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Custom Shop Nocaster Bridge Pickup Installation Question

Discussion in 'Just Pickups' started by Ward, Jan 17, 2010.

  1. Jan 17, 2010 #1
    Ward

    Ward Tele-Holic

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    Hi,

    I bought a set of the Fender Custom Shop Nocaster Pickups. Neck pickup installation went fine. Bridge pickup doesn't work at all. There som hum when connected, but no guitar sound. I tested the pickup selector by installing the neck pickup where the bridge goes, so that's not the problem.

    The bridge installation seems pretty straight forward, although this is my first time installing pickups. Should I assume it's a dud and get a replacement from Fender? Is there something I could be doing wrong (likely)? Should I take it to a tech?

    Thanks for the help.

    Ward
     
  2. Jan 17, 2010 #2
    brookdalebill

    brookdalebill Tele Axpert Ad Free Member

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    If you don't have a multimeter, take it to a repair shop.
    They can measure the pickup's impedence.
    Might be a dud.
    The start and stop points on the bobbin are easy to break.
     
  3. Jan 18, 2010 #3
    boris bubbanov

    boris bubbanov Tele Axpert Ad Free Member

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    Take a magnifying glass and look carefully at the top of the base plate, and see if those tiny wires extending to the soldering points for the leads are disturbed. This is the most common place IMO for a pickup to get damaged by a novice or by anyone, really. As Bill was saying.

    You know, you can hot wire this bridge pup directly to the output jack and check it for function that way, if you don't have a multi-meter. Or try another pickup attached to the switch, if you haven't already. Switches can be bad, and can get messed up.

    Never had a dud CS No-Caster pup out of the box, but I did have a No-Caster bridge pup with the wrong polarity (so I cannot get the usual noise cancelation).
     
  4. Jan 18, 2010 #4
    Ward

    Ward Tele-Holic

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    Thanks guys. I spoke with Guitar Center, where I bought them, and it looks like they're going to let me swap the bridge pickup with another set, under the assumption that it's a dud. I tried hotwiring it as recommended, and nothing.

    The crappy part is I just installed a new set of strings, under the assumption that the damn pickup would work, and now I've wasted a perfectly good set.

    Oh well!
     
  5. Jan 18, 2010 #5
    Slammintone

    Slammintone TDPRI Member

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    If it's dead you won't get a reading with your multimiter set to the 20K ohm setting. If it's not dead it should read between 6.95kohm -7.3kohms. If the reading is good then make sure you have the ground wire properly grounded to the back of the volume pot when you reinstall, sometimes you get a bad connection with a soldering iron that isn't hot enough. I had that happen once with a gibson humbucker I was installing into an SG. Check the multimeter reading of the pickup when it's not soldered in place just to be sure you're not getting a dead solder reading.
     
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