Fixing a pickup on a 1963 Fender Stratocaster
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- The middle pickup on this '63 Strat is a zombie. Even though it has died, it's still making sound. Erick Coleman identifies the problem, and we watch him ever-so-carefully tear the pickup down and rewind it.
Fieldpiece Digital Pocket Multimeter
www.stewmac.com...
Mojotone Pickup Winding Machine
www.stewmac.com...
Mojotone Hand Guided Tensioner
www.stewmac.com...
Solomon SL-30 Soldering Station
www.stewmac.com...
Hold-Heet Electric Glue Pot
www.stewmac.com...
- - - - - - - - - - - -
StewMac has everything you need to set up, repair or build guitars.
Everything is 100% guaranteed. Fast worldwide shipping.
Shop StewMac: www.stewmac.com
Facebook: / stewmac
Awesome work Erick! Came out sounding fantastic.
Fender why has no one noticed this comment
The middle pickup of my MIM '95 Fender Strat Special doesn't work anymore due to a pickguard swap; i noticed a slight pierce in the wire that happened some time when the cover came off while removing from the pickguard. After loading the pickups into the new pickguard I did the screwdriver tap to the polepiece and it was an extremely low volume drop that's almost dead compared to the bridge and neck pickups; it's going to need a rewind.
I doubt that this is actually the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation commenting on this video as they have their own videos I could be wrong, but I highy doubt it.
Solaris Moon just click the link fool also why wouldn’t it actually be them
hello senpai
When someone cares even for the original position of the screws, you know that this is a damn fine job=)))
no, it just means that you are dealing with pain in the neck - person...
@@satman1w ...good point, but the customer only cares about correct results on his vintage Strat pickup... not the workman.
Totally UNnecessary...
It does look off if you put the pick guard screws back in the wrong places, some rust more than others due to where they get sweated on.
Something so simple to do, a nice detail. Why not do it? Those who dont think so are the guys with duct tape fixes on everything.
I've heard of fixing a fender on a pickup.
This is the first time I've heard of fixing a pickup on a Fender.
Sorry, but I just love a good pun.
No reason to apologize about puns to pun enthusiasts. It's been a year, I'm the first to reply to you, and I see no groans. Even if someone's angry, I'm sure you can "fender" off any insults; "pickup" your pun book, and book them a reservation to a Punitentiary.
Don't take it too seriously. 😜
He who would pun would pick a pocket
"Lesser of two weezils" Master and Commander
th-cam.com/video/440l8poSQiA/w-d-xo.html
I might pick up where you left off and keep on trucking with the puns.
I get extremely excited when I notice a 12 minute long StewMac video.
10,000 Rambos yes me too
I had a 61 strat with middle pu out. I was told to go see Peter Green yes that Peter Green. Peter told me to go see a guy about 50 miles away. The guy had worked at Alembic and said it was a brake in the winding and that a lot of times the brake could be close to the end and usually in the last 50 winds He started unwinding at after 8 unwinds there was the break, also confirmed by the ohms meter. Instead of ditching the 8 unwinds he said it could alter the tone. So he tinned the breaks under heavy magnification and perfectly soldered them and reassembled. Totally unnoticeable. He wanted $50 for the repair. I gave him $100 the year was 1979 and I had paid $1100 for the 61 Strat. Even in 1979 the value of the guitar instantly doubled. And ol Peter Green, was a very nice, helpful and friendly guy. This is a true account. so do not just start hacking away at the coil wire just give a bunch of careful unwinds
And if you have a winder make a note of which unwind revealed the break. Cheers
Real copper wire and big thick wires. I'll bet they didn't use that crappy tin on there either.
i understand what you're saying, but let's get real, those thick wires mean nothing... :} plus the pickup went bad..
They mostly used what was available, both good and bad.
@@duroxkilo I've had super thin wires break inside the guitar before. Fuck all to do with tone but I'll happily eat the extra 2 or 3 bucks a guitar to give it quality pushback wire that actually has some meat to it.
"Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology."
Sounds like celluloid pick guards and I have some things in common. 4:01
I hope the customer got a call before that rewind. He or she might have built their whole career around that weak middle pickup sound...Hahahahaha
Paul McCaffrey good point!
I hope so too, because when he cut that wire I felt a bit queasy.
Yeah, I have to be honest, I kind of liked that thin sound
They sure did. The weak pickup was one of the reasons it came into the shop.
