Something's Wrong.....

Okay, another gear problem guys. I don't even know if it's possible but I think I blew up or worn out my bridge pickup. You know how the bridge usually sounds louder, more edgy and more trebly? Well, now it's quiet and weak compared to my neck pup. I need help here because I REALLY don't want to have to buy a new pickup. If anyone knows anything about this PLEASE let me know.

Ozz

well its always possible that a soder broke or it just died... this may sound kinda stupid...but did u turn ur volume and tone knobs all the way up? lol

umm what kinda guitar and pickups and how much did u buy it for this will kinda help say if it was the guitar or u... if the guitar is expensive prob you. not for sure. also what id do before taking it in, take off yer strings, unscrew the pickups from the guitar and take a peek in there. tht wont give you the whole story, it could be the volume knob soddering...uncrew the backplate to find out about tht one, but tht will probably show the problem. if not ust bring it in. if its soddering its easy to fix. your school should have a soddering machine and if the guys tht run it r cool theyll let you use it. i used it to fix mics my friends guitars and my friends amps

(they werent expensive stuff but they were def broken ;) one kid plugged his cable in too hard and the wrong way brok the cable and the soddering somehow. soddering is easy. getting it to be clean and not too messy w/o too much left over sodder is hard. the guys at my school helped me a bit with it. its fun acctually but dont go soddering yourself to things... ;)

Well, first off, it was 500 bucks. Epiphone Les Paul. I'm REALLY hoping it's me though haha. And the knobs were the first thing I checked. All were full to ten. I took off the back plate and everything looked okay too. Could it really have been that I just pushed it so far that it broke down? Like weakened the magnets or power input/output of the pickup?

No. The pickup is just a magnet and wire. The problem definitely lies in the circuitry. When you say that your sound is weaker, I need you to define that more. Is it noisy or distorted? (Those are two different things). Do you get static, can you pick up sound by tapping the strings against the pickup?

My first guess is cold solder joint. If you have never soldered before, I'd take it to someone who has. Second thing would be to check the wiring to your switch. It won't be a knob issue because the guitar is wired so that your volume will control both/either or rhythm or tone.

possibly your pickup selector. the simple way to check that is take off that plate. id take out the pickup too. but yeah what the definition of it. i dont think you could break a pickup... its prob just the guiatr.

Just a shot in the dark, but have you raised the action recently? That would have the effect of moving your strings further away from the p/up.

This may sound weird, but do you sweat a lot? Sweat is very hard on metals making them oxidize (rust) from the salt and moistness (gross, I know). Check your pickup height too. I think pickups are supposed to be 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch away from the strings. If you get them too close the magnets will affect the string vibration and make things sound really weird.

Hey guys, I took it to the shop. Got it fixed up. Just some loose things. And you were right, it was the circutry. Thank for the concer though!

Ozz