Tele Pickup Issue

[wesleystuart]

Hi folks,

First time poster here. I'm in a pickle with some up coming gigs and am hoping for some guidance.

My main gigging guitar is telecaster. At a show recently, I plugged in and my bridge pickup was suddenly maybe 5% of usual output; it was almost silent. Neck pickup was totally normal. Everything else was totally normal (no issues with the pedal board or anything, other guitars were fine) and both the tone and volume knob were functioning as they should on the neck pickup. Me and my buddy took apart the guitar and checked every single solder joint and tested every single connection and couldn't find a problem. We put it back together, plugged it in, and the guitar had fixed itself—no issues with the bridge pickup. It worked fine for a little bit and then conked out again a few days later at a session. So I took it to a well respected local music store, testing it beforehand to make sure the bridge pickup still wasn't working before taking it to them. They called me a couple days later and said there were no issues with the guitar. I explained how it had fixed itself once before and asked them to check again. They checked again—all solder joints, connections, and the pickup itself. No issues. Apparently it had fixed itself again which meant they couldn't find the problem. I went and got the guitar from them, and once again everything was fine and dandy for a few days and then at another session the bridge pickup conked out again. Neck was perfectly fine as usual. What the heck could possibly be the problem? I can only figure that it must just be the pickup itself, but they don't just conk out often. It's important to note that the signal is never going in and out, or going louder and softer as a play. It's perfectly fine and then suddenly drops to 5% with no warning. Any thoughts?

 

[VictorB]

Things to try:

Bypass the switch entirely. Unsolder the bridge pickup’s hot lead from the switch and wire it directly to the output jack (with common ground). If the issue persists, it’s 100% the pickup. If it goes away, it’s something in the switch or wiring.

Tap test it when it’s acting up. Use a small screwdriver and gently tap the pickup’s poles when it’s working vs. not working. Listen for any faint response or change. A dead or near-dead coil will sound drastically different.

Also, measure DC resistance when the fault is present. Use a multimeter to measure the bridge pickup at the output jack (selector on bridge). Compare to spec. If the reading jumps way high (hundreds of kΩ or open) or way low (short), you’ve found it. A typical Tele bridge pickup might read 6.5k. If it suddenly reads 500 or way more, the coil is failing internally.