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Is my neck pick up dead? Need help please..!!

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  • Is my neck pick up dead? Need help please..!!

    Hi guys.
    I have a problem with my Jackson Pro SL2 - the neck pick up seems to be dying (?).

    Couple days ago, while I was playing, the neck pickup (seymour duncan '59) suddenly seemed to have died off. The sound did not completely die off but was very weak, almost acoustic, and when I roll back the tone knob off to 0, the neck pick up would go dead silent.
    The bridge pick up (duncan JB) seemed to be fine and when I had the pickup selector in the middle position, I could only hear the bridge position - I couldn't tell the difference between the bridge position and the middle position.
    So I didn't know what the problem was so I took it to a local guitar shop for the technician to take a look.
    I told the tech what the problem was and the tech initially thought the problem could be either:
    1. grounding issue (most likely)
    2. bad pickup selector switch (somewhat likely)
    3. dead pickup (not likely, but possible)

    So after that, he opened the back up and combed through the wires to check for the grounding issue only to see that everything was in order and wiring seemed to be fine.
    Next, he closed the guitar and plugged it to an amp and, all of a sudden, the guitar was working fine. The neck pickup was working as it should be, I could definitely hear the difference between the middle and the bridge position and the neck pickup did not go silent when the tone knob was rolled off. (the whole scene made me look like an idiot)
    Came back home and the guitar was still doing fine, so I just kind of thought it was some fluke and maybe the tech combing through the wires kind of fixed whatever the problem was.

    But of course, the same problem came back last night when I was playing.
    Same issue, but this time it also had an effect to the bridge pickup.
    The neck pickup had the same problem as mentioned above but when I was playing a chord on the bridge, it sounded very rumbly (?) - almost like I had a tremolo effect with a very short interval going though.
    So I tried to do the same thing the tech did - open the back up and kind of combed through the wires, which really isn't doing much if at all.
    This did fix the problem with the bridge pickup (sounded fine and awesome, as usual) but did not fix the problem with the neck pickup. So I left the guitar unplugged, had it sit for a day and tried again today but to this moment, the neck pickup is still not working.
    And I did confirm that there was nothing wrong with my other equipment (amp, cables, etc) as I've checked that everything was working fine with my two other guitars.

    So I am very confused as this never happened to me.
    Need some help and advice please!!
    Thanks for reading the long post and thanks in advance!

  • #2
    I'm thinking it's the switch. Keep flipping the switch back and forth and see if that does anything. My old Les Paul had a funky switch that did that once in awhile. Maybe the switch needs to be cleaned or replaced.
    I feel my soul go cold... only the dead are smiling.

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    • #3
      Like Toe said, it's the switch. I have several with this issue, but none of my USA Gibsons have it.

      1) Leave the switch in the middle position when not in use. It keeps the contacts from oxidizing.
      2) Clean off the existing oxidation with electronics cleaner (DeOxit I think)
      3) Bend the switch contacts to make them press harder against the contact when closed. This is very hard to describe, but I did this with my SL2H and it works a lot better since. I need to do it to my other 3 way switch guitars.
      4) or swap it out for a USA Switchcraft switch.

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      • #4
        First Charvel I ever saw in a live show was waaay back in like '88. Band called Jet Boy, opened for Stryper. The lead guitarist had a 2-hum Charvel Strat-type (Model 3?) and every time he flipped from the neck (for rhythms) to the bridge (for leads), his signal cut out and he had to beat the guitar, which of course didn't work.

        I swore then I'd never have a Charvel LOL

        All of my C/Js with a 3-way not made by Switchcraft do that at some point. Doesn't matter what you do to fix it - clean it, bend the contact plates, go over it with sandpaper - these 3-way toggles are simply shit.
        Get a Switchcraft.
        I want to depart this world the same way I arrived; screaming and covered in someone else's blood

        The most human thing we can do is comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

        My Blog: http://newcenstein.com

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        • #5
          +1 Crappy switch sucks balls!

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