bridge pickup not working

[eXCeSS]

so i get my new explorer with duncans annnnd the pickup is REALLY quiet
about 5% of the neck one.

heres the pictures of the inside of the little compartment

http://www.mcccxxxvii.com/up/explorer/


if any of you could tell me what the deal is and if i can fix anything on my own with out shelling out the money for it to get professionally done id appreciate it greatly


i think theres 2 volume and one tone becuase 2 have the same ingravings on the back and one is different

I can solder well, and i have access to a multimeter.

With that said are tehre things ic an check with the mult that would be ways to tell whats the culprit?


help

 

[Scott Miller]

Re: bridge pickup not working

Two possibilities here---you have a wiring problem, or the pickup is not working.

Hard to tell from the pictures, but one observation: You have a fair amount of bare wire exposed on at least one of the pickups. If that bare wire is laying across any of the 'hot' terminals, then the sound will short out. Check that first. Does this guitar have a 3-way switch? If so, does the middle position work, or is it quiet like the bridge pickup? If yes, then check the hot signal path of the bridge pickup because it is shorting to ground somewhere (check all of your connections for solder drips, and make sure bare wires are not touching anything they are not supposed to touch).

If none of that helps, try wiring the bridge pickup straight to the output jack. If you get no sound that way, then the pickup has 'had the weiner' so to speak. Give our customer service dept a call at (805) 964-9610 ext 501 to discuss.

 

[eXCeSS]

Re: bridge pickup not working

Two possibilities here---you have a wiring problem, or the pickup is not working.

Hard to tell from the pictures, but one observation: You have a fair amount of bare wire exposed on at least one of the pickups. If that bare wire is laying across any of the 'hot' terminals, then the sound will short out. Check that first. Does this guitar have a 3-way switch? If so, does the middle position work, or is it quiet like the bridge pickup? If yes, then check the hot signal path of the bridge pickup because it is shorting to ground somewhere (check all of your connections for solder drips, and make sure bare wires are not touching anything they are not supposed to touch).

If none of that helps, try wiring the bridge pickup straight to the output jack. If you get no sound that way, then the pickup has 'had the weiner' so to speak. Give our customer service dept a call at (805) 964-9610 ext 501 to discuss.

The middle selection on the pickup selector sounds almost the same as the 'up' position, I don't know really if that can help me but if it can, please let me know!

Also how do I wire it right to the jack?

 

[Artie]

Re: bridge pickup not working

The middle selection on the pickup selector sounds almost the same as the 'up' position, I don't know really if that can help me but if it can, please let me know!

Also how do I wire it right to the jack?

That makes it sound like perhaps the red and white wire aren't connected properly. If you have access to a meter, do this:

With the selector switch in the neck position, measure from the bridge green to bridge black. Use the Duncan tone chart and compare the reading to whatever your pup is. (Anything in the 7k to 16k range should be ok.) Then measure from green to red, and again from black to white. Both those readings should be close to the same, and approximately half of the green to black reading.

Check that along with what Scott said.

Artie

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: bridge pickup not working

Looked to me like you have red and white wires attached to the back of a pot. If so, you're killing one of the coils of the pickup. Hard to tell. The photos are a little blurry and things are so crowded in there it's just hard to make it out without frying my brain from concentrating to hard!

As far as Duncans go: black should be hot, red and white should be soldered together and then taped up and not soldered to anything and green should be your ground wire and soldered to the back of a pot that's grounded. Lew

 

[Scott Miller]

Re: bridge pickup not working

To wire the pickup straight to the jack:
Put the black wire to the hot terminal of the jack.
Put the green and bare wires to the ground terminal of the jack.
Put the red & white wires together (solder them together and tape them off)

 

[eXCeSS]

Re: bridge pickup not working

To wire the pickup straight to the jack:
Put the black wire to the hot terminal of the jack.
Put the green and bare wires to the ground terminal of the jack.
Put the red & white wires together (solder them together and tape them off)

I did this and the pickup works.

Now, when everything is soldered in, as in the picture, only the neck pickup works. Boo this.




I'm pretty sure that this is wired 100% to the schematic as well.

 

[eXCeSS]

Re: bridge pickup not working

I did this and the pickup works.

Now, when everything is soldered in, as in the picture, only the neck pickup works. Boo this.




I'm pretty sure that this is wired 100% to the schematic as well.

to be honest, i beleive that ive done everything except switch pots, and i believe the pot is to blame (bleh)

anything i can do to test the pot with a multimeter