Extremely low output on a Rick bridge p/up

Relic · #1 02-09-2009, 11:48 AM

I just got a real nice Rick for a decent price due to the bridge pick up not working. (Neck pup works fine) I figured that it would be something as simple as a disconnected wire etc. Well, I went all through it pretty thoroughly and can find nothing amiss. No disconnections in the cavity or on the pup, no bad solder-jobs..nothing obviously wrong.
The pick up selector switch contacts are all fine and both output jacks have no obvious issues either... I'm at a loss. Maybe a bad volume pot or something of the sort? No scratchiness in any of the pots though. When switched to the bridge pup, there is a signal, it's just barely audible. Barely even a hum.
Any ideas guys? Thanks!

megadan · #2 02-09-2009, 12:12 PM

I had a Ric with wiring problems as well. No output at all from the neck.

First thing I did was to remove the pickup completely from the bass and test it, to verify that your pickup is working. You should get a known resistance when you measure across the leads of the pickup (13 - 18Kohms roughly IIRC). If you're the skeptical kind you can also pinch them onto a patch cord, plug into an amp, and tap it with something metal.

After you confirm the pickup is working, start combing through the circuit for grounding issues, which is the main cause of problems I find in wiring.

Relic · #3 02-09-2009, 01:33 PM

I'm supremely ignorant when it comes to electronics

I'm not sure what you're saying...I guess I'll need to go get a meter and learn how to use it. That can never be a bad thing.
If I may ask - what was the issue with your pick up and how did you fix it?

teleharmonium · #4 02-11-2009, 03:01 PM

The symptoms sound like you have some shorted turns of wire on the coil; sometimes this happens and you still get continuity across the coil and some output, but it's way low. I have an old Hofner pickup with that problem and in the past I had a DeArmond guitar pickup with the same issue (I'm into old pickups). The next step is to desolder the pickup and test it by itself. If it's still showing too little DC resistance across the coil, the coil will need to be rewound.

When you measure the DC resistance of the coil, make sure your multimeter is set to an appropriate range, in the thousands of ohms (2000 is the setting on my $10 unit, it could be labeled with k representing 1000). You can get weird or jumpy readings if the range setting is too high or low.

megadan · #5 02-11-2009, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Relic

I'm supremely ignorant when it comes to electronics

I'm not sure what you're saying...I guess I'll need to go get a meter and learn how to use it. That can never be a bad thing.
If I may ask - what was the issue with your pick up and how did you fix it?

Yes, learning to use the meter will be very helpful in future repairs.

I never solved my issue. I ended up wiring the pup straight to the jack.