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Pickup Repair
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Author:  ThatsDoable [ Sun Jul 02, 2017 11:54 am ]
Post subject:  Pickup Repair

Hello all!

I recently acquired an old Aspen hollowbody electric guitar. The neck pickup seems to play fine through my amp, but when I switch the selector to the middle position and the bridge position I loose signal. There are volume and tone controls for each of the pickups, which I have tried fiddling around with to no avail (they work for the neck pickup, have no affect on non-functional bridge pickup).

I have been playing guitar for a while, but have never switched out any electronics or done any sort of repair. I would love to learn how to repair this myself but have no idea where to start. Does anybody have any suggestions where to start / how to diagnose the problem / if this is even doable for a newbie?

Additional information
The pickups are humbuckers
I see no plate to gain access to the inside, I've heard this means I will need to go through the sound hole / input jack
I have a soldering gun but very little experience soldering
The guitar is pretty old, I'd say made in the late 80's

Thank you for your help!

Author:  Hesh [ Mon Jul 03, 2017 3:50 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pickup Repair

Hi "That's" ;) and welcome to the OLF.

One of the best guitar electronics books for beginners and a good reference for pros as well would be an excellent starting point for you.

I would recommend the following:

Author:  ThatsDoable [ Mon Jul 03, 2017 5:54 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pickup Repair

I'll check it out, Thanks!

Author:  Toxophilite [ Sun Aug 27, 2017 2:48 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Pickup Repair

You can go through the pickup hole, that's the usual thing.
is it a center block guitar?
It could be the pickup is dead, but far more likely you have a bad solder joint that's come undone
if you need to take switchs , inout jacks or pots out you can either use some small diameter hose (hardware store(that fits tightly over the shaft of the pots/switch or into the input jack(1/4' outside diamter) or you can just ties string to each part

This enables you to draw them back to the holes they occupy after you have checked out the wiring and hopefully have repaired the guitar.
Oh and read that book if you are unfamiliar with the process.
Happily guitar wiring is very simple.

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