Neck pickup not working

[Mr_S]

I have just replaced the pickups on my Strat and the neck pickup is not working.
If I switch to just the neck pickup I get no sound at all however if I tap the pickup I can hear noise the same as if I tap the middle or bridge pickups when switched to them.

I've had it in bits and restrung it twice now and still no luck,

Is there a way of testing the pickup without putting the strings on?

Edited by Mr_S on Wednesday 30th November 22:20

[suthol]

Mr_S said:

I have just replaced the pickups on my Strat and the neck pickup is not working.
If I switch to just the neck pickup I get no sound at all however if I tap the pickup I can hear noise the same as if I tap the middle or bridge pickups when switched to them.

I've had it in bits and restrung it twice now and still no luck,

Is there a way of testing the pickup without putting the strings on?

Edited by Mr_S on Wednesday 30th November 22:20

A tuning fork will do the trick for you.

Remember them

[Mr_S]

Thanks but I can't say i've ever had a tuning fork...

I guess i'll just take it out and see what it looks like on a meter.

[Justin Cyder]

If you suspect the pickup may be a dud, you can test it and make sure it's good by touching the connections directly to a instrument cable that's plugged into an amp at low volume. Just un-solder the pickup wires from the controls and touch the green/bare to the sleeve of the 1/4" plug and the black to the tip and you should hear the pickup full power. If you don't get any sound then you might have a bad pickup.

[Mr_S]

Cheers i'll give that a try

[Justin Cyder]

Doesn't help you if you want to keep the strings on I know, but it's a way of working things out. I put a SD Hotrail in my Parker P38 & went through three sets of strings before working out the wiring correctly. It's difficult full stop to put on & take off the pickguard & preserve the strings.

[Mr_S]

I found the problem, it was a broken coil wire on the neck pickup.

It's my fault too as I had kept them loose in a jiffy bag since I bought them and didn't really think how fragile that coil wire was.

At least only one got damaged.

[Laplace]

Hope they weren't expensive pickups?

I was going to suggest a broken coil.
I had an intermittent neck pickup on my Strat and it was diagnosed by my tech tapping the pickup which made it cut in and out.

[Mr_S]

the neck pickup was only about £30 on ebay so not a disaster.

I could kick myself as i metered them when they arrived and they were fine but I just failed to look after them.