Neck Pickup Issue, need advice

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I have a MIJ Custom Tele with 3 pickups. Neck and mid are Strat pickups (CS Fat 50's) and the bridge is a SD Broadcaster.

I had a problem with static on the pickguard so I put copper shielding on it yesterday. When I put the PG back on, the neck pickup was very weak and thin sounding. The other two sound fine, it's just the neck pup. I'm thinking this is something to do with the Reverse wound middle pickup and grounding. Did the copper shielding cause this? I've gone back to check wiring connections in both, under the pickguard and in the control cavity. Everything looks OK. Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks in advance.

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Bump

Anybody?

[jefrs]

The copper is grounded? -could be a short but I'd expect that if you have a shorted hot wire it will have no output at all, not weak. If the neck pickup is solo then the reverse wound middle is out of circuit and will not effect output. Suggest you check the all connections for defective joints and shorts, or you may have pulled a wire and gone high resistance. You might hot wire the neck pickup to an amp to test it, completely disconnect neck pickup from selector and hook it up to an instrument lead.

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I went back and checked wires on the pickups and everything checked out. I cut the copper way out around the pickup holes and from around the bridge plate and control assembly. I thought maybe somehow that might help, but to no avail. I don't understand how the copper could've caused a problem. But, all I know is the guitar worked fine, then I took the PG off, put the shielding on and replaced the PG. Then the guitar had a neck pup problem. I hate electronic stuff!!!

[bradpdx]

Measure the impedance of the neck PUP to see if it is in the correct range (around 6K - 7K ohms). If it is open (infinite K) or shorted (small K), there's your trouble.

One easy way to check for an open PUP is to combine it with another. For example, if you choose the neck/middle combo and it sounds no different from the middle by itself, then the neck PUP is open and should be replaced.