Amps, Effects, Speakers, Etc.

[bmwfanatic]

nice

[themeatmanlandry]

I had nowhere else to put this, so I'll put it here.

I have an old ('89 or '90) Peavey Tracer that I love. It's the neck. It's just right for me. Knock the Peaveys all you want, but I love that guitar. Anyway . . .

I locked out the tremolo a few years back and recently returned it to its factory condition (i.e. freed up the tremolo such that it became operational again). After setting the string heights and intonation (which took awhile and put a few wrinkles on my face, I'm sure) I went to play it yesterday.

I was pleasantly surprised with the intonation. I'm not really very good, so the string height . . . well, there was no buzz and since I don't care about getting the strings as low as humanly possible, I felt that I had done a pretty good job for an amateur. Here comes the problem . . .

I felt like playing a little Great White, so I kicked it on over to the blues channel, flipped the toggle to the neck pickup and launched into a riff. Nothing.

3-Way Selector
Bridge pickup - fine
Neck/bridge pickups - sounds just like Bridge pickup
Neck pickup - nothing

I'm guessing that the 3-way is shot.

Question: Is my guess accurate? How do I troubleshoot that switch?

I'm guessing that there's 3 poles: common, bridge and neck. It seems that I should be able to test resistance across the poles to troubleshoot the switch. Do I need to unsolder the switch to test it?

[ForbidInjustice]

I, too, have broken guitar components because I attempted the intro riff of House of Broken Love. It turned out that I rocked so hard that I popped a solder connection loose or threw a switch.

I'm an ESP guy so not sure how your instrument is set up, but I would recommend to first remove the back plate and take a look [although if you're a rock and roll guy who values your tone, this back plate will already be off!] See if you can notice any problems with the wiring or connection to the terminals. Pickups don't normally die like that, so hopefully the problem is the switch and you can repair at minimal cost.

I think you're right in your approach. You shouldn't have to unsolder to test. CRAIG'S GUITAR TECH RESOURCE is an excellent resource with wiring diagrams and information.

[themeatmanlandry]

Originally Posted by ForbidInjustice

I'm an ESP guy

Same here. I am the proud owner of a KH-2 (Kirk Hammett signature). Best guitar ever? Nope, but it's my favorite. MSRP is around $2500 . . . I paid 1300 + tax. Dude in the country had to unload it . . . weren't none'a them hicks gon' buy it, ah tell yuh whut.

I play a Peavey Tracer (mentioned above), an Ibanez RG (421, black, fixed bridge), a Yamaha something-or-other acoustic (P.O.S.) the ESP, and a Westone Spectrum FX (guitar from teh 80's that needs some work on the floating tremolo).

[GregR1]

what kinda switch on that Peavey? the type like on a les paul, or more like a telecaster? i'm guessing it's more like a tele, in which case the guts are likely totally exposed for you to see (and for oxidation to build up). maybe spray some contact cleaner and wiggle the selector back-n-forth a few times to clean the contact points. if they're not making contact, Stew-Mac can probably send you a new switch for maybe $10.

[themeatmanlandry]

I wiggled the p!ss out of that thing last night.

I have cats (was 3, now 2) and I suspect that the "clumping-type" litter may be generating an unacceptable amount of dust. I say that because my Ibanez RG had problems with the switch, aand my Fender amp had problems with dirty pots. Spin 'em 10-20 times aggressively and they clean up. I couldn't do that with the Peavey. Flip it, wiggle it, nothing, just the faint sound of my neck pickup doing its job. It never wavered from its distant, down-the-pipe volume level. With the Ibanez, if you flip the switch a few times, it cleans up and starts working again.

I'll pull that back plate and do a visual.

[87gsxrnut]

Take an ohm-meter and measure the leads from the p/u. That should lt you know right there if it is good. I am betting it is the switch, or a bad solder connection.

- Nut

[themeatmanlandry]

Originally Posted by 87gsxrnut

Take an ohm-meter and measure the leads from the p/u. That should lt you know right there if it is good. I am betting it is the switch, or a bad solder connection.

- Nut

What resistance am I looking for? Does it matter, or am I just looking for an open circuit?

[GregR1]

if you put it on JUST the neck pickup, then i think around something in the 5k to 8k range is what you'll see for a singlecoil. for a hummer, probably double that. but basically anything in the 5k to 20k range means the pickup is there and connected. if you get really high values then there's a broken connection, and if they're really low, then parts of the pickup's coil have shorted out due to age.

[Motorrad]

this is my 'guitar'
it's a 1923 bohemian cello...

[87gsxrnut]

That's pretty cool!

- Nut