problem with Hofner pickups

[spy]

A friend of mine bought a white Hofner in great condition but it has very low output. He owns the same model (other color, red ) and the difference is huge. We open both of them to measure the pickups. The weird is that the pickups of the white one don't measure at all, infinity! But it has a low output... How can this happen? And the three of them? Also, the multimeter is in perfect condition.
The other Hofner, the red one, measure 9K, 5K, 4.9K (neck, middle, bridge).
I reassemble one of them, the neck one, and the contacts where perfect. But none of the coils measure anything!
I hardly can believe that both coils have a break.... please help! TIA.

[Spence]

Actually it's not unusual for both coils in a Hofner pickup to be down.

[Sweetfinger]

...and if your Hofner coils are good, step away from the guitar. Do not attampt to play, move, or otherwise jostle it. Alert the authorities. and more seriously, even though a coil may be open, just through the capacitance of the windings, it is possible to get a weak bright signal. If you suspect an open coil because of this sort of sound, and don't have a meter handy, roll off the tone knob, and if the signal immediately drops as if it were a volume, you've got an open coil.

[spy]

...and if your Hofner coils are good, step away from the guitar. Do not attampt to play, move, or otherwise jostle it. Alert the authorities.

xaxaxa....

Thanks for the replies! What I can't understand is how 3 pickups together are open. And not one or two. I will reassemble the other two (middle and bridge) to check if both coils of them are open. Then we have six coils open!
Any idea? How does it happen?

[jonson]

rust buckets

sorry guy but a lot of early Hofners did and do suffer fromm rust problems and just corrosion as they age. And all would start to eteriate at the same time.
Budget pickups made when the brains wern't always in gear.

[spy]

Don't be sorry! It's not my guitar!

Is there any logical explanation about the measurements I got from the red Hofner? The neck pickup measures 9K instead of the middle and the bridge one that measure 5K. Is it going to be dead really soon?
If I'll wind the dead ones which value I have to follow? How many turns do I have to wind?

[Berman]

Old Hofner pickups die often because they used a too agressive soldering fluid to solder the coils.
The only solution ist to rewind them

[Ruel]

The only solution ist to rewind them

I agree. It would be better to rewind them. They aren't like Gibson PAFs. You won't feel guilty messing around with them.

[telemoxy]

Old Hofner pickups die often because they used a too agressive soldering fluid to solder the coils.
The only solution ist to rewind them

You can still buy them.

[spy]

ebay? how much do they go?

[jonson]

bits

http://www.projectguitarparts.co.uk/...fnerparts.html

[spy]

nice link Jonson, thanks!
...but I can't find the pups I'd like.
My friend's Hofner has like this...

...but for guitar(six strings).
72GBP are too much money. It's better to re-wind the old ones.

[telemoxy]

nice link Jonson, thanks!
...but I can't find the pups I'd like.
My friend's Hofner has like this...

...but for guitar(six strings).
72GBP are too much money. It's better to re-wind the old ones.

I agree but if you are open to all options a great authority on all things Hofner is Steve Candib. He helped me out with my Hofner 457. You can contact him at :

moniker@ca.inter.net

[telemoxy]

nice link Jonson, thanks!
...but I can't find the pups I'd like.
My friend's Hofner has like this...

...but for guitar(six strings).
72GBP are too much money. It's better to re-wind the old ones.

There was a guy named Bret Brubaker who repairs Hofner pickups. He can be reached at foggymtn2002@yahoo.com.

[spy]

telemoxy, thanks for the e-mails!
I'll e-mail Bret Brubaker. Hope, he can help me with details/specs of the pickups. I decided to rewind them. If he can give me number of turns it'll be great.