this was actually an incredibly important video. i no longer have to pretend how multimeters work. thanks for your explanations of the basics in accessible terms.
Good video with good advice - thank you. One thing that might help make doing these tests easier is a couple of alligator clips that can be attached to the ends of the multimeter probes. Get ones big enough to clip onto the tip or sleeve of the jack plug. This way you have your hands free to flex leads, connecting wires, twiddle controls and switches to look for problems.
Super helpful. You helped me diagnose my wonky jazz bass bridge pickup. I thought it might have been broken but seems like maybe wires were touching that shouldn't have. Thanks!
Holy shit ive been searching for a multimeter guitar vid. Other vids ive found suck and dont explain well at all. This is why this channel is one of the BEST!! Thanks Dylan!
Just love it, I am sciences teacher so i understand the "Basic" electricity. I like the way you channel help me expand and apply my physics skill on the "guitar and bass electronics". I like the way this video help on the "Applied" part of the theory. Like now i won't open my guitar and test directly inside if i can do it by the wire ! that s such a nice input, same thing for working from outside to the inside and follow the signal, test cable first. It s not that much physic or music theory ... but so useful. Love all your tutorials the USEFULL
Thanks Dylan. Your vids are still working. Question though. You checked the volume pot but what about the time pot? Check it the same way? Thanks brother, you rock!! 👊🤠
Hi Dylan ! My Strat bridge and middle pickups are not working when its five way selector is not at the neck position... I tested the bridge and middle pickups with the multimeter and they are ok... How can I test the five way selector (there are no loose wires) ? Can I do that using the multimeter ? Thanks for your help !
Hi Dylan. Could you send something like a comparison chart with the proper values (multimeter values) of each of the components of the guitar? I.e: pots, mics, caps etc… as to know what is a good value vs a bad value. I am not sure if you have a specific video in which you explain the specific value of each component but I a bit lost in this matter. Thank you and congrats !!
This was great. I have a volume pot that isn't working on my first rebuild of an affinity. I'm going to do this next. I wonder if it's possible if I damaged it with the soldering iron. I really like this show
Very helpful lesson. Much better than anything else that I have seen. Definitely will subscribe. I am trying to debug an active neck pickup that does not work. If you could do a video on how to test active pickups that would be awesome.
Dylan, thank you so much for this lesson. As it turns out, the neck pick isn't working and I had no clue how to go about checking it in a logical and thorough manner before I watched this video. I'm going to try to do this tomorrow.
Dylan, I cleaned my pots in my Ibanez RG570, it's 21 years old. I bought it used; so I clean them as they were crackin, plug the axe back in and now no hot in the pickups, all like clean amp sound. Checked with my hot strat, all good with amp and pedals, cords. I have all that equip there, what shoulld I be looking for with this? Pickups are no longer hot after cleaning pots/knobs with contact cleaner, but guitar plays, only low V and clean.
Background history. I gutted a LP style guitar (2x Vol., 2x Tone) built a wiring harness according to schematic and nothing worked. Checked the cable, good there. Plugged cable in, turned all the pots up and did as you said to check both pickups with switch and both showed OL. Where do I go from here?
Have a fender American standard strat HSS. Followed your suggestions. Resistance for the single coils reading ~6kohms (position 3 and 5) and half of the value on intermediate position (pos 4), like you said. However, reading is 500 kohms on the humbucker position (position 1) and ~6kohms on position 2 (humbucker + middle single). what do you suggest next?
Hi Dylan, it's me again. I've been trying to fix a 50th Ani Strat, but the neck pickup only works if I give it a few taps with my finger. I've checked all of the wiring, and at this point it seems that I might have a dry solder joint at the actual PU. It's been hanging on my wall for ten years, so it's a mystery as to what's causing this. As a last resort I'll try using a butane torch on the solder joints at the PU. Any thoughts?
Hi Dylan! Thanks for the information! I just tried the Dan Armstrong strat blender mod and I am getting 130+k on both neck and bridge positions, all other positions are in a few k to 10+ k . What could be wrong? Thanks for any insight!
