Problems with Fender Noiseless pick-ups ???????????????

guitars4you

Any one had issues with the Noiseless Strat pick-ups - N3 in this case - Had 2 faulty ones in a week - Not on the same guitar

One was on a Custom Shop Strat so had a warranty replacement courtesy of Fender

The other on a 2011 HSS FAT Strat AM Deluxe I just traded in - Worked then just gone dead and no reading  - At first I thought/hoped it might be a wiring issue as the middle pick-up also went dead - Wiring loom is a plate of spaghetti on this model with all the S1 + blower switch - But got the middle pick-up back on track, with an intermittent wiring issue - But still have  a dead neck pick-up

Two in a week is bad luck

Can't buy just one pick-up from Fender - actually now super seeded with N4 - Have to buy a pack of 3 - So a) talking to you p/up guys/techs, can they be re-wired and/or b) anyone got a neck N3 p/up spare with the off white cover - That works 

Part of me feels like gutting it - Keep the DH1 with blower switch and just fit 2 good Strat p/ups and dump the S1 - Guitar is a nice player

SteveRobinson

Yes they are prone to dodgy soldering, I think on those little drop wires that link the coils.

The covers can be swapped and come off easily.

impmann

guitars4you said:

Part of me feels like gutting it - Keep the DH1 with blower switch and just fit 2 good Strat p/ups and dump the S1 - Guitar is a nice player

TBH, I hate the Fender Noiseless pickups (lifeless crap)... so it would (IMHO) be an