VERY low output from new bridge pickup on strat

[Guitar Josh]

I recently got a prewired lace guard from an online seller. The claim was that it was all new parts, and from the look of it, that seems to be true. However, the bridge pickup, which is supposed to be a "hot humbucker", has VERY low output and sound muffled. My tech is going to take a look at it to see what's what, but what could be the issues here to look at? I suppose even a defective pickup could be to blame?

[Klein Pickups]

I would send it back to replace the bridge. Messing with it could void the warranty.

[GM Reszel]

Well 'muffled' leads me to believe it may somehow be bleeding into the tone cap and that would likely be from incorrect wiring. Or as you have surmised it may be defective. If you have a VOM (as I believe every player should have one) plug in a short cord, put the switch to bridge and make sure your guitar vol is up all the way. Measure the pickup's DC resistance by touching the probes to the hot and ground of the jack on your cord (it doesn't matter what color probe goes to which as resistance isn't polarized). You should be getting a reading of somewhere in the 12-15k ohms reading (12,000 - 15,000 ohms). If working properly it may even have a higher reading, possibly even up to the 20's (I don't know what the Laces run) but if it's defective and you still have some sound it usually reads off the map like 1-2 meg or even higher. If for some reason the pickup is working properly but it is being bled by the tone cap as I mentioned it would still give you a good reading.