shorter magnets will hold less of a full charge, and so on. But sometimes even magnets of the same size can hold different charges -- no idea why.
I tried re-magnetizing that 69 pickup and it stayed just about exactly the same. It's possible some Alnico 2 rods got mixed up with the Alnico 5. 670 Gauss is very low even for a short magnet and seems like an alnico 2 or alnico 3.
So very possible Fender was even mixing them up back in the day.
@@guitar_md ok thx. I was messing around with neodyme magnets in my guitar to attach a slide bar like Paul gilbert does, and messed up my Texas special staggered every time I flipped the pick guard upside down to solder something with the pickup magnets directly touching the neodymes.
So to fix them I can just get a simple pickup charger magnet and go through piece by piece? Did I understand that correct? Thanks for your detailed answer. I very much liked the video as well ♥️
@@nickfleiwer5272 I've only personally used the Mojotone pickup magnetizer. Just as easily you could get a small vise and some powerful neodymium magnets and put them on -- making sure you've got the opposite poles facing each other.
I show the process -- which is very quick -- in my Pickup Bobbin Assembly video. I clamp it all the way in the vise loosely, then back off a little, and move the pickup back and forth a few times before pulling it out.
@@guitar_md ok, yeah that's what I'm going to do I think. Thank you for your help 😇
@@guitar_md lets pretend i had the mojotone magnitizer, do you think its a problem, that the staggered magnets cant touch the neodyme at once? Or do they just get magnetized fine, because the magnet field is still strong enough and must not touch the magnet?
At 5:19 you say your cheap multimeter measures zero resistance. But it doesn't. " 0.L" reading is not zero resistance but "overload" meaning the measured resistance is higher than the current range setting is capable of. It's telling you the resistance is greater than 2MΩ. That you get a reading using the pickup leads suggests you were not getting electrical connection through the surface of solder at the terminals.
Good catch! Wasn't aware of the "overload" reading. On this multimeter, with the probes touching absolutely nothing, by default it reads 0.L or 0L depending on the setting (20k or 200k), so I just assumed it was not getting a reading.
Upon further reading, apparently this means "open loop" or "open line" as well. I suppose "overload" is the same thing -- an open circuit/open loop, not connected at either end and with extremely high resistance.
I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for catching this and letting me know! I depend on commenters like you to catch any mistakes I make, and it greatly contributes to the quality of my videos.
Some days ago my Rick 620 neck pickup doesn't work. I unscrewed plastic cover checked wire but found nothing wrong. Assembly back the cover and the neck pickup is back to work. Wondering what's wrong...
Most likely a shoddy solder joint or a ground wire touching something it shouldn't be. I'd double check the pickup with a multimeter, disconnected from the guitar circuit, to verify that it's working correctly --
-- but any time I've seen this, the problem is either that the solder joint on one of the pickup leads is not solid enough and it intermittently cuts out, or a ground in the guitar circuit is touching a hot connection it shouldn't be touching.
Let me know if the issue persists after you've reassembled it. Intermittent cutting out is always one of the two. Weak solder joint, a wire that's twisted and coming loose, or a ground touching something it shouldn't.
@@guitar_md thanks for your reply. No I didn't do any troubleshooting yet. But I noticed the treble knobs don't work once selecting neck while bass knobs don't work once selecting bridge. Cause I earned the used Rick lately, now I am in confusion. Shall I disconnect all 5 potentiometers for troubleshooting?🏳️
@@蔡正蓁 Sometimes I'll do that. Disconnecting everything and testing them individually to make sure they work is always a foolproof method. Though in this case it sounds like an incorrect wiring issue.
I'd double and triple check to make sure every single wire is going exactly where it should be. Sometimes it's a single wire going to the wrong connection point that you didn't catch. Worst case scenario you can always disconnect everything completely and then wire it from scratch using an accurate diagram.
Sir, if the plug is right at the base of the soldering iron, it's the ground, and if it's re-soldered, will the pickup still work?
I'm not sure I understand the question completely, but I do have another video where I splice some wire onto the start lead, and got it to work again, if that's what you mean.
