Really Low Output from Pickups

[stevie_bees]

A little while ago I did some work on a friend's Tele. She brought it back to me last week, thinking that there was an issue with the jack socket. I checked it out, and it all looks good, but the output of the guitar is extremely low in all positions. The pickup selector and tone control all works, just barely any output. Any ideas what might cause this? Dodgy volume pot? It is probably a couple of years since I did the work on it last, and it's been fine up until now...

 

[Gtrjunior]

Re: Really Low Output from Pickups

It would be my guess that the pots could be the culprit. Maybe they just are transferring the signal correctly.
Check you ground connections all around as well. While you’re at it check the jack too....you might have good solder joints but if the jack is faulty that wouldn’t matter.

Might be as simple as a loose wire that’s barely making contact somewhere.
The good news is that an electronics gut job is cheap and easy.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Really Low Output from Pickups

Is anything crackling? I've had similar problems with a switch and a pot going bad. With the pot, just turning it back and forth a whole bunch seemed to help for a little while. With the switch it was a goner . . . it had developed some corrosion on the internal contacts.

 

[stevie_bees]

Re: Really Low Output from Pickups

I checked the jack first, as that's where she thought the problem was, and it looks ok. Can't hear any crackling, it sounds as if everything is working, just really, really quiet.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Really Low Output from Pickups

did it meter ok at the jack?

 

[stevie_bees]

Re: Really Low Output from Pickups

Yup.

 

[stevie_bees]

Re: Really Low Output from Pickups

I'm going to take it all out tomorrow and see what I find.