Underpowered pickup

[ribbetingfrog]

I bought a used squier that has a Duncan designed quarter pounder p bass pickup.

its only reading 8.6 k ohms, proper Duncan’s are 11.6k ohms.

Are there any reasons it might be too low output or is it just a ropey pickup?

[cLepto-bass]

Out of interest, how do you measure the output of the pickup?

[ribbetingfrog]

Multimeter on the ground and live bits on a jack plugged in to the jack plug,

will that give a false reading?

[BigRedX]

23 hours ago, ribbetingfrog said:

Multimeter on the ground and live bits on a jack plugged in to the jack plug,

will that give a false reading?

Yes. To get an accurate reading you need to de-solder the pickup from the rest of the electrics, otherwise they will influence the reading.

[ribbetingfrog]

Thanks for the info!

[cLepto-bass]

2 hours ago, BigRedX said:

Yes. To get an accurate reading you need to de-solder the pickup from the rest of the electrics, otherwise they will influence the reading.

Yeah that was my understanding too. 

[Dood]

It's worth noting that the reading you are taking is DC resistance in Ohms of the coil(s), it is not a reading of output power. If it sounds good, then it is good.

[ribbetingfrog]

Main reason I was checking it is it sounds a lot less meaty than the Dimarzio I have in my other p bass, which is my favourite bass for the tone.

[itu]

Height adjustment of the pickup may be in order.