tkgwheeler

thanks alot for your wise words guys. Tomorrow morning i'll have access to a multi meter and a technician so hopefully i'll be able to get closer to an answer then. I may as well take this opportunity to learn more about instrument maintenance and i think i will have a go at some soldering. Oh and what readings should i be looking out for? Thanks again guys update to follow! Tom

hey man, thanks for the reply. I've had a look around the control cavity and nothing stands out to me but i am a maintenance novice and i'm not completely clued up on what to look for specifically. Is it possible for there to be a wiring or connection problem at the pickup as i haven't looked at the actual pick up cavity or the pickup itself. I'll have another good look in the control cavity and check out inside the pickup cavity and report back to you. thanks again. Tom

Hey folks, Wondered if anyone has any ideas about the problem i have been having with my bridge pickup. Basically the volume from my pickup has become almost inaudible. This has actually happened a couple of times in the past but it seemed to sort itself out so i never bothered to find out what had gone wrong. Well yesterday i decided to raise the pickup which had been sitting extremely low up to about 5mm from the strings and although i did notice a slight increase in volume the sound produced is crackling. And it was still cracking when i lowered it back again! Basically i am stumped. I can't tell if the pickup is knacked or if it's just a wiring issue. Someone even suggested that it may be the balance pot to blame? so anyone got any ideas of what i can do to figure this out? thanks tom

well at least it looks like lots of us need some help with our pinky problems! I'm convinced that it can be fixed with effort in the right place. If it was simply the joint tendon issue then wouldn't the ring finger would suffer the same kind of problem which doesn't seem to be the case? thanks wheeler

P.S. I'm pretty sure that a resultant cause of my finger lifting away from position and off the fretboard is an increased tension that can felt throughout the large muscle group in my lower arm and wrist (basically the same tension caused by excessively repeating slurs). This may also be causing greater pressure to be applied by my thumb on the back of the neck to make up for the loss in control ALL of which could lead to injury problems in the future. help!! wheeler

Hey there guys, i have been spending a fair amount of time lately going over my right and left hand technique trying to notice and then correct any bad habits that may have formed. Although i am satisfied with everything in general i have discovered that my left hand pinky seems to rise away from the desired (pre-fretting) position when i descend. This seems to happen when i descend chromatically or shift positions downwards. Interestingly i have noticed that the little finger moves furthest away when i am switching between my middle and ring finger. I am guessing that this may be due to the shared tendon between the ring/little finger? what i'd like to know is if anybody has run into this problem and whether they found particular exercises etc. useful for correcting this issue? My thought at the moment is that i could just slow everything (scales,arps) right down and concentrate on ensuring the finger doesn't rise off the fretboard too much but would love to find some other method or exercise to help things along. thanks Wheeler