Fender why has no one noticed this comment

The middle pickup of my MIM '95 Fender Strat Special doesn't work anymore due to a pickguard swap; i noticed a slight pierce in the wire that happened some time when the cover came off while removing from the pickguard. After loading the pickups into the new pickguard I did the screwdriver tap to the polepiece and it was an extremely low volume drop that's almost dead compared to the bridge and neck pickups; it's going to need a rewind.

I doubt that this is actually the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation commenting on this video as they have their own videos I could be wrong, but I highy doubt it.

Solaris Moon just click the link fool also why wouldn’t it actually be them

hello senpai

no, it just means that you are dealing with pain in the neck - person...

@@satman1w ...good point, but the customer only cares about correct results on his vintage Strat pickup... not the workman.

Totally UNnecessary...

It does look off if you put the pick guard screws back in the wrong places, some rust more than others due to where they get sweated on.

Something so simple to do, a nice detail. Why not do it? Those who dont think so are the guys with duct tape fixes on everything.

10,000 Rambos yes me too

No reason to apologize about puns to pun enthusiasts. It's been a year, I'm the first to reply to you, and I see no groans. Even if someone's angry, I'm sure you can "fender" off any insults; "pickup" your pun book, and book them a reservation to a Punitentiary. Don't take it too seriously. 😜

He who would pun would pick a pocket "Lesser of two weezils" Master and Commander kzfaq.info/get/bejne/appgn5uh1Lm1mXU.html

I might pick up where you left off and keep on trucking with the puns.

Good catch !

I take 100 winds off the bobbin, so there's a fresh layer "exposed" that's never been out before. You can usually get away with removing 300-500 turns depeding on which pickup it is, and if keeping the pickup original is important.

yes exactly

Yup, definitely misdiagnosed and probably more radically repaired than necessary. A few hundred turns removed would have probably cleared the problem. In general, even very capable guitar mechanics like Erik should leave pickup repair work to a specialist.

I'm curious, since I'm not an expert on something like this kind of problem, is there a consensus, among you folks who are more informed, that he actually did misdiagnose the problem and do more repair then was probably necessary?

Zelomeister You should know I buy vintage pickups, and remove all the old wire and rewind to my own specs without ever testing the original values. I ball the old wire up, beat it flat with a hammer, and then melt it down and cast it in a mold of Jimi Hendrix playing a Hamer.

Oqsy.... LOL. Sadist!

Criminitly guys ... mechanical failure happens. Do you want a player or a museum piece?

so there is a process for the old wire to become new in shape? i thought he threw away the old wire and rewired the pickup with new so i was a bit shocked sorry for my english

Meh. Wire is wire.Nothing special about old copper.

Joel Middaugh Not really a noob kindof job. That wire is fiddly to handle, learn to solder on something a bit bigger first.

I agree Joel

Frode Haugsgjerd oh yeah I would expect it not to go right a few times but some of us dont have any guidance and this definitely helps. Just to be clear I have plenty of experience wiring guitars. I just meant a noob to wiring pickups.

Testing magnets for charge after testing open circuit was a bit weird too. For all he knew I could have just been the switch that was poked.

There was still a 250K volume pot across the pickup. Explains everything in conjunction with either an open coil or more probably a bad connection at the switch.

It was .285 K ohms, which is 285 ohms.

1:06 .260 megaohms

yeah. kind of like that weird coil split that ibanez used to do on single coils. it cuts pickup in half for a thinner sound but in this case it wasn't switchable.

exactly this, thank you.

Agreed.

Paul McCaffrey good point!

I hope so too, because when he cut that wire I felt a bit queasy.

Yeah, I have to be honest, I kind of liked that thin sound

They sure did. The weak pickup was one of the reasons it came into the shop.

I had a '56 strat with bakelite covers. The neck and middle covers were damaged and both pickups were weak/thin. The middle was too weak but the neck was magic. It was worth adjusting amp settings to accommodate.

So glad to hear it!

pete seitz But theres no resistance on the pot when turned right up (which it is when measuring)? Also if pickup was COMPLETELY open, there would be no sound at all.

pete seitz (Apologies, on reflection I guess an open circuit would give you the 250k pot value reading)

Good catch, thanks.

