Dead Notes Everywhere.....

[christo]

Hi there everybody. I am restoring a late (1981) Stage73 (with plastic keys!) and after removing the 2 dead mice, redback spiders and pens I have cleaned up the keys and am moving on to the pickups. Problem is, there is about 3 notes that work properly and the rest are very quiet. Have tested with the multimeter and the good keys are at about 190 ohms but all the others are from 19 to about 35 ohms. What's happening here? I hope ALL those pickups don't need rewinding! Anyone got any ideas? Thanks for any help.

[christo]

Hi there, have been out testing with the screwdriver and got the following results. Starting from the bass end:

6 pickups good
1 dead
2 good
1 dead
1 good
1 dead
2 good
1 dead
1 good
2 dead
1 good
1 dead
4 good (1 of them Really Good!)
1 dead
1 good
3 dead
1 good
3 dead
1 good
4 dead
1 good
the rest completely silent.

I think I'm seeing a pattern here, what should I do next?

[james]

Out of curiosity, how are the pickups wired?  (All the Mark II's I've seen have them wired in parallel, not daisy-chained like the Mark I's)

[Sorin]

Did you find any answer? i have one pickup that is working very soft. I don't know what to do. What have u done?

    sorinpetrila@yahoo.com


                     please

[christo]

well, I've just finished rewinding about 25 pickups (which took about a week!). First I tested the output of each with a screwdriver against the magnet and marked the quiet ones. Then removed one side of the connecting wire (very difficult!) and tested with a multimeter for resistance. If there was infinite resistance (which there frequently was) the pickup came off to be rewound. I used the battery drill and wound off the old wire, reconnected and wound it back on. The break was always right against the body of the pickup. This rhodes must have been in a pretty rough place, climate-wise to be so bad! Anyway, will connect them up tonight and let you know the results.