Tele Neck pup problem

[chrisg]

I have a problem with the neck pup in one of my teles.  I have just installed a set of Fender Nocasters and there is very little volume from the neck compared to the same volume setting on the guitar and amp for the bridge..  I measured the resistance at the jack and get 7.07 kohms on the neck, 3.57 in the middle and 6.99 for the bridge.  Both pups are set approx 2.5mm below the strings.  I'm thinking a problem in the pup winding?  Anyone had similar problems or can suggest why this is happening?  Any thoughts appreciated.

 

[Jusatele]

your windings are the right strength, give or take, did you do a milihenry test? also, did you check the polarity of the pole pieces to see if one is wrong?

PS. did you ground the neck pickup cover?, that is important

as well as check your polarity, if that is wrong......

 

[Funky Phil]

When you say there is very little volume from the neck pickup, would you say about half....or much less.
Vintage spec Tele neck pickups are very "soft" sounding, and have less output than the very powerfully bright bridge pickup.
Also, because there is a cover on the neck picup, it is easy to think that it is 2.5mm away, but actually its a lot further away (inside that cover).

Of course there could be a problem with it, but consider the above first  :dontknow:

 

[chrisg]

your windings are the right strength, give or take, did you do a milihenry test? also, did you check the polarity of the pole pieces to see if one is wrong?

PS. did you ground the neck pickup cover?, that is important

as well as check your polarity, if that is wrong......

I haven't checked the inductance - will try this.  I thought the cover was grounded at the pickup itself so will check that also.  Thanks for the tips.

 

[chrisg]

When you say there is very little volume from the neck pickup, would you say about half....or much less.
Vintage spec Tele neck pickups are very "soft" sounding, and have less output than the very powerfully bright bridge pickup.
Also, because there is a cover on the neck picup, it is easy to think that it is 2.5mm away, but actually its a lot further away (inside that cover).

Of course there could be a problem with it, but consider the above first  :dontknow:

The volume is less than half the bridge - approx 1/4 the volume.  It also appears to be a lot lower on the D & G strings.  I might take the cover off and see how far the actual pickup is below it.  Thanks for the tips.

 

[TroubledTreble]

One issue may be that the magnets are not properly charged or have become partially demagnetized. Have you had the pickup near any rare earth magnets or strong magnetic fields? I have also seen on a pickup with a plastic bobbin where one pole was not charged or lost it's charge due to an issue with the alloy. During shipping it may have been subjected to something that demagnetized it as well.

If it has lost it's magnetizim it is an easy fix that you can do at home. If you put a piece of tape on the pickup to protect it from scratching, you can use a piece of metal to see just how strong the field is. It should be just about as strong as the bridge. It should be obvious if it's a weak pickup. If you have the pickup out of the guitar it may be a good opportunity to recharge it before sticking it back in just to be sure it has good magnetizim.

 

[Jusatele]

that is a good suggestion Troubled
even if they had stacked the boxes one on top of each other, how the normal music store does, it can effect the magnetic charge of the magnets.

 

[chrisg]

One issue may be that the magnets are not properly charged or have become partially demagnetized. Have you had the pickup near any rare earth magnets or strong magnetic fields? I have also seen on a pickup with a plastic bobbin where one pole was not charged or lost it's charge due to an issue with the alloy. During shipping it may have been subjected to something that demagnetized it as well.

If it has lost it's magnetizim it is an easy fix that you can do at home. If you put a piece of tape on the pickup to protect it from scratching, you can use a piece of metal to see just how strong the field is. It should be just about as strong as the bridge. It should be obvious if it's a weak pickup. If you have the pickup out of the guitar it may be a good opportunity to recharge it before sticking it back in just to be sure it has good magnetizim.

I will take the pickup back out of the guitar and test the magnets, along with the other suggestions provided by Funky Phil & Jusatele.  Thanks for all the help, and I'll let you know how I get on.