The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi All,

I'm near the tail end of a tour & my E9th pickup decided to go wonky on me. I'm playing an MCI D10 with metal necks non-welded frame.

I'm getting a very thin, bright, tinny, low level unusable tone on my MCI / Bill Lawrence 705 pickup.

I thought it was a switch problem so I turned it on it's side, messed with the switch trying to make contact? ...but nothing. Then I turned it right side up & lightly tapped on the strings over the pickup & suddenly it started working normally at full output. I might ad that I plugged directly in to my amp to try & fix it so it's not a volume pedal problem plus the C6th 705 works fine.

This happened twice in 1 week and for the first time since I bought the guitar some years ago. Now I'm nervous this will happen again before my tour is done.

If anyone has experienced this & can tell me what may be wrong, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks,
John

It could be the neck selector switch, but of course it could be the pickup. I would try to get some contact cleaner in the selector switches (buttons). Also check the switches very carefully to make sure there is not a single strand of loose wire contacting where it shouldn't. If you have access to an ohm meter I would compare the readings of the two pickups. This should indicate if it is a pickup problem.
Jerry

Thanks Jerry.

I whacked the switch on & off perhaps too many times, but I'll get the contact cleaner & ohm meter on it as soon as possible.

I'm a lousy tech...could I get an accurate reading by placing the meter on the pickup side of the switch? ... or should I remove the pickup, because the underside is hidden by the jack plate?

Get a couple of test leads with alligator clips and run from the hot and ground p/u leads straight to the output jack.

That takes the switch out of the equation, and you'll be able to tell if there's really a problem with the p/u.

John,

You may need this wiring diagram at some point.

Guitar Audio Jack: Check around the guitar jack and ensure that the terminals cannot touch anything else (i.e go to ground). If the jack leads are close to touching anything try:
1. Backing off the nut and rotate it (the jack) a bit to provide some additional clearance for the terminals(where the wires connect)

For all components in the signal path: Ensure that the terminals, wires,wire fray's etc aren't touching anything else. Also, check the solder joints for cracks etc. One or more components may need the soldering to be re-done.

The picture below is An example of a simple tester that Steve English is referring to. You can bypass the switch for a test an go directly into the amp.

I eliminated a jack problem because one neck is working fine.
Jerry

Thanks guys. It's working today & hopefully until I get home and haul it apart.

John