The Steel Guitar Forum

I've got an old Pro2 ShoBud split coil/tap pickup

Its cutting out in one position but not in other

if I wiggle the top of the pickup it will go off & on

Nothing else is obvious

sound like a bad pickup??

Maybe it's a loose winding or maybe a loose ground. It would be hard to tell without a meter to measure the what the ohms do on both positions.

sound like a bad pickup??

Sure does. I'd send it to Jerry Wallace for a rewind. Find him in the Links > Manufacturers > Related Products > TrueTone pickups.

Before I would spend the money I would test it out first. It could be just a loose ground. A drop or two of solder is cheaper than a 40 dollar re-wind.

Craig - any where/when/how do I check with meter???

...lead on each wire?

Brint; did I meet you in Vienna last year (MASGA)

(I Should be asleep instead of think'n about pickups)

Brian check your private message.

Frenchy,

No, I wasn't there.

You can put one lead of the meter on the wire that comes from the pickup and doesn't go to the switch (black, I think--the ground), then the other lead of the meter on one of the wires from the pickup that goes to the switch (red or white--the two hot leads). Check the resistance reading (Ohms), and wiggle the pickup to see if it changes (if the pickup is healthy, it shouldn't). Then do the same for the other pickup-to-switch wire. So you're checking white-to-black, and red-to-black.

Seems to me that the facts that a) the pickup cuts out in one switch position but not the other, and b) it cuts out when you wiggle the top of the pickup mean the problem is in one of the coils. If it were a loose ground I believe it would affect both coils equally.

I sometimes find out by posting on the Forum that my understanding of technical stuff is incorrect or incomplete, however, so I won't be entirely surprised if Craig or someone else corrects me.

Brint you could be right also. But Brian says it is only doing it in one position so maybe that's the case. It is at least worth checking before jumping the gun to do a rewind.

I had this same problem. I'd wiggle it and it cut in and out. I had a lawrence pick-up that one of the leads broke off right where it came out of the pickup. I took off the bottom plate and and had to solder the lead at the end of the coil. I would suspect your problem might be down there since when you wiggle the pickup it comes in and out. I don't have my sho-bud in front of me to see how the leads come off the pickup and can't remember. My fix will probably eventually fail, since there was hardly anything left to solder to because of all the wax type stuff it's buried in. Eventually I'll send it to someone to rewind it. If this is your problem, I would just send it to get rewound since those old sho-buds eventually get microphonic anyway.At least my sho-bud pickups need to be rewound badly because of microphonics.