Pickup resistance issue

[dztronics]

Hi all,

Can anyone help? Just bought a new SH-6b pickup, the same as I have in all my other guitars. I always measure the resistance of the pickup before fitting to make sure it’s OK, and this one is reading 16.2k. It’s a very simple wiring setup, just one pickup, one pot (volume) and the Jack socket. On wiring this pickup in and testing the resistance at the Jack plug, I’m only getting 7.9k with the pot wound fully on. I have tested it at the pot pins and still get 7.9k. When I unsolder the hot wire on pin 1 of the pot and test it I get 16.2k. This doesn’t happen on my other guitars - I get roughly around 16k at the Jack on these. I’ve replaced the pot three times but still get the same readings. When I play I’m still getting output, but the pickup doesn’t seem to have enough ‘oomph’. The low frequency and high frequency are there, it’s just a bit weak.

Can anyone explain why I’m getting such a big drop in resistance when testing with a multi-meter?



Please excuse the poor soldering, this is just for testing.

TIA

Rick

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Pickup resistance issue

It seems like you are only getting a reading from one coil. Check that your wires didn’t melt when soldering. You might have shorted the red and/or white wire to ground or hot.

Does the pickup hum like a single coil? Try tapping on the poles. I’ll bet one coil isn’t working.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Mincer]

Re: Pickup resistance issue

^ This is my first thought, too. Maybe red & white aren't quite connected? Do the 'tap test'.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Pickup resistance issue

Something is grounded out somewhere, but its only when you attach the pickup to ground that it then becomes an issue. I had just this issue yesterday with extended wires on a Gibson mini. I had forgotten which colours were hot and ground, so as soon as I soldered them (the wrong way around) to the pot I went from the regular 6K full humbucker reading to 0k.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Pickup resistance issue

^ This is my first thought, too. Maybe red & white aren't quite connected? Do the 'tap test'.

However, if red and white are not connected there will be no signal. More likely is that the red and white are connected but when the pup is soldered to the vol pot it causes the red/white wires to touch a ground, therefore only the black/white coil is active.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Pickup resistance issue

FWIW Not sure why but he’s using green to hot and black/bare to ground, if that makes any difference in the possible problems.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Pickup resistance issue

FWIW Not sure why but he’s using green to hot and black/bare to ground, if that makes any difference in the possible problems.

It shouldn't. That just flips the phase in relation to other pickups.