Pickup cuts out on string contact????

Hi

I have a problem with my '63 tele. When any string touches the front pickup cover the sound literally drops out completely. As in complete silence, no buzz etc.

This doesn't happen on the bridge pickup, only when either the front pickup or both pickups are selected. This is fairly cool for stuttering effects but totally unintentional most of the time :sad:

Anyone got any ideas? I'm assuming somethings not quite right with the wiring? The bridge is stock but the front pickup is from an american standard tele.

Thanks in advance.

Ron

What pickups are you using? Did you need to swap the leads on one of them to get them in phase?

What's happening is probably that you connected the neck pickup's ground lead to your switch. That lead is the - side of the pickup and the ground for the cover, but you're using it as your hot lead. When you touch the cover with the strings, they're grounding the cover and the signal from the pickup.

Solving this problem is easy: just switch your + and - wires from the neck pickup. The problem is that it will create another problem because the neck pickup cover won't be grounded. You'll need to disconnect the extension from the - lead and extend the + lead to the cover.

You sir are a genius!!

Thanks Koko, that did the trick :-) now I can gig it tonight without worrying about drop-outs :-)

Ron

You sir are a genius!!

Nah, but I may or may not have slept at a Holiday Inn last night.

When you make enough mistakes over a long enough period of time, you start to figure out how things work. There were a limited number of things that could have caused your problem, and you did a good job of explaining it so it was easy to figure it out.

Eric