Has anyone fixed a Barden bridge pickup?

[ERJS2000]

My Barden bridge pickup died a couple of days ago after a few sessions of intermittent operation. I found there to be no continuity between the black wire and the rest of the pickup. I gently scraped a little insulation off of the winding and have continuity between the wire shown in 1 and the black wire.

There is a blob of glue, shown at 2, which is hard as a rock. I tried a little lacquer thinner to see if it would soften any and it had no effect. I am not sure what to do at this point. I can't tell if this wire is the beginning or the end of the coil and the glue is hard enough to make me think my odds of scraping it away and pulling the wire through, even if it is the end of the coil, are pretty slim. I am open to any suggestions.

[madialex]

Bardens are almost impossible to repair.

[copperheadroads]

if you need to remove superglue you can use acetone or nail polish remover,it will soften up superglue. use a cotton swab I'm not sure what effect it will have on your coils & the bobbin itself it might melt the insulation , you could test it on the bobbin as well. it looks like the finish end of the wire there might be hope ,but i have never seen one .like madialex said impossible to repair

[David Schwab]

The break might be at the other end of the coil. Probably the only thing you can do is rewind that coil.

[ERJS2000]

The break might be at the other end of the coil. Probably the only thing you can do is rewind that coil.

I agree. I am not afraid of re-winding the coil, I am afraid of taking it apart and putting it back together without destroying something else.

I contacted Barden and they estimate $70 plus shipping to completely rebuild it, based on $35/hr. I am leaning in this direction since I use this guitar as a "Barden sound" reference and wouldn't want to contaminate that by my rewind, not to mention the cost of a new one if I totally failed.

[Rick Turner]

If you're looking for "original tone", there's no substitute for sending that pickup back to Joe. The boutique pickup winders know what they're doing and know what they did...unlike some of the biggest names in the biz starting with F and G...

I find it highly amusing that Seymour has sold OEM pickups to both of the big guys. Talk about coals to Newcastle! Seymour is very aware of the irony as well.

[Possum]

Yes send it back, for sure it was machine wound, hand winding it will lose that tone...

[David Schwab]

I say send it back as well. I'd probably charge the same to rewind one coil, and it wouldn't be exactly like the original, so it seems like a good deal.

[salvarsan]

Yes send it back, for sure it was machine wound...

Is that a joke?

Up until his old firm closed, Joe Barden claimed that his pickups were hand wound. Given that the blades were chamfered on the edges (or just sloppily radiused), the wire needed a lightly tensioned hand wind to avoid cut-through.

The new firm, Joe Barden Engineering, still claims hand winding, but that may simply be to appease corksniffers.

Whatever.

Barden blades are vexation to disassemble and probably little better to assemble. JBE has the jigs and experience to do it right the first time so, yeah, I'd send that pickup back.

$70 is very reasonable given that some makers don't like repairs and price the work prohibitively.

[madialex]

I'm telling you, I had one for a repair one time and by the time you get the wire to where you can repair it the post that goes through the bottom flat work is not going to be stable and it won't work but hey, go for it. I did and learned how to do a refund.

[ERJS2000]

Final update on this saga. I sent the pickup back to Barden. They said it wasn't worth fixing but they would sell me a new "factory B" pickup with a lifetime waranty, to the original owner, for 90 bucks. I said OK, I will pay any additional shipping for you to ship my old pickup back. They said oh no, we keep your old pickup, we don't want to make this offer to someone else on the same pickup. I said OK and they sent me a new pickup.

I finally got around to installing it today.The only apparent difference between the old one and the new one is the way the coil wires are attached to the lead wires. Compare the new picture to the first one. They just wrap the coil wire around the edge of the bobbin about 3 times. They could have cut a little groove in there so the wire wasn't exposed right on the edge of the pickup. It looks like a problem ready to happen if you bang the edge of the pickup on something when handling it.

So I installed it and was adjusting the bridge pickup by comparing it to the neck, which I had in its sweet spot. After I got the bridge where it sounded nice and balanced with the neck I tried the both positions. (4 way switch) It was out of phase. Took it apart checked the wiring, got the diagram and confirmed it was as it should be, tried it again, yup out of phase, switched the wires and it is fine. So it looks like a new "Factory B" pickup is one that is wired wrong and they don't want to bother fixing it. I am happy, it sounds great.

Oh both coils measured 2.17K if anybody is interested.

[big_teee]

I wonder why they couldn't rewind it.
And, what happened to the $70 quote for a total rebuild?
Terry