If it's a baseplate with a separate ground wire, you can move that wire to a separate ground and the pickup will still work. That would be like on a Telecaster with a metal baseplate, if it has two wires (start and finish) and a separate ground wire for the baseplate. Most of the time the baseplate is soldered directly to the start eyelet.
For the eyelet connections: there's a start and finish lead for every single coil. They both have to be solidly connected for the pickup to work. Sometimes re-soldering is necessary to re-flow the joints. If the delicate wire gets disconnected from one of the eyelets at *either* end, the pickup will not work. You can verify this with a multimeter -- you'll get no DCR reading at all if one of those wires is disconnected.
Let me know if that answered your question or if I misunderstood. Thank you!
@@guitar_md I've found the answer in this video, and my PU is working again.
Sorry to confuse you, because I'm not very good at English. So thank you very much sir.
AUTO SUB
@@ellpapz6082 You're welcome! Thank you for reaching out, and don't hesitate to do so in the future.
And no need to apologize. I apologize if I came off as rude! That's awesome you got your pickup working again. I'm so glad to have helped! Thank you again!
i would like to buy an electric guitar and learn how to play but i’m hesitant to spend a lot of money on something i don’t i’ll stick with. i found a guy selling a used guitar and amp for only 50 dollars but he says that one of the pickups is defective but that “it still sounds great” would it be worth it to buy? or is a defective pickup something quite bad?? 😭
Defective pickup is a very easy fix, though it does require the ability to solder.
As long as one pickup works and you can plug it in, I'd say it's definitely worth it. Soldering is not that hard -- I'd actually love to make an instructional video on it for beginners -- and these days you can buy replacement pickups for very, very cheap.
I've been making and rewinding pickups for over 5 years now and so for me it's easy! But even for a beginner, all you need to fix is a pickup is some basic soldering skills, and a replacement pickup.
My only other advice is if you want a fully functioning guitar, you can get one *without* an amp, and then spend some money on a basic audio interface for your computer. You can use a program like Reaper and some free plugins to get some great tones out of your guitar without the need for a dedicated amp.
Audio interfaces are also excellent for general use, like with movies, shows, and videogames, when you pair them with a couple studio monitors. I use an old Gen 2 Scarlett 2i2 interface, and some Presonus Erris 3.5" speaker studio monitors. I think the studio monitors were around $90 when I bought them on eBay, and the interface I got for around $120, also on eBay.
Plugs into the USB port on your computer or laptop. The studio monitors get crystal clear audio and paired with the interface, just great audio quality all around, including for your guitar.
Anyway. As long as one pickup works, you'll be OK. And 50 bucks is a great deal. Replacing a pickup yourself is cheap but does require a soldering gun or soldering iron, some flux and solder, and some wire cutters/strippers. So not the smallest investment.
But man. 50 bucks for both. That's a deal! If you can live with the working pickup until you get the skills to replace the broken one, I'd do it. Other alternative is get a guitar for 50 dollars that's fully functional, or less if you can find one -- then invest the money you save into an audio interface and some studio monitors. You won't regret it.
PreSonus Eris 3.5 -- that's it. I misspelled it as "Erris" earlier. But you get the idea! Hope this helps.
You don’t have to spend $500 on a guitar most important part is the amp and equipment! “I should be able to hand you any guitar and it be slamming” as long as it is set up to your preference tbh a guitar is a guitar
Funny, my cheap multimeter struggles to show resistance to (20k range), I have to rely on an older one without digital readout.
I've had the same issue. I always rely on my DE5000 LCR meter for accurate measurements, including DCR.
Never owned an analog multimeter, but my friend has used nothing but analog multimeters for decades. I have an Etekcity multimeter that I use for continuity testing and quick DCR measurements, and find it works much better than my Harbor Freight dirt cheap multimeter.
I have an issue with fender strat. The neck pickup doesn’t seem to react on the low E, A and D lower strings. If I measure the ohms it seems normal. When i was tapping the pickup with a screwdriver to hear how it was reacting to it I noticed the pickup is not magnetic or hardly. I’m guessing the pickup needs replacement, but I’d like to know what is exactly broken about it.
