Pickup Problem

[sirkut]

I accidentally posted this in a completely unrelated thread. Here's the post, if anyone can spot the problem, please let me know.

Here's an interesting problem. I have an old washburn with a bill lawrence pickup. For over 6 years I've just left it in the guitar case, untouched. I decided to take it out and plug it into an amp. I can't get any sound out of it unless I really BANG on the strings, then it slightly fizzs out. The amp is perfectly fine as I try it with my cheap japanese strat copy. Any ideas what could be wrong?

[bettycat]

I accidentally posted this in a completely unrelated thread. Here's the post, if anyone can spot the problem, please let me know.

Here's an interesting problem. I have an old washburn with a bill lawrence pickup. For over 6 years I've just left it in the guitar case, untouched. I decided to take it out and plug it into an amp. I can't get any sound out of it unless I really BANG on the strings, then it slightly fizzs out. The amp is perfectly fine as I try it with my cheap japanese strat copy. Any ideas what could be wrong?

I´m pretty sure that it´s NOT the pickup. Check all components after the PU -> cables, pots, PU selector switch, output-jack. To start I would clean all the pots and the selctor switch, chances are good that this will solve the problem without any further work.

P.S. You use the same cable from the Strat to the amp as before with the Washburn, right ? Just to make sure that this is not the problem.

[sirkut]

Yup, same cable. Guess I'll have to tackle it on the weekend on a rainy day.

[sirkut]

If it isn't the pot and selector switch, would could it possibly be?

[The Tone God]

If its a faint sound like a weak single coil then you may have break in the coil. Take a reading of the pickup directly with no switches or pots in between the pickup and meter. If you get a really high reading or no reading then the pickup is broken.

If you get a reading then you know its just a bad connection in the guitar. At that point check all the connections with a meter. It might just be a loose ground connection.

Andrew

[bettycat]

If it isn't the pot and selector switch, would could it possibly be?

You should also check all cable and ground connections, as well as the output jack. I can´t imagine that a PU starts to fail while you don´t use it, but you never know

For a real test you should solder an aoudio jack directly to the cables of the PU to bypass all the other components. Plug in a cable that you have tested with any other guitar and play through an amp that you also have tested with a different guitar. If the problem is still there, you can be sure that it is the PU itself.

[petemoore]

to connect to the pickup leads [somehow, or not, depending on access] for testing it with an amp...