SG Coil Tap Issue (Help, please...)

[Shaunpski]

Hi all,

I posted this on an SG forum with little luck. I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction here.

SG post:
http://www.everythingsg.com/forum/pi...g-content.html

I've got an '88 SG Elite. Gibson Spotlight pickups with a coil tap. The issue is the rhythm pick up is Ohming off the scale (240K) when tapped. Here are the readings I get... When I say the tap switch is down, that means it is in the treble direction.

Treble pickup:
Tap Down--5.47K (thinner sounding)
Tap Up--10.19K

Middle:
Tap Down--2.62K
Tap Up--9.77K

Rhythm pickup:
Tap Down--5.06K
Tap Up--240K (thin and harsh)

Here are pictures of the front and cavity:

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u...i/236e65db.jpg


Any thoughts on trouble shooting the rhythm pickup would be appreciated. BTW, I did have a different pickup in the treble position for a while, but I'm pretty sure I got it back together without changing anything. I didn't mess with the rhythm side.

Thanks in advance.

Shaun

[Teleterr]

Good info.The two taps in parallel give the right value. And the treble in parallel w an open coil gives the right value on the middle.The coil thats by passed w the tap on the Rythm p/up is open.You get some signal coming thru from the electromagnetic field coupling the coil w itself, but no direct signal thru uninterupted wire.The various measurements take into account both the pots and p/ups. For the 250K youre just seeing the pots. The wire is open.

[Shaunpski]

Thanks. I played it this afternoon and did a little "tap testing." Totally unscientific, but... I tapped both pickups with my pick to see if I could hear the coils micro-phonically. I was successful with the treble pickup, but never could hear one of the rhythm coils no matter the switch position. So an open makes sense. Question: does it appear either the pickup went bad or I have a bad solder joint (keep in mind, the rhythm pickup has never been messed with)? For now, I'm gonna try re-flowing the solder on the rhythm connections (especially the tap switch). Does that make sense, or am I just throwing darts? Missing anything?

Thanks again.

Shaun

[Teleterr]

A cold solder joint might have broken free. Thats a lot better than a broken wire. Hope thats it.

[Shaunpski]

Those are three wire pickups. Two hots and one ground. I pulled the hot that was attached to the tap and read it without going through the switch. Still getting the 240K reading. Thus, it looks like the one coil is bad. Next step is to pull the pickup and see if anything is amiss. This is starting to look like I'll need to send the pickup off for a repair. Or replace (with what?)...

Shaun

[kman900]

The 250k is the pot . . unsolder the bridge pickup and read measurements from plain to purple, plain to yellow and yellow to purple. if readings give you around 5 and 10k the pickup is ok. Resolder, recheck wiring and retry.

[Shaunpski]

Thanks, everyone. Shipped it off to Smit's. Kevin confirmed it has a bad coil. He's going to rewind and I'm going to re-install.