Neck pickup Livewire problem

[Spitfire]

Hey,

today i went round to Tony's and we fitted a set of Mustiane LWs to my guitar... we used the 1vol 1tone 3 way switch setup.

The bridge pickup seems fine, but switch to the neck and it sounds very weak... almost like its a low output single coil.... its not to do with the pickup heights... they have been messed around with to check.

The wiring is very clean has been checked and double checked.. there are no crackling noises or grounding issues.

The only thing i can think of is that the neck pickup is faulty... does anyone have any suggestions of possible other solutions??

Thanks,
David.

[JacksonRR]

Have you tried directly wiring it to the output? This would be your sure fire test for the pickup.

Things to watch out for that I know of off hand inside guitar cavities:

Cold or weak solder joints. These are not shiny, but a dull gray and sometimes with cracks.

Damage to the switch caused by overheating with the soldering iron or maybe it's an old switch and the contacts need to be cleaned?

I would for sure check that PU out all by itself though. Just battery and straight to the output. Good luck man.

[Transcend]

we tried quite a lot when fault finding this.

We checked and double checked all the joints even replaced pots etc.

The switching is working fine but we didnt try the pickups straight to the output jack

[Spitfire]

Ive just tried the hot output of the neck to the jack and it makes no difference...

Looks like im going to have to e-mail SD support

[JacksonRR]

That's a shame.  :( If the Livewires are constructed like their other actives, then you can't even repair it due to that epoxy potting.

[Spitfire]

yeah, its all sealed up.. ive contacted the SD UK distributer about it... not much else i can really do.

[JacksonRR]

I feel your pain man. That finish is unique. Nothin else that's active will match up.

[Spitfire]

UK distributer basically are dicks and wont do anything, so i can either try and get another neck one off ebay.. or try with SD in america directly.. which will be a pain, and an out of warranty repair/replacement may be costly.  bugger.

[JacksonRR]

Bah. :( I say it's time to put wood filler in that neck PU route, refinish it and rock out. JK. If I recall correctly, the old Mustaines aren't compatible with other active PUs because of how they're powered or something like that. I can't remember exactly what it was or how it could be worked around, but that may limit your replacement options even if you don't care about matching or are open to putting a matching paint finish on them, taking the plating off of both, using a blueing/blackening chemical on the bare metal covers, concrete dye can also soak well into Nickel, etc.... Maybe you could spy on Tim and figure out that Camo finish for us.  :P

Well good luck man, sorry you're PU is trash.