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Ancient Hofner pickups outputting virtually nothing

S

Seph Cameron

Jan 17, 2012
14
0
Stroud, UK
#1
The pickups in question are the diamond logo bass humbuckers from what I think is a Galaxie, but with a different bridge and control layout... Anyhoo, they're putting out virtually no sound when wired directly to the jack and testing with a meter at somewhere around 500kOhm DC resistance. If they weren't ancient and potentially worth saving (and on someone else's bass!), I'd scrap them in an instant and stick new pickups on. But before that goes ahead, I just wanted to check on here to see if anyone's got any bright ideas on salvaging them short of a rewind.

p.s. they haven't degaussed, I checked that too
 
#4
Seph Cameron said:
Well I'd rewind myself, just wondering if there was anything less drastic. Any idea what would have caused it? Cos apparently they were both completely fine a couple of months ago.
Click to expand...

Sounds like cold or corroded solder joints. If the solder joints where the coil wires are attached to the leads are assessable, try reheating them. Hot iron with a wet tip and be quick. Maybe add just a taste of new solder so the new flux can help. When those solder joints are first made, the heat from the process melts the insulation on the coil wire so the solder can stick to the copper. The melted insulation burns and stays in the joint and can cause probs years later. I've revived many dead PUs with this problem over the years and had some where it didn't work. Rewinding or replacement were the only option then.

mech
 
#7
It's kind of strange that they both died at the same time, and also that the resistance is measurable. If they were open, it should read infinity. This makes it seem that the solder joints are bad - making only slight connection. Maybe you can disconnect the leads, scrape both wires and re-solder? You have nothing to lose at this point.

Did the bass have any physical trauma that could have broken a solder joint, etc? Since you have the ability - you might start unwinding them slowly and see if there is a break close to the top.
 
#8
Seph Cameron said:
Checked that now - nothing wrong there, the problem's in the coils themselves. Ah well. Cheers guys.
Click to expand...

Since this is the internet, I have to ask. You did re-heat the joints and not just inspect them? They can look good but have little or no connection between the copper of the coil wire and the solder. I do not recommend scraping the coil wire. They are very brittle where they've been heated and beyond too easy to break.

mech
 

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