How to keep vintage tele pickups from failing

[janalex]

Hi,

For all those that had issues with their vintage tele pickups, can you advise what happened and how it could have been avoided? From my reading online and talking to other guitarists, it seems more people have had issues with their tele pickups than vintage humbuckers and was wondering what can be done to avoid a heartbreak and rewinding.

Thanks

[Bartholomew3]

My neck pick-up blew out on a 68 tele, both a PAF Dimarzio and also a single coil, I used both in it over the last 44 years doing gigs, jam-sessions, rehearsal etc.

Being in a trailer at 40 below, on planes, trains and whatever is not the same as under glass in a museum. Sweating on it under hot stage lights takes its toll.

Not trying to insult your intelligence but if you put it in a case under your bed and never use it you probably won't have a problem. I have a 73 Gretsch Country Gent with gold plate that's a 9.5/10 - in a closet, in a case with a humidifier.

Also have several other vintage guitars that I use to play out and when pick-ups blow they get replaced with Dimarzio or Seymour Duncan or whatever.

They usually sound better after I put a few bucks into them anyways - why would anyone care about a blown p/u ?

When you croak one day someone in your family will probably sell it for whatever they can get and you won't be around to collect the vintage value anyways.

[Mark Davis]

I have never had a pickup go dead on me on 50-60 different guitars bass and steel guitars since 1966 when I started.

[StratBluesRock]

Roy B's bridge pickup's coil was broken and it made some amazing tones

[Bartholomew3]

Originally Posted by Mark Davis

I have never had a pickup go dead on me on 50-60 different guitars bass and steel guitars since 1966 when I started.

OK --- but having 50 to 60 guitars is not the same as using one axe through all the years.

You've spread out the stress and wear over many units and may have sold several before they bit the dust.

[Mark Davis]

Originally Posted by Bartholomew3

OK --- but having 50 to 60 guitars is not the same as using one axe through all the years.

You've spread out the stress and wear over many units and may have sold several before they bit the dust.

I owned a couple for 25-30 years never had a pickup failure.

I have had switches and pots go bad but never a pickup.

[Martin R]

The original bridge pup in my '74 Custom was bad when I got the guitar in 82. I replaced it with a Seymour Duncan Tele Plus. Now I'm told that one is reading low.

So what up?

[Telemach_1]

Originally Posted by Mark Davis

I have never had a pickup go dead on me on 50-60 different guitars bass and steel guitars since 1966 when I started.

So all under glass in a museum. May we visit you? What's the opening hours?

[Telemach_1]

Originally Posted by StratBluesRock

Roy B's bridge pickup's coil was broken and it made some amazing tones

Errh,.....not to my ears.

[1955]

I have broken my share of pickups, but only have heavy gigging experience from the last seven years or so.

I squirt superglue into the hole, wait a bit, repeat, etc. It's a poor mans potting but it works for squealers too.

In extreme cases I've epoxied them, or sprayed clear coat on them.

I've had them re-potted with wax, but extremely hot temps will melt it. (Don't leave a guitar in a car trunk in August if you can help it. -Or at least park in the shade!)

Superglue a layer over the fiberboard also for sweat protection.

Most of the above will mess up the way it looks, lower or nullify the value. Some people like the microphonics on pups, so potting may take away the value. I care nothing about any of that (because I don't have collectible-age pickups,) so I have tried all kinds of stuff.

Best advice I ever got was from a well respected pickup maker: "Don't leave your guitar anywhere you wouldn't be comfortable." Solved a lot of problems right there.

If they're old, that wire is going to snap one day. Ive broken pups just from movement on stage. (Foam around the cavity for a wobbly neck pup fixes that.)

Moisture is your biggest enemy, besides handling, adjusting. Its like installing speakers, the wretched screwdriver through the cone. Ive broken pups just adjusting them carelessly! But sweat and humidity is a silent killer. The bobbins rusting inside accelerate the copper wire snapping. That's why I like the sealing idea, but I'm not a collector, I just want the pickups I like to keep working all the time on stage.

I redo the super glue every now and then. It's not a permanent thing. It does degrade.

[TeleTim911]

I have a 1972 Strat. It was my brother's and purchased new. He sweats profusely, and literally lived with that guitar. If he wasn't working on something at home or at a job, he had that guitar in his hands. It was heavily gigged too, and now looks like it.

Along about 1980 or so the bridge pup just stopped working. He pulled it to see why, put a meter on it, no reading, no continuity. At that time the guitar was all original, and had never been opened up. Now it's not, a lot has been changed and he can't find the original parts, so value has diminished greatly, but I doubt it'll ever leave our family.

So yes, they can stop working.

[Arbiter]

Sweat. Nothing is worse, and it can, albeit very rarely, kill pickups.

As to why it happens to Tele pickups more than humbuckers, most of those old humbuckers are covered! That poor Tele bridge pickup basically sits out in the open with no covering but the bobbin and a bit of tape, while you pour your acid-laden (in my case) sweat all over the poor thing. The wonder is not that they fail, but that the vast majority of them don't.

[Joefish]

How it could have been avoided: Short of keeping the ashtray on … not much in my opinion … after reading TDPRI and thinking about my guitar and that Strats seem to me immune to this, I use to think it had something to do with the massive metal bridge/messing with magnates … now I think it’s a function of us resting the palm of our hand on the bridge

What happened: I’m the second owner of a 69 … got it in 77 … the original owner gigged with it (w/ a V4) … it was just a bedroom guitar for me … in the early 80’s when I lived in LA, the bridge pickup got weak … measured at 4K … a guy that worked on the session guy’s guitars replace it with a very early Seymour Duncan

After gigging in the 80’s and gigging occasionally over the last few years, the Duncan measures at 7k and the original neck measures at 6.3k

[surfoverb]

http://curtisnovak.com/pickups/repai...le/index.shtml