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Dead Seymour Duncan SPB-4 pickups

TjMetalhead

TjMetalhead

Oct 19, 2011
686
833
New Mexico
#1
I've been having such bad luck with P basses these days, I got dead EMG's and now I got dead Seymour Duncans. I had botched my soldering trying to install some SD SPB-4's and I took it to a guitar tech today to fix it, he just called telling me that the pickups might be dead. Is this a common occurrence? I understand that quite a few people had issue with the Geezer EMG's but I haven't heard anything about Seymour Duncans quality control. I'm almost ready to give up on P basses for good.
 
#5
Killed_by_Death said:
In the Police's case it was a boiler of some sort. Do you have a heater near them?
a radiator perhaps?
Click to expand...
Hmmm I do have the furnace heater in the living room where I was working but I was at least 6-8 feet away from it and it wasn't on. I do have quite a bit of electronics in my living room such as TV's, laptops, video game consoles, my I-phone. Could any of those cause damage?
 
#6
It's highly unlikely that your pickup encountered the kind of EM surge that would degauss them. Probably busted one of those teensy tiny lil wires.

The police story also includes their instruments being "on the tube" near some electric motors humongous enough to power a train full of people and their stuff earlier that evening.
 
#7
MattZilla said:
It's highly unlikely that your pickup encountered the kind of EM surge that would degauss them. Probably busted one of those teensy tiny lil wires.

The police story also includes their instruments being "on the tube" near some electric motors humongous enough to power a train full of people and their stuff earlier that evening.
Click to expand...
Yep, the repair guy said I probably busted the tiny copper wires that wrap around the pickup. I'll know for certain when he calls tomorrow.
 
#8
I’m guessing the guitar tech has the pickup at the moment, but what does “might be dead” mean?

A competent tech should be able to give you more than “might be”. A passive P-Bass is about as simple as it gets.

If the pickup is not functioning properly and hasn’t been abused in some way, you should be able to return it. I’ve had dozens of Seymour Duncan guitar and bass pickups, and never had any problems with Seymour Duncan or their pickups.

Get a proper diagnosis, and if the pickup is faulty, see if you can return it.
Edit - I see you’re getting a follow-up tomorrow.
 
#9
MattZilla said:
The police story also includes their instruments being "on the tube" near some electric motors humongous enough to power a train full of people and their stuff earlier that evening.
Click to expand...

I've seen that one around the internet, but in Andy Summers' autobiography he wrote that they leaned them up against some sort of boilers.
I can't imagine why they'd do that if they were hot, though.
 
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#11
I'm a little fuzzy on why they put them there, but I recall it wasn't exactly normal circumstances. Andy wrote that Fender gave him new pickups, but his Tele was never the same.

add: IIRC, there was wet paint in the dressing room, so they were asked to stow their gear someplace else. The room wasn't hospitable, so they stashed their gear & went out for dinner and/or a drink.
 
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#12
Statistically really odd that one could buy 2 pups that were bad, or that high EMF fields exist and/or could have hurt 2 sets of pups.
Did you take the covers off?
No offense but it sounds like you might have accidentally hurt them.
Really easy to check with a meter set to DC resistance as the windings are usually the weak point and not the magnets.
IMO/IME
 
#14
I too have collected a small number of otherwise-good pickups that have open coils, including a prized 1968 Telecaster Bass single coil. Having some experience winding coils for ham radios, I almost took a shot at rewinding one, but just couldn't get my courage up that far, damn that's tiny wire-- so small the insulator is painted on-- Now one of these days I'll just send the box off to Curtis Novak or Jason Lollar, who is local to me, and Make It Right as the man says--
 
#15
TjMetalhead said:
I've been having such bad luck with P basses these days, I got dead EMG's and now I got dead Seymour Duncans. I had botched my soldering trying to install some SD SPB-4's and I took it to a guitar tech today to fix it, he just called telling me that the pickups might be dead. Is this a common occurrence? I understand that quite a few people had issue with the Geezer EMG's but I haven't heard anything about Seymour Duncans quality control. I'm almost ready to give up on P basses for good.
Click to expand...

It's not P-Basses, it's you LOL

I too pooched a pup and now waiting for a replacement which is taking way-too-long to arrive. We live, we fail, we learn (hopefully) and carry on to fail again.

I'm promising myself to be good to pups now on.
 
#17
Sounds like you overheated the lead when soldering and burned the coil open. The trick is use heat sinks on the wire being soldered to help avoid this problem . You can even use the heat sink to hold the wire up when soldering. The sink goes on the pickup side just a short way back from where you are soldering. Not foolproof but helps a lot. I know because I did it to a Pickup I was installing for a friend .
 
#18
Do you have a meter to test the DCR? If it reads 0, then likely there is a coil wire that is broken somewhere. While this is possible that it came like that, it is also possible that it happened when it was getting installed. If the pickup is indeed dead, contact SD directly, and they will give you an RA #. They can either fix or replace it for you.
 
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#20
Jim C said:
Statistically really odd that one could buy 2 pups that were bad, or that high EMF fields exist and/or could have hurt 2 sets of pups.
Did you take the covers off?
No offense but it sounds like you might have accidentally hurt them.
Really easy to check with a meter set to DC resistance as the windings are usually the weak point and not the magnets.
IMO/IME
Click to expand...
None taken! There are no pickup covers on the EMG sets, the E&A pickup was completely dead while the D&G pickup was fine. The SD's on the other hand I know I did something that broke them. I don't know what but it was something.
 
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