If it's working fine on the G/B/E strings, it's possible the magnets were never charged, or somehow lost their charge. For alnico poles, I use the Mojotone magnetizer, which is two strong neo bar mags epoxied to the jaws of a small vise. Tighten it until it touches both ends of the polepieces, loosen slightly and remove the pickup. For bar mags, like the ceramic mags in Mexican or other Strat pickups with steel poles, they'd need to be replaced.
Uncharged magnets are extremely uncommon but it can happen. One way to know for sure is with a WT10A or other gauss meter.
On the cheaper side, you can get a Schatten polarity tester. They're handy to have on hand anyway. It isn't precise, but you can feel the magnetic pull and gauge the strength by feel. It'll also show you if all the poles are the same polarity as they should be.
You could also use a refrigerator magnet or any other weak magnet to test it. If you're not getting any pull on the EAD strings, the gauss is either not there or not high enough.
@@guitar_md Thanks for the response, but I opened te guitar and found out the magnets were all over the place, cause the glue was probably very bad. Never crossed my mind that was a possibilty.
@@elspoocho4637 Were they ceramic bar magnets? That can happen, sometimes I've seen simple hot melt glue holding those on, which can fail. Were you able to get them back on? Great if you got it working again!
@@guitar_md Yeah I think they were, I managed to glue them back in the right way.
They were like this: images.reverb.com/image/upload/s--FbgGztvs--/f_auto,t_large/v1539712487/hroesz2uavd0bxmomw8t.jpg
It's not my own guitar, so I won't be playing it, but it sounded ok enough and not out of phase.
I have a pickup problem, hoping someone can take a guess...
I had out of town music store work on my HSS Stratocaster (Select series), after I gotta it back, the middle and neck pickups sounded weak and thin while the bridge pickup sounds muddy, (all on their own),
The work was done out of town and it's next to impossible to get back to this so-called music store, can anybody take a guess as to what is going on?
I lifted the pickguard and all the wire connections look good, I'm going to change the pickup selector just because it's been used a lot, but then again if somebody has any information as to help me assess this problem I really would appreciate it 👍
Sorry I took so long to reply! Did you get it sorted out?
First thing is to desolder the pickups from the circuit and test them independently. You want to rule that out first.
@@guitar_md I appreciate you asking, yes I ended up getting a loaded picker, best investment, thank you 👍
Why do you use the mojotone magnetizer?
I use it to magnetize non-magnetized polepieces when I'm building pickups.
Generally, lack of Gauss strength is only an issue when you're building your own pickups, and forget to magnetize the polepieces.
In already assembled pickups, I've only seen really low Gauss strength on one polepiece one time -- and it was due to either a defective magnet, or damage that caused it to lose its magnetism. At that point you just need to replace the magnet, but it's extremely rare that this would happen.
However, you *can* use the magnetize to flip the magnetic polarity as well. Sometimes that's a problem. If people want two pickups to be hum-cancelling when used together, but they're both the same magnetic polarity, you can't do that.
So in that case, charging the poles in the opposite direction will do the trick.
@guitar_md thank you. But you are talking about ferrite polepieces. Iron. Not magnetic ones. Not AlNiCo or Neodymium. I have a question. Does exist a diy way to add enamell to wire where it misses?
@@christianurgese I don't know of any way to add enamel to wire -- there might be, but the polyurethane-nylon coating they use that's applied at the factory might be hard to come by and I'm not sure if just brushing it on would be adequate.
The polepieces I'm talking about are AlNiCo polepieces, specifically, on Fender style pickups.
I have made pickups with iron polepieces, usually using a neodymium bar magnet permanently attached to the bottom to magnetize them
Can anyone tell me what the name is of the song played at around 3 minutes 10 seconds of this video. I’m wracking my brain trying to remember it.
It might sound like another song, but I was just messing around randomly in Drop D. If it is an actual song I'm unaware of which one it would be
I just installed some fat 50s and my neck pickup won’t work , the bottom side tap tests but it’s like it’s shorting out … I gotta get batteries for my meter in the morning so figured I’d try to ask here ….. hard to know anything without my meter
I’m gonna go flip the wires , I love your videos
Let me know how it went!
If you need any help, hit me up at guitarmdofficial@gmail.com. I'm always available for pickup repairs/rewinds if needed.
