Pickup cutting out

sighs...OK, the neck pickup on my Gibbo is cutting out at intermintent intervals sometime she's fine other times output drops to 0./ i have so far re-soldered :neck connection to switch,vol connection to switch,braid to neck vol,jack socket plus ground to pots. and a couple of others.

All the above wires displayed poor contacts and caused crackles when moved gently.

Every time i re solder a wire it plays fine for say 30 mins then screws up again -this happens, more noticably when switching pups.

I have noticed that there is a plain wire from the neck pup to the switch which is cut off at the insulation - i've only done a 3 conductor LP copy before [loom half wired already], so have no knowledge of 4 conductors. For the record it's a Gibson 490R.

The shop is too far away or i'd take it back for an overhaul..[aah now i see the fly in the ointment of travelling to get bargains:)]

I'm beginning to suspect the Vol pot- yet it's "silent" and works fine when the pickup does..shall i get the old meter out and try and meter it while seeing if it dies??.

I'm flummoxed!

*knew I should have done more gibsons,before buying a cheapy*

As you are finding out, an intermittent fault is the hardest kind to nail down, precisely because it is not a constant condition.

I'm not favourably impressed by the news that your [u]new[/u] Gibson needed so much rework already. :eek:

Anyway, to the point. A humbucking pickup has two coils of wire. A 4-conductor cable simply makes both ends of each coil available for connection to your switches and such. Both coils should show approximately the same DC resistance on your meter. If you can't find the fault in the control cavity, then you will have to look at the pup itself. Unless the pickup has a cover on it, you should be able to inspect the connections. If it does have a cover, and you can't find any other culprit, you'd best put on your driving gloves.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Lordathestrings
[B]As you are finding out, an intermittent fault is the hardest kind to nail down, precisely because it is not a constant condition.

I'll second the motion, James, you might want to take a really close look at the switch, and I was thinking that you might want to jumper the p/u to the output jack and see if you still get the same problem.

Hey it could be a bad fuel pump, I had a truck that used to cut out on me........ Good Luck!

[Edited by pstring on 04-16-2002 at 12:49 AM]

Screwed that up royally didn't I!

Originally posted by Lordathestrings


I'm not favourably impressed by the news that your [u]new[/u] Gibson needed so much rework already. :eek:

Yeah, some of the [original] solder connections look[ed] "dry" and the earths at the pots are made with huge MOUNDS of solder - the duffus has managed to get solder on the insulation and a couple of wires have the insulation "soldered" to their connections!!! - Crack-Happy-Friday at Gibson again. I hear tell that they have trouble spelling qc checked let alone quality control! (My next axe will be a Gordon Smith or Yamaha!)

Anyway thanks for the input fellas -jumpers,etc ahoy!

yeah, it could be your pickup switch. thats what happened to my les paul. so i switched the switch (it cost like, 15 bucks) and everything worked fine.

thx for the input- but i cannot see anything wrong with it, I have (i remember now) resoldered ALL the connections and checked the terminals .I'm more familiar with Fender type switches but can usually see if their ok,oh well . I may try that.

The Lp copy I rewired has NO problems whatever,so i may swap out bits and completely rewire the [bleep].

Just want to say love the username...
RHCP fan? - I think John F. is well talented,btw.

Welcome to the site. :)

I had similar problems on my Tele so I sprayed the switch with switch cleaner or IPA and it did a top job. No problems at all although the wiring is pretty messy on the pickups.Thinking of getting some new pickups...

New switch..Stark... wus on the money- this was my first point of replacement anyway *cough*. You couldn't ferkin believe it could ya, couldn't see anything wrong with the original except for a lot of slack in the mid position, well, the new one has no slack and it's been fine for several days straight, one or 2 hours a day.

I'm goin' for a c**ntin'job at c**ntin Gi**on doin' their ferkin wirin'..or has that job been given to the blind monkey already..or is he in quality control??

Thanks all who responded.