mutley Posted March 22, 2007 Report Share Posted March 22, 2007 (edited) Hello folks, I'm Ned from Florida and new to this site. I'm a long time player who has decided to begin some simple steps that will hopefully lead to being a competent tech of sorts. I have a Tele body and have purchased a neck from Warmoth and have several guitars I will be performing basic mods/repairs on soon (I hope). My question de jour is the Multi-meter's use to measure resistance in pickups. I purchased a unit yesterday that very closely resembles one I've seen here from a supplier named Harbor something. I connected the leads (black to common and red to volts/ohms) and set the dial to the 2K DC setting. Now, I apologize for such a basic question in advance and have pretty thick skin so flame me if you must, but some post flame advice would be great. What is the next step to measure the resistance? I tried on a guitar with 2 P90s and touched the Red to one of the screws under the guitar string and the other end to the bridge, but would get readings that only popped up for a second and would go back to zero very quickly. I'm sure it's a user problem. After that I'm not too sure of anything. Any help would be appreciated, I'm still at the 2+2=4 stage (at least I hope I can get there quickly). I can build a house so I'm hoping I can learn some skills necessary for what I eventually would like to do. Ned Edited March 22, 2007 by mutley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnewman Posted March 22, 2007 Report Share Posted March 22, 2007 (edited) The resistance in the pickup has nothing to do with the bridge, screws, etc. It's the resistance of the coil of wire in the pickup that actually generates the audio signal. To accurately measure this resistance, you will need to disconnect the pickup leads from the controls inside the guitar (which requires using a soldering iron to remove them, then soldering the leads back on when you're done), then measure the resistance between the hot lead and the ground lead. You can measure them without disconnecting them, but your measurements will be somewhat off because of the parallel resistance of the controls (your measured value should be lower than the actual value by 2-7% or so, if you don't disconnect the pickups). Also, the 2K setting will not work because P90's are usually around 8-10KOhms. Edited March 22, 2007 by jnewman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mutley Posted March 23, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2007 The resistance in the pickup has nothing to do with the bridge, screws, etc. It's the resistance of the coil of wire in the pickup that actually generates the audio signal. To accurately measure this resistance, you will need to disconnect the pickup leads from the controls inside the guitar (which requires using a soldering iron to remove them, then soldering the leads back on when you're done), then measure the resistance between the hot lead and the ground lead. You can measure them without disconnecting them, but your measurements will be somewhat off because of the parallel resistance of the controls (your measured value should be lower than the actual value by 2-7% or so, if you don't disconnect the pickups). Also, the 2K setting will not work because P90's are usually around 8-10KOhms. Yes, as I wrote the post this afternoon I realized I should have had it set on the 20K mark. Thanks for straightening me out on that. I have confused this with measuring something else to do with the pickup with the meter. I have some books on order and hate asking idiotic questions when I wouldn't know a correct answer if it hit me in my head. I'll await the books before the next stunner. THanks for the help sir. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnewman Posted March 23, 2007 Report Share Posted March 23, 2007 (edited) Hey man, no problem, everyone comes up with things they don't understand when they're trying something new. I've built a couple of amplifiers lately and I came up with some pretty silly questions over on one of the amp-building boards! Edited March 23, 2007 by jnewman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mutley Posted March 26, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2007 I actually used this tool over the weekend and checked continuity and resistance to several pickups that I have and was able to label them for use later. I was doing everything wrong. Thanks fellas, I'll be back with more when I receive my Tele Neck from Warmoth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiKro Posted March 28, 2007 Report Share Posted March 28, 2007 I actually used this tool over the weekend and checked continuity and resistance to several pickups that I have and was able to label them for use later. I was doing everything wrong. Thanks fellas, I'll be back with more when I receive my Tele Neck from Warmoth.Here's a simple tutorial for multimeters not hard to understand. but may help you. Note this comapny is closed but the website is still up for awhile. basic multimeter? i mean real basic LOL:)) hope it helps you MK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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