QUESTION 

I have a 1965 Fender Telecaster all original I am the original owner so I know nothing has every been changed. Yesterday I plugged guitar in and pickup sounded thin. I thought maybe it was a a problem with my tone pot. When I turn pot all the way off pickup goes dead?? I sprayed out the pot with cleaner but the pickup still goes dead when i turn tone pot down. What should i do should  i replace the pot?

REPLY

 I love this new forum another killer question. Your tone pot is not bad you pickup has gone bad it has an open winding. This just happens with age. A great story when I first got started in business an old timers showed me a secret when buying old fender always roll the tone pot all the way off if the pickup goes dead the pickup has an open winding.

I never forgot that and it is true. A pickup that is open WILL STILL MAKE A SOUND AND STILL PLAY it Will just be a bit thin . Don’t ask me why but it does. This is a good note for any buyer out there try this and you ll never get burned. With time  the wire gets brittle and the windings break it is as simple as that.

Now another good note. There is a good change it is a winding on the outer edge of the coil. So if you send the pickup to an expert like Lindy Fralin., Rolf or a your local favorite he can MAYBE unwind it a wrap at a time and find break and repair without rewinding pickup. DO NOT DO THIS YOURSELF.

So this is a cool fact you will not find in any book . So stay tuned to this blog site who knows what trick you’ll see next