I have recently switched out all the electrics in my guitar, including pickups and I'm not getting any sound from my bridge pickup. I'm now trying to troubleshoot to find out what might be the problem using a multimeter. I followed your advice and turned up the volume and tone to max and set my multimeter to Ω and 20K and place the probes on the tip and sleeve of a guitar cable plug and it reads 0.04 on my neck pickup and 0.00 on my bridge pickup. What does this mean? I thought I would get the DCR of the pickups? At least the neck pickup since that one works. Or should I turn to a different setting on the multimeter? The neck pickup is a Seymour Duncan 59' which should have 7.6K DCR and my bridge pickup is a Seymour Duncan JB (SH-4) which should have 16.6K DCR (if that helps).
Used the voltage meter test through patch cord in SG jack. Got signal on treble and middle and no signal on rhythm. But neck pickup works only when it's in neck position and amp cranked full ?
When I connect my bridge pickup uninstalled to the multi-meter: ground to black, hot to red, I get nothing. I get the same reading when neither end of the meter are connected. Does that mean my bridge pickup is bad? They are a brand new set of Fender Twisted Tele's. Neck pickup is testing fine.
@@arkie87 20K as I recall. I returned them for a new set of the same pickups and they worked just fine. I tested and installed the same way and they are still working fine. Must have been the set somehow.
Please help! I can't find the answer to this anywhere for some reason. I have a telecaster that is humming badly. All the Earth's are showing continuity on the meter. However the hot wire from the jack is also showing continuity to all the Earth's as well. The hot wire on my strat does not hook up to any of the Earth's and is really quiet. I have disconnected the wires on the jack on the tele and the hot is still connected to the Earth's. Could a broken pot or switch cause this? I am thinking of replacing everything apart from the pickups which both seem to read as they should. I'd be grateful if anyone could enlighten me on this.
so what if the middle setting on the 3 way switch is reading double what each of the two pickups are individually? like say 3.25 on the neck 3.25 at the bridge and 6.5 on both? according to this video the middle setting should be reading about half of what the pickups are?
My Pickup (Dimarzio X2N) shows 16 on the multmeter set at 20k on its own, when i connect it to the switch then it shows 2.9, it shows 1.8 at the cable, when i play around with the volume pot then it sometimes hits 16 at certain points. So my pot is faulty correct?
and if 3 pickups are not installed then you are stuck ! You assume pickups will be in a guitar and forget that guys buy a set of 3 Strat pickups and nine is marked in any way. So a meter may tell the resistance in ohms of each. My set of 3 new ones (used pickups) read 10K for all 3 ! See the problems ? Maybe I am making a mistake, maybe all 3 pickups are actually identical, or something else.
this is some funny sht. I just put in a new black winter in bridge and its producing low output. I am new at soldering so I might have burned up a pot or have a cold joint. No clue. I just got the meter in a bit ago and go tto testing the bridge PU and nothing. Open. lol Also, this is called How to Fix Your Guitar right? Well, what about my scenario? Bridge PU was open, neck PU showed open (yes I had it on OHMS, right setting, knobs up etc)? HE just assumed that everything would test out fine with the PUs! Where was the,"If you get an open reading on both pickups, etc:? Cos thats my situation. In his defense, all these dudes teach like sht! lol Same thing with last one and the ones where the parts are on a table. Mine are in the guitar! lol
a cable basically never fails... and a guy is using a cable all the time, so he knows it works. Skip the cable nonsense here. And the pots generally crackle in use (volume or toned type) and that leaves the main culprits: bad connections of wires (not connected or touching the wrong thing). Use common sense to look for the likely problems... and it is NOT the cable or the pots.
