Bartolini pbf pickups no dc resistance reading/ no customer support

[the great waldo]

Hi All

I´ve just had a customer arrive with some bartolini pbf-57 and pbf 55 humbuckers neither of these give a dc reading. These are replacements for another set of the same which also gave none or a very high resistance reading. Does anyone know if is normal. I tried to find a customer support email or number but it looks Bartolini are not interested in customer service only selling the products which is pretty naff. If anyone has had a similar problem with the dc resistance readings on Bartilini´s. Wired to a jack socket there is an output with the screwdriver clonk test, I was just wondering if the pups are open circuit similar to many tele pickupsi´ve had in the past as they are sealed in resin no hope for any internal investigation. Thanks in advance.

Cheers

Andrew

[David King]

There could be a cap in series to keep folks from measuring the DCR. If they are giving you an output then I would go ahead in the assumption that they are working. I've only seen one defective Bart in twenty five years and that was a grounded coil, not an open one.
Getting ahold of the Bs the week before NAMM is going to be very difficult.

[the great waldo]

Hi David

Thanks very much for the reply, the cap in series also occured to me. I just Bartolini would either mention it in the wiring notes included with the pups or have some easily accessible support site. It´s really annoying when I have to go into a load of research just to fit a set of pups and i´ll bet bartolini will not pay for the time wasted by both me and my customer to fit their products which should be staightforward. As the pups are cast in resin the dc resistance reading would not be of much use to anyone wanting to copy them, it´s not exactly rocket science is it? Rant over!

Cheers

Andrew

[RedHouse]

Hi David

Thanks very much for the reply, the cap in series also occured to me. I just Bartolini would either mention it in the wiring notes included with the pups or have some easily accessible support site. It´s really annoying when I have to go into a load of research just to fit a set of pups and i´ll bet bartolini will not pay for the time wasted by both me and my customer to fit their products which should be staightforward. As the pups are cast in resin the dc resistance reading would not be of much use to anyone wanting to copy them, it´s not exactly rocket science is it? Rant over!

Cheers

Andrew

What is it you need to know to install them?

A quick look at their website it's apparent the 55 is a neck pickup and the 57 is a bridge pickup, aka the Jazz set.

The New PBF Guitar Pickups

[big_teee]

There could be a cap in series to keep folks from measuring the DCR. If they are giving you an output then I would go ahead in the assumption that they are working. I've only seen one defective Bart in twenty five years and that was a grounded coil, not an open one.
Getting ahold of the Bs the week before NAMM is going to be very difficult.

David:
If they are coupled with a series cap, I'm wondering what effect that would have on the sound, & tone.
Also if I wanted to experiment with this concept, what value, & type of Capicitor would be used?
Thanks,
Terry

[the great waldo]

What is it you need to know to install them?

I really just wanted to know why I was not getting a dc resistance reading from the coils. I always check pups before fitting them so as not to waste time if there is a problem with one. You can´t really ask a customer to pay for the lost time in exchanging faulty products and the manufacturers sure as hell are´nt going to reimburse me for any time that I spend on removing a faulty pickup are they? So better to check up front.
Cheers

Andrew

[David King]

Andrew,
If customers insist on providing you with faulty parts I see no reason not to charge them up the wazoo for the privilege. Auto mechanics don't let you bring in your own parts for the same reason. My personal view is that musicians who can't be bothered to install their own pickups are asking for it anyway. If you get musicians used to thinking that they don't have to ever pay what it costs then you aren't doing the rest of us in the business any favors either. Next time you see a Bartolini pickup come in for installation think about adding a 0 to your estimate and if the customer walks out you will have saved yourself an afternoon's frustration and lost wages.

The Bartolinis do not run a normal business by any stretch of the imagination. Short of going in person to their booth at NAMM you are unlikely to ever get a word to them.

When I do get a bad DCR reading I first look over my meter and it's probes. A good 90% of the time the problem is with the meter etc.


Terry, I have never actually seen a cap in a pickup and I seriously doubt that Bill would do that. I suppose it would let you limit the low frequency response if you could control everything else in the circuit. I have had to use cap coupling from time to time on pickups with ground leakage when going into active buffers with bi-polar supplies.

