Ouch.

[Brian Krashpad]

Dang, the bridge pickup in my LP Classic just up and died. All of a sudden the bottom just dropped out of it. Bass response was zero. I opened the controls up to see if there was a prob with a tone cap or something not connected right, but nothing seemed obvious.

So I bit the bullet and took it in to my guitar tech, who is an old acquaintance of mine (we've both been around the local scene since the 70's) and who was even briefly in a band with me. He confirmed that it was the pickup and not any other problem.

Anyhow, on his advice I'm putting in a Seymour Duncan Custom 5. Since that's seventy bucks right there, the whole thing'll run around a Benjamin. Still I was gonna get hit with a bench fee anyhow, so I figured I'd go ahead and let someone who knows what he's doing do the work, rather than trying to save a few bucks and be arsed with doing it myself.

Oh well, so many people b*ch about the ceramics that come stock in the Classics (never bothered me none), and since I'm a "if it ain't broke don't fix it" feller, maybe this was God's way of telling me to upgrade.

Still for a cheap b*tard like me... I've bought whole guitars for what this repair will be, haha!

 

[Robert]

Ouch, but ***** happens. Maybe the new pickup will sound even better in the end. 70 bucks ain't much if it makes the guitar sound great!

 

[Spudman]

$70?! That would get you a whole new guitar on your budget. That's got to hurt.

You'll love that pickup though. Get a push pull pot and tap it while you are at it.

 

[Brian Krashpad]

Ouch, but ***** happens. Maybe the new pickup will sound even better in the end. 70 bucks ain't much if it makes the guitar sound great!

Yeah, I have Seymours in my Fernandes Ravelle and they sound wonderful, so it's no biggie. This is a different model than the ones I already have, so it should be an upgrade as well as expanding the sound pallette a smidge. My luthier buddy has great tatse-- haha, he was surprised I had such a nice guitar!

 

[ShootTheGlass]

Man I wish pickups were that cheap here!

Will work out for the best in the end though, some things are just meant to be

 

[Brian Krashpad]

Man I wish pickups were that cheap here!

Will work out for the best in the end though, some things are just meant to be

Refresh my memory on your location?

At any rate, yes we Americans are very blessed with the prices we can get a lot of gear at, you are right about that.

 

[Tone2TheBone]

The Custom 5 is my favorite Duncan pickup good choice.

 

[warren0728]

hey brian...i'll give you $100 bucks for that rick i played at your office to offset the cost of that pickup....you know....just trying to help out a friend!! oke: :rotflmao:

ww

 

[Brian Krashpad]

The Custom 5 is my favorite Duncan pickup good choice.

Yay! I trust this guy about sound. He's been in bands even longer than me! In fact, had fate turned slightly differently, he could've been in Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, as he audutioned with them and was around back in that Mudcrutch era locally. His playing is a little too experimental and flashy for their stuff though.

 

[Brian Krashpad]

hey brian...i'll give you $100 bucks for that rick i played at your office to offset the cost of that pickup....you know....just trying to help out a friend!! oke: :rotflmao:

ww

Haha, funny thing is, just today I rec'd a cashier's check for $100 for an old Randall bass amp I'm selling.

Easy come, easy go!

 

[duhvoodooman]

Put a Custom 5 in the bridge of my LP Std. about a year ago, and love it. Nice compromise between the vintage and hot/aggressive tone extremes. :AOK:

 

[Brian Krashpad]

Put a Custom 5 in the bridge of my LP Std. about a year ago, and love it. Nice compromise between the vintage and hot/aggressive tone extremes. :AOK:

Ah, cool. Since I still have the stock ceramic in the neck, going with a real vintage-sounding bridge pup probably would not have been a great idea.

In my Ravelle I have the Jazz/JB combo, which I like a lot (hotter than vintage but not overly so). I also have a Duncan mini-HB in the neck slot of a Frankentele, so now I'm up to a total of 4 proper Duncans in the stable (plus a couple Duncan Designed P-90's in a Schecter Tempest Special, which are actually quite good).

:dude:

 

[Tibernius]

Anyhow, on his advice I'm putting in a Seymour Duncan Custom 5. Since that's seventy bucks right there, the whole thing'll run around a Benjamin.

So a Duncan humbucker in the US costs $70. In the UK they cost £70. A bit wierd with the current exchange rate. :messedup:

Are the Duncans worth the cash?

 

[ShootTheGlass]

Refresh my memory on your location?

At any rate, yes we Americans are very blessed with the prices we can get a lot of gear at, you are right about that.

Scotland unfortunately.

It actually worked out cost effective for me to go to the US on a cheap flight, bring back a few sets of SD's,and sell some of them!

 

[Brian Krashpad]

So a Duncan humbucker in the US costs $70. In the UK they cost £70. A bit wierd with the current exchange rate. :messedup:

Are the Duncans worth the cash?

This is the first time I've paid for one directly. With my beater Frankentele that I got for $100 USD, it wasn't really an issue, since I was basically getting a usable guitar for $30 over the cost of the pickup. With my Fernandes Ravelle, I found a minty used one on consignment for $400 USD even, so again, it was kind of a package deal, those new Ravelles were going for $600-$800 new at the time.

They are nice though. I honestly had a slight preference for the Ravelle's tone over the considerably more expensive Les Paul Classic. Since the LP Classic is my most expensive guitar, I didn't want to skimp on the pup. Haven't played the repaired LP Classic yet but I'll bet it'll sound great.

 

[duhvoodooman]

In my Ravelle I have the Jazz/JB combo, which I like a lot (hotter than vintage but not overly so).

