I bought the American Deluxe V Neck strat and its a great guitar. after a while the bridge pickup gave out and the only output was a thin brittle faint sound that sounded terrible, so i replaced it with a seymour duncan hotrail and was told the original pickup was fine, so i re installed the bridge pickup and it worked great for months, then all of the sudden it gave out again. WHAT is gong on? Im tryin to contact fender through email but that seems to be impossible, the pricks at my local repair shop dont know whats goin on. any advice fellow fender players?

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Im Formal, but im here to party.

If it worked "great for months" then died again, I'd look at the wiring first. If it looks okay, get the voltmeter out and check the pup. Good luck!

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Martian should be able to steer you right here. I had a 2 year old ax have the bridge pickup die but it was dead as mike said my guy put the volt meter to it and there was nothing and unless the name on your pickup is Lazarus the guys in the shop should of known. Did they sell you the new pup?.For you to get it going again for a couple of months I cant believe the pup is dead.By the way after you swapped the pickup what made you retry it. And also find another place to get your gear serviced.

Intermittent! Wiring or switch.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Being a tech myself I would check all your wiring before jumping to the pickup, especially if it has happened before.

Your best bet is to check your switch and see if that is still wired correctly and then your pots, if you do not find anything wrong wiring wise check the pickup for proper output, and if it truly is dead then seymour duncan should take care of it depending on what "a couple of months" is. Who knows you might have a demon pot that had intermittent voltage issues.

my 2 cents.

Yes, odds of a intermitent pickup problem because of a bad pickup slim to none. Wiring to switch yes,switch yes, bad ground to pot yes.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

With the sound issue he described i don't think it would be a ground, a ground issue would cause an increase in feedback or being completely dead, he said it was way to thin and nasally. unless that was the issue with the original and now the problem is no output, then it would be a ground.

I had a similar issue with a customers guitar, he had a korean strat that he stripped and modded, then came in cause his bridge was dead and he didn't have time to do the swap himself. So i changed the pup and it still sounded really bad, so I wen't through the wiring with a fine toothed comb and found out he wired his middle pickup in with his bridge so 4 of 5 positions he was running the same combo. The issue was the middle pickup winding had come loose, so i re-wired and informed him of the issue, and we got him a good deal on a new mid pickup and i bought the original bridge pickup from him.
I'm not saying that could be the problem just thought i'd share that story.

Forget about any tangible warranty. Fender will require at the very least, all 3 pickups back, not just the one. And yes, you will have to go through the whole authorized repair center procedure. With what you'll pay in shipping and inconvenience, merely purchasing a new pickup will seem like a bargain.

Any and all of the Fender pickups in the Noiseless Series are the most frailly constructed stacks I've ever worked with. You breathe on them the wrong way and they fall apart. Yea, I know Bill Lawrence helped design the SCNs but that's the operative word, "helped".

You obviously have a loose/shorting wire either internally or at one of the eyelets of the pickup's leads.

Using either the meter or the, "dry run" method, if the pickup is working at the moment, examine the visible connections and 'disturb' each lead wire at the pickup itself, hoping one will short. One of the coil wires which are joined to these leads at the eyelets could be flapping around too so look closely. If one does short, obviously you've found your root cause. If this proves unsuccessful, again, because of the flimsy design, pinch and squeeze the pickup here, there and everywhere in an attempt to force the short without disassembling the pickup yet. This way, you're already zeroed in on the area of the short beforehand. Naturally, if the pickup isn't working, use the same methods for the opposite results.

Premising you've found the short and it is internal or you haven't found anything yet, again I can't stress this enough: Attempting to take apart an SCN is highly risky. So, if you do plan on forging ahead, remember two things: 1) You can destroy the pickup upon merely trying to remove the cover and 2) Presuming you've successfully removed the cover and have located the short by eye and/or gentle probing, remember that not only do you have to correct it without lousing up something else, but you have to get that cover back on. Lastly, if after diligent searching, you still can't find the root cause, by process of elimination, the short is buried somewhere within the coil and you know what that means.

FWIW, many so called, "techs" won't touch this kind of repair with a ten foot pole.

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You dig?

Martian, I really appreciate your candid comments backed by a wealth of real-world experience.. I'm guessing you're not a big fan of the Am Deluxe Strats... the infamous S1 switch AND those SCN pickups all in one package ...

Sounds like job security for guitar techs...

Martian when my pup died it was a noiseless bridge in a Clapton strat that I had for two years so it was no big deal to get the same pup and just swap.And back then you did not have to buy all three pups as I remember I just had to get the bridge.Here is my question. Say it was not a Clapton or a guitar that there are thousands of and you can put in the correct pup that matches. Say it was a limited run big money custom shop or just a model that one day might be worth big money and your pup died are you screwed because the ax is not all original anymore as you know this would cause a big price drop. I know you feel about Fenders customer care like I do, but lets say for sh!ts and giggles would Fender rewind the pup for someone or would that even matter. I brought this up because on Harmony Central a guy was saying how sick he was because the pup on his 64 tele died and he had to replace it and I was wondering if he could of got it rewound or brought back to life as that had to be a bummer .Be Good Bro

STU!! whats up brother!! PM ME or something

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--Hillbilly
Proud member of the 2 or 3 club

Fender won't rewind it but others do you could even do it . A roll of 42 awg coil wire cost 28.00 for a 1/2 pound you could wind 4 to 5 single coils with that. People have made winders off drils even fish reels because they didn't want to pay 300. for a winder. The hardest thing is not braking the wire when doing it so you don't have to start over.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

cvilleira thanks for the info.Even though I am deadly with a fishing rod I am not mechanicly inclined.

You are correct, sir!

Indeed, they can keep accomplished techs busy. I still get a kick out of the hacks' "umbrella bail out line" which I've witnessed too many times with these and other tasks, way beyond their comprehension: "Oh, THAT has to go back to the factory!"

There is always that balance though, between the cost of repair vs. replacement.

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You dig?