[Helter Skelter]

I recently started having a problem with the humbucker in one of my guitars. It's the only pickup in the guitar and it only works intermittently on the high e above the 12th fret.

I checked the frets thinking maybe one might have been too high, tapped them lightly with a rubber mallet. Everything seemed fine after, but the problem started happening again. I took the pickguard off, everything looks okay: no loose wires, soldering looks fine, everything's clean. If I tap the slugs, they all sound. Adjusting the height didn't help, instead it made things worse on the other strings. I also tried a few different kinds of strings. As you can tell, I'm pretty much just trying whatever I can think of.:roll2:

At first this only happened if I used certain effects, but now even if I run the guitar straight through the amp I get this problem sometimes. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Stitch]

Is the string sounding? I.e; if you play the guitar unplugged, does the string still sound normally above the twelfth fret?

 

[Helter Skelter]

Yes. Sorry, should have told you that. And now the problem occasionally happens above the 12th fret as well.

 

[Stateless]

At first this only happened if I used certain effects

Sounds like the problem isn't what the guitar is putting out, but what your rig is doing. If it IS the guitar, this is completely bizarre. Have you tried another guitar with close to the same output level?

EDIT: Also try the same guitar on a different rig.

 

[Helter Skelter]

Sounds like the problem isn't what the guitar is putting out, but what your rig is doing. If it IS the guitar, this is completely bizarre. Have you tried another guitar with close to the same output level?

EDIT: Also try the same guitar on a different rig.

I'll have to do that. The only other electric I have is higher output and it doesn't have this problem. Now I have to find someone who's home and plays guitar...

 

[Helter Skelter]

Played it through three different amps. Still happening. Has this become a WTF kind of deal?

 

[eleven59]

It's certainly getting there :lol: I've never heard of this before, personally.

 

[Stitch]

Okay, last question, and this is really me at the edge of my experience;

Find the fret that it stops sounding through an amp at. Go down one or more frets and bend the string up tp that pitch - does it still sound through the amp?

Similarly, using a slide, or a can or a bottle or something, using one of the lower strings, slide up to the equivalent pitch that it stops sounding at (so if it was, say, the fifteenth fret on the E string, then it would be the 20th on the b string or the 24th on the g string) - does it still sound the note in these instances?

If it doesn't, then it sounds like you've got a crossed wire somewhere that is turning the guitar into a low-pass filter. I've seen it once in five years and the wiring was insanely complicated, but it's the only thing I can think of right now. :scratch:

 

[Helter Skelter]

It's certainly getting there :lol: I've never heard of this before, personally.

I haven't been able to find information about a similar issue anywhere. Maybe I overlooked some type of obvious problem.

 

[eleven59]

Well, if we figure it out, and it's something new, we'll name it after you :lol:

 

[Helter Skelter]

^:lol: k

Okay, last question, and this is really me at the edge of my experience;

Find the fret that it stops sounding through an amp at. Go down one or more frets and bend the string up tp that pitch - does it still sound through the amp?

Similarly, using a slide, or a can or a bottle or something, using one of the lower strings, slide up to the equivalent pitch that it stops sounding at (so if it was, say, the fifteenth fret on the E string, then it would be the 20th on the b string or the 24th on the g string) - does it still sound the note in these instances?

If it doesn't, then it sounds like you've got a crossed wire somewhere that is turning the guitar into a low-pass filter. I've seen it once in five years and the wiring was insanely complicated, but it's the only thing I can think of right now. :scratch:

Now, don't get me wrong here, because you know more about this than I do... but I haven't touched the wiring. If it is a crossed wire, shouldn't it have been doing this since I got the guitar?

I will try bending/17th fret on the b string and let you know how that goes. Only thing is, it most commonly starts cutting out at the 12th fret high e, but now it is doing this randomly even on lower frets or when the string is open.

 

[The Dark Wolf]

Congrats :yesway:


God, I love that. :lol:

 

[Stateless]

What Stitch is saying might make sense if the tone pot isn't functioning the way it's supposed to. If all the signal is passing through the tone pot, that would act as a low-pass filter.

 

[Helter Skelter]

Well, fuck. Don't know what I did, but now it doesn't work at all!issed:

 

[Stateless]

Just one pup or all the pups?

EDIT: Sorry just reread that you only have one pup in it.

 

[Stitch]

You've got a loose wire somewhere. I think you mentioned it was a one pickup guitar, so first suggestion is to hardwire the humbucker to the output jack and see if it works - then add in the volume pot, and then the tone pot, and you can isolate what is going wrong.

It sounds like either a crossed or loose wire is shorting the signal out, or the capacitor on the tone pot may have gone, but that's next to unheard of these days.

How are your electrical skills? :lol:

 

[Helter Skelter]

:'( <-- That's how they are.

 

[Helter Skelter]

Ok, guys. Unrelated problem. Looks like either myself or my friend bent the output jack at some point earlier today. I bent that back. I'm about to attempt some electrical here. May the gods have mercy on us all.

 

[Helter Skelter]

Well. Everything was wired properly. Just to be sure I took everything apart and tested the humbucker with the output jack. Before if I tapped the pickup I got sound, now it's just dead. I have a feeling this thing's a goner. Time for a new pickup. GFS here I come :lol::lol::lol:

 

[ohio_eric]

GFS here I come :lol::lol::lol:

Congrats :yesway: