Strange pickup readings.

[Aka Nameless]

I wound 2 custom single coils for the 6 string bass i'm building.

When I wound them they both read around 10k resistance.

Yesterday I charged the magnets in both pickups and installed / wired them into my guitar, but now for some reason one reads the same 10k resistance, but the other pickup reads -4k resistance. The coil wasn't damaged that I know of, the only thing I did different than the other pickup was reverse wind and reverse polarity.

Anyone have an ideas as to what could be wrong?

Is the - on the multimeter just showing that it's reverse wound? It doesn't make sense.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[chevalij]

You can't have negative resistance and a meter won't care about polarity. It is an odd reading, but probably has something to do with the guitar controls not your windings. It's possible the pickup in combination with a volume pot may have put your meter over scale. Make sure your pots are at full and set your meter to autorange or select a higher range if manual.

[madialex]

I think this

1- Does the guitar have 2 volume controls, it's very possible that the volume control is turned down on the pickup you are checking and all the way up on the other one. Just my .02 worth.

[Possum]

negative reading?

If you're reading directly off the pickup and typed that negative sign by mistake then one of your coils shorted out, its not uncommon to have a good coil after winding and have it short out the next day, happens with PE alot....

[Aka Nameless]

It's strange but..

Both pickups read between 10-11k, then this one pickup started reading that -4k, but today I checked it again and they both are around 10-11k again. May have been moisture or something, for the record I was reading straight from the pickup leads.

Either way the problem fixed itself, thanks for the input guys.

[Possum]

hmmm....

well, I'll tell you if you got an honest reading of 4k and it went away, it will come back at some point, hope you're not selling this one to anyone because the coil has a flaw in it.

[Aka Nameless]

These pickups are going in my personal bass. There ARE 2 volume controls "jazz bass wiring" but these strange readings were before I wired up the pickups into my bass, so I doubt that's the problem.

Winding pickups is frustrating, don't know how you guys do it.

So you guys have never seen a reading of "-" on your multimeter when checking a pickup?

[David Schwab]

So you guys have never seen a reading of "-" on your multimeter when checking a pickup?

You can't have a negative reading. Unless you have a meter that needs to be zeroed out first you will never see a negative unless you are dealing with voltage.

I enjoy winding. Assembling is another thing...

[ken]

Sounds to me like the volume control connected to the pickup was probably half open or so, I did that once or twice myself.

I like assembling almost as much as winding myself, except for making the humbuckers. Big fingers and skinny bobbins don't go together too well. Of course, sometimes some lubrication helps... the 80 proof kind.

Ken