Anyone ever had a passive pickup go bad

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blackba

blackba

Well-known member
A friend of mine had a neck pickup go out in his Fender Jazz bass. The good news is he didn't like the stock pickups much anyway and is excited to try some new Dimarzio Area J pickups.

This got me thinking, I have never seen a pickup go bad. I had one that I had to wax pot again since it was squealing, but never had one measure open circuit like this pickup did. I am going to open it up if possible and see the exact failure once the new ones come in.

Just curious if you guys had seen many passive pickups go bad.....
 
I left a guitar in the sun too long (in my car) and the wax melted out of the pickups!
 
I've seen it quite a bit doing repairs. The thin wire that begins/ends the winding is almost always the culprit.
 
I had a 500T go bad. Not sure how or why. After trying everything else, I replaced the pup and everything went back to normal
 
maybe? had one i couldn't ever get not to feedback. repottted it etc.
 
yeah, i've had a few. that thin wire that starts the wrap is a little bitch!
 
i had a wire come out of the pickup once.

ive not messed with pickup windings but i have done magnet swaps and re-potting.

never heard of a pickup that just quits for no reason though. thats a new one on me?
 
happened to me when i bought a rickenbacker 650 dakota used, apparantly before transport and being sent to me the bridge pickup worked fine with no problem,

arrived and there was no sound, got it checked out, wires were fine, the pickup was essentially dead, thankfully the seller sent me a replacement pickup free of charge (rickysounds from the UK, great to deal with)
 
1 time in 30+ years
no idea why it happened, but it was def an open coil. I was told at the time it had to do with the amount of tension the pup was wound with, but not sure if thats the case or not.
Kinda makes sense though, the wire is very small in diameter, if it was wound too tight, it could let go for no apparent reason :dunno:
 
Ive had a few die.....it happens. Duncan will fix them. If its vintage I send them to Fralin and have them rewind 'em.
 
Had a couple in my Peavey Wolfgangs go bad. But Peavey was really good about fixing me up promptly.
 
The bridge pickup went out on my old Dean Z...you could actually see the windings hanging out of the tape under the bobbin.
 
I had a new BK single coil show up DOA and I had a Dimarzio that I got in trade go bad (found out months after the trade because I did not use it right away). :(
 
I had one de-magnetize when I blew a power tube in an amp a while back. Must've been a hell of a surge(vaporized the screen resistor and I mean that pretty much literally) cause I have no idea why it did that...maybe they weren't related I dunno. Might of just had piss poor luck that day.
 
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