No sound in neck pickups

[GuitarMan686]

I have a jackson dinky set up with an EMG 60 in the neck and EMG 85 in the bridge. When I switch to the neck pickup I have no sound. The bridge is working fine. I changed out the 9volt to see if it was related to that but nothing. Any ideas on where to start diagnosing the problem?

[drewski]

Could be a number of things.  Check the wiring diagram to make sure it's wired up properly.  Check your solder joints and make sure everything is connected properly.  Check the impedance of the pickup with an ohm-meter or multi-meter.  Wire the pickup in a circuit directly to an output jack(find a diagram online to make sure it's done correctly) to make sure the pickup itself is working.  If the pickup works, bypass the switch to check if it's good.  Then bypass other components to see if there is a problem there, however, if the bridge pickup outputs just fine then the other components are probably fine.  Those are the steps I'd go through but I'm still fairly new to the guitar building/repair game myself.  If anyone else has more or better advice then let's hope they chime in.  Good luck!

[curtisa]

Has the neck pickup always been a problem, or has it only just started misbehaving?

Good points mentioned above. A process of elimination is usually best for this kind of thing.

 

On 6/27/2017 at 4:26 AM, drewski said:

Check the impedance of the pickup with an ohm-meter or multi-meter.

EMG 60 is an active pickup. Checking impedance by measuring with a multimeter may give odd results, as you're trying to sniff up the nose of the output buffer built into the pickup. It's not a test that is synonymous with a check of a passive pickup and shouldn't be relied on to give a measure of the pickup's operation.

All newer EMGs have the quick connect style plugs. Check that the plug on the rear of the pickup hasn't become dislodged. Also confirm that the other end of the neck pickup lead is properly terminated (depending on the type of installation, this may also be a plug-in termination which could have come loose).

It's likely to be either the pickup selector switch, the neck pickup wiring or the pickup itself. With the pickups being fitted with the quick connect plugs you can swap the bridge and neck pickups easily enough. If the EMG60 works in the bridge position then you've eliminated the pickup being at fault. If the EMG85 suddenly stops working in the neck position then you've narrowed it down to the neck pickup wiring or selector switch. Work onwards from there.