Replacement pickups

[frank_the_tank]

hey all. I bought a used epiphone les paul standard a few years ago, and its a beaut! but a few weeks ago the neck pick-up pretty much died. i'm in a delema trying to decide what i should get as a new humbucker. the one that blew out was a alnico v humbucker. i was looking at a gibson p-94 and a soapbox from seamore duncan. I am open to all suggestions. i play alt. acoustic. rock with a hint of dark tool like metal. if anyone can help me figure out the best neck pickup i can get, i would be greatly apreciative!

 

thank you everyone!

~frank

 

WWW.myspace.com/lysdexicmusic

[bluesstringer]

Welcome to the forum Tank How do you know it's the pup as opposed to the switch, a pot, etc ? Let us know and we'll try to help.

[layboomo]

Welcome to the forum Tank How do you know it's the pup as opposed to the switch' date=' a pot, etc ? Let us know and we'll try to help.[/quote']

 

+1 the switch would be my guess as well.......pickups rarely just stop working without damage to the coil.

[RotcanX]

And just for the record the soapbar won't fit without major woodwork.

[charlie brown]

Yeah, I'd definitely look at the switch/pots FIRST, before spending any coin

on new pickups! The switch and pot problems, are kind of "notorious,"

around here.

Hope you figure it out....and "Welcome aboard!"

 

CB

[TWANG]

yah. probably wiring problem of some sort.

 

but I've just found the humbuck bridge and humbuck size kent armstong p90 to be a really good set up..so I'm throwing that in.

I'd shut up if I weren't so happy about it!

[frank_the_tank]

yea, i dont know if its the switch. when i switch to rhythm i get a overly distorted sound, its really obnoxious. i talked to a few of my peers and they all said it was the pick-ups. i admitt that i dont know to much about body work on a guitar.

 

two of them suggested this .

 

my first assumption was to think pick-ups anyway. but how would i go across checking the switch/pot?

[frank_the_tank]

and thank you for the welcoming, i greatly appriciate it!

[TWANG]

take the switch cover off..

you should be able to see if the connections are good.. or if tiny wires are touching each other.

 

if the switch is real loose in the middle position it needs some tightening up.

that's the most common problem with epi switchs. the two pieces of metal which the switch separates in order to get R ot T pickup are too loose.

consequently the mid pos isn't always makeing contact.. or if it is it's intermittent.

 

You can pull take off the nut that holds the switch on top..

push the switch out through the back..

and tighten carefull with needle nose pliers the two pieces of metal.. you'll see them when you get it out,, just hold it up to the light and

flip it each way. operation will become obvious.

 

if it's a problem at the switch it's either the contact points from the wiggle stick being too loose..

or a wiring problem.

unless a wire has actually come loose, that's usually a wire that sticks off one lug and touches the other, or some other wire in there.

 

you should have wires going to the switch that are separated unless they are soldered to the same point.

You should have a switch that is not too loose, a very little is normal, in the middle position.

 

pickups don't go dead or start distorting when they are as new as yours..

 

of course there could be a wire beneath the pickups touching somehow.. but I'd really doubt that.

 

The same types of problems could be occuring in your main control cavity. That is movement from playing could have caused a not so well done wiring job to become lousy.

I'd check the wiring there, too.

Again.. you just carefully look into the cavity and see if there are any shorts..

for instance, a wire reaching from one lug to another.. a tiny strand I mean.. hard to see.

or maybe the pot has been loosened and now the pot itself is touching a lug to the shield paint or some other part of the guitar it shouldn't be touching.

 

So you can move the post in a circular way and stop that IF that's it.

a little bit. you can't spin them. *S*

 

hope that helps.. but those are the two places you can pretty much look and see a problem.