Little 59 troubleshooting - broken? bad wiring?

[shan564]

Hello everybody,

I recently bought a Strat-style guitar with a Little 59 in the bridge and Kinmans in the neck and middle positions. The Little 59 seems to sound very weak and soft, so I assumed there was a loose wire or something.

The pickup is wired to a 3-way switch that is supposed to switch between in-phase, out-of-phase, and single coil. I can't hear any difference between the three positions, no matter what I do to the volume/tone knobs. Is it possible that there's something wrong with the switch?

The volume problem isn't as bad if I turn up the distortion, but it still sounds weak... much weaker than the noiseless single coils in the neck and middle positions. Definitely doesn't sound like a humbucker.

I just popped it open and I can't find any specific problems with the wiring... any suggestions?

 

[marcello252]

Re: Little 59 troubleshooting - broken? bad wiring?

If you have a tester you could measure the bobbins resistance between black and white wires and between red and green wires, both got to be in the 8/9 Kohm range.
If you don't have a tester try wire the pickup without the switch, connecting the black to the pickup selector, the green to ground and soldering white and red wires together (isolating their junction with tape)

 

[shan564]

Re: Little 59 troubleshooting - broken? bad wiring?

Thanks for the suggestion... I have a cheap crappy multimeter, but it's consistently reading less than 6 Kohm, no matter where I turn the switch. So that means it's a faulty pickup? Is there any chance I might be able to repair it or do I have to replace it?

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Little 59 troubleshooting - broken? bad wiring?

The in/single/out switch should be wired in that order. Any other permutation will mess up how the coils are interconnected in at least one of the positions. For now, take the switch out of circuit and try the Li'l '59 as a straightforward humbucker.

If the switching options are in the correct order, it is possible that the coils are running in parallel rather than in series. Hence, all three options could very well sound like a single coil pickup.

 

[shan564]

Re: Little 59 troubleshooting - broken? bad wiring?

Thanks for the suggestions... I tried bypassing the switch (actually, I just put a wire between the terminals where the red and white wires connect... same effect, and I didn't have to get out the soldering iron), and the pickup works just fine as a humbucker. I guess I shouldn't have considered the opinion of that multimeter that I bought for $7 in Chinatown.

I'm pretty sure it's not the order of the wiring - it was originally done by a very well- qualified shop, so I can't imagine that they would have made such a blatant mistake and not have noticed. It's probably just a bad switch, so I'll just have to replace it... no big deal.

Or better yet, I'll leave the '59 as a humbucker and put in a Fralin blender pot in its place...