Troubleshooting Jaguar Wiring & Pickup Issues

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Novae
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Troubleshooting Jaguar Wiring & Pickup Issues

Post by Novae » Thu Jul 15, 2021 4:52 am

Hello folks. I need your help!

I ordered a set of Novak Lipstick Jaguar pickups and i had them installed by a tech who messed up the installation. Basically they failed to connect grounds properly and the bent the baseplate of the pickups real bad because they wouldn't fit properly due to too much wire and foam under them. The neck pickup sounded really dark and rhythm circuit made no difference to tone. Bridge pickup sounded fine. All controls worked exactly as they should. The 2 circuits did not work together at the same time or anything. Eventually the bridge pickup stopped working and it went almost completely quiet. There was sound, but nearly inaudible. Moving the pickup with my hand made it make sound again for a brief moment.

I took the guitar to a luthier who we talked about the guitar and pickups about a lot a few times and he managed to make the bridge pickup work nicely. The neck pickup also worked, but it still sounded way too dark for a lipstick neck pickup. Same issue still with it sounding like it's constantly in a rhythm circuit sound no matter which circuit is engaged. Controls still worked normally. The bridge pickup died shortly after bringing the guitar home yesterday. Not totally mute, but so quiet you'd have to slap a maxed out distortion to get a sound out basically.

He then checked the neck pickup's output and it read 2.27k. It's supposed to be 3.4k. Would this affect the top end this much? We're trying to figure out what causes the dark sound. Obviously the pickup is heavily underwound at this point but i don't know how the output of a pickup affects top end. Could it be a wiring issue or something? Bridge pickup was reading at 4k as advertised on Novak's website, so that's all good.

I have reached out to Curtis Novak and he gave some troubleshooting instructions regarding solder joints and checking for shorts in somewhere and getting a reading of the pickup again. I'm in Finland so if we were to ship the current neck pickup to be repaired or replaced, it would cost a lot in shipping and toll fees and such so we have to be 100% sure it's the pickup that's causing all the issues in the neck position.

Luthier checked the wiring and followed a diagram provided by Seymour Duncan: https://www.jag-stang.com/wp-content/up ... ematic.gif

Now for pictures of the guts of the guitar:
ImageIMG_2835 by Novae IMGS, on Flickr
ImageIMG_2828 by Novae IMGS, on Flickr
ImageIMG_2832 by Novae IMGS, on Flickr
ImageIMG_2834 by Novae IMGS, on Flickr
ImageIMG_2848 by Novae IMGS, on Flickr
ImageIMG_2840 by Novae IMGS, on Flickr
ImageIMG_2842 by Novae IMGS, on Flickr
Imagew457g457fw457gfw45 by Novae IMGS, on Flickr

PS: I know i've posted about this earlier and i could've just continued on that thread which is my mistake but i'm so stressed out about this that i'm so desperate to figure this out and wasn't thinking about that. I've traveled several times to a tech/luthier now over this guitar and will have to again next week.

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timtam
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Re: Troubleshooting Jaguar Wiring & Pickup Issues

Post by timtam » Thu Jul 15, 2021 7:58 am

Did Novak mark the pickups with the measured resistance at the factory ? Have you told him the neck is only measuring 2.27k now ? That obviously sounds low - I see that he actually quotes a range of 3.4k – 4.0k (3.7k +/- 8%).

Whenever there is uncertainty as to whether a pickup or the circuit is causing problems, you need to isolate the pickup and connect it direct to a jack/cable/amp, to test what it picks up from the strings, unaffected by anything else. That's easy to do because of the jag's separate plates/pickguard.
"I just knew I wanted to make a sound that was the complete opposite of a Les Paul, and that’s pretty much a Jaguar." Rowland S. Howard.

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Novae
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Re: Troubleshooting Jaguar Wiring & Pickup Issues

Post by Novae » Thu Jul 15, 2021 8:40 am

timtam wrote:
Thu Jul 15, 2021 7:58 am
Did Novak mark the pickups with the measured resistance at the factory ? Have you told him the neck is only measuring 2.27k now ? That obviously sounds low - I see that he actually quotes a range of 3.4k – 4.0k (3.7k +/- 8%).

Whenever there is uncertainty as to whether a pickup or the circuit is causing problems, you need to isolate the pickup and connect it direct to a jack/cable/amp, to test what it picks up from the strings, unaffected by anything else. That's easy to do because of the jag's separate plates/pickguard.
I e-mailed him and told him it was reading at 2.27k. He didn't say much about it yet other than telling me to double check the readings. Isn't the pickup isolated in the picture? It's just the pickup not connected to anything at all and he's (the luthier working on my guitar) measuring at the pickup itself.

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timtam
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Re: Troubleshooting Jaguar Wiring & Pickup Issues

Post by timtam » Thu Jul 15, 2021 9:22 am

Novae wrote:
Thu Jul 15, 2021 8:40 am
timtam wrote:
Thu Jul 15, 2021 7:58 am
Did Novak mark the pickups with the measured resistance at the factory ? Have you told him the neck is only measuring 2.27k now ? That obviously sounds low - I see that he actually quotes a range of 3.4k – 4.0k (3.7k +/- 8%).

Whenever there is uncertainty as to whether a pickup or the circuit is causing problems, you need to isolate the pickup and connect it direct to a jack/cable/amp, to test what it picks up from the strings, unaffected by anything else. That's easy to do because of the jag's separate plates/pickguard.
I e-mailed him and told him it was reading at 2.27k. He didn't say much about it yet other than telling me to double check the readings. Isn't the pickup isolated in the picture? It's just the pickup not connected to anything at all and he's (the luthier working on my guitar) measuring at the pickup itself.
Yes, it looks as if it was correctly isolated for the resistance measurement. If Novak hasn't said that it's clearly bad (although it's looking that way), then the next test is to listen to it isolated as I described. That will tell you if the poor sound you hear is indeed due to the pickup (although an isolated healthy pickup will never sound exactly as it does in a healthy circuit).
"I just knew I wanted to make a sound that was the complete opposite of a Les Paul, and that’s pretty much a Jaguar." Rowland S. Howard.

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