Disappearing bridge pickup: what's going on?
Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 10:50 pm
Trying to figure out what's haunting my Greco Les Paul.
When I got the guitar, the bridge pickup wasn't working. The seller had a pair of boutique pups in there but removed them and reinstalled the original Maxon pups before he sent it, so I figured he'd just buggered up the wiring. So I re-did the wiring, swapping to the 50s wiring style was I was at it, and that seemed to do the trick. Except it didn't last. The bridge pup went on me again, but it was intermittent - so if I left it a while it would come back. But then the neck pup would go on and off as well. "Aha!" I thought. "It's a dodgy switch!" So I got a Switchcraft switch and wired that in. While I was at it, I put a couple of Orange Drop caps in (because I had an idea they might be leaky and contributing to the problem).
For two weeks or so, everything was great and I figured I'd solved it. But then I took the guitar to a rehearsal room over the weekend and the bridge pup went again, although this time the volume dropped off first before it died completely. I fiddled with the switch and the volume knob over the course of the rehearsal and the bridge pup came back and stayed back.
At that stage I figured it had to be either the volume pot or the pickup itself, so last night I wired a new volume pot in. Seemed to work fine, but then the volume dropped on the bridge pup again and I'm back to square one.
It's odd, because when I first got the guitar, when the bridge pup went, it was gone completely - no volume at all, no measureable signal. Almost like it was shorting out. But now there's a dramatic drop in volume rather than a complete loss of signal.
Anyone got any idea what could be going on? All that's left is the pickup, I guess, which sounds really, really great when it works. But maybe one of the connecting solder joints is flaky. I don't have a big enough soldering iron to pop open the cover and check and I'm not sure I'd even know what to look for so I'd have to take it to a luthier to get that checked out.
One thing I think could be an issue is the quality of the old Maxon braided cable. It's very different to any braided cable I've seen before. The braided shielding is very flimsy, and underneath it there seems to be intricate wraps of cotton strands. Unwrapping it is an absolute nightmare, and you end up with strands of cotton everywhere and a thin bit of wore in the core. There's a chance that a stray wire from the shiedling is pushing through into the core, which obviously wouldn't be good. So I'm wondering if it's possible to replace that braided cable with something better.
Anyway, I thought I was going about this logically but now I'm not so sure. Any help appreciated.
When I got the guitar, the bridge pickup wasn't working. The seller had a pair of boutique pups in there but removed them and reinstalled the original Maxon pups before he sent it, so I figured he'd just buggered up the wiring. So I re-did the wiring, swapping to the 50s wiring style was I was at it, and that seemed to do the trick. Except it didn't last. The bridge pup went on me again, but it was intermittent - so if I left it a while it would come back. But then the neck pup would go on and off as well. "Aha!" I thought. "It's a dodgy switch!" So I got a Switchcraft switch and wired that in. While I was at it, I put a couple of Orange Drop caps in (because I had an idea they might be leaky and contributing to the problem).
For two weeks or so, everything was great and I figured I'd solved it. But then I took the guitar to a rehearsal room over the weekend and the bridge pup went again, although this time the volume dropped off first before it died completely. I fiddled with the switch and the volume knob over the course of the rehearsal and the bridge pup came back and stayed back.
At that stage I figured it had to be either the volume pot or the pickup itself, so last night I wired a new volume pot in. Seemed to work fine, but then the volume dropped on the bridge pup again and I'm back to square one.
It's odd, because when I first got the guitar, when the bridge pup went, it was gone completely - no volume at all, no measureable signal. Almost like it was shorting out. But now there's a dramatic drop in volume rather than a complete loss of signal.
Anyone got any idea what could be going on? All that's left is the pickup, I guess, which sounds really, really great when it works. But maybe one of the connecting solder joints is flaky. I don't have a big enough soldering iron to pop open the cover and check and I'm not sure I'd even know what to look for so I'd have to take it to a luthier to get that checked out.
One thing I think could be an issue is the quality of the old Maxon braided cable. It's very different to any braided cable I've seen before. The braided shielding is very flimsy, and underneath it there seems to be intricate wraps of cotton strands. Unwrapping it is an absolute nightmare, and you end up with strands of cotton everywhere and a thin bit of wore in the core. There's a chance that a stray wire from the shiedling is pushing through into the core, which obviously wouldn't be good. So I'm wondering if it's possible to replace that braided cable with something better.
Anyway, I thought I was going about this logically but now I'm not so sure. Any help appreciated.