@@guitar_md no dice , I sent a message to where I bought them for a refund /exchange…. Brand new custom shop pups, I shouldn’t have to monkey with them for the cash a guy pays
My finish wire broke even after I heated it up , it was broken at the eyelet that’s why I’m trying to finish it , I can’t find the end of the finish wire ?
Check out my Seymour Duncan pickup repair video here: ruclips.net/video/1V6MWrivDio/видео.html
I also am going to be uploading a video about how to splice magnet wire. I wasn't able to show it in that video, though I do show the end result and explain the process.
Start wires can get completely buried in the coil if they break. You can see in the Seymour Duncan pickup repair video that I got very lucky -- there was just enough wire lead left for me to dig it out carefully with an Xacto knife, and then splice some new magnet wire onto it.
If you really cannot find the lead for the finish wire, there isn't much you can do, but I will say that if the finish wire broke, it should be somewhere on the outside of the coil. There is no way for the finish wire to get buried in the coil if it breaks, so it has to be on the outside somewhere.
You might be able to prod around carefully with a toothpick or your thumbnail of fingernail. Magnet wire is very delicate but it can stand up to some degree of stress if you're careful, especially after it's been wax potted, which 99% of pickups are.
But again, if the finish wire broke, it has to be somewhere on the outside of the coil, right around the top layer. There's no way for it go any deeper, so check the entire surface of the coil. Once you find it, it's simply a matter of unwrapping it a few turns, then tying it around the finish eyelet once you've removed the finish eyelet hookup wire *and* the solder from the finish eyelet joint.
The start wire breaking is usually a death sentence for a pickup, unless you can dig it out like I did in the Seymour Duncan pickup repair video.
Let me know how it goes!
@@guitar_md I tried to find the end and was unable to find it even with a needle and hairdryer and tooth brush
@@christylasure7072 What kind of pickup is it? Make and model?
@@guitar_md fender vintera strat 60’s bridge
@@christylasure7072 Let me know if you'd want to get in touch with me to rewind it for you. Done many, many Strat pickups in my time and am a huge fan of them
Very good except, O.L is not 0 Ohm. That would be a short circuit. Instead it means Open Line.
Thank you. This is correct. And one reason I'm displeased that RUclips doesn't allow re-uploading of video files (like Vimeo does), while retaining views/comments -- it also doesn't have annotations anymore, so I can't overlay text pointing out the error over the video footage itself.
A great example of an open circuit was from yesterday. I had a fantastic opportunity to rewind an original 1951 Nocaster neck pickup. The tap test and the multimeter test both confirmed an open circuit -- due to the parasitic capacitance, a very small amount of AC can make its way through the coil.
But it results in a very weak, anemic tone without *almost* no output. Like 1/10th or less the volume that it's supposed to be.
Interestingly, the magnets were not very rusted. There were a couple very small spots of rust. That's all it takes. But I think most people expect to find severe, grotesque corrosion on these relatively ancient pickups. The few true vintage rewinds I've done, there was no super obvious corrosion. But all it takes is a little bit to cause an open circuit. One strand of wire gets disconnected and then the only signal that gets through is riding on that capacitance.
Anyway, thanks again for the comment! Comments help boost my channel and I also appreciate that it adds a lot to my videos. Comments like yours are the next best thing to annotations in the video showing corrections to incorrect information. I'm a stickler for perfection and I do appreciate that you pointed out this mistake, and I only hope people look through these comments so they don't think 0L means 0 resistance. Wish I had known that at the time!
And here i thought
I only need a screwdriver
And a new pick up
I guess im stuck with the upper pick up for a while
"O.L." in a meter does not mean zero ohms, but infinite resistance, meaning an interruption.
Would be curious for your input as I'm having trouble understanding this:
The meter defaults to O.L when it's in Ohm mode, meaning the default reading when there is no continuity between the probes. I took this to mean "open line" in Ohm mode, or "open circuit."
The interruption in the case of a broken pickup is a severed coil. So imagine you have one probe touching a piece of wire, then the other probe touching another piece of wire, and the pieces of wire are not connected to each other.
This is the case in a broken pickup.
In my mind, this might as well be 'zero resistance,' as the DCR of a coil is dependent on the coil being continuous and unbroken. DCR is in this case basically a measure of how long the wire is.
