Humbucker sounds weak

billando · October 2023

I have had my Gibson les paul R8 since 2013. I decided to swap the humbuckers for Bare knuckle "The Mule" which i had liked years ago in a different guitar. Only difference was i got uncovered Zebra style which i thought looked cool. Maybe it was cos of them being uncovered but for whatever reason i didnt bond with them they were too bright. I eventually bought a used set of the Humbuckers i had originally in my R8.

The other day at a gig the bridge pickup suddenly lost a lot of volume and sounds weak. Its definitely still there cos when you switch to the neck humbucker its far louder. Trouble shooting with other guitars/pedal/cable/amp its definitely the guitar.

I have a guy that fixes my amps he does a great job but he had never changed pickups until i asked him to. Do you think they could have been installed incorrectly? Maybe just a faulty pickup? What do you think this would be?

Thanks.

camerondavidsonmusic · October 2023

I had one like this once. Turns out it was a broken Pickup. No idea what was wrong with it as I never bothered getting it rewound. Can you check its resistance?

billando · October 2023

Ive never done that before. Wouldnt know where to start really. I think im going to put it into my local guitar shop to diagnose and fix. They said they would be able to do that. I was just wondering what people thought it might be. Thanks for your reply though.

steamabacus · October 2023

First thing to look at will be the switch. Have a look under the switch cover for any obvious issues with the wiring or soldering, corrosion on the switch contacts, etc. A squirt of switch cleaner, maybe a bit of abrasive paper on the contacts, might work wonders.

BillDL · October 2023

Have you tried repeatedly rotating the knobs for the bridge pickup across their full travel for about a minute to see if anything changes.

Waggle the toggle switch through all of the clicks for a while with the strings ringing to see if you suddenly hear an increase in volume.

Switch to the bridge pickup only and gently tap one of the polepieces with something hard like the tip of a small screwdriver while rotating the volume and tone pots. Does it make a clonk, and does the clonk's noise vary in tone and volume?

Switch to the neck pickup only and do the same. Does the neck pickup make significantly louder clonks and does the noise of that respond as intended with the volume and tone pots?

While switched to one or other pickups, do the volume and tone pots for the other pickup affect the tone and volume of the clonk?

You could take a look in the control cavity and gently touch the wires connected to the pots with something like a barbecue skewer while allowing the strings to ring, and this would identify a loose wire or bad solder connection.

SteveRobinson · October 2023

It does sound like a broken coil. Does turning down the tone control silence it?

OilCityPickups · October 2023

It either sounds like a broken coil or defective solder joints inside the pickup ... is it core wire and braid hook-up wire or four conductor?

billando · October 2023

Ok thanks for the responses guys. I wont be able to have a look until tomorrow. It will be interesting to try the things you have suggested but i guess ultimately i wont be fixing it so it will be going into the shop anyway.

I know they are are personal taste but any suggestions of humbuckers to get installed if i decide to get new ones in and what is good about them?

BigPaulie · October 2023

What is your budget?

I don't have experience with any boutique pickups, but for an R8 I'd go for Seymour Duncan Seth Lovers as that's as close as you'll get to what was in the 1958 originals without paying silly money. I also like Gibson Burstbuckers: the aftermarket ones that are un-potted and have the braided single conductor hook up.

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Humbucker sounds weak

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