Tele glitch: Can anyone help?

Kevin Macneil Brown · Post by **Kevin Macneil Brown** » 13 Sep 2003 3:19 am

My trusty Tele is acting weird.
Here are the symptoms:
Bridge pickup has lost around 20% of its volume, along with whatever tonal girth it had.(sounds almost out-of-phase)
Tone control works as it should on neck pickup, but acts as a volume control on the bridge pickup.
Can't seem to find any obvious shorts or stripped or loose wires in the control assembly.
Any ideas or diagnosis would be greatly appreciated!

Craig A Davidson · Post by **Craig A Davidson** » 13 Sep 2003 3:38 am

Check the Tele switch and see if it is still in good shape and no points have moved or broke. It sounds like a bad connection there maybe. Set the switch for front or back and touch the magnets with a screwdriver. If both pick-up's are active in one of those positions it could be the problem and also the switch.

Bengt Erlandsen · Post by **Bengt Erlandsen** » 13 Sep 2003 8:20 am

A bad ground-connection on the bridge pickup might cause the problem. This could either be on a solderpoint where the ground-wire from the bridgepickup is connected or it could be inside the pickup itself. You might have to desolder the pickups from the switch and ground points to measure the internal resistanse w an ohm-meter.
Also check this link for schematics http://www.themusicxchange.com/tele_controls.html

Bengt[This message was edited by Bengt Erlandsen on 13 September 2003 at 09:24 AM.]

Tom Olson · Post by **Tom Olson** » 14 Sep 2003 7:25 am

Just a guess -- I've heard before that a loose pole piece may result in similar symtoms. I guess the likelihood of a loose pole piece depends on the type of pickup. I think the vintage type with the waxed filler may be more prone to come loose.

Jody Carver · Post by **Jody Carver** » 16 Sep 2003 3:28 pm

Could very well be what Tom posted. However
I beleive if the tone is thin and the volume tone control works fine on the neck pickup but as a volume control on the bridge pu it
sounds like it needs rewinding,,one of the pole pieces may be shorting out. This is common on trapezoid steel pickups,,write to
Jason Lollar and ask his opinion.
Edited..you can find Jason on www.lollarguitars.com
[This message was edited by Jody Carver on 16 September 2003 at 04:29 PM.]

Jerry Erickson · Post by **Jerry Erickson** » 20 Sep 2003 2:48 pm

Sounds like an open pickup. If you have a multimeter to measure resistance, the bridge pickup should read 6.5k-8.0k ohms resistance.If it reads 30k or more then the pickup is open. I guess what happens is that the wiring shorts to a polepiece and creates the higher resistance but the pickup still works. This has happened to 2 pickups on a 54 strat that I own.

You can fix it by rewinding the pickup or it can possibly be repaired depending on where it broke.