I had a '56 strat with bakelite covers. The neck and middle covers were damaged and both pickups were weak/thin. The middle was too weak but the neck was magic. It was worth adjusting amp settings to accommodate.
If it was a short, the resistance would have been lower, not higher. It's worth it to try unwinding one turn and re-solder that end of the wire. That has worked for me in the past.
Good catch !
I take 100 winds off the bobbin, so there's a fresh layer "exposed" that's never been out before. You can usually get away with removing 300-500 turns depeding on which pickup it is, and if keeping the pickup original is important.
yes exactly
Yup, definitely misdiagnosed and probably more radically repaired than necessary. A few hundred turns removed would have probably cleared the problem. In general, even very capable guitar mechanics like Erik should leave pickup repair work to a specialist.
I'm curious, since I'm not an expert on something like this kind of problem, is there a consensus, among you folks who are more informed, that he actually did misdiagnose the problem and do more repair then was probably necessary?
It's not a short, the DC resistance would have gone lower, not higher. What probably happened is you had a break deep enough into the coil that there were still a number of windings to the output, and enough capacitance to the ground side so that there was still sound produced. It was weak and missing the low end because of the capacitive coupling between the two sections of the coil.
You could actually replicate this by winding half the windings, cutting the wire, and finishing the rest of the windings without a DC connection though the coil.
yeah. kind of like that weird coil split that ibanez used to do on single coils. it cuts pickup in half for a thinner sound but in this case it wasn't switchable.
exactly this, thank you.
Agreed.
I gotta admit, watching him cut through all that vintage wire and then pull it off sent shivers up and down my spine! LOL
Zelomeister You should know I buy vintage pickups, and remove all the old wire and rewind to my own specs without ever testing the original values. I ball the old wire up, beat it flat with a hammer, and then melt it down and cast it in a mold of Jimi Hendrix playing a Hamer.
Oqsy.... LOL. Sadist!
Criminitly guys
... mechanical failure happens. Do you want a player or a museum piece?
so there is a process for the old wire to become new in shape?
i thought he threw away the old wire and rewired the pickup with new so i was a bit shocked
sorry for my english
Meh. Wire is wire.Nothing special about old copper.
Very interesting.
But why cant Americans pronounce Soldered properly? Its not Sodered!
This point cannot be made to Americans; they are by nature revolutionaries. Their use of 'cape-ohs' [some sort of super hero complex?] is also annoying to etymologists.
Its wonder he didn't say he did a 'bunch' of sodering, 'bunch' the americans favourite to go word.
'soddered', [sic] to spell it how Americans say it.
.260 megaohm means about 250 kiloohms which indicates it's the volume pot you're measuring, hence there is no pickup parallel to the pot which would lower this resistance to 5-6k. that means the pickup is open (broken wire), not shorted.
pete seitz But theres no resistance on the pot when turned right up (which it is when measuring)?
Also if pickup was COMPLETELY open, there would be no sound at all.
pete seitz (Apologies, on reflection I guess an open circuit would give you the 250k pot value reading)
Good catch, thanks.
Good explanation . . . Electronics is a mysterious dark art to those not familiar and we tend to forget that after we've been at it a while.
I did notice that he didn't show us the multimeter reading when he measured the pickup itself. He just said, "Yup, something's wonky here" and forged ahead. I like StewMac a lot, because they have some great products, and Dan and Erick have affable personae, but I try to remind myself that these videos are, first and foremost, to sell products.
Your reading was about 285 Kiloohms, which indicates an open, not a short. A short would reduce the resistance of the coil below the nominal 6k. I agree that the insulation has most likely broken down, but what's more likely is that there was a break in the wire and the insulation breakdown provided a high impedance path between the broken connections, so it still registered a value and produced some sound.
Testing magnets for charge after testing open circuit was a bit weird too. For all he knew I could have just been the switch that was poked.
There was still a 250K volume pot across the pickup. Explains everything in conjunction with either an open coil or more probably a bad connection at the switch.
It was .285 K ohms, which is 285 ohms.
