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Post subject: testing pickups
Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2013 6:24 am
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I was given some pickups by a friend of mine. he's not sure if they work.

is there a way to test them without actually installing them in a guitar? i'm not sure if you can do this with a multimeter, but any advice is welcome


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Post subject: Re: testing pickups
Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2013 6:49 am
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A multimeter will tell you if the pickup is working electrically, no shorts or broken wires. Ohms setting should be in the lower scale of say 30 on the meter. Pickups should read anywhere from roughly 5.0+K Ohms and up. No reading, or a very high reading (200K Ohms+) usually means a broken wire.


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Post subject: Re: testing pickups
Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2013 7:05 am
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SNick wrote:
A multimeter will tell you if the pickup is working electrically, no shorts or broken wires. Ohms setting should be in the lower scale of say 30 on the meter. Pickups should read anywhere from roughly 5.0+K Ohms and up. No reading, or a very high reading (200K Ohms+) usually means a broken wire.


Agreed and if you don't have a multimeter, this might help:

http://tangentsoft.net/elec/meters.html

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Post subject: Re: testing pickups
Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2013 2:59 pm
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Hold the hot and ground wires onto the tip and sleeve connections of a cable with tape, plug it into an amp and hold the pickup near vibrating guitar strings! It'll probably buzz a bit but it'll tell you if the pickup's working if you don't have a meter handy.

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Post subject: Re: testing pickups
Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2013 7:22 pm
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GilgaFrank wrote:
Hold the hot and ground wires onto the tip and sleeve connections of a cable with tape, plug it into an amp and hold the pickup near vibrating guitar strings! It'll probably buzz a bit but it'll tell you if the pickup's working if you don't have a meter handy.


+1

I have done that many times. It is a good simple way to see if a pickup works and to hear it!

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Post subject: Re: testing pickups
Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2013 7:50 pm
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A junk DVM is only ten or twelve bucks at Lowe's, Home Depot, or Ace Hardware......perfectly acceptable for most guitar troubleshooting chores.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: testing pickups
Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2013 9:12 pm
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I do that holding the wires on the tip of a chord all the time too.
Just rake a little bridge allen lightly across the pole pieces.
If they got a Harbor Frieght near you, they have digital calipers and volt meters from 9.99 up.
Great place to pickup up cheap useful gutar tech tools.
Radio Shack was clearancing out volt meters, high quality one there that reads caps and everything for 11.99.
Its been a couple weeks, may still have some.

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Post subject: Re: testing pickups
Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2013 11:06 pm
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I do have a multimeter. looks like a fairly easy task. thanks (as usual) for the advice my fender friends


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