Technically I haven't had failed cables but I've had to resolder wires to the jack or remove pieces of the wire that had frayed and were shorting between the 2 parts of the jack. In 60 years I've done this a dozen times and I've never played professionally. I'm sure that cables that get moved every day get damaged even more than mine. I've also had several pots go out...they feel and sound like I'm grinding coffee or turn complete circles without altering the sound. I have one on a Bass now that won't turn at all. I don't know how you can say what you said.
what would you like to know specifically? we would be happy to make another video more specific to your needs. Chances are, others may have the same questions
There are thousands of videos on how to use multimeters all over RUclips. Take 30 minutes and watch a couple. I appreciate not having to fast forward through a multimeter tutorial when I came here for troubleshooting. RUclips is better when the content is focused.
This is the best guitar wiring channel on RUclips, by farrrr. You’ve casually answered dozens of questions I couldn’t find ANYWHERE else
this was actually an incredibly important video. i no longer have to pretend how multimeters work.
thanks for your explanations of the basics in accessible terms.
Good video with good advice - thank you. One thing that might help make doing these tests easier is a couple of alligator clips that can be attached to the ends of the multimeter probes. Get ones big enough to clip onto the tip or sleeve of the jack plug. This way you have your hands free to flex leads, connecting wires, twiddle controls and switches to look for problems.
Super helpful. You helped me diagnose my wonky jazz bass bridge pickup. I thought it might have been broken but seems like maybe wires were touching that shouldn't have. Thanks!
Glad it helped!
Holy shit ive been searching for a multimeter guitar vid. Other vids ive found suck and dont explain well at all. This is why this channel is one of the BEST!! Thanks Dylan!
awesome teaching...mine has 200 to 2000k ohm numbers ,where should i point the knob?and will this technique work for grounding issue?
What a Great Instructor, very simple and Great !!
Great video. The recording style was perfect
Just love it, I am sciences teacher so i understand the "Basic" electricity. I like the way you channel help me expand and apply my physics skill on the "guitar and bass electronics". I like the way this video help on the "Applied" part of the theory. Like now i won't open my guitar and test directly inside if i can do it by the wire ! that s such a nice input, same thing for working from outside to the inside and follow the signal, test cable first. It s not that much physic or music theory ... but so useful. Love all your tutorials the USEFULL
Thanks for this it was very helpful
Super Informative!! Thank you very much!!
Great video..Very informative..Thank you sir..👍
tip and shaft.. that's what I always called it. GREAT video man. Thank you
Thanks Dylan. Your vids are still working.
Question though. You checked the volume pot but what about the time pot? Check it the same way?
Thanks brother, you rock!!
👊🤠
Oops, not the time pot, the tone pot, lol.
Would be a weird one if we had a time pot, lol. Peace brother!!
Hi Dylan ! My Strat bridge and middle pickups are not working when its five way selector is not at the neck position... I tested the bridge and middle pickups with the multimeter and they are ok... How can I test the five way selector (there are no loose wires) ? Can I do that using the multimeter ? Thanks for your help !
Hi Dylan. Could you send something like a comparison chart with the proper values (multimeter values) of each of the components of the guitar? I.e: pots, mics, caps etc… as to know what is a good value vs a bad value. I am not sure if you have a specific video in which you explain the specific value of each component but I a bit lost in this matter. Thank you and congrats !!
Thanks so much for the tips! Working from the outside in is brilliant. Helped me troubleshoot a guitar with no output.
This was great. I have a volume pot that isn't working on my first rebuild of an affinity. I'm going to do this next. I wonder if it's possible if I damaged it with the soldering iron. I really like this show
Very helpful lesson. Much better than anything else that I have seen. Definitely will subscribe. I am trying to debug an active neck pickup that does not work. If you could do a video on how to test active pickups that would be awesome.
Dylan, thank you so much for this lesson. As it turns out, the neck pick isn't working and I had no clue how to go about checking it in a logical and thorough manner before I watched this video. I'm going to try to do this tomorrow.
awesome very informative and useful info
Dylan, I cleaned my pots in my Ibanez RG570, it's 21 years old. I bought it used; so I clean them as they were crackin, plug the axe back in and now no hot in the pickups, all like clean amp sound. Checked with my hot strat, all good with amp and pedals, cords. I have all that equip there, what shoulld I be looking for with this? Pickups are no longer hot after cleaning pots/knobs with contact cleaner, but guitar plays, only low V and clean.
