Testing pickups before soldering (Yamaha SG-85 Fixer Upper)

[WhiskeyJack]

Ahoy.

Had a fixer upper land on my lap. Buddy bought a guitar off local classifieds that made no sound. Without all the gory details of all im doing to this thing a friend if mine came over and figured out some stuff and we got the neck pick up testing for continuity now. Looks like a butchered attempt at a really bad coil split a previous owner dreamt up. So now, what I want to do to make 100% sure the pick up works works before I go and replace the other electronics is get it to make a noise.

Is it reasonable that I can put an alligator clip jumper thing going right from the pick up to the output jack? Making sure of course I have the hot lead from the pick up to the hot part of the jack and same for the ground?! Technically I don't have to have the volume and tone pots in the loop for the sake of simply seeing of the pick up is functioning as it should and making noise correct?!

[Farview]

That will work just fine to test it. It won't harm anything.

[WhiskeyJack]

That will work just fine to test it. It won't harm anything.

Thanks man! I'll give it a go tonight.

[WhiskeyJack]

Ok i gave it a go. Worked great @Farview

I don't know why i second guess myself so much on everything. fear of breaking stuff maybe?

Ok so while the efforts so far have kind of been a success, and this guitar is now making noise again finally. there is a MAJOR noticeable difference in out put between the neck and bridge pick up? I have looked a little bit to learn more about the output values of the SG-85 picks ups (both of these pick ups are original to this thing but anything i have read leads me to believe these should be the same-ish out put.

Below is a link to a video i made last night for it's owner of what its doing right now and I'll share with you guys too to listen. ignore the shitty tuning and my knuckle dragger method of making it make noise and let me know if you notice anything or have any suggestions as to what i might want to troubleshoot next before i start wiring this thing back up.

The owner feels this is an "it what it is" type of thing but i am not satisfied entirely with that. I do have some extended time with this guitar as i have to do a 3mm bore in to the switch cavity to allow more clearance for the new 3 way toggle so feel free to chime in with anything you might wanna adivse on.

thanks.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DvLogQZh9mMXx2hJA

[Lt. Bob]

are these simply two wire pickups or are there 4 leads from each?

[WhiskeyJack]

are these simply two wire pickups or are there 4 leads from each?

They are just two wire.

-but- when my buddy and i were digging into to acess it it `looked` as though someone tried to split the coils and maybe either forgot to but the other two leads in or removed them after the fact maybe? In any case there was two disconnected leads inside it that we reconnected and then cleaned up some existing solder joints as the ones that were there were terribly corroded and dull grey.

[WhiskeyJack]

Feeling pretty good about myself today. I got the weird out put sorted.

I looked at the pick up that did work and noted how the hot and ground wires were wired into the p'up housing. And then compared to the first patch job we did on the neck pick up to reference which might be hot and which was ground and sure enough it was reversed of what it should have been on the neck. That was problem number one. Problem number two was that it looked like the one white wire must have been barely attached to the pick up housing because as soon as i got it apart and started to inspect the wiring the white wire came completely detached from the housing. So my guess it little to no contact with the good bits it needed contact with.

Using the alligator clips connected right to the pick ups to test them had much better results this time around.

A garbage video sent from me to the owner of the updated progress

Next up i gotta do the little bit of wood working to get the new three way toggle installed then i'll do a full wiring up of this thing.

[rayc]

Slow n steady.
I STILL HAVE A BASS TO REBUILD.
You're inspiring me.

[WhiskeyJack]

Slow n steady.
I STILL HAVE A BASS TO REBUILD.
You're inspiring me.

Yea man get after it. I actually have plans for three of my own guitars, i just have to finish this last paid / favor job before i tackle my own stuff. I'll post those as well when i get them up and running.

When you say you have to rebuild it @rayc what do you mean? Like entirely back from the dead?