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Can you burn pickups when soldering input?


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Hi there,

The input on my Schecter C-7 broke a while ago. I unscrewed the input jack and attempted to resolder the wires onto the appropriate input connections.

Due to the large metal surface, it acted like a large heat sink. It would not solder correctly until several minutes later.

Is it possible that I have completely burnt out my pickups (connected to input through the wire I was soldering) due to soldering the same spot on the input for too long?

If so, is this salvageable? Is there any way of testing to see if the pickups are genuinely broke? What would you recommend the next step would be?

Thanks in advance!

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Well soldering the input jack "shouldn't " wreck the pickups as the input jack would normally be connected to the selector switch and not the pickups. 

First if you want to continue to work on your guitar you're going to need better soldiering iron.

When you go to solder on the pots, you need to get off them as fast as possible. 

The correct way to check the pickups is to test their ohms,  which you'd need to desolder from the pots to check the impedance properly. 

I would guess off the top (without seeing it) is you swapped the tip and sleeve connections . That would connect ground to the signal line.

Next cooking the input jack possible the you melted the insulation in the jack.

If you have a ohm meter.

Insert the guitar cable into the guitar  

Put one probe on the wire that goes to the tip of on the connector. 

Next take your other probe, connect it to the other end of the guitar cable

You are checking for continuity from input jack to the other end of the cable

Theres more but I'll stop typing 

Edited by Eracer_Team-DougH
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Thanks a ton for this reply! I'll try and get a hold of a Multimeter from work in the next week and get back to you :)

If there's still a problem, I'll update with pictures.

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ok so part 2 of trouble shooting.. so you have a multi meter. and need to see if signal is getting from the pickup out the cable.

so you've plugged you cable in.. follow the wire from the tip of the cable that's in the output jack.. follow it back to probably the selector switch.. one probe on that cable . the other end on the guitar cable.. does it read 0?

might as well check on the guitar cable side. but Tip and Sleeve , one should be 0 and the other infinite.

yes then you know you didn't melt down the connector.. if it's still at infinite , then you know you have an open.. 

it would be hard to believe that more than 1 pick up is dead in a multi pickup guitar..

the common part is the selector switch (which is prone to oxidation and dust.. ) contact cleaner like Dioxit is good for spraying on it and rocking the switch back and forth.

last I would disconnect the pickups from the volume pots and check their ohms.

single coil typical below 5k.. humbuckers can range from 6k to 20k ohms

last if you want to by pass the pots and tone caps and the selector switch.. solider the (hopefully) 2 wires from the pickup 

The shield and the signal .. straight to the output connector. this will give you full volume and tone, bypassing any of the rest of the electronic signal

 

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