Thanks Dylan, Great video bro!!
Background history. I gutted a LP style guitar (2x Vol., 2x Tone) built a wiring harness according to schematic and nothing worked. Checked the cable, good there. Plugged cable in, turned all the pots up and did as you said to check both pickups with switch and both showed OL. Where do I go from here?
I'm having trouble following your checks because you didn't do any close video of what your were contacting and were you measuring resistance?
Appreciate the lesson. It was very helpful!
Have a fender American standard strat HSS. Followed your suggestions. Resistance for the single coils reading ~6kohms (position 3 and 5) and half of the value on intermediate position (pos 4), like you said. However, reading is 500 kohms on the humbucker position (position 1) and ~6kohms on position 2 (humbucker + middle single). what do you suggest next?
Very helpful, thanks.
Hi Dylan, it's me again. I've been trying to fix a 50th Ani Strat, but the neck pickup only works if I give it a few taps with my finger. I've checked all of the wiring, and at this point it seems that I might have a dry solder joint at the actual PU. It's been hanging on my wall for ten years, so it's a mystery as to what's causing this. As a last resort I'll try using a butane torch on the solder joints at the PU. Any thoughts?
Thanks Man ! Very informative ... for me
hey Dylan thanks for this presentation can I use an analog multimeter? I'm not getting any readings thank you Dylan
Hi Dylan! Thanks for the information! I just tried the Dan Armstrong strat blender mod and I am getting 130+k on both neck and bridge positions, all other positions are in a few k to 10+ k . What could be wrong? Thanks for any insight!
Helped me a great deal, thanks a lot! :)
I have recently switched out all the electrics in my guitar, including pickups and I'm not getting any sound from my bridge pickup. I'm now trying to troubleshoot to find out what might be the problem using a multimeter. I followed your advice and turned up the volume and tone to max and set my multimeter to Ω and 20K and place the probes on the tip and sleeve of a guitar cable plug and it reads 0.04 on my neck pickup and 0.00 on my bridge pickup. What does this mean? I thought I would get the DCR of the pickups? At least the neck pickup since that one works. Or should I turn to a different setting on the multimeter?
The neck pickup is a Seymour Duncan 59' which should have 7.6K DCR and my bridge pickup is a Seymour Duncan JB (SH-4) which should have 16.6K DCR (if that helps).
Thanks, this helped me
Can this method be used to test pots on an amplifier?
I tell you what - that pink Tele looks great, and if you'd have asked me without seeing it, I would have though not so much.
Used the voltage meter test through patch cord in SG jack. Got signal on treble and middle and no signal on rhythm. But neck pickup works only when it's in neck position and amp cranked full ?
I have the same brand of multimeter, but it has discreet ohm settings - which would I want to use?
20k
@@aceedodomingo1438 tks
When I connect my bridge pickup uninstalled to the multi-meter: ground to black, hot to red, I get nothing. I get the same reading when neither end of the meter are connected. Does that mean my bridge pickup is bad? They are a brand new set of Fender Twisted Tele's. Neck pickup is testing fine.
what resistance range was the multimeter set to?
@@arkie87 20K as I recall. I returned them for a new set of the same pickups and they worked just fine. I tested and installed the same way and they are still working fine. Must have been the set somehow.
@@jeffwegrzyn8947 does "nothing" mean overload or 0 ohm? either way, the pickups and/or solder connection is defective.
@@jeffwegrzyn8947 20 there is resistance flowing through which will inhibit the current thus meaning your pickups when disconnected are bad
@@jeffwegrzyn8947 or the soldering as well.
Bro, i have electric shock on my 1st string while playing. How do I rectify it?
Please help! I can't find the answer to this anywhere for some reason. I have a telecaster that is humming badly. All the Earth's are showing continuity on the meter. However the hot wire from the jack is also showing continuity to all the Earth's as well. The hot wire on my strat does not hook up to any of the Earth's and is really quiet. I have disconnected the wires on the jack on the tele and the hot is still connected to the Earth's. Could a broken pot or switch cause this? I am thinking of replacing everything apart from the pickups which both seem to read as they should. I'd be grateful if anyone could enlighten me on this.
