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Topic: Why do pickups go bad? |
William Lake
From:
Ontario, Canada
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Posted 11 Jul 2010 9:29 am |
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A couple of new topics here has me wondering. Why would a pickup go bad? There are no moving parts. What could go wrong?
Does this mean that vintage pickups are no good cuz they are too old????
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Bill |
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Johnny Thomasson
From:
Texas, USA
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Posted 11 Jul 2010 10:15 am
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I have a '51 Tele (a No-Caster, actually) that has the original pickups on it, and it sounds like a million bucks. I wouldn't dream of changing them.
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Johnny Thomasson |
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Scott Appleton
From:
Ashland, Oregon
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Posted 11 Jul 2010 12:23 pm bad PU's
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The most common problem is the windings become loose and rub a bare spot on the exterior of the wire itself.
this causes a short .. the other problem is the loose wire becomes microphonic from the wire vibrating in the pickup. They can be repaired by rewinding or "potting"
which is a process that waxes the windings so they can't move. |
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Blake Hawkins
From:
Florida
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Posted 11 Jul 2010 12:49 pm
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Bill,
There are several things that can go wrong with
guitar pickups.
They are wound with many turns of very fine wire.
This wire is insulated with enamel or something similar.
Over the years. changes in temperature cause expansion and contraction of the wire. The enamal
can rub off in spots resulting in a short.
The coating can deteriorate and just flake off.
The wire may break due to metal fatigue.
There can be corrosion at the internal connections
to the hook up wire.
After many years, the magnets used can lose their
magnetism and the pickup will have low output
or just may not work.
These are just a few common things that happen. |
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William Lake
From:
Ontario, Canada
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Posted 11 Jul 2010 2:07 pm
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Thanks to all for your explanations and to Chris for the eMail.
Deterioration of the varnish coating makes perfect sense and is obvious now that I think about it.
My varnish is deteriorating too. 
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Bill |
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Jim Bob Sedgwick
From:
Clinton, Missouri USA
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Posted 12 Jul 2010 6:48 am pickup gone bad
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| A few years ago, I played an outdoor gig in Palm Springs, CA. Temperature was 112 in the shade. My pickup got so hot, the enamel coating melted and shorted out the pickup. I checked it with an ohm meter and what was a 20,000 ohm pickup was now 5000 ohms. It cost me exactly what I made on the gig to have the Pickup rewound. As Smiley Roberts is fond of saying. You can make 10's of dollars feeding your addiction. ( The drummer also suffered a heat stroke on this gig ) |
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