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There could be a loose wire or a hot wire touching the ground shorting out the pickup. When you press on it, the movement is enough to separate the wire from the short. I’ve seen cold solder joints that have oxidized and if there is enough movement especially at the eyelet or connection, the pickup…

I would suggest having the magnets checked to see if they are magnetized and calibrated right. There are many things that can demagnetize the magnets in your pickups and care should be taken not to cause any electrical interference with them. Often, I’ve seen pickups taken apart or out of the instrument and the magnets…

The cover could possibly be shorting out to the hot wire inside the cover. Maybe the insulation tape or shield around the lead wire has gotten old and fallen off. If the pickups gets moved or squeezed, the wire could be shorting out. It would be easy to repair by carefully removing the cover and…

Many things can happen to an instrument. Here are a few things to check. Make sure your guitar has not been handled by an unauthorized person. Sometimes an instrument is an exciting thing to look at and someone could have played yours. I like keeping my instrument locked in a case to keep busy hands…

There are many things that can be checked to make sure your pickups perform properly. Some important things are: Make sure potentiometers are clean and the right value and taper. Make sure all switches and contacts are properly soldered and connected to the right connections. Check for dirty or faulty jacks that can oxidize in…

I often see steel wool stuck to pickups after it was used to clean and polish the fingerboard and frets. If a repairman flips the guitar over on a workbench to wire the back cavity, the steel wool hidden in his workbench carpet will be attracted to the magnets and pole pieces. Steel wool is…

Damage to pickups can be caused by so many different things and taking pickups out of an instrument is by far the biggest problem. Normally if they are left untouched they stay pretty reliable. Putting a pickup in a drawer or box is not enough to give protection to the delicate coils and bobbins. If…

Cold or faulty solder joints at connections such as eyelets, switches, potentiometers, jacks, shorting circuits or contacts, improper or faulty insulation’s, hookup wire strands touching ground. Debris such as steel wool or small bits of solder can get lodged inside the potentiometer or other electrical components and cause static.

The majority of broken pickups can be repaired by a qualified repairman. We repair pickups everyday in the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop and we try to restore pickups to their original condition. Pickups that are epoxied have the highest reject repair rate and not much can be done to repair them. Check out the ad’s…

The coil could be damaged or the magnets are degaussed. There could be a bad switch or cold solder joints. The wrong value potentiometers might have been used in place of the original. If a pickup sounds very thin and bright, roll the tone control back and if the sound stops coming through the amplifier,…