Have I Just Wrecked A Pickup?

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

I was trying to solder a pickup back on. I started stripping the plastic off one of the wires when lo and behold, the entire wire came off.

 

Have I wrecked this pickup completely? I'm going to ring my luthier tomorrow morning but I'm trying to get some idea of the disaster.

 

Any ideas?

[Dr. Ellwood]

If it's just the original end of the copper coil, it's no problem..just unwind enough off the spool to make another new good connection..the tolearace on the number of windings is NOT that critical, certainly sonically you will never know the difference!

[Guitarzan]

single coil or humbucker?

i ask because single coils have the wires attached to the bobbin where the leads from the windings exit .

 

click

 

you can see where the wire goes in this, if it is a single coil.

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h272/kramer_ferrington_iii/humbucker2.jpg

 

It's one of these ones (I'm preparing a better picture as we speak) Now... ok, what I'm noticing is that a similar pickup on eBay, such as this one

 

http://i24.ebayimg.com/03/i/06/fb/3c/68_2.JPG

 

doesn't have the "undercarriage" thingie. Is that a separate piece or proof that I'm looking at the wrong model pickup?

[Mudcat]

Originally posted by Kramer Ferrington III.:

...doesn't have the "undercarriage" thingie. Is that a separate piece or proof that I'm looking at the wrong model pickup?

Loks like the same pick-up...just salvage the "thingy" from your original pick-up and you are good-to-go.

 

What kind of bass is this from? It looks Gibsonish.

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Originally posted by Mudcat:

What kind of bass is this from? It looks Gibsonish.

Yeah, it's from some sort of Gibson bass... EB 3, I think. I bought it by itself in about 1983. I love that pickup.

[caprae]

Those pics are coming in handy, aren't they Zan?

[Guitarzan]

oh yeah, i am milking it.

[Shoes]

You pulled your pickup off a pickguard? right....

This other is mounted to a plate secured in a routed pocket. No plastic surround thing.

 

Pickup's the same..

Buy it up.

[Shoes]

I've got 2 left sandals!

 

I didn't ask for 2 left sandals.

This is totally useless!

 

Does anyone want to do a trade or something...

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Originally posted by Guitars are like shoes. But louder.:

Pickup's the same..

Buy it up.

I did.

 

 

ADDED:

 

The game plan today is to send this one off to the luthier to see if he can fix it and then keep the eBay one as a spare, when it arrives. There's nobody making replacements (shame! why not?!) so a spare is a good idea.

 

If it's as easy as ellwood reckons then it should be a pretty easy job for the luthier. I'm definitely getting someone else to do it though. I've done enough damage already!

[Big Red 67]

Fix the old one any way, you can always switch covers.

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Originally posted by Big Red 67:

Fix the old one any way, you can always switch covers.

Yeah, I'll have to, it's the only Gibson thing I own!

[Big Red 67]

LOL so!

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Ok... so it's going to cost 30-40 euro and some days to fix the pup. I imagine they need to rewind it.

 

I'm getting a "courtesy bass" from the music shop in the meantime.

[picker]

by the way, what axe do you use that on?

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Originally posted by Picker:

by the way, what axe do you use that on?

It's the neck pickup on a sort of EB copy bass I found it in a pawnshop over 20 years ago and have changed a lot of stuff. (It' meant to be a bit like the ones on this photograph)

 

http://www.gibsonbass.com/graphics/eb3ss.jpg

 

Well, mine's got the sg horns and all that, but it's long scale. The bridge pickup is still fine but it's a Fender Jazz pup. I could just play with that one, I suppose, but I find it too thin and wimpy when it's on its own.

[picker]

Did you ever see the front of the Steve Miller "Sailor" album from way back when? He and Boz Scaggs had hollow body guitars with two humbuckers AND one of those big Gibson bass pickups in the middle of them. I have always wondered how that sounded...

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Originally posted by Picker:

Did you ever see the front of the Steve Miller "Sailor" album from way back when?

This one?

 

http://ec3.images-amazon.com/images/P/B00000DRBJ.01._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_V1115806127_.jpg

 

I'm wondering about the string spacing (ie 4 poles, 6 strings), but I suppose the magnets on those "Gibson bricks" are strong enough to cope with strings not being precisely in the right place. They look like mean machine guitars though. Were they real or just props for the album cover?