1:06 .260 megaohms
Lets Scallop the fret board and put some YJM pickups on that guitar , Yngwie Malmsteen Strat
Oh wow I’m so relieved to see someone who puts the screws back exactly where they were originally from. I had a feeling I wasn’t the only one, it’s reassuring to see lol
Normal reading around 6k ohms. Faulty coil reading approx 200k ohms. This isn't a short somewhere, it is what I would have called in my telephone engineer days a 'high resistance dis' (disconnection). I'd guess part or parts of the wire was breaking down physically or chemically resulting in these parts having a much higher resistance than good copper. Imagine measuring the resistance of a nice shiny new nail, probably less than 1 ohm. Now measure a similar length and diameter nail that has just about rusted through (but not broken) its resistance will be much much higher as the rust/corrosion isn't a good conductor and what little good metal is left wont be as good a conductor either. Given time the rusty nail will break which would then give an open circuit reading. I think Erick did a great job of diagnosing the fault he perhaps used the wrong terminology in his narration.
Fantastic video. Thanks for sharing.
Nice to see a craftsman who cares about the guitars heritage and the owner and has pride in his work. Great job.
Everybody's laughing about the "short" instead of open. That is not fair in my opinion since it is very easy for anybody sat behind a keyboard to find a mistake and try to shine emphasizing it.
However I do not understand the purpose of fully rebuilding an old pickup instead of swapping it for a brand new one. Changing the wires will definitely change the sound as I trully believe that the main part of the "vintage sound" has far more to do with all the wear and tear of the wires than the magnets themselves...
To preserve the "vintageness" of the guitar, I would have tried just remelting the wax on the coils. It might have been enough to fix the shorted wires.
That may not be a permanent solution
Going by the resistance reading (285K ohm) I would assume it was a break in the wire getting a partial connection. That said, we never find out what the winding resistance was without the volume in-circuit so it's hard to know exactly how bad it was.
I've got a set from an 1980s USA Strat but one pickup is totally dead. I haven't got all that kit to fix it, so I will take off some of the windings and see if that will fix it, I might get lucky. Low output pickups always sound better, just listen to all those 1960/70s rock classics, you can actually hear the character of the amp - it growls - it's not all about tons of distortion!
As others here have done, I have wound off a few hundred turns to find a break and then re-soldered. An omhmeter now measures 5.3K instead of 6K. I can't hear any obvious detriment.
By the way, it was the same pickup (middle) and the symptoms were all the same as in the video.
He also didn't appear to check the wire at the switch end or the switch contacts for corrosion, at least not in this video. While that didn't turn out to be the problem, with a high resistance reading that should be an obvious check.
OMG, after so many usuful Videos by Stwemac, I am really shocked! I usually unwind the pickup, save the wire, fix the break and put the original wire back on. BTW the strange Value ist the value og the VOL pot!
I am addicted to watching this kind of craftsmanship
You are a mega class act. Always inspiring to see a craftsman willing to share such a valuable part of his trade. You clearly care about keeping the fleet going for years to come.
Thanks...
I have a 1962 Strat with a pickup issue. The workshop that fixed the pickup took away only a couple of feet wire and the problem was solved. Why cut away all the wire once and for all? Why not unwind the wire?
Shorts don't increase resistance.
Aurthor Thing I was wondering the same thing
They do if they're too small and you really got to go.
The shorts actually do increase resistance. If you take them off she will thank you!!!
What I questioned was the pickup had the correct resistance when tested alone but when the middle pickup was mixed it was really weak? My first thought would have been the pickup switch was worn out? Obviously it sounded great after the rewind. Great rewind work. I had frolic do my 63 precision pickup and it sounds fantastic! So the rewind if done properly it is back to new condition. It’s unfortunate but they do wear out if used hard professionally over years of use. Thankfully they can be reworked like new.
Bill Lanham He had a bad contact somewhere, more probably at the switch. What he measured was the volume pot. Totally wrong repair. And total BS about the screws too. They should all have been replaced. Rust is a cancer and will spread.
Erick Coleman identifies the problem ... no he doesn't
he needs to brush up his 8th grade physics
I think if you care more about the screw order than the actual winds of the pickup then you have your priorities wrong lol
VERY, very nice video illustrating a thorough step by step process that with a little patience, anyuone with some basic talents can do this!
I didn’t know that plastic pick guards shrink.
Very good video! Thank you for your time and effort, Erick.
This has got to be 1 of the most useful videos from Stewmac I've ever seen. Really cool, thanks. To all those saying he was wrong about the pickup short: who cares he just showed any noobs how to wind a strat pickup in a very detailed manner.
