Can there be such thing as a defect pickup?

[BenoA]

Asking my fellow JCFers about this.

Got that Ibanez guitar that I upgraded with a Dimarzio ToneZone in the bridge. Job was done by a local tech way back.

As I got too many guitars, this one had been collecting dust and I recently picked it up to play with it. The ToneZone in it doesn't sound at all like the 2 other guitars I have that also have a ToneZone. The defect one sounds weak and trebly compared to the others.

I opened it to check if it was a ToneZone, and it is a DP155. I've checked the wiring it is good too. Volume pot is CTS, tone is ???.

Next step would be to cannibalized one of my other guitar to try and switch PUs.

Any advice before going into such work? Could it be the tone pot sucking something? I wonder as the neck PU (Dimarzio Evolution) sounds OK.

Thanks in advance for help and advice.

[toejam]

There can be defective pickups, but are you sure the wiring is totally right? I've never heard of a Tone Zone being weak and trebly. They're usually pretty beefy sounding. Maybe take it back to the guy that did it originally?

[xenophobe]

Tone pot, wiring, ground... could be a bad pickup. I think it's the least likely problem though.

[BenoA]

Thanks guys! For sure, it's weird as this ToneZone doesn't sound at all like my 2 other ones.

Anyway, I've checked the wiring and it looked good, my son did too (as he's studying electronics, he has a done a few wiring job like my an old RG750 I bought cheap a few months back).

If I can find some time during the Holidays (the shop where I work is not closing so not many days off this year), I decided that I'll redo the complete wiring and change everything, the pots and caps. We'll see.

[Nightbat]

Weak and trebly would sound to me like out of phase

[BenoA]

Weak and trebly would sound to me like out of phase

That makes sense Nightbat, how can I verify this? What to check?

I just remembered that: my son, who did the re-check of the wiring for me, told me that this PU, when checked with an ohmmeter, was showing "infinity" compared to the neck one or even some in my parts bin. Usually a sign of a bad circuit.