Pickup repair.

[Jocelyn]

Early this evening when I stepped out of home, to return back to work. I saw something that looked familiar sticking to the iron gate near the local garbage bin. As I passed by it I thought it looked like a pickup, but thought nah it must me some Cupboard door magnet catch. I took a few more steps away and though It loks to big for on so I shamelessly walked back to the garbage bin area and pulled it ( the pole piece side was stuck to the gate) . Well not only was it a pickup but my jaws dropped when I seen it was a Seymour Duncan. It seems like one of the Stack pickups, with a small hole in the bottom center for the lead. It has no leads to it, and it does seem like some has messed up big time with it. I gently nudged and pushed the cover and it is confirmed it is a stack, As i can see one coil stacked upon the other. Ok now the big Q can this be repaired. I seen some pics of Stack Duncan Pickups and they have all their wiring done at the bottom of the pickups with a resister added too. I can see some scratches and markings where the soldering joints would have been there. here are some crappy camera phone pics.

You can see the bottom here with no leads on it. This was the side facing me out wards, while it was stuck to the gate.

[CTN]

Re: Pickup repair.

I don't see why it couldn't be repaired. It's missing some parts, sure, and needs some TLC and new lead wires, but it's totally doable as long as the coils are in good shape (it looks like they probably are).

[Jocelyn]

Re: Pickup repair.

The coils look perfectly intact. Perhaps I need to take of the protective tape. to get the start and end of the coils. The way it is right now I can only see on end of a coil, sticking to one end of the bottom. From what other pics I have seen on the net of the bottom al the coil ends and beginning are attached and soldered at the bottom. I would love this to work. I still cant believe this was sticking near the garbage bin.

[marcello252]

Re: Pickup repair.

(Eh, che culo!)

Yes, you can fix it if you're able to find the coil ends (just unwound 1 or 2 turns and solder the end to a wire), be careful because the wire is really thin in these pickups.
You can glue a plastic bottom plate (do you have any spare 1-ply pickguard around?)

[Jocelyn]

Re: Pickup repair.

(Eh, che culo!)

Yes, you can fix it if you're able to find the coil ends (just unwound 1 or 2 turns and solder the end to a wire), be careful because the wire is really thin in these pickups.
You can glue a plastic bottom plate (do you have any spare 1-ply pickguard around?)

I guess I will have to do that, unwinding it. The thing is the STK pics that i checked for on the net show a Resister attached to the bottom. And I can see that this one had one too. Check out this pic of a stock STK pup.

[marcello252]

Re: Pickup repair.

I can't see the colors of the resistor, if the one on the left was a brown it could seem a 1.5 but still I can't see the multiplier, sorry..

[Jocelyn]

Re: Pickup repair.

I am guessing that base plate is internally wired. That whole plate is missing, with the pickup I found. If you compare the bottom of the stock intact pickup with the bottom of the one I found, you can see the diff.

[Jocelyn]

Re: Pickup repair.

Anyone else? All the description I read for the Stack pickups say that they are individually voiced. I am going to go ahead and unwrap a few turns of each coil.., but where to connect them?

http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/electric/stratocaster/vintage-output/classic_stack_p/

[marcello252]

Re: Pickup repair.

try to find the 4 ends. connect the 4 terminals to a 4 wires insulated cable (the one used in almost every modern humbucker), with a multimeter try to find which couple is the start/end of each coil, then just try to connect the coil in series, there are not so many option. If it sounds noisey there are chances you have to invert the polarity of one of the coil, then try again. If it sound weak or strange just reverse the entire to pickup.

let's suppose:

- 1st coil A-B
- 2nd coil C-D

try:

1) hot---A-B----C-D---ground
2) is it noisey? try hot---A-B----D-C--- ground
3) sounds weak? try hot---C-D----B-A---ground
4) 3. sounds good but noisey? try hot---D-C---B-A---ground.

[Jocelyn]

Re: Pickup repair.

Thanks Marcello, I had thought of doing what you said above. I guess that resistor comes between the coils, to brighten up the tone. I am going to have to take my time on this.I don't see myself doing it this weekend. I think I would also need to add a lead for the ground.