Pickup swapping day... but something went wrong. Help!

[Rex_Rocker]

So I moved the 500T to my Strat today (the Duncan Distortion wasn't quite having the aggression that I wanted).

So far, it's better. The 500T has more of an upper-mid spike ala JB, and is higher output. It's not night and day, but I didn't want it to be.

But something happened with the switch. It was working fine before. But now, the middle position sounds nice and chimey, as it should (using a DiMarzio SDS-1 in the neck), but the neck position sounds the same as the middle position...

... hmm...

I measured with the multimeter. The bridge position measures 15K, as it should. The middle position measures 6K, as it should, right? But the neck position measures 6K too.

What could be wrong?

Thanks!

 

[GuitarDoc]

A short between the neck wire and the switch output somewhere. All it takes is for one single strand to make that short.
So check all your connections and make sure there are no stray wires anywhere.

It could also be the switch. In a 3-way toggle, if one of the outside plates (neck) isn't totally disconnecting its contact with the middle plate when switched to neck position it will do that. That can be fixed by carefully bending that plate.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Thanks! It's a Fender blade switch, not a Gibson-style switch.

I guess I'll have to open up the guitar again and double check.

 

[ehdwuld]

When you wired in the new pickup
you bumped something loose or inadvertently soldered two things together

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Yeah, I opened up the guitar, and the bridge pickup's hot wire was touching something it shouldn't on the switch. It's fixed now. Thanks, dudes!

 

[jeremy]

glad it was an easy fix!