Lost output on SD Distortion

[Spirit7]

Hi all,

There's a problem with my SD Distortion bridge. It was working fine at full output until I noticed a slight rip in the material surrounding the pickup - you know that sythetic band thing. I can see the magnet inside through the rip, and I'm thinking that might be why I've lost loads of sustain/output? Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Luke Duke]

Re: Lost output on SD Distortion

Hi all,

There's a problem with my SD Distortion bridge. It was working fine at full output until I noticed a slight rip in the material surrounding the pickup - you know that sythetic band thing. I can see the magnet inside through the rip, and I'm thinking that might be why I've lost loads of sustain/output? Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Was there and actual event that caused the rip? If it is just wear and tear I wouldn't worry about it. I would look in the guitar and see if I had a lead loose.

Luke

 

[Spirit7]

Re: Lost output on SD Distortion

I've looked more closely (no leads loose), and can see there's a dent in one of the magnets, or the copper surrounding the magnets Think that could be my problem...but the magnet still works, so still not sure...

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Lost output on SD Distortion

Before anything else, use an ohm meter and a 1 ft. cord in the input jack to read the resistance of that pickup. If it reads around 7 or 8K, then one coil is shorted. Also, use an allen wrench to tap on the polepieces while the guitar is plugged in, to see which coil is not making a sound.

Make sure the white/red wires are soldered together and taped. (inside cavity of guitar)

Under the tape, there should be a few wires bundled together. Make sure they're all individually covered with tape, so none of them can make contact with the baseplate, potentially shorting out a coil.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Lost output on SD Distortion

Also, it's very common for a volume pot to start going bad, and some of it's travel is shorted. If the pot doesn't exhibit a smooth and noiseless travel from 0 to 10, I'd suspect that the pot is causing the problem.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Lost output on SD Distortion

I've looked more closely (no leads loose), and can see there's a dent in one of the magnets, or the copper surrounding the magnets Think that could be my problem...but the magnet still works, so still not sure...

Dent in the "copper surrounding the magnets"? The only thing copper in a pickup is the coil wire, so that sounds like bad news -- one of the coils is busted. If so, the only cures are a rewind of that coil, or a new pickup.