A bad pickup?

[california1967]

I'm currently running a SD Sh-1 in the neck of my guitar and a SD Sh-4 in the bridge of my guitar. When I first installed the pickups I had a really bad hum/grounding issue and the bridge pickup (SH-4) sounded really muddy. So I decided to upgrade my electronics. I used 500k CTS pots, a .022 Orange Drop in the neck and a .022 Goodall PIO in the bridge. The exact same thing is happening. The Sh-1 sounds amazing, the Sh-4 sounds like crap and a grounding issue exists - when I touch the metal the hum stops. Anyone have any ideas, could it be a bad pickup (I did get them used)?

 

[snaredrum]

how good are you at soldering? i've found it's almost ALWAYS my shoddy soldering that is causing the problems...

 

[hamerfan]

Probably the grounding of the pickup is off.

 

[firesgt911]

Yep. Probably a bad solder joint on the ground wire.

 

[b-squared]

Where you at in MO? Close to STL? Maybe I can take a look...

BB

 

[california1967]

Thanks for the offer BB but I'm in Columbia about 2 hours-ish west of STL.

It could always be my amazing soldering skills but I just found it curious that after I replaced all the wire/pots that it has the exact same problem.

I guess I could always just pop in one of my old stock Epi pickups and see if it changes anything.

 

[snaredrum]

Thanks for the offer BB but I'm in Columbia about 2 hours-ish west of STL.

It could always be my amazing soldering skills but I just found it curious that after I replaced all the wire/pots that it has the exact same problem.

I guess I could always just pop in one of my old stock Epi pickups and see if it changes anything.

just redo all your solder points first. doesn't take long.

 

[snaredrum]

this is copied from the magnet swapping 101 thread, and is me about six hours ago.

Yesterday, 07:09 PM #19 (permalink)
snaredrum
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Re: Magnet swapping 101
hey man, i swapped the magnet round in one of my pickups, and the pickup now seems a lot quieter. i've checked with the multimeter and the pickup is still showing what it was before. i thought that i may have pulled a solder joint loose whilst doing the swap, but i've checked all the joints and they seem fine.

any chance it's just a hell of a coincidental time for a pot to die?

**never mind - i figured it HAD to be the soldering, so i just redid all of the bridge pup solder. hey presto. phew!
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