Mad 1966 Strat pickup !... pickup winding

[CBAmp]

Hello,

A few days ago, the middle pickup on my 1966 strat began to sound lousy. So I had a look inside, its impedance had fallen to 4.6 kohms. I started to check what happened, the wires were ok, I re-soldered the solder joints, the impedance came back to 6.0k.

I put the pickguard back, started to play, everything was good. But after 2 minutes and an adjustment of the height of the pus, the problem came back. Reopen the guitar, re-check... Impedance at 6.0k, I began to play, and the sound changed after a moment. I did it 5 times !! :NUTS

After all, I found that the problem comes from the pression of the cover (with the gromets and screws). When I press the pickup between my fingers, the impedance decrease.

Does anybody have seen it before ???...
Is it the death of my pickup because of a shorted winding inside the coil ? (When I press the pu, the windings perhaps get shorted...) :cry:

If someone could help me, I would be really gratefull.
Thanks a lot !

[J.H.]

It's an internal short in the coil. Time for a rewind.

[Rosewood]

I wouldn't give up on the pickup just yet. Keep checking solder joints and connections. Where are you reading the pickup from, at the switch? At the pu base plate? Try unsoldering the pu at the switch and measure. Worse case is a short and obviously will need a rewind.

[chaz]

I wonder if re-potting it while the pressure was off and the reading was stable might work as a last ditch effort to save it before rewinding?

[walterw]

I wonder if re-potting it while the pressure was off and the reading was stable might work as a last ditch effort to save it before rewinding?
that's what i was thinking as well.