The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

I bought these pickups
https://reverb.com/item/71044886-electr ... mmk53-1982

and I'm only getting about 5.5K per pickup as opposed
to the 11 - 12k ohms that I was expecting.

Would anyone know why I would get 1/2 the expected ohms?

_________________
My wife yes
My dog maybe
My Vantages never

Seems like you're only reading one coil, half of the total resistance.

I pulled an MMK 45 out of my parts box- I assume the 45 and 53 color codes are the same. I get this:

silver to red 5.66K
red to white 5.70K
silver to white 11.36K

So if your pickups are like my 45, you'd want to test between the plain silver wire and the white wire.

On your pickup with the gray insulation, I see some tape on the end of the white wire, but can't see if the wire has been folded back or just cut off. I can't see the plain silver wire either.

On your pickup with the brown(?) insulation, I see the three conductors but can't tell what's going on at the end of the white wire where there's another wire attached.

-Steve W.

Thank you very much Numbfingers!


I get 11K+ when I test the shield and white.

_________________
My wife yes
My dog maybe
My Vantages never

It's a little confusing that the plain silver wire is required to get both coils in series. On a lot of pickups it would be just a shield that would be grounded, not connected to the coils. I had to edit my post to clarify this.

-Steve W.

Good answer Steve

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