Found a crappy pickup on my guitar. What do I do?

For help with setups and other technical issues.
Post Reply
User avatar
Paul-T
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 225
Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2018 4:41 am
Location: London

Found a crappy pickup on my guitar. What do I do?

Post by Paul-T » Thu Nov 29, 2018 6:55 am

Bizarre things we did to our guitars and forgot about, Vol 2.

After investigation of my JM I realise I must've fitted a coil tapped lead pickup in the early 80s. I haven't thought about it much over the years, but after getting an amp sorted i realised the lead pickup sounded, ah, what's the technical term? Shit.

I pulled it out and was surprised to see it was coil-tapped, with a taller bobbin. I pm'd my old guitar tech and we think it's a Chandler ESP pickup, which at the time were thought to be good, obviously there was little choice behind DiMarzio and Mighty Mite back then.

I half-wonder if it's wired incorrectly, as there's little difference between the two coil tap positions.
Image
Image

Here's the original rhythm pickup, which sounds absolutely stonking.
Image

Now despite my idiocy in replacing the original pickup... I did retain the original. Here it is. It is very out of character for me to keep an object somehwere "safe" and then actually find the thing, but this time around that actually happened.

Image

But there's one quirk.
Current (amazing) neck pickup up resistance = 8.04K
'Spare' pickup = 6.51K

Did I originally replace the bridge pickup 'cos it sounded a bit thin? (The replacement is 8.4k)
So should i
1: put the 6.5k original in neck and the 8.04 in bridge . Probably most logical but I'm worred if the neck sound will be as great.
2: swap them around as they were originally
3: get the 6.51k rewound for a beefier bridge pickup, so I keep that amazing neck pickup sound?
3a might be to simply get a decent aftermarket new bridge pickup and keep the original safe... but I don't like that one. Do you?
"classic marked down to 20 pence bargain bin fodder'

User avatar
lammy
PAT PEND
PAT PEND
Posts: 23
Joined: Sun Oct 20, 2013 8:03 am

Re: Found a crappy pickup on my guitar. What do I do?

Post by lammy » Fri Nov 30, 2018 4:58 pm

Im just here to applaud you actually finding the pickup you forgot existed.

User avatar
jvin248
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 660
Joined: Mon Apr 11, 2016 5:34 pm

Re: Found a crappy pickup on my guitar. What do I do?

Post by jvin248 » Fri Nov 30, 2018 6:12 pm

.

Get a steel plate, 1/8th inch thick or so, and stick that under the lead pickup. It will reinforce the magnetic field and give you more output, just like a good Telecaster pickup. If you don't have anything handy, find an electrical octagon box lid at the hardware store for less than a dollar and cut that to the pickup shape. Magnets should hold it in place for testing. If you like the tone you can glue it in place.

.

User avatar
oid
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 834
Joined: Sat Feb 10, 2018 8:19 pm

Re: Found a crappy pickup on my guitar. What do I do?

Post by oid » Fri Nov 30, 2018 6:48 pm

The pickups may have been installed wrong since day one.

You don't actually say or suggest there is anything wrong with how it sounds and plays, just that the DC resistance is not the generally accepted standard of bridge higher than neck. If you like the sound of the bridge pickup you can just keep everything as is, use pickup height and playing technique to even out the sound of the two pickups or to slant output towards one or the other.

There would be little difference in the sound between the two halves of that tapped coil since they are on the same bobbin and see more or less the same part of the string.
Logic gates based on billiard-ball computer designs have also been made to operate using live soldier crabs of the species Mictyris guinotae in place of the billiard balls.

User avatar
Paul-T
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 225
Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2018 4:41 am
Location: London

Re: Found a crappy pickup on my guitar. What do I do?

Post by Paul-T » Sat Dec 01, 2018 12:26 am

lammy wrote:
Fri Nov 30, 2018 4:58 pm
Im just here to applaud you actually finding the pickup you forgot existed.
It is quite shocking. Not often life gives a solution to one's own incompetence. I've always been fairly bothered about originality and can't quite work out why I rewired, it must have been because I wasn't getting enough beef out of the lead pickup. What weird though is I used to only ever really use the lead, maybe I just settled for the sound, or perhaps it's a quirk of getting the guitar refinished. Maybe the deteriorating rubber means the bridge pickup's sunk down.
jvin248 wrote:
Fri Nov 30, 2018 6:12 pm
.Get a steel plate, 1/8th inch thick or so, and stick that under the lead pickup. It will reinforce the magnetic field and give you more output, just like a good Telecaster pickup. If you don't have anything handy, find an electrical octagon box lid at the hardware store for less than a dollar and cut that to the pickup shape. Magnets should hold it in place for testing. If you like the tone you can glue it in place.
[
That's a good idea, thanks!
oid wrote:
Fri Nov 30, 2018 6:48 pm
The pickups may have been installed wrong since day one.

