Ever damaged a single coil due to tight pickup covers?

[jamison162]

I've got this set of covers that has screwed up a coupel of coils. Unlike most covers, these have 4 rough areas from the molding/cast on the *inside* edges of the cover. In addition, they are a lot tighter width wise than most covers. Looks like, even though I was careful, when putting these covers on/off they have caught on the wire and caused some small marks/indentions in the coil and have either broken a wire or damaged the enamel enough to short. The readings are coming up a lot lower than they should be.

This ever happen to anyone else?

[bc-cosmo]

Yes, pulling the cover off the bridge pickup on my 63 Strat destroyed the coil. It was tight, I was stupid and hasty. Be careful!

[jfolz]

Been there, done that. I was fortunate enough to know someone who could fix it. They figured out which side to unsolder and started unwinding the pickup until they reached the break. At this point you have to clean off the insulation on the wire & resolder it to the post or hole. The pickup will read ever so slightly less than it did before but there was no audible difference I could tell. If this doesn't work another option is to send it out to Seymore Duncan. They do remarkable work in this area.

[Martian]

It sure has. In addition to having to unwind it to find the break(s), those dents in the coil will now cause eddy currents where the pickup will not sound the same, usually for the worse.