What's up with my Ohms ?

[VRICKY63]

I have a set of high gains from the 80s . One reads 14.19 Ohms the other is 5.95 Ohms . Is one bad ?

[jingle_jangle]

This is a trick question, right? I'm sure Sergio is your man to answer this, but I'd venture to say, "NO". In my experience, when pickups fail, they show continuity (no resistance at all) or infinite resistance (broken circuit).

And, by the way, look at the scale on your meter...those readings are in K ohms.

[ken_j]

Did you remove one end of the circuit before measuring? If not you are adding in other components. If those components are in parallel then the resistance will go dwon.

[jingle_jangle]

Did you remove one end of the circuit before measuring? If not you are adding in other components. If those components are in parallel then the resistance will go dwon.

EXCELLENT point, Ken!

[VRICKY63]

Pickups are out of the guitar . ?

[whojamfan]

Q: What did one pickup say to the other?
A: What's up ohms?!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[doctorwho]

I recently got a 620 WHT BT that had an extra pickup in the case ... a high gain that measured something like 8.3 kΩ.

[ken_j]

Pickups are out of the guitar . ?

In that case I would take an educated guess that the coil on the pickup reading 5.95k ohms has a coil short circuited somewhere mid coil. Make sure what scale it is reading if not "k". If it is actually 5.95 ohms then it is a dead short as far as a pickup is concerned. I tested a failed HB that had a reading in the M ohms which is close to an open circuit. 14k sounds about right for a high gain but they have varied over the years. I have seen them as low as 10k and doctorwho's was even less.

[VRICKY63]

Is there a way to tell which is the neck or bridge pickup ?

[doctorwho]

I'm not the expert on this, but IIRC the bridge pickup is slightly hotter (has higher resistance) than the neck pickup. This seems to be the case for my 620/12 MID (12.45 kΩ bridge, 11.38 kΩ neck, both hi-gains), but not for my 620/6 MID (11.02 kΩ bridge, 11.45 kΩ neck, both high-gains).

I remeasured the resistance of the pickup I mentioned above; it's 8.84 kΩ.

[admin]

In the case of high gains, put the two pickups side by side or measure the distance covered by their pole pieces or buttons to see if there is a difference between the two. The pickup that covers the wider range would be better placed at the bridge.

[doctorwho]

In the case of high gains, put the two pickups side by side or measure the distance covered by their pole pieces or buttons to see if there is a difference between the two. The pickup that covers the wider range would be better placed at the bridge.

Good point, Peter, I forgot about that aspect of the pickups.

[soundmasterg]

The 60's and 70's high gains were weaker than the modern ones. I've seen some as low as 7.5k. That said, I don't think the ~5k ohms reading that you have is correct for that pickup. It probaby sounds thin and weak right? It may have a shorted section inside it somewhere. It can be rewound easily if it is bad.

Greg

[rickcrazy]

Paul is right, of course. Which is to say there's nothing wrong with the 5.95 ohm pickup. It is "underwound" to produce a clearer tone - I'm sure it is meant for the bridge position - whereas the 14.00 ohm one is overwound to produce a "muddier" tone in the neck position. I once owned a 1989 360 (a marvellous Rick 6-stringer, to be sure) where the neck pickup was crammed full of wire and the bridge one clearly had less than half that amount of wire. Ditto for both 6-pole pickups on my now-gone 1979 4080 guitar.

[BlueAngel]

The High-Gains on the '89 381 in my signature pic - not actually original to the guitar, but which are the correct age - measure 12K for the bridge and 18K (!) for the neck, this is fairly normal for the late 80s, although 18K is the highest I've come across. The neck pickup was slightly too muddy by itself, so I added a small cap across the 5th control (I can't remember the exact value, I tried several to get just the right effect, but I think it may be 1800pF), which makes it just right. I did think about unwinding it a bit, but in fact it now does sound very good for that really thick, woody jazzy tone and I've always got the other two settings for more normal tones.

Rickenbacker is unusual or unique in deliberately making the neck pickup hotter-wound than the bridge, and it only really works if you do have some means of balancing the outputs. Normally the bridge pickup is hotter to compensate for the smaller string movement nearer the bridge and the naturally thinner tone.