[the great waldo]

Hi David
The first problem I have is that not being able to check the dc resistance on these pups I was not sure if the pickups were faulty. The pickups were bought new from a large retailer in Germany. The second point you bring up, well we just got a new Puegot car and I would´nt dare go near anything under the bonnet and for the same reason if a customer asks me to fit some pickups thats fine, he might not have a soldering iron or the right tools to do the job or the knowledge for that matter so he brings it to a guitar maker repairer to do the work. I was brought up with an old VW beetle and could fix most problems myself. The main beef that I have is that Bartolini I assume have used something in the pickups to make checking them with a meter impossible and don´t mention this anywhere in the product literature or on the web site. As for support maybe you can give me a link on their web site where I can ask them a question about their products, I sure as hell could´nt find anything, only a link to their sales dept with a disclaimer saying that they only answer questions relating to sales orders, you can come to your own conclusions as to their support philosophy.

Cheers
Andrew

[big_teee]

Waldo:
I found this.
No a Hellofalot of info there.
If you look at the spreadsheet it gives the colors for each coil.
It looks like you could read each coil or if tied together read the pickup in series.
Bartolini Support
Installation Instructions
Bartolini Guitar Pickups
Good Luck,
Terry

[the great waldo]

Waldo:
I found this.
No a Hellofalot of info there.
If you look at the spreadsheet it gives the colors for each coil.
It looks like you could read each coil or if tied together read the pickup in series.
Bartolini Support
Installation Instructions
Bartolini Guitar Pickups
Good Luck,
Terry

Hi Terry
Thanks for the link I have actually checked through the web site but there is nothing there to inform me about the lack of a dc resistance reading on these pickups. Maybe some other forum makers have some that they could check with a meter. I have used Bartolini bass pickups over the years as well as their electronics in basses that I had made and have found the products pretty much bomb proof, although I have not had much to do with their guitar pups.
all the best

Andrew

[big_teee]

You got me real curious now.
Are these 2 or 4 wire pickups.
If I had them here I would like to throw one in my test rig just to see what the hell we would get!
Also a side note, I loved how on their support page, it listed no numbers, just a fax.
It said send a fax and maybe someone would call you back!
Good luck,
Terry

[David Schwab]

They used to have an email address listed, until they got a virus on their PC so they removed all email contact. It would seem to me that the easiest way to fix that would be install anti virus software, or switch to a Mac.

I could see where a small company like that would get swamped with phone calls, but they used to have a number listed. I'd try the fax number.

I've never seen a faulty Bart, so I'd give the pickups a try first. At the very least wire them to a jack via alligator clips and hold it over the strings.

[Joe Gwinn]

I would be tempted to measure the 1 KHz AC resistance with a LCR meter. If there really is a series capacitor within (which I basically doubt, for lack of physical space) versus a broken wire, you should still get a reasonable AC resistance and inductance. A broken wire should show a very large AC resistance and probably an equivocal inductance.

[the great waldo]

Hi Joe

Thanks for the tip, i´ll give that a crack with my extech if thats the meter you are reffering to. I do´nt think it´s a broken wire because I have checked 2 sets of pups and I think I have more chance of winning the lottery than having 4 ´duff pups, however stranger things happen at sea !!

Cheers

Andrew

I would be tempted to measure the 1 KHz AC resistance with a LCR meter. If there really is a series capacitor within (which I basically doubt, for lack of physical space) versus a broken wire, you should still get a reasonable AC resistance and inductance. A broken wire should show a very large AC resistance and probably an equivocal inductance.

[the great waldo]

Hi David

I did wire up 2 of the pups straight to a jack socket and they seemed to work ok when tapped with a socket spanner loud clonk and no hum and i´ll be trying Joe gwinns suggestion in a couple of days when i´m back at the other workshop.

Cheers

Andrew

I've never seen a faulty Bart, so I'd give the pickups a try first. At the very least wire them to a jack via alligator clips and hold it over the strings.