When the coil is broken, you might as well be putting the probe on two separate, unconnected wires -- there is no resistance in the coil, because the coil is broken, and is therefore incapable of forming continuity between the probes. So the meter defaults to O.L, meaning "open line" or "open circuit."
My semantics are probably off. I think I've read that in default on Ohm mode, the meter is trying to read infinite resistance, which is why by default, the meter reads O.L in ohm mode when the probes are not connected to anything.
I'm not brushed up on all that, but for simplicity's sake, 'zero resistance' seems to make more sense to me. The meter gets no reading because the wire is broken, and one end is not connected to the other.
So it's defaulting to its native infinite resistance in OL mode on the Ohm setting, but the coil itself is not creating infinite resistance -- how could it when it's effectively two separate strands of wire not connected to each other?
Even if infinite resistance is the technically correct term, it's hard to wrap my head around it and I think it makes what's happening here seem more confusing.
It makes it seem like the break in the coil is creating an overload of resistance, when in reality the meter is simply defaulting back to its native OL reading in Ohm mode, because the two ends of the coil are no longer connected to each other and are not able to create DS resistance from one end to the other as a result.
Sorry for the huge writeup here but this has been on my mind for a while. Would appreciate if you could clarify this for me and see what you think, and if my reasoning makes sense to you.
I like to be as accurate as possible and I hate it when I miss things in my videos but I also want things to be clear and easy to understand for my viewers who might not be so well acquainted with these concepts.
"In my mind, this might as well be 'zero resistance,' as the DCR of a coil is dependent on the coil being continuous and unbroken. DCR is in this case basically a measure of how long the wire is."
I honestly do not get your ways of thought here. Resistance is the capability of a medium to let electrons flow from one point to another. If there is no connection between the two points the resistance is infinite, if they are connected the resistance approaches zero. Anything between gives an according resistance value. This is independant on the application, the medium or the connectivity. @@guitar_md
@@Andreas_Straub I appreciate the clarification!
My thoughts simply come from not being formally educated in any electrical theory at all. It's an embarrassing mistake, but hopefully you can understand how a layperson would mistake "infinite resistance" for "zero resistance."
For a layperson like me, you set the multimeter to measure Ohms, you see a "O," and you just assume it means zero resistance, because the meter is set to measure resistance.
I didn't even think about what the "L" meant! I just ignored it. Embarrassing, I know. But again, I'm a layperson.
If the screen displays could show an infinity symbol instead of 0.L that would make things much clearer. I simply was unfamiliar with O.L meaning open line / open circuit.
Now I know if you touch both probes together, you'll get 0.00 resistance, as you said, and when the probes are not touching, the resistance is infinite, not zero.
Now this makes a whole lot more sense. Again I thank you for your explanation and clarification, it's really helped me a lot.
Fortunately, despite the semantic error, pickup coils are simple enough that one can successfully use a multimeter as a diagnostic even without any knowledge of these things.
However, I will not make this mistake again if I do future videos on similar topics.
Your comment was very helpful to me and I appreciate you taking the time to explain this concept to me to help me understand. Thank you again!
👍✔️100%
Thank you!
You define 0 resistance but 0.L means overload Which is a very high resistance
Yes, that's right. Or "open line" or "open loop" meaning an incomplete circuit. I was unaware of that definition at the time but it would have been nice to include that!
The confusion came from my cheaper multimeter showing OL, though since it defaults to OL when not touching anything I thought it just meant "zero resistance" - but open line or open loop is the correct term, and you could say they default to OL because on default, the probes are not touching anything and are not forming a circuit. So zero resistance is incorrect, as you pointed out.
My more accurate meter showing very high resistance in the Mega Ohms range depicts what's actually going on more clearly. Very high resistance, as you said.
Just another reason I wish RUclips would allow re-uploading of video files while keeping view count and comments. I'm currently redoing many other videos as I usually come into new or more accurate information a while after posting my videos. They also don't have annotations anymore, which used to allow text overlays containing updated information. It's definitely very frustrating especially having OCD and wanting all my information to be correct -- I hope at least people can see comments like yours, and that can take the place of annotations as far as corrections/edits go.