Sorry is this a week neck pickup?
What's the reading for a SG epiphone g400 mine says pickup 13.74 vol pot 08.5 tone 08.4
Great video but it seems like the jack is 90% of the problem!!! How do you check the jack?
how do you find a problem when you get a shock from your guitar
so what if the middle setting on the 3 way switch is reading double what each of the two pickups are individually? like say 3.25 on the neck 3.25 at the bridge and 6.5 on both? according to this video the middle setting should be reading about half of what the pickups are?
Correct. Those would be in series
@@DylanTalksTone thank you!
My Pickup (Dimarzio X2N) shows 16 on the multmeter set at 20k on its own, when i connect it to the switch then it shows 2.9, it shows 1.8 at the cable, when i play around with the volume pot then it sometimes hits 16 at certain points.
So my pot is faulty correct?
@@BigBlackTruckDave thanks dude, all sorted turned out my volume pot was messed up, i replaced and all works perfectly now
Doesn't touching the tips add resistance? I'd like to get alligator tips to connect to things.
Great Video Bro. ♫♫♫
and if 3 pickups are not installed then you are stuck ! You assume pickups will be in a guitar and forget that guys buy a set of 3 Strat pickups and nine is marked in any way. So a meter may tell the resistance in ohms of each. My set of 3 new ones (used pickups) read 10K for all 3 ! See the problems ? Maybe I am making a mistake, maybe all 3 pickups are actually identical, or something else.
What is it saying if u get a 0.005 for instance n thats as low as it goes.
Glenn Winburn that is a short to ground
Is that Lemmie on the wall?
this is some funny sht. I just put in a new black winter in bridge and its producing low output. I am new at soldering so I might have burned up a pot or have a cold joint. No clue. I just got the meter in a bit ago and go tto testing the bridge PU and nothing. Open. lol
Also, this is called How to Fix Your Guitar right? Well, what about my scenario? Bridge PU was open, neck PU showed open (yes I had it on OHMS, right setting, knobs up etc)? HE just assumed that everything would test out fine with the PUs!
Where was the,"If you get an open reading on both pickups, etc:? Cos thats my situation.
In his defense, all these dudes teach like sht! lol Same thing with last one and the ones where the parts are on a table. Mine are in the guitar! lol
C’mon Dylan!..I’m depending on you to help me figure out why bridge pickup isn’t working..
a cable basically never fails... and a guy is using a cable all the time, so he knows it works. Skip the cable nonsense here. And the pots generally crackle in use (volume or toned type) and that leaves the main culprits: bad connections of wires (not connected or touching the wrong thing). Use common sense to look for the likely problems... and it is NOT the cable or the pots.
Lol.... idk what you are smoking.
Technically I haven't had failed cables but I've had to resolder wires to the jack or remove pieces of the wire that had frayed and were shorting between the 2 parts of the jack. In 60 years I've done this a dozen times and I've never played professionally. I'm sure that cables that get moved every day get damaged even more than mine. I've also had several pots go out...they feel and sound like I'm grinding coffee or turn complete circles without altering the sound. I have one on a Bass now that won't turn at all. I don't know how you can say what you said.
It would have been better if you had explained a bit more about the meter itself. Now this video is useless to me. Thanks anyway for the effort.
what would you like to know specifically? we would be happy to make another video more specific to your needs. Chances are, others may have the same questions
I have a multimeter, but I haven't got a clue how to use it.
There are thousands of videos on how to use multimeters all over RUclips. Take 30 minutes and watch a couple. I appreciate not having to fast forward through a multimeter tutorial when I came here for troubleshooting.
RUclips is better when the content is focused.
Every meter sold comes with instructions. Read the damned instructions and stop asking people to hold your hand.
That is a digital multimeter, multimeters are analog holmes.