My favorite guitar is in trouble!

[Toney]

My favorite guitar is in trouble.

I spent time over the last few days debuggng a crybaby. Damned thing...I don't really want it any way. Just was on the list so I finally got 'round to it. Looks like it had copped a nice dose of reversed polarity at some point...couple of dead diodes and electros.

Anyhow, thats fixed but......I stupidly put the header one pin off center when connecting up the board to test. Thus sending 9v straight down my lead back to the guitar for around 30 -45 mins while I scratched my head.

WHICH IS NOW CACTUS!!! Running around is circles here...it's my favorite, the Ibanez Les Paul...

I have low output from the pickups. Bridge is really sounding "wrong" low output different tone.

Is it possible to stuff up( cook ?)pick ups in this way? Haven't opened her up to even look yet.

Erk...havn't felt like this since I dropped my favorite about ten years ago...tone changed forever- think the coils may have shifted in the PU's any how...it never sounded the same and i was so depressed about it I sold it. Still worked, just different, lost my sweet spot.

Ok deep breaths now!

[petemoore]

  You can measure the resistance of the coil and find the resistance specified, that should tell you if the coil resistance has changed.
  Magnetic fields can be produced in metals by introducing current to a coil wrapped around it...whether a DC battery is capable of this I don't know.

[Transmogrifox]

I was going to mention this about the magnetic field.  It is possible you have created a permanent magnetic field in the rods in the center of the pickup coils.  This would either add to, or subtract from the permanent magnetic field from the Alnico magnets (that are supposed to be the magnetizing source).  This would definitiely change the sound.

All speculation aside about magnetization, I would be most suspicious of some kind of damage caused by excessive heat dissipated in the coils, causing abnormalities due to heating/cooling expansion/contraction stress as well as melting the winding coating.

The bad news is that your pickups may be shot.

The good news is that new pickups aren't nearly as expensive as a new guitar, so you haven't ruined your favorite guitar.  It may need some surgery is all.

[Dean Hazelwanter]

Try the signal coming directly from each pickup, without the pots or switching connected. If you're lucky, maybe only the volume pot(s) fried.

[Toney]

Going to have several beers then deal with this tomorrow.

Very not happy.!

[MartyMart]

Sorry to hear that Toney ...... bummer 

If it's just vol pot or even a new set of pickups that's not "terminal"
It's still the same axe ... neck ... wood etc

I've put newer/better pups in many gtr's and they only ever got "better"
sounding

Dont panic

Marty.

[MetalUpYerEye]

+1 to that. The sound of YOUR GUITAR comes from the woods and other materials used to make it (glues, finishing materials, etc.). You'll never be able to find another guitar that sounds EXACTLY like yours does because you'll never find two pieces of wood exactly the same. Good news for you is that shooting electricity through your input jack couldn't have damaged the wood. So, like the other guys said; wire up your pickups directly to the output jack to eliminate any possibility of fried pots, switches, etc. and if the problem persists, get a new set of pickups.

[Toney]

Hey thanks for the kind words guys.

I guess you're right.

It has the original Super 70's in it. Just sounds (sounded) amazing. Was "my" sound.

I used to smile to myself, it had a certain tone... I guess there'e nothing for it but to start considering pick ups.

I'm guessing that Vintage Gibson Buckers will the starting point.

Of course I'll look into the pots/caps etc tomorrow... but I have an uneasy sense of forboding that it aint that.

[phaeton]

I very recently (over the weekend) did this also to my Ibanez.  Fortunately, I caught it after about 30 seconds or so (with a weakened battery, even), but I'm the worry wart type, and haven't played my guitar straight into an amp in so long that I may have 'forgotten' what it's supposed to sound like.  So i dunno.

Don't know if you've seen my test board, but I now have designs to basically 'hardwire' a socket in series between the 1/4" jack and the breadboard input. This way it will only work if I have a 'safety' capacitor plugged into it.  The socket is so that I can change out values as needed, but typically a .1uF should be good, right?

I've also considered using a 1:1 isolation transformer on the output, but I'm not sure if that's the thing to do.

As far as roasting pickups...  it is true that the real tone of the guitar is in the wood.  The pickup is just a 'filter', really.  Pickups only respond to certain 'parts' of the tone, so if your pickups shift from stock, another set of stock pickups should put you right back in place.

The trick is finding another set of stock pickups if it's old though.

Good luck.