Appreciate the input and correction!
@@guitar_md but very good video it helped me 😬
@knoflookmetui Thank you! Just please don't hesitate to point out anything inaccurate anywhere else -- I rely on comments like yours for the sake of my viewers.
Sometimes I get things wrong and having it pointed out to me really helps a lot. All that matters is that the information is accurate so if I ever get anything wrong I always want someone to let me know
Crack really crack🙌
$600 on my guitar and it still sounds like crap. It sounds like its made from a tin can. This video makes me realize that maybe my pickups are just trash... guess my first clue could have been the solder on the corner of the pickups... New pickups it is!
Pickups are definitely a personal preference. I've been making my own for many years and, for example, have come to prefer much higher output bridge pickups with a fat, aggressive tone.
Sounding like it's in a tin can implies a resonant frequency that's much higher than you'd like -- either that or it has a wire break similar to the pickup in this video, which lost all low end and had very low output. High resonant frequency is just fancy talk for fewer turns of wire, resulting in a lower output pickup with more high end -- certainly, for some people, too much high end!
@@guitar_md Its hard for me to explain what the sound issue is other than saying, I know something is wrong lol The theory behind it being a break in the wire and only passively sending signal makes sense to me because the sound lacks punch and overall tone but it still makes sound... Also, my tone knob only works on max and cuts out when you try to adjust it... Fun times. Oh and never mind the fact that the pickups have no covers over them... just some cheap cloth covering the wire wrap...
@@michaelpaynotta7873 I'd definitely try some new pots or redoing the wiring on the current ones you have -- occasionally I've run into very bizarre issues that only resolved upon using new components.
I actually am having an issue, too, with some brand new push/pull CTS volume pots. The taper seems off on the volume pot, and I can tell when I use a Fuzz Face, as they're extremely sensitive to volume pot taper. I have yet to figure out exactly what's causing this, but I'm thinking it must be a wiring issue as I've never had a single issue, ever, with a brand new CTS pot, and two of them in a row are having this issue.
If the tone pot is only working on max, it's possible that the carbon path is worn out, so as you turn it down the wiper isn't contacting anything and it's bypassing the pot.
Have you tested the DCR of the pickup? As a diagnostic tool it can be quite useful. If it's measuring within the normal range, it might be something going on with your wiring/control section, such as a bad pot. Let me know if you find anything!
I have a Fender fat 50s pickup that sounds like this!!! Clearly must be faulty
It doesn't explain what to do if the pickup copper wire has broken 1mm away from the bobbin, you can't grab 1mm of wire with any tweezers well enough to pull it out to unwind.... Broken by the eyelet is not a problem sure we can all do that...
I actually made a video doing a repair exactly like that here a couple months later:
ruclips.net/video/1V6MWrivDio/видео.html
What you're describing is a *start* wire break, which means unwinding the wire is *NOT POSSIBLE,* and attempting to do so *WILL KILL YOUR PICKUP PERMANENTLY.*
The *ONLY* repair is to splice new wire onto the broken wire. Notice how carefully I work to coax out the broken wire, to expose just enough length to splice to.
And I do mention in the title that I got lucky. Most of the time, if the start wire breaks, it's going to be buried in the coil so far that it's impossible to get out. There simply may not be enough length to splice to. That means all you can do is tear down the entire coil and rewind it from scratch.
However, it may be possible to splice using an ultra fine tip on the soldering iron, with even less wire length than I showed in that video.
Think of it like this: if it can't be spliced, the pickup needs to be rewound anyway, so you have nothing to lose by attempting to splice. It's either that or a full rewind, period.
Now, if the *FINISH* wire is broken, you can *always* unwind it -- it will simply peel off of the coil with very little effort.
Start wire breaks are a death sentence for a pickup unless you have the skills to expose the broken wire *and* splice new wire on *AND* enough luck to have enough wire left to do all of the above.
Hope this helps. I am working on a new video going over wire splicing magnet wire in great detail. In the above video, unfortunately, I couldn't show the actual splicing, only the aftermath.
In the new video I'm working on, I show the actual splice in real-time, and in great detail with a high clarity macro lens. In that case, it's a break in the wire mid-wind, so I'm using much greater lengths of wire -- but the process is still exactly the same.
