The Steel Guitar Forum

Hello all,

I am trying to run an issue to ground here and I need some help. One of my pickups on my Console Grande is about half the volume of the other one and it basically gets little to no sound on the first or eight strings.

I have had this issue before with a prior steel so I sent the pickup to be rewound. I got it back this week and installed it and I still have the same exact problem.

It looks like this may not be a pickup issue but somewhere else down the line. Has anyone had an issue like this and found a remedy? All help will be much appreciated!

It could be as simple as a grounding issue. Grounding issues can be the source of many problems. You can trouble shoot it by taking a jumper wire and try and connect it to different areas of the circuit and see if it changes the sound. Another thing I always do is to take the pickup out of the circuit and just touch the ends of the pickup right to a guitar cable that is hooked up to an amp, hot on the tip and ground on the sleeve, this will help you to verify that the pickup is working. If it’s still sounding bad then the problem is in the pickup. If it sounds strong (tap on all pole pieces w screw driver or Allen wrench) then the problem is in the circuit. Make sure to check everything, sometimes it’s best just to start fresh. If the wiring is all original try and keep it untouched but if not just redo it all. If it’s all original, reflow new solder on all the joints reheating the joints and a touch of fresh solder. This will help rule out any cold solder joints. Let me know if any of that helps.

- NF

Perhaps the pickup magnets have lost their strength. If so , they could be recharged .

Thanks for the advice guys. I will take a look at it this coming weekend.

open the control cavity. make a diagram. unsolder the pickups. use some alligator clip leads and clip in the suspect pickup where the good pickup is. that will tell you if your pickup is good. if its good, then first resolder all the contacts in the bad circuit. if you have a cap in that circuit, bypass it with a known good one. look at the wiring for any shorts. spray the pots with cleaner. if there is a neck selector switch, clean all the contacts and look for anything like iron filings or steel wool or solder that might me shorting things out. let us know what you find.