Joel Middaugh Not really a noob kindof job. That wire is fiddly to handle, learn to solder on something a bit bigger first.
I agree Joel
Frode Haugsgjerd oh yeah I would expect it not to go right a few times but some of us dont have any guidance and this definitely helps. Just to be clear I have plenty of experience wiring guitars. I just meant a noob to wiring pickups.
Very professional! I love how you keep all of the details such as screw configuration, etc. in mind.
I love the way you work here. Years ago, when I worked in a coil winding workshop, I picked up a tip for dealing with very fine wires. The leadouts are very fragile and can break at the solder terminal. However, if you fold the wire ends back on themselves twice for about six inches, they become quad wire and stronger. The quad wire gets wound into the coil so the whole leadout is much stronger. I wonder if this might be useful when winding your own pickups.
I just slightly heated the joints where the wires enter the pickup and it worked! You saved my bacon. Big thanks
It has gone open circuit like the bridge pickup in Roy Buchanan's Tele "Nancy" and is capacitively coupling between the windings, hence the thin sound.
This is Bob Ross for guitars
i thought the same
Dan Erlewine even moreso, IMHO, but Coleman is great.
"There are no mistakes, just happy little accidents."
Sometimes it worth unraveling the outer winding's in search of a break, I've come across a few breaks that were pretty close to the outer winding surface. Loosing 20 odd feet of wire but saving a vintage pickup is a plus. Even the lead edge of a winding can be unwrapped a little bit if its wound near the bobbin, not often though. If you find a break, and you didn't break the wire yourself you could disassemble the bobbin, not easy to do but possible and pull out a winding or 2.
Oh Heyal Yeah!!! You are so right. 20 years ago I had a Bentley Series 10 and the 'bucker died. I didn't know sheep from shinola about working on it but that Bentley made 20 some-odd way different sounds with the 5-way and 2 independent vols, before the mother bucker gave up the ghost. I really loved that guitar. So I figured, let's see what the center of a pickup looks like. What was I gonna do, break it? Took the pickup out and turned it over and over in my hand, poking it here and there and trying to look like I actually had some clue about what the hell I was doing (there were onlookers). I kept getting asked what I was gonna do to it, so I mumbled a bit, threw in a couple of "hmmm's", and told my audience that I had decided to get stoned and unwind it. Maybe 30 feet or so in there was a break. So after much consideration, and lots of helpful (ha ha) input from my buddies, I twisted the ends together, cut a little piece off a lead sinker (fishing I knew about a thousand times more than I did guitars), kinda sorta flattened it and wrapped it around the wire ends, and squished, wait, this was in Texas, so I should say "squarshed" it together with my fishing plyers, figuring the tool deserved a shot at it since it's buddy Mr. sinker took one for the team. Put it back together and woo hoo! it worked. Oh yeah, before painstakingly rewinding it by hand, during that time we spent(I say "we" because the onlookers had become my pit crew) considering all the options, Bob said "I'll fly if you'll buy" ('cause our mouths were getting dry), which got yeahs and yups (Texan for "yes") and hands in pockets for beer money. We couldn't do anything 'til Bob got back, so we hunkered down and got serious. We were like the driver and his pit crew at Nascar, working on the Bentley Special, getting it ready to Rock and Roll! Well, Bob got back and it was Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop!...and gulp gulp gulping...followed by some dang that's good's, thank yuh Jaysus'es (local dialect) and hoooweee!'s. More discussion and we decided I should put a coat of the old lady's clear fingernail polish on the repair and let that dry, which was just enough time to fire up another doobie. ....Doobie Brothers record, that's what I meant to say. Yeah. That. Anyway, gotter back together and that Bentley never sounded better! Then my buddy Bubba Joe( I swear!), who could actually play a guitar handed Mr Bentley back to me. Some mumbles, eh's, then a quick save, someone yelled "Barbecue!" which stared a chorus of Oh Heyal Yayuh's, couple of "Hey Bob! Go again?"'s , and IT WAS ON!!! ...Y'all take care, now. - David, a.k.a. the ConnMan.
The same can be done on some P90s. Have an experience on two of them.
What an awesome video. I never knew you could repair a pick up. I thought that once it was damaged you bought a replacement.
What caused the fault is more interesting than the repair. I wish you had carefully unwound the coil looking for the fault instead of cutting it.