Check out my playlist called "Pickup Building, Testing & Repair" for all the videos I have about this stuff so far, and to stay up-to-date. I'm always adding to my playlists as I compile more videos, and my intention is for them to be a repository of information for people like you that want their questions answered.
I'm doing my best to organize my playlists and keep them up-to-date. Again, hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions!
ruclips.net/p/PLN0ZS8PEGeRYHbxoypl6B8tRj0kVU41Na
♍️📐⚡️🤘🕊️
quite complicated if you don't know what you're doing, but thank you anyway.
I agree. In reality, I always end up tearing down and rewinding coils with very, very few exceptions if I ever run into issues with a pickup not functioning properly.
The ins and outs of what's wrong can get complicated, but the solution is almost always very simple and the same for every one...tear it down and do it over the right way. Although I don't have a setup yet for unwinding pickups on my PenPal lathe. That would speed things up considerably -- unwinding pickups by hand is absolute lunacy beyond a few turns, in my opinion!
@@guitar_md I bet Fender had winders, would have been a nightmare winding pickups by hand. I arrived at your video searching for pickup repair. My neck pickup has a very low output / volume compared to the middle and bridge. I thought to just replace it, they are cheap enough, as in $15. each. But I also would like to repair it. Just don't know what the problem is but will try refreshing the solder points, which is simple. Thank you.
@@zurdoremi They absolutely did. Just a lot of people advise unwinding pickups by hand to find the wire break, but I think 99% of the time it's an exercise in futility unless you find a break within a few dozen turns. Unwinding pickups is much trickier than winding them and most people I've heard of unwind by hand -- not for me.
In your case, the first thing to do is to detach the pickup from the circuit. Then test DC resistance. A visual inspection helps too, though if the start or finish wire were disconnected, you'd get no sound at all. Weaker output makes me think there's either a wire break or a cold solder joint either in the circuit or on one of the pickup eyelets.
Re flowing the solder joints and re testing DCR is usually all you need to see whether a rewind is in order or not. Always keep in mind, no matter the issue, a single coil pickup is simply a single long strand of wire soldered at each end.
If it gets detached from either end, or there's a break anywhere in that strand, it won't work. Very simple but sometimes very difficult to identify exactly where the issue is!
He's using a metal screw driver that is now magnetized. Risking damaging the pickups. Messes with the magnetic poles. Bad advice
I can 100% assure you that this is not remotely an issue. And it's easy to verify this with a Gauss or Teslameter. The model i use is a WT10A Teslameter. A screwdriver tap test will have absolutely no impact on the Gauss of the magnets whatsoever and will not damage the pickup in any way whatsoever.
To deliberately de-Gauss pickups, I use Alnico polepieces with the same polarity as the polepiece I want to de-magnetize.
You can feel the magnetic repulsion, and then you force the magnet down on top of it anyway. Magnetic attraction will not de-gauss, and magnetic attraction is what happens with the pickup tap test.
The magnetic repulsion mentioned earlier *will* de-magnetize a pickup, but also not that much, maybe 150-200 Gauss. For example, when degaussing an A5 mag with another A5 mag, I commonly see reductions to about 800 Gauss from 1000 Gauss.And that's with taking a fully charged A5 polepiece of the same polarity and forcing it down directly on top of the polepiece I want to de-gauss.
You'll also notice that the polepiece used to de-gauss the other polepiece will lose a ton of Gauss strength, and will need to be re-charged in order to de-Gauss further polepieces.
A tap test with a metal screwdriver will magnetize the metal, but you'll notice that the screwdriver tip is actually attracted to the polepiece, not repelled by it.
This is similar to how two pickups being attracted to each other and having their polepieces in direct contact will also not de-gauss them.
It looks scary, but magnets getting attracted to each other and touching each other directly will not affect their Gauss strength whatsoever. You can test this with two pickups, let their polepieces attract and stick to each other directly -- measure them before and after, and you'll see zero change in Gauss strength on either pickup.
It's the forcing together of two same-polarity magnets that de-gausses them. Forcing together two magnets that have *magnetic repulsion* -- *that* will result in a loss of magnetism.