Good explanation . . . Electronics is a mysterious dark art to those not familiar and we tend to forget that after we've been at it a while.

I did notice that he didn't show us the multimeter reading when he measured the pickup itself. He just said, "Yup, something's wonky here" and forged ahead. I like StewMac a lot, because they have some great products, and Dan and Erick have affable personae, but I try to remind myself that these videos are, first and foremost, to sell products.

DC Bluez I’ve heard that Leo’s little helper would wind pickups by hand , and the wire would regularly cross the bobbin . This was known as scatter wound pickups , giving that unique sound . Trust me I’m no expert , so would this create a unique sound . Thanks for reading

i understand what you're saying, but let's get real, those thick wires mean nothing... :} plus the pickup went bad..

They mostly used what was available, both good and bad.

@@duroxkilo I've had super thin wires break inside the guitar before. Fuck all to do with tone but I'll happily eat the extra 2 or 3 bucks a guitar to give it quality pushback wire that actually has some meat to it.

Oh Heyal Yeah!!! You are so right. 20 years ago I had a Bentley Series 10 and the 'bucker died. I didn't know sheep from shinola about working on it but that Bentley made 20 some-odd way different sounds with the 5-way and 2 independent vols, before the mother bucker gave up the ghost. I really loved that guitar. So I figured, let's see what the center of a pickup looks like. What was I gonna do, break it? Took the pickup out and turned it over and over in my hand, poking it here and there and trying to look like I actually had some clue about what the hell I was doing (there were onlookers). I kept getting asked what I was gonna do to it, so I mumbled a bit, threw in a couple of "hmmm's", and told my audience that I had decided to get stoned and unwind it. Maybe 30 feet or so in there was a break. So after much consideration, and lots of helpful (ha ha) input from my buddies, I twisted the ends together, cut a little piece off a lead sinker (fishing I knew about a thousand times more than I did guitars), kinda sorta flattened it and wrapped it around the wire ends, and squished, wait, this was in Texas, so I should say "squarshed" it together with my fishing plyers, figuring the tool deserved a shot at it since it's buddy Mr. sinker took one for the team. Put it back together and woo hoo! it worked. Oh yeah, before painstakingly rewinding it by hand, during that time we spent(I say "we" because the onlookers had become my pit crew) considering all the options, Bob said "I'll fly if you'll buy" ('cause our mouths were getting dry), which got yeahs and yups (Texan for "yes") and hands in pockets for beer money. We couldn't do anything 'til Bob got back, so we hunkered down and got serious. We were like the driver and his pit crew at Nascar, working on the Bentley Special, getting it ready to Rock and Roll! Well, Bob got back and it was Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop!...and gulp gulp gulping...followed by some dang that's good's, thank yuh Jaysus'es (local dialect) and hoooweee!'s. More discussion and we decided I should put a coat of the old lady's clear fingernail polish on the repair and let that dry, which was just enough time to fire up another doobie. ....Doobie Brothers record, that's what I meant to say. Yeah. That. Anyway, gotter back together and that Bentley never sounded better! Then my buddy Bubba Joe( I swear!), who could actually play a guitar handed Mr Bentley back to me. Some mumbles, eh's, then a quick save, someone yelled "Barbecue!" which stared a chorus of Oh Heyal Yayuh's, couple of "Hey Bob! Go again?"'s , and IT WAS ON!!! ...Y'all take care, now. - David, a.k.a. the ConnMan.

The same can be done on some P90s. Have an experience on two of them.

Happy you like it!

As others here have done, I have wound off a few hundred turns to find a break and then re-soldered. An omhmeter now measures 5.3K instead of 6K. I can't hear any obvious detriment. By the way, it was the same pickup (middle) and the symptoms were all the same as in the video.

Best comment :)

Got myself a 96 MIM Strat for 500, I'm happy.

Release the coils!

Smithers, who is that man? *Um, that's Erick Coleman, sir.* I'll never forget that name...

@Electronic Adventures Take yer old mam to Stew Mac for a replacement ;)

siddx And where do you think your headed .