You don't actually say or suggest there is anything wrong with how it sounds and plays, just that the DC resistance is not the generally accepted standard of bridge higher than neck. If you like the sound of the bridge pickup you can just keep everything as is, use pickup height and playing technique to even out the sound of the two pickups or to slant output towards one or the other.

There would be little difference in the sound between the two halves of that tapped coil since they are on the same bobbin and see more or less the same part of the string.
On the tap, it should be switched so it's half output and full output; I think it's the fact they're both thin that means there not a dramatic difference, plus I think it's mainly when an amp is driven into overdrive, and the tap backs it down, that you feel it.

The guitar plays brilliantly, but there's a slight artefact that I haven't played this guitar for a long time that in the meantime I've switched from a bridge pickup only guy to a neck only. Yet I know I used middle a lot, and that sounds awful, too. In the meantime I'm going to add an extra rubber support in the bridge pickup. I think I will get the wiring restored - normally I'd do it myself but there's a workshop I like who like JMs and might help sort out any peculiarities

What's good is that I'm rewiring a MiJ JM for a friend, putting a SD Antiquity II in bridge and AV65 in neck, it will give me a good reference for pickup outputs. I only found out that the 'new' pickup is an ESP; who knows if they were rubbish, or whether it's a product of the guitar being reassambled with the bridge pickup particularly low.
Last edited by Paul-T on Sat Dec 01, 2018 2:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
"classic marked down to 20 pence bargain bin fodder'

User avatar
oid
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 834
Joined: Sat Feb 10, 2018 8:19 pm

Re: Found a crappy pickup on my guitar. What do I do?

Post by oid » Sat Dec 01, 2018 1:42 am

I misread your original post, was wondering why you were switching between coils instead of switching between taps, makes more sense.

It is also possible that who ever did the pickup swap for you put the neck in the bridge position to make it more balanced.

Since you are a neck player and you really like the current neck pickup I would just keep it as is, play with it for awhile, fiddle with pickup height. Change the bridge pickup if and when you realize something is missing from your bridge pickup, once you know exactly how it falls short it will be a much easier hunt for the right replacement.
Logic gates based on billiard-ball computer designs have also been made to operate using live soldier crabs of the species Mictyris guinotae in place of the billiard balls.

User avatar
Paul-T
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 225
Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2018 4:41 am
Location: London

Re: Found a crappy pickup on my guitar. What do I do?

Post by Paul-T » Sat Dec 01, 2018 2:11 am

oid wrote:
Sat Dec 01, 2018 1:42 am

It is also possible that who ever did the pickup swap for you put the neck in the bridge position to make it more balanced.
It is shaming but I think that person was me. I do remember cutting out the rhythm circuit and installing a switched pot but in my memory it was a phase switch. So yes, there has to be a chance I switched them around.

If I get the cash I will get a specialist to restore simply because it's a pain to find all the matching wire, and the fella I'm thinking of, Joe Dobson at London Guitar Workshop, has had a lot thru his hands, he was my second choice for the finish.
"classic marked down to 20 pence bargain bin fodder'

User avatar
MechaBulletBill
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 2813
Joined: Sat Nov 09, 2013 8:16 am
Location: UK

Re: Found a crappy pickup on my guitar. What do I do?

Post by MechaBulletBill » Sat Dec 01, 2018 3:42 am

jvin248 wrote:
Fri Nov 30, 2018 6:12 pm
.

Get a steel plate, 1/8th inch thick or so, and stick that under the lead pickup. It will reinforce the magnetic field and give you more output, just like a good Telecaster pickup. If you don't have anything handy, find an electrical octagon box lid at the hardware store for less than a dollar and cut that to the pickup shape. Magnets should hold it in place for testing. If you like the tone you can glue it in place.

.
you can use double-sided carpet tape for a strong but non-permanent connection. on a tele, the metal base plate is grounded to reduce noise.

Post Reply