Has anyone had a pickup just kind of die?

[Kirk Dahnke]

I've got a bridge WLH that just stopped working. The wiring all looks right. Done by a pro. All of a sudden its about 1/4th as loud. The volume knob does nothing. The neck and middle work perfectly. Could it be a bad pot?

[nexion218]

There is definitely sg with the wiring, especially if the middle position is OK. At least this is what I think. If the bridge pup was shot, younshould definitely notive something being off in the middle position too.

[beaubrummels]

I've only had one pickup die that was 30 years old due to corrosion in the coil (it was a Rickenbacker). Other than that, the only things that have caused the above description are: I have had switches and wiring go wrong, like solder joints come loose, or ground wire come in contact with switch lugs shorting out a pickup. Happens over time if the guitar is moved around, shaken, played live, even in the case, wiring can get jostled and things come in contact that weren't a problem when first wired.

Doesn't matter what the wiring 'looks' like, need to get out a meter and check continuity across all the connections first. If connections are all good, then look at anything that might be coming in contact with the switch or hot wires, if that's all good then test the pots for function (put a meter across the lugs and make sure you're getting the expected readings for that pot value).

[Aceman]

In 40 years of guitar..including sweat drenched, beer spilled, fog machine oblivion, I have had pots die, solder joints crap out, wires short, and switches die.

But never a pickup just die. I know it CAN happen...for magnetic and other reasons. But I think it is pretty rare. While pickups can be delicate, they are also pretty simple. Much mor4e likely something else.

[Mincer]

Pickups can die, but usually it is a result of some kind of trauma. Pushing on poles, storing a guitar in a shed, etc, but not really during normal use. I've certainly had pots and switches die, and soldered connections fail, though.

[zionstrat]

No problems with covered pups but I have shorted uncovered coils before by picking into them repeatedly over and over across the long period of time.

[nexion218]

Btw you could just measure the impedance of the pickup with a multimeter. If that reading is in line with what it should as per the manufacturer, the pickup is most probably fine.

[ArtieToo]

If it's "1/4th as loud", it probably isn't the pup. As beau said, it's probably the wiring. The symptom sounds like maybe the bridge red/white has become uninsulated and is touching something post-volume.

[GuitarDoc]

It works fine in the middle position so it's NOT a problem with the pup. If, when in the bridge only position, it sounds 1/4 the volume then Artie's diagnosis sounds about right...that would effectively be splitting the pup.

It could also be a cold solder joint. Just because "The wiring all looks right" , that doesn't mean anything. Also, just because it was done by a pro doesn't necessarily mean anything either...we've seen pics of a "pro's" wiring which looks like he never picked up a soldering iron before.

Check out the wiring with a meter, make sure that every joint is insulated and not touching anything it shouldn't, and re-flow the solder at every connection. If you do this, everything will be fine again.

[freefrog]

+1 about the problem being most probably in the wiring / solders and about the interest to use a multimeter. Reflowing each solder takes a few seconds and solves many "issues", FWIW.

Regarding the question to know if PU's can die: certainly. Since 1980, I've seen (and repaired) my share of dead ones.

It can be due to mechanical stress (mostly with humbuckers) or corrosion (with single coils whose wire is wound directiy on mags)... and it happens sometimes without perceptible reasons. The last for me was a Gibson HB: it looked fine, almost new... but there was simply no reading from each coil - the problem being most probably due to a faulty start coil connection, where the thin wire is twisted around a tinned strand, directly stuck on an inner side of each plastic bobbin, deep under the multiple layers of wire... Which forces to rewind the coils. :-/ But such a failure is neat since it gives simply no sound.

Some pickups also develop inner short cuts, leading the coil wire to behave like a series capacitor and to cut the bass. . A famous case is the bridge pickup of a Telecaster nicknamed "Nancy": it can be heard on most tracks recorded by Roy Buchanan... Such pickups are easy to recognize, since they change any tone pot in a second volume control and because one can't measure their DCR (as expected with a capacitive circuit).

Pickups dying for magnetic reasons are extremely rare AFAIK but old stories say that Andy Summers had those of his Tele demagnetized by an electric motor of the London tube...

FWIW - shared drivel from an old fart. :-))

[JamesPaul]

...

Pickups dying for magnetic reasons are extremely rare AFAIK but old stories say that Andy Summers had those of his Tele demagnetized by an electric motor of the London tube...

...

I recall reading that old story in a guitar magazine. That same magazine article also noted that a guy named Seymour Duncan fixed Andy's Tele pickups.

[Demanic]

I recall reading that old story in a guitar magazine. That same magazine article also noted that a guy named Seymour Duncan fixed Andy's Tele pickups.

I had heard that he left the guitar leaning against a huge steel water tank in the basement of the Boston Garden.

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[freefrog]

I had heard that he left the guitar leaning against a huge steel water tank in the basement of the Boston Garden.

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Yep, you're right, that's what Andy Summers wrote in his autobiography (One Train Later, page 305; Google is our friend. LOL).

But the story about the subway periodically pops here and there, on various forums and blogs... Is it to say that the problem happened twice - or are my own memories "demagnetized" thermselves? It wouldn't surprise me. :-P

Anyway: the idea remains that a very strong magnetic field is necessary to "kill" a pickup. That said, I've here some cheap PU's with rubber ferrite mags whose magnetic field seems to have largely vanished spontaneously. :-)