mcnach Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 So from time to time I hear of people talking about how their pickup just suddenly stopped working... I have to admit, I always thought to myself "either you throw around your bass a lot, or you've been messing with the electronics and solder badly". It just happened to me!!! recently acquired Jazz bass, with replacement pickups installed by previous owner. Last night I gigged with it. All good. Tonight I take it and... the neck pickup just gives the faintest signal. I opened it and I can't see anything obviously wrong. The ground wires from the pickup are soldered to a pot, and the solder does look a bit dull... so I'm hoping it's just a bad solder and that I can cure it by remelting the solder. It's a Nordstrand NJ4SE: split coils. Both sides of the pickup sound equally weak, so I'm hoping this means that it's not the pickup itself, as I imagine only one coil would be affected if that were the case. I suspect a bad ground... maybe one of the extremely thin wires is partially broken inside the very stiff insulation. It makes me want to check every bass I gig regularly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 are the coils wired in series or parallel? thats a shame, maybe if you used the J retro to boost just the bridge pup.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted August 17, 2012 Author Share Posted August 17, 2012 Not sure! I will look into it in detail tomorrow. Too tired today to do anything that requires attention... I haven't slept since around 7am on Thursday morning, so after nearly 40h awake I don't trust myself with any soldering or any thinking I love coffee, but it can only do so much! I hope it's not the actual pickup... because these are not cheap and I liked it enough to want to buy another. Router on again??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted August 17, 2012 Author Share Posted August 17, 2012 oh, so these pickups are wired in series... so a failure in one coil will affect the whole pickup, not just one side. Hmm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted September 2, 2012 Author Share Posted September 2, 2012 Finally I sat down to work on this and... the pickup is dead No continuity between start and finish of the bobbins. I located which of the two bobbins is bad, but that's not much use, as one bobbin alone would be too low output, and only covers two strings anyway And these are not cheap! Warming up the iron, to see if the old "remelt the solder at the eyelets" trick works... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted September 2, 2012 Author Share Posted September 2, 2012 Nah. Well and truly dead. I can't find where the break is, so this is the end of the pickup for me. How very disappointing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted September 2, 2012 Author Share Posted September 2, 2012 well, replacement pickup ordered from Bass Direct. If someone wants to have a go at rewinding the faulty one... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gafbass02 Posted September 4, 2012 Share Posted September 4, 2012 I've had two jazz bridge pickups randomly fail now. Suddenly gone all weird and wimpy sounding. Nothing else changed, just suddenly they didn't work properly anymore. Bizarre. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted September 8, 2012 Author Share Posted September 8, 2012 well, Nordstrand also thought it was strange... so they're sending me a replacement. Good guys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommorichards Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 ill take a stab at rewinding it if you're up for it. Ive started on my dead dimarzio copy. Wire keeps snapping (ie, its snapped once and i've gotten annoyed at it), but i think it could work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted September 8, 2012 Author Share Posted September 8, 2012 [quote name='tommorichards' timestamp='1347067128' post='1796747'] ill take a stab at rewinding it if you're up for it. Ive started on my dead dimarzio copy. Wire keeps snapping (ie, its snapped once and i've gotten annoyed at it), but i think it could work. [/quote] ah, when Nordstrand said they'd send me a new one, I offered to send the dead one to them and said "yes, please"... so it's on its way to them already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommorichards Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 shucks! At least thats some good customer service. Are you still getting the new one you ordered? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted September 8, 2012 Author Share Posted September 8, 2012 [quote name='tommorichards' timestamp='1347102957' post='1796952'] shucks! At least thats some good customer service. Are you still getting the new one you ordered? [/quote] I ordered one before Nordstrand offered... so yes, I got the one I ordered. That one is going this weekend into the 75RI Jazz, to bring it back to life. The other one will probably go in the Cort GB74. Its high output will probably go well with the MM style pickup at the bridge. Pickups everywhere!!!! aaaaahhhh!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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