 

 

I wonder why nobody makes replacements for those pups though

[The Geoff]

Vince, it looks like just one of the conductors has come off at the the junction point where it connects to the winding. If this is so, a spot of solder should fix the whole thing.

 

G.

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Originally posted by Geoff Byrne:

Vince, it looks like just one of the conductors has come off at the the junction point where it connects to the winding. If this is so, a spot of solder should fix the whole thing.

Yeah, but I felt like I'd done enough damage for one day. They're actually lending me a replacement bass until the pickup is ready so I'm happy enough. I'd never even thought of asking and they offered just like that, out of nowhere. I'm really touched.

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Anyway... just an update.

 

I decided to get the pickup fixed in NZ (it needs rewinding) and that would have been a cool idea except for the fact that the bass seems to have been lost in transit.

 

I've been waiting for over a week for it to turn up and just this morning I was told that it seems to have made it out of Milan and is now lost in Dubai, of all places!

 

Lost all the same though.

 

I've bought a replacement pickup off eBay but it's some el cheapo third party thing which doesn't really inspire a lot of confidence.

[Pappy P]

Hey Vince:

 

Will rewinding change the original "character" of the pickup, or is that mainly the magnet itself.

 

You can tell I don't know much about pups.

[fantasticsound]

Unless the winds are pretty much the same as before it will likely sound different. How much is anybody's guess. I'm guessing any new winding will be more uniform than back then unless it's hand wound and proper care isn't taken by the repairman.

 

Changing the number of winds or the balance of winds on each bobbin will change the sound as well. Gibson Burstbucker pickups feature assymentrical windings (more windings on one bobbin than the other) to immitate the inconsistancies of their p'ups from the 1950's, the best examples of which were determined to have unbalanced windings.

[Ol Boy Rivers]

You horrid man, You killed a good pickup. Dont feel bad, I trashed an Old zebra in my eailier years. ( DUNCAN ) So yeah...You can imagine how many words i got from its owner...Meh uncle. And neil...You know your Hooha.

[fantasticsound]

Comes from working in Gibson Customer Support, if only for 3 months.

[Ol Boy Rivers]

I need to start working with fender so i can play some small role, You got the gibbys ill get the fenders!

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Originally posted by fantasticsound:

Unless the winds are pretty much the same as before it will likely sound different.

Yeah, I can see that, now that you mention it.

 

But it's a bass pickup and I use it together with the bridge pickup so I'm not too fussed. As long as it sort of keeps that thick, muscular EB sound I'm fine. Could be an interesting experience actually.

 

 

UPDATE: The bass turned up but the case is a complete write off... it looks like someone ran over it with a truck or something (and I'm not kidding, that's what the customs report says).

 

Fortunately, the bass survived.

[fantasticsound]

Glad to hear it, Vince! At least you have the bass.

 

And yes, I think it's worth playing with, if for no other reason than to learn what not to do ever again!

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Well, I just got the bass back from the luthier today. It's a great shop called Weta Guitars and they seem to specialize in making Frankenthings out of bits and pieces. Some of their instruments are quite interesting.

 

Anyway, I was lloking at the itemized bill and they

 

• Repaired the pickup
  
• Installed the pickup
  
• Polished the (maple) fretboard
  
• Fitted a new nut
  
• Straightened and Lubed the tuners
  
• Fitted new grub (?) screw
  
• Fitted new scratchplate screws
  
• Adjusted neck
  
• Cleaned the electrics
  
• Cleaned the body
  
• Put new strings on
  
• Set the action
  
• Set the intonation
  

 

And all for $115 NZ dollars. I was stoked! And, see? Even if you DON'T have GAS, there's always stuff you can do to your guitars. Next up, I need to get one of the case latches fixed. That's on the original case with all my old stickers and my old band's name stencilled on it. I didn't risk taking THAT case on the plane. And after that, I want the bass refretted.

 

Looking at the neck they also told me that the bass is most probably a 70s Ibanez. No wonder it's always been a smooth player. Another mystery solved.

 

So yeah. Just figured I'd post this to finish off the thread. Thanks for listening and for all your advice.