Sorry but if the coil wires had shorted on itself you would have a very low resistance not a resistance on the higher Megaohms!!
"Could you imagine the way i felt/couldn't unfasten my safety belt"
Leo Fender would be SO impressed Erick. You da man. :)
Very nice job.
Hand wound pickups sound sweeter than perfect wound precise machine wound coils. This is due to the fact that the OD of each turn is a little larger or for example more length of wire is used on a hand wound at the same amount of turns. A perfect digital winder with precise progression which creates a perfect ribbon of wire side by side on the layers takes less wire per turn due to less buildup of wire. The lower buildup to achieve the same DCR would require more turns. The inductance is the key for the resonant peak frequency anyway. More turns would mean a higher inductance and in my opinion the more perfect machine wound pups sound more harsh. The more perfect machine wound pickups which utilize the more perfect progression side by side etc move the resonant frequency point around or different than the hand wound pups and sound different. The random wound coils seem to put some mojo and sweetness to the pups.
DC Bluez I’ve heard that Leo’s little helper would wind pickups by hand , and the wire would regularly cross the bobbin . This was known as scatter wound pickups , giving that unique sound . Trust me I’m no expert , so would this create a unique sound . Thanks for reading
20 years ago I had a Bentley Series 10 and the 'bucker died. I didn't know sheep from shinola about working on it but that Bentley made 20 some-odd way different sounds with the 5-way and 2 independent vols, before the mother bucker gave up the ghost. I really loved that guitar. So I figured, let's see what the center of a pickup looks like. What was I gonna do, break it? Took the pickup out and turned it over and over in my hand, poking it here and there and trying to look like I actually had some clue about what the hell I was doing (there were onlookers). I kept getting asked what I was gonna do to it, so I mumbled a bit, threw in a couple of "hmmm's", and told my audience that I had decided to get stoned and unwind it. Maybe 30 feet or so in there was a break. So after much consideration, and lots of helpful (ha ha) input from my buddies, I twisted the ends together, cut a little piece off a lead sinker (fishing I knew about a thousand times more than I did guitars), kinda sorta flattened it and wrapped it around the wire ends, and squished, wait, this was in Texas, so I should say "squarshed" it together with my fishing plyers, figuring the tool deserved a shot at it since it's buddy Mr. sinker took one for the team. Put it back together and woo hoo! it worked. Oh yeah, before painstakingly rewinding it by hand, during that time we spent(I say "we" because the onlookers had become my pit crew) considering all the options, Bob said "I'll fly if you'll buy" ('cause our mouths were getting dry), which got yeahs and yups (Texan for "yes") and hands in pockets for beer money. We couldn't do anything 'til Bob got back, so we hunkered down and got serious. We were like the driver and his pit crew at Nascar, working on the Bentley Special, getting it ready to Rock and Roll! Well, Bob got back and it was Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop!...and gulp gulp gulping...followed by some dang that's good's, thank yuh Jaysus'es (local dialect) and hoooweee!'s. More discussion and we decided I should put a coat of the old lady's clear fingernail polish on the repair and let that dry, which was just enough time to fire up another doobie. ....Doobie Brothers record, that's what I meant to say. Yeah. That. Anyway, gotter back together and that Bentley never sounded better! Then my buddy Bubba Joe( I swear!), who could actually play a guitar handed Mr Bentley back to me. Some mumbles, eh's, then a quick save, someone yelled "Barbecue!" which stared a chorus of Oh Heyal Yayuh's, couple of "Hey Bob! Go again?"'s , and IT WAS ON!!! ...Y'all take care, now. - David, a.k.a. the ConnMan.
Best comment :)
Nice fix Eric.
I have always told, if you don't want to end up with less screw, put them in position, after you star the job
Today I learned that "wax potted" means dipped in a pot of melted (bees) wax. Very surprising!
Usually 80-85% paraffin and 15-20% beeswax.
You can use straight paraffin "Gulfwax" too.
Falsements or even epoxy or polystyrene resin
The thumb's down must be from people who only play the skin flute.
I love watching fine detail work like this.
Excellent smithers
Release the coils!
Smithers, who is that man? *Um, that's Erick Coleman, sir.* I'll never forget that name...
pick up was not fixed he just made a new one ..a real tech would have pulled the wire for three block's and searched the wire with a microscope on his hand's and knee's for the break ...then rewind exactly the same way to preserve that pure fender tone.
