Using A Multimeter To Check Pickup Health

If you ever experience any odd behaviour with your guitar setup, it's a good idea to know how to check that your pickups are running as they should be. There are a couple of simple multimeter checks that you can do at home, which will give you a quick indication of the health of your coils, which we run through in this video.

[mr.mcmagpie]

Thanks! Clear, fast and to the point! The true treasures of YouTube

[grantwalkersound]

Nice video... also love your pickups. I have a Johnny Marr jag and there's really no Jag pickup that comes close to sounding as good as the custom ones you did for that model.

[realguitarshredder]

So my nailbomb bridge that I bought in 2007 shows no change when I connect the black and red wire. It shows around 8 when I connect the black and the green one and nothing when I connect the red and green one.

[ricklee]

I like the background music and actually wanted to ask what amp that player is using. Great tone.

[AlbyWallbank]

Hi I'm having issues with my Emarald neck pickup, it's measuring low resistance when I check the bare wire with the coloured wires, any idea how I fix this?? Cheers, great video!

[DeeTee]

When I ordered a set of True Grit I received two neck pickups in the box. When I called the dealer the only other box in their inventory had two bridge pickups. Quality control problem? It was quickly sorted.

[waynegram]

Why does Low Impedance pickups distort/break up the guitars amplifier Quicker sooner?

[goodear]

Neck pickup has low output and sounds bad. Meter shows 0.0 reading. I heated where lead strands connect to eyelets. Pickup will then work fine for 2-3 days. Then goes back to low output and sounds bad. What is going on? Thanks

[GuitaristZep]

my humbucker reads .479 MOhms I don't know how to read it in Kilo Ohms, can you help me?

[davidzuric]

Hi I just received Gibson 400R&T Humbuckers It puzzled me that when trying to read the resistance touching the bare earth with wire they did not give any reading. I thought they were dead then I stumbled upon this video. Reading between red and black wires both pickups are slightly a over 8Kohms. So how would you connect them in the guitar as full hum buckers. is there a schematic tutorial for this? I alsweay thought it was simple connecting bare earth wire on one end and the other 4 on the other end if you want full hum bucker resistance. These new pickups puzzle me. I would be grateful if you can advise how to solder these ends inside a 335 style guitar. Thank you in advance!

[detodounpokoOficial]

Good morning friend, I turn to you for a consultation, I just bought some used texas special pickups, they look like new, I have already checked photos and everything corresponds that they are original, but as for the ohms they are well below what the manufacturer specifies, Neck 5.6K, Medium 6K, and Bridge 6.3K (I already used 2 multimeters in case there was a measurement error), while the manufacturer specifies that they must be 6.2K 6.5K 6.7K, will they take turns or would we suspect they are false? I appreciate your valuable comment, best regards!

[julini]

Is 15k normal for a juggernaut bridge ? And 10 for a neck ?

[erwinroman]

Is this color code standard for the industry? I have an Ibanez that was tinkered with by a previous owner and I think the pickup wiring is wrong. It has dual mini-humbuckers with 4 leads. There is Red, Green, Black, White and shield. However, the Red and Green are tied together and the whites go to the volume pots. I'm stripping it completely tonight and measuring the coils as you demonstrated but then I need to know the phasing, or "in" and "out" lead color. Thanks.

[Johnmannish]

I'm about to buy 2 used Bare Knuckle pickups that the owner doesn't have the box, and bought them used. The previous owner said to him that they are Jaggernaut, they read 13.7 and 9.44, une of them have two rows of screws, and the other one two rows of lugs. Are they Jaggernauts or can be some other model like the Bootcamps? Thanks

[abnunga]

Your humbucker has 3 more wires than the one I want to diagnose. I wonder if that's the problem >_>

[catekatz]

Great video but I have trouble focusing on what you’re explaining because of the music in the background. Probably more my problem than yours! 🤷‍♀️

[mesametal]

awesome tutorial, , i learned alot here, , , , question i have a paf pro and according to dimarzio the kohm is 8.4, , , when i touch the black and red wires i get a reading of there something im missing or maybe not doing something you can answer, , , thanks for the video, , , so i just connected the black and white together as per dimarzio....and when i touched the green and bare wire then the red wire with the probes i get a reading of 8.30

[marvinstorm]

Good.
But people forget about Inductance which is not mentioned. It works in combination with the coils ., . Magic soup.

Higher inductance (magnetic field) measured in Henries increases output. You can switch out the magnets in buckers to change characteristics easily.

Get a meter that measures both I would suggest. High k ohms does not necessarily mean louder than lower k ohms, it depends on inductance factored in.

Also capacitance should be low like 2 Pico farads. You can get meters that measure all 3.

[ph]

Background music is supposed to remind us that we're working on an electric guitar? Just totally distracting.

[usernamei]

the background music is annoying while you're explaining, how about turning that sh!t off? no?