I have that same combo in my Dot, and like it very much. Hard to compare directly to my LP, since it's a semi-hollowbody vs. a solidbody, but the JB seems a little hotter and brighter, where the Custom 5 has somewhat stronger lower mids and bass. Since my LP Std. is quite bright sounding, this was the better match for my tastes. But that JB in the darker sounding Dot just KILLS.

 

[Brian Krashpad]

Scotland unfortunately.

It actually worked out cost effective for me to go to the US on a cheap flight, bring back a few sets of SD's,and sell some of them!

Och, laddie! That was my vague recollection.

If you go to Disney World, I'm a couple hours north of there.

 

[marnold]

My Screamin' Demon was ~$90 because it's an artist model. I felt odd for a fleeting moment since I bought the whole guitar for $149.

 

[duhvoodooman]

My Screamin' Demon was ~$90 because it's an artist model. I felt odd for a fleeting moment since I bought the whole guitar for $149.

Tell me about it! Though it wasn't much money on an absolute basis, I installed $59 worth of pickups in that Fat Fully that cost me $24, delivered. So I spent 2.46 times the price of the guitar on pickup upgrades. If that had been a $2,400 Les Paul Standard, the pickups would have had to cost $5,900 to be the same, proportionally! A set of original '57 PAF's, maybe? I'll bet they'd be even more than that....

 

[Brian Krashpad]

Haha, yeah, since this is my most expensive guitar, I didn't wanna skimp on the pickup.

 

[thearabianmage]

The pickup just died??

I've never heard of that! How does it happen? And how was the techie able to tell that it was the pickup and not something else (this all sounds vaguely cynical, but it's not. I'm genuinely interested!)

 

[Brian Krashpad]

The pickup just died??

I've never heard of that! How does it happen? And how was the techie able to tell that it was the pickup and not something else (this all sounds vaguely cynical, but it's not. I'm genuinely interested!)

My luthier buddy still isn't 100% sure himself. We both have heard of it, though it is rare (this is the first of my pickups to die in some 30 years of dozens on dozens of pups). His theory basically gibes with what another guitarist friend of mine said on another site, so I'll quote him:

A pickup that isn't epoxy potted can go bad in several ways. If the bass dropped out along with output then likely a winding shorted out. This can be caused by corossion from sweat, beer etc. from excessive prolonged vibration, or from a shock or blow to the mounted pickup.


Basically a pickup is part of an electrical circuit, so with various meters a tech can find where the problem in a circuit originates.

That's how I understand it anyhow. Fwiw, ymmv.

 

[marnold]

Yeah, that's most likely the culprit. I'm surprised that the pickup wasn't potted. I thought that they all were these days. The windings in a pup are pretty fragile. Once was is severed, the pup dies. It can be fixed, but it's a PITA. That's especially true if it broke on the inside. Then you'd have to rewind the whole stinking thing. Not worth it unless the pup is VERY valuable. Even then . . .

 

[Algonquin]

Hope the new P/U rawks for you Krash... I'm sure it will.
Cheers :beer:

 

[Brian Krashpad]

Hope the new P/U rawks for you Krash... I'm sure it will.
Cheers :beer:

Thanks, I'm sure it'll be fine too. For me the big test is always playing at volume with a band. So far I've only tested it at low volumes with my home practice amp and at medium-low volumes through a 2x10 40W at work.

 

[bigoldron]

Hey Brian, I think may have found an answer as to why your pickup went bad. In the August issue of Premier Guitar in the interview with Seymour Duncan:

So you did all those re-windings for these guys when their pickups went bad?

SD: Yeah, pickups can go bad when moisture gets in through the exposed poles. I call it ICPC - Inter-Coil Pole Corrosion. It's when the coil can actually rust and break down the insulation on the magnet wire. If you've ever pulled an old sixties Tele pickup that wasn't waxed, you'd see a lot of rust around the pole pieces when you take the coil off because there are all sorts of ferrous materials in the pole pieces that can actually rust. That's why it's good to use the old lacquer and wax, because that'll help to stop the moisture from permeating.​

Sounds reasonable to me. :AOK:

 

[Brian Krashpad]

Hey Brian, I think may have found an answer as to why your pickup went bad. In the August issue of Premier Guitar in the interview with Seymour Duncan:

So you did all those re-windings for these guys when their pickups went bad?

SD: Yeah, pickups can go bad when moisture gets in through the exposed poles. I call it ICPC - Inter-Coil Pole Corrosion. It's when the coil can actually rust and break down the insulation on the magnet wire. If you've ever pulled an old sixties Tele pickup that wasn't waxed, you'd see a lot of rust around the pole pieces when you take the coil off because there are all sorts of ferrous materials in the pole pieces that can actually rust. That's why it's good to use the old lacquer and wax, because that'll help to stop the moisture from permeating.​

Sounds reasonable to me. :AOK:

Thanks Ron. A net friend of mine from England bought it from me for a little dosh, so maybe he'll re-wind it. Although I don't sweat a lot there's always the possibility of beer contamination.

 

[bigoldron]

Thanks Ron. A net friend of mine from England bought it from me for a little dosh, so maybe he'll re-wind it. Although I don't sweat a lot there's always the possibility of beer contamination.

Gee, I can't imagine HOW that would happen???

 

[thearabianmage]

. . . pickups can go bad when moisture gets in through the exposed poles. I call it ICPC - Inter-Coil Pole Corrosion. . .

Do you think that fitting covers to pups would help this problem or is it just one of those 'take it as it comes - buy a new pup if one conks out' sort of jobbies?

 

[marnold]

Do you think that fitting covers to pups would help this problem or is it just one of those 'take it as it comes - buy a new pup if one conks out' sort of jobbies?

Potting would take care of it normally. If the windings and pole pieces are covered in wax, moisture can't get there. Of course, if you poke at the windings on your humbucker with a screwdriver, all bets are off.