Lol, it's just copper wire, nothing magical about "vintage tone", once you rewind it right it's the same as the old one.
At that bobbing reading he showed, the break would be far the middle of the bobbin. So we gonna have half vintage tone? Hahaha. Also, for the same reason it failed before, the remaining old wire of the bobbin could fail again and leads to another repair.
Great job man it sounds like a brand-new pickup or 🎸 guitar 😅
This video saved my 1964 jb hutto airline
If the wires were shorting wouldn't the resistance be lower, not higher?
You are correct that if there was a short in the coil, then the resistance would be lower. Erick does mention that normally, if a pickup had a short you would not get any signal from it, but that's not the case with this pickup. A shot with a more specific description of the diagnosis did not make it into the final cut for this video (there was so much information to convey that it was impossible to touch on every point, and the video was still 12 min. long). Unfortunately, the term "short" was a misnomer for the actual diagnosis. This particular pickup's coil wire had corrosion throughout, like a cluster, which resulted in points of higher resistance.
I just discovered this channel. I never really knew what was in a basic fender pickup. Brilliant stuff and as i do electronics anyway, i can do this if needed in the future if any of my pickups sound a bit weak & cheesy.
Whats the wax dipping for/do at the end of the video? Also are you using standard coated copper wire or special type for all pickups?
Thanks
Tim from Australia.
Nice video. Glad to see the whole process.
With a vacuum pump, the wax will really penetrate the pickup.
You could sell those IF it's at a fair price.
Buy the pump from the makers of penis pumps in asia + kettle + tubing.
Some choose the wrong glass and they implode, so you'd also keep people safe.
If you had a EU weekend deal once in a while for packages including shipping under 150€, you'd have more sales over here.
I'm also seaching for an old video of Dan's Spraying booth that folded outward and he attached a shower curtain/foil with magnets. It seems you took it down.
I enjoyed this video. Most informative.
Yes there was the little slip up calling the "open" a "short" but hey ! the rest of it was sound enough.
I've got a 66 Tele in my workshop with an open bridge pickup waiting for a final fix.
There's a 70s temporary substitute in there at the moment.
I've started unwinding it and , so far I have four ends but there's still at least one other break.
If the last break isn't too deep I'll either join and rewind, by hand or sacrifice the outer turns IF there are only a couple of hundred.
If it's WAY deep then it'll be rewind time or defeat time.
The flats are curved a bit too and the poles are shifting.
Recipe for disaster shifting poles in these old style pickups with the windings wrapped in physical contact with the pole pieces.
An interesting exploration though...
Scuse me rabbiting on. I'm kinda working out my plan of action as I write this. 🧠
Watching him cut into that vintage pickup physically hurt
@Electronic Adventures Take yer old mam to Stew Mac for a replacement ;)
siddx And where do you think your headed .
Great Video And Detail Explanation Of Process! Ciao, ALDO
This is one of the best videos on this channel! i learned alot!
Nothing beats those old magnets. Good to use them whenever possible.
If the video was shorter, my resistance to watching would have been higher not lower. Thanks for uploading it.
new coil means new pickup. it is not a fix, its just replacement.
Wrong. Original bobbins, magnets that can´t be reproduced, etc. The correct term is a rewind.
The magnets have aged over the decades (losing a slight amount of their magnetic power) which will make the pickup sound different from anything new. That's something you jut can't duplicate, and will be preserved even with the new copper wire wraps.
i think i stopped breathing when he cut the wires on the pickup, before even trying to unwind a few hundred, and re-testing
Wow.. So that's how it's done. I always thought it was really difficult but it looks so simple to do. Now to find one of those rewinding machines 😂
Great work! Wow! I would like to see you guys do a pickup wind by hand!!
Love watching a pro work! I always pick up some new bit of information. Thanks for the great quality video.
This video was super duper helpful in helping me wind my first pickup.
So glad to hear it!
This is fantastic. So that's how pickups work. Go StewMac! I would send my guitars to you guys!
or you could have had that replaced by a $2 Squier pickup and call it a day.
I am pretty sure my $100, 2008 Bullet sounds pretty much the same.
Haha Yeah, a pickup isn't made of magical parts like some people seem to think. Coper wire and magnets... The mojo is in the hands of the player!
I just took the pickups out of my Squier bullet and they are the super cheapo magnets glued to the base of the bobbin type. after dropping in a set of real Duncan single coils the tones are so much better and more detailed. When i opened it up there was a wad of the winding wire hanging off the middle pickup. It worked but wow that must be a sweatshop they got goin' over there in Indonesia.
Always a pleasure to Erik diagnose and explain the problem and corresponding resolution. Cheers!
I love the care to maintain the vintage condition as best possible. How could 56 people actually thumbs down this?
Wow. Skilled, Meticulous and knowledgeable, the only words I can find to describes this mans care for the instrument.How I wish he was here, in the UK, to look after my guitars.
3:50 I would take bright shiny joints over old crusty ones any day of the week. Proper solder joint doesn't get all that dull over time.
Excuse my ignorance, but what does the wax do to the pick up?
The wax performs a couple of functions, it keeps the windings mechanically stable and to an extent it will keep humidity out of the windings. Wax was often used in transformer windings for the same reasons.
Wax potting also reduces microphonics greatly. An unwaxed microphonic pickup can squeal and make all sorts of horrendous noises.
@@ralphshaw9758that is part of what I was referring to as "mechanically stable"
I totally got that but others may not have. cheers.
@@ralphshaw9758, no problem, the replies to this video tend to get a bit passionate. The confusion between open and short circuit in the video was irritating. You probably expressed the mechanical integrity thing better for a musician.
Damn! I soooo wanted one of these back in '63. Should have done it.
All you youngsters out there: get the guitar you want!
Got myself a 96 MIM Strat for 500, I'm happy.
!!!!! H E L P !!!! I ran a magnet over the pickups to clean them of splinters and ferrous dust accumulated over time (done on other guitars without problems) and today the pickups no longer play! They have no magnetic attraction and the volume has dropped by 70/80%!! It is a "Gilmour" setup with reversed-phase (RW) single coil pickups and 7-combination selector switch. Help!!! What happen!? Is it reversible? 12 hours have passed and nothing has changed! Only the magnets involved in contact with the magnet have "turned off", the central ones... the lateral ones work perfectly (low E and high E)...!! What happened? Can I save them? Can magnetic charge be recovered? Do I need to replace the magnetic cylinders? Is copper safe?
Please 🙏 help, in my region there is no one to turn to..!
Lucius
Thank you for share this Vid.. great Work Sir. best wihes from Germany
WOW, A very informative and helpful video there Erick. Great Job !
Shorts will cause decreased resistance. Not a short, high resistance instead.
Fascinating demo video. Wow, sure can tell Erick knows his stuff!
"it's important to take the screws out and put them back in exactly same place..." i've heard some stupidities in my time, but this one tops them all..., next... shrinkable pick guard!!! WTF?!?!... and how the resistance in mega ohms indicate shorted windings.... OMG
Yep. This guy is an idiot,
This pickup had a break. An open coil will still make a weak, thin tone due to capacitive coupling. The corrosion killed it.
Question... with the high dollar winder and everything at your disposal why would you not unwind the pup so you could 1 count the wraps #2 possibly find the short and reapply lacquer and or make a splice? To keep with the integrity of the repair?
Couldn't you just unwind by hand in case it was a break and then rewind? If it was wire insulation could the unwound wire be coated to fix the short?
Wish I could have heard the 2 and 4 position....what if they sound was cool. Roy Buchanan killed it with a malfunctioning bridge pickup and now Don Mare makes nice replicas with the flaw built in.
'63 had a 3-position switch but I understand you can get those sounds with careful placement of the switch so yeah...
Yup...
Yup
"Bright shiny solder joints which no one likes to see!" That cracks me up!
Very helpful. Thanks for posting.
Glad it was helpful!
Stick a squire pick up in nobody will notice
Reading 0.260 M ohms doesn't indicate "shorted" 😉
Shorted would be reading less than the expected coil resistance.
There was an open, not a short. A short would give you lower resistance
Love that you put the screws back where they went. True sign of a top notch guy.
All around great video, it shows your concern for a great repair.
Sounds remarkably the same to me! What’s the resistance now vs the old reading? Kinda was a let down not to know the afterwards reading you know!
If I wound it with AWG42 for 7500 turns, the DC resistance would be only around 5.6K ohms.
One more like!!!!
yeeea, 11 min video, ill put some popcorn on the microwave = D