Am I doing something wrong?

[AJR]

Hi all,

I'm currently attempting to replace the stock pickups in my Fender Telecaster Road Worn guitar with SD's vintage stack (STK-T1n and STK-T3b), using a four way switch.

I wired everything up according to the appropriate SD diagram. The neck pickup worked fine, but the bridge did not.

I thought I had got the switch wiring wrong, so re-did it. Same result.

After watching dozens of youtube videos, I decided to test the resistance of both my new SD pickups as well as my old pickups (I know, I should have done this earlier!!!!). Sure enough, the neck pickup had a resistance value, so too do my old pickups. But my new SD bridge pickup does not.

I want to make sure I am testing correctly. Is it correct to test from the green across to black wires in the STK-T3b? I get a zero reading. Am I doing something wrong?

I've also included a picture of the bridge pickup. Is there anything visible that looks wrong?

Appreciate any help.

Cheers

AJ

 

[freefrog]

Is it correct to test from the green across to black wires in the STK-T3b?

Yes but you had also to solder altogether the ends of white and red wires then to wrap this solder in insulating tape. Have you done that?

 

[AJR]

Thanks for responding. I did wrap the red and white wires together too and insulated them.

 

[freefrog]

Thanks for responding. I did wrap the red and white wires together too and insulated them.

Ok. If the DMM reads "0", either the hot output (black wire) is touching the ground somewhere and there is zero resistance, either "o" means "open" (infinite resistance) and the pickup is shot.

NOTE - Duncan Tele stacks are to handle carefully since the coils are not glued upon each other, apparently: IME, what holds them together are the long rod magnets passing through the two coils. If one pulls off the upper coil, it will break its wires. I had such a problem to repair once (and it was a PITA, TBH).

 

[freefrog]

BTW...

Old memories came to my mind regarding a STK1 wired in a wrong way from factory. I had to wire it differently to make it work as intented (9 years ago: I don't remember wiring colors, so).

Desolder / separate the red and white wires from each other then test the DCR of coils separately: is there a DCR from black to white? From black to red? From white to green? From red to green?

 

[hamerfan]

Thanks for responding. I did wrap the red and white wires together too and insulated them.

Not wraping, but soldering. You need a solid connection.

 

[jeremy]

you can test the coils to make sure each is working, red/green and white/black. the red/white is the series connection

 

[misterwhizzy]

Not wraping, but soldering. You need a solid connection.

This.

 

[AJR]

Thanks all, have tried soldering them together, still getting the infinite connection reading.

 

[Artie]

Infinite and zero are opposite. Infinite means "open", while zero means a short. Put one lead on the red/white connection. Then read to the black wire and note the reading, then the green wire and note the reading. (While the other lead is still on the red/white connection.) Let us know what those two are.

 

[Mincer]

Have you used a meter on the pickup itself (outside of the circuit)?

 

[freefrog]

Thanks all, have tried soldering them together, still getting the infinite connection reading.

The necessity to have the coil junction soldered was clearly implied by my post 2 BUT in post 5, I've recommended you to DE-solder the wires then to check the DCR between each pair of colored wires (if ever the 4-cond. cable on the pickup is miswired, which is very rare but happens here and there for various reasons). Again, Do you measure a DCR between black and white? Or Black and red? Green and red? Or green and white?

The messages trying to help above tell basically the same things in different sentences but your answers are elliptic and even misleading. Help us to help you...