Broken Guitar Pickup DIAGNOSIS + REPAIR | Fender Style Single Coil Diagnosis + Repair Demonstration

This is for education purposes. In the real world, pretty much 99.9% of the time, the most economical way to repair a pickup is to completely tear down the coil, and rewind it from scratch. It helps to have wound pickups for many years and kept copious notes in order to accurately gauge how to rewind a particular model.

Chapters:

0:00 Pickup Wire = Delicate
0:53 Initial Testing + DIY Testing Device
2:05 The Tap Test
3:23 Open Circuit (Broken Internal Wire) + Explanation
5:34 Shorted to Polepieces + Explanation

8:42 Repairing Defective Pickup 1
11:55 Repairing Defective Pickup 2 - Magnets!

Seymour Duncan Pickup Repair video here:

Shows a wire splice, though I wasn't able to capture the actual splicing on video. You line up the new wire to be spliced with the wire from the pickup, add a little flux, hold one on top of the other carefully, then touch the iron to them. They'll go right together.

[dimebag]

The most understandable and complete video I've seen on guitar pickups. Simply Amazing!!! Thanks for that kind of videos!!!!

[andydewitt]

You’ve restored my faith in the internet. Thanks. I think.

[Cigarsnguitars]

You’ve answered a number of my questions regarding pickups. Very informative. Great presentation.

[guywhoisaguy]

I'm in big trouble. This video is a great learning tool. I simply pushed all the wires into the coil, taped them waxed them and now I might not try them. I do however know a lot more about it now, Thank you.

[broforcefreedom]

I don’t know anything about guitars and even I’m learning. Another awesome video.

[manimooni]

My pickup is back alive thanks to you.

[spindal_]

Probably one of the best videos on YouTube.

[ranius]

Cool content !
Just a little coment, O.L is not zero resistance, it is infinite resistance . In another words - 'open circuit' .
Thank you for sharing .

[acme.videos]

Excellent demonstration and information on pickup operation and repair!! Thanks! 👍🙏

[Giller]

That was a great video very informative. Thank you for your expert explanations.

[UkraineJames]

Great video. My modified 50s Strat randomly had the humbucker stop working (really quiet and thin). So I tested the resistance and got a 0 reading. It's a new guitar that was stored safely, and just stopped working overnight. The pickguard doesn't make a complete seal around that pickup so I thought maybe some dust/hair got inside. I hit it with the electric fan duster (on a low setting) and checked the resistance again. It actually worked and sounds great now lol. Hopefully that helps somebody.

[gabibartok]

Millions of thanks. I have already swapped the pickup switch, the volume and tone knobs when after your video i gave a try and re-soldered (actually just melted) the solder points on the pickup. Everything works.

[lydian]

Liked and subscribed! This is all the basic info for beginners like me to start dig into pickup.
Thanks for all the super helpful tips and the detail explaination man! I'm going to buy a winding machine and some wires to repair pickup real soon.

[neon_one]

I don't know how I thought pickups were made but I'm suddenly finding it very difficult to spend $200 on some new ones. What could could possibly be different about a set of fender pickups that cost $100 and a set that costs $300? I'd at least want like the box to say something like "wound by trained butterflies" or "each inch of our wire is kissed by a priest", but I can't imagine what's actually different.
This was interesting and cool btw. I'll assume you weren't just making this all up

[harrydebusk]

I just fixed a rare jazz bass pickup using the soldering techniques you demonstrated in this video. 5 minutes of watching, 5 minutes of soldering, and BAM, a refurbished $100+ pickup. Thanks, you da Man!

[dennyps]

Thanks so much for your detailed and very good video production
I recently acquired a Samick KJ-640 and it has a Single in the neck and an Humbucker in the bridge position and overall it's an amazing 24 year old guitar.
The problem is whenever the neck pickup is either selected by itself or blended with the bridge, I get a ton of extra (not normal) noise.
So in my setup of it and after pulling the neck pickup and upon close inspection, I found the start & finish wire floating around inside the pickup cover, attached to the start and finish wires.
I also discovered that someone had wrapped the bobbin with conductive aluminum tape over the black nonconductive tape.
That's odd I said to myself. After testing with an ohms meter after the removal of the two tapes, i got no (0) reading. The finish (positive) lead wire then promptly broke while handling it.

My plan is to repair it. I'd like to keep it as close to stock looking (and sounding) as possible.
The bobbin width on it is quite a bit thinner than what's available on the marketplace now, so I want the original Samick cover to fit and reparing or rewinding seems like the best option.
So I'm going to try your great techniques suggested and see if I can repair it.
If not, then I would consider having it rewound, and you sound like the details oriented person who could do it.
Do you have some contact info, where I could contact you and discuss the details?
Thanks again

[taxo]

Great explanation. My only problem is the wire is likely broken (its a JB humbucker, somehow none if the bobbins appear to be working) but i really dont know where, and if things het unlucky is likely at the beginning of the winding

[Jkaterchannel]

You are a master at explaining clearly. I have a Phatcat style P90 that is doing the same thing.(thin weak sound and no reading). I can now see what may be wrong but I lack the skills and the tools to fix it. It's going to die in a drawyer.

[Alanoffer]

You’ve answered every question about pickups I’ve had, ,,thank you

[guytori]

Thank you!! Luckily I just had a cold solder joint