Bringing a pickup back to life?

[tremoloman]

I've got my old '62 Jazzmaster bridge pickup I'd like to try and resurrect it from the dead if possible. Any suggestions about how I should go about doing so?

 

[SuperSwede]

Perhaps you could have it rewound ?

 

[duhvoodooman]

I've got my old '62 Jazzmaster bridge pickup I'd like to try and resurrect it from the dead if possible.

Do you know what killed it?

 

[Katastrophe]

Found a link for ya: http://www.guitarattack.com/winder.htm . The guy on the site rebuilds some pickups, and builds his own pickup winder on the cheap.

 

[Bloozcat]

Two things to check...if you haven't already done so.

First, check the pickup for resistance with a VOM. If you show resistance within the normal k-ohm parameters (about 5.5k-7.0k), then try the next step:

Check the fine wire ends of the winding where they attach to the fiber base (where the wire leads are soldered). Sometimes, the winding ends breaks loose and you lose contact. I had this happen to a pickup recently and I was able to carefully solder it back in place.

These are pretty obvious things to look for and you may have already checked them.

Another case in point: I had a SC pickup that I installed in a Strat as part of a set of three. This pickup (middle) made a loud humming noise after I installed it. I checked the solder joint and it appeared ok. I pulled the pickup and checked it with the VOM. It read 6.4k, which was exactly what it sould have read. I re-installed it and the same loud humming noise was there again. I put another pickup in instead. It really bugged me that the pickup wouldn't work. I tested it on the VOM and I clearly had continuity...but it didn't work. Well, just this weekend I tried the pickup again in another guitar. I was extra careful to make sure I has a good, clean, uncontaminated hot solder joint. When I plugged the guitar in, voila, it worked fine. So, it wasn't the pickup after all, it was human error...my human error.

If the above suggestions don't help any, there may be a break in the middle of the coil somewhere. If that's the case, then only rewinding will fix it. So if you're faced with that, it's time to dig up an old Singer sewing machine and do some junkyard engineering on your pickup...