Gibson SG pickup stops working! Short? Broken Pickup?

[Joe1994]

Hi all I believe this is my first post under this account although I used to have a different one ages ago.

 

This is the problem. Recently I have put a new bridge pickup in my SG. It goes in fine, works for about a week, then suddenly stops working. No sound, no reading with the multi meter other than infinite. I have replaced the switch and the volume pot on the bridge side but it still stops working after a while.

 

If i measure with a multi meter I get no reading touching the braided wire and the the hot connection on the volume pot lug BUT! if I desolder the pickup it works and reads the correct 8.5 dc resistance.

 

I thought is could be a short but the braided wire is cut short and I cant figure it out.

 

Just recently I decided to just wire in the bridge pickup so it goes pickup-vol pot and tone- out to jack hoping it was something on the neck side that was causing a short but today it stopped working again.

 

Any ideas? I don't see how it can be a broken pickup because as soon as I remove it from guitar i get a reading. Also it can't be the volume pot or the switch as they are new. Also nothing is touching the now very simple wiring setup that I have which is bridge only to vol and tone to jack. Also when I take it out and put it back in it works for a period of time correctly the pickup sounds great.

 

I'm running out of options and its driving me insane. I have taken this pickup in and out about 6 times now to no success. Also I checked my solder joints and redid them countless times and it works fine for a bit then just stops.

 

Sorry for the long message but this problem is driving me crazy. I have worked on several guitars before and never come across such a strange and hard to find problem.

 

If anyone has any ideas I would be very grateful for the help.

[jdgm]

So if you've had the problem with a previous pot and replaced it.....

 

And you've tried wiring that pickup on its own......

 

The only thing I can think of is -

If you now wire the neck pickup on its own and see if you get the same dropout.

 

If not, then surely it must be the bridge pickup somehow? Perhaps the winding, or more likely one of the output wires is broken within the sleeving and so making contact intermittently?

Could the pickup be touching a wire or some metal part that might do this, just sometimes when you pick it up? (Very unlikely from what you have said).

 

I'm no expert but I know how maddening these kind of faults are. It has to be logical though.

 

Good luck!

[Joe1994]

So if you've had the problem with a previous pot and replaced it.....

 

And you've tried wiring that pickup on its own......

 

The only thing I can think of is -

If you now wire the neck pickup on its own and see if you get the same dropout.

 

If not, then surely it must be the bridge pickup somehow? Perhaps the winding, or more likely one of the output wires is broken within the sleeving and so making contact intermittently?

Could the pickup be touching a wire or some metal part that might do this, just sometimes when you pick it up? (Very unlikely from what you have said).

 

I'm no expert but I know how maddening these kind of faults are. It has to be logical though.

 

Good luck!

 

Yeah its really strange. I might wire the pickup into an old Epiphone SG I have this weekend to see if it is the pickup. It's crazy because I know if I was to unsolder the pickup and resolder it again it would work like a dream for a bit them stop. Maybe your right with the output wires touching the shielding from within.