Dead single coil?

[BABMusic]

I had been driving myself crazy the last few weeks trying to figure out what's wrong with my Strat pickups. I soldered everything and now the tone and volume knobs work fine, but the middle pickup single coil sounds very weak and tiny. I checked with a multimeter and my neck pickup reads about 10K, bridge humbucker reads 16K, but my middle pickup reads nothing. Is this a conclusive way of determining that the middle pickup was damaged? Is there any chance this is a bad solder with the black ground wire?

 

[BeZo]

Are you checking the leads off the pickup or the leads off the coil? If you see the leads coming off of the coil, check there. I could be a bad solder joint where the pickup leads are soldered to the coil leads on the plate of the pickup itself. Sometimes things get yanked when things get yanked. If the coil leads are dead, it's dead. If you get a reading there and not on the pickup leads, there's the break in the chain.

 

[BABMusic]

Are you checking the leads off the pickup or the leads off the coil? If you see the leads coming off of the coil, check there. I could be a bad solder joint where the pickup leads are soldered to the coil leads on the plate of the pickup itself. Sometimes things get yanked when things get yanked. If the coil leads are dead, it's dead. If you get a reading there and not on the pickup leads, there's the break in the chain.

I was checking the leads off the guitar cable. Where can I set the red and black wires on the pickup to check? Thanks!

 

[BeZo]

I was checking the leads off the guitar cable. Where can I set the red and black wires on the pickup to check? Thanks!

I just grabbed a random photo off Google.

The coil leads for the pickup are the bare wire that goes to the pickup leads. The pickup leads will be the white and black wires. Start on the bare wires on the pickup where they meet the white and black wires. Then check the end of the pickup leads. If that's good, then the pickup is good, but it's wired wrong or it has a bad ground.

 

[BABMusic]

Makes sense, thank you!

 

[griff10672]

show some pics of the inside

 

[BABMusic]

I see there's some damage on the left side where the copper is exposed a bit. I am thinking that's probably why I'm getting no reading when connecting the multimeter to the white and black wires.

 

[BABMusic]

Anyway, I just ordered another single coil as they are pretty cheap to replace. I must be more careful when working inside on the guitar.

 

[griff10672]

once one strand of that tiny little copper wire breaks ............. no bueno

 

[BABMusic]

once one strand of that tiny little copper wire breaks ............. no bueno

I replaced my single coil last night and it works perfectly now. Definitely was a ruined single coil, sadly. $60 down the drain. Case closed on this thread.