Bridge Pickup Crapped Out...

[HighDeaf1080p]

This morning while playing, my bridge pickup (a SD 59/custom hybrid trembucker) crapped out on me. I first noticed a major reduction in volume. I have it wired for switching from single coil to humbucker...and in humbucker mode it now sounds slightly different but has no additional volume from the single coil mode...which also seems quieter. There is also, now, a strange static/white noise in the background when playing that pick up, either mode. If I kick on my treble booster I can hear it very distinctly, and it comes on suddenly when a note is struck, and dies off quickly when the note ends.

I opened the back up and everything looks normal in the wiring compartment, so I have no idea where to start. The pickup is only maybe 6-9 months old. Could the pickup have died? How can I tell if my problem is the pickup, the tone capacitor, the push-pull volume pot, tone pot, or something more mundane like a cold solder joint?

When I tap on the poles with an allen, it taps quite loud into my amp...when I switch to single coil, the adjustable lugs turn off like they're supposed to...

If anyone with a lot of experience in this matter could offer some advice, I'd appreciate it. I really don't have the money or patience to drop it off at a luthier here in town, and wait until he gets around to it. I'm hoping it's something I can fix, or if it IS the whole pickup, that I can soon afford to get a new one.

Not looking forward to re-doing the soldering on the back of that push-pull pot if that's what it is. It was a nightmare to work on such tiny components down inside the back of a guitar.

I'm hoping it is the tone cap, which would be easier to de-solder and replace. I have an orange drop .047uf here somewhere to swap in. I plugged the guitar straight into the amp to eliminate any other items in my chain, and then noticed that not only is the bridge pickup very low output, and staticky, but that the tone knob on that pickup doesn't appear to have any effect when I turn it anymore, so maybe it IS the tone cap connecting the volume and tone pots on that side.

[braaandooon]

Check the soldering on your pot lugs. Not sure what color your guitar is but metallic paints are conductive. Possibility that you may have had some solder flow off of the lug and is now making contact between the lug and the painted body cavity.

[HighDeaf1080p]

Found it. The ground wire solder joint to the back of the tone pot on that side. I knew when I soldered it, I had done it quicker than I would have liked, due to paranoia about overheating and ruining the very expensive pots I used. BINGO. I re-soldered it letting the back of the pot get plenty hot, and all is back to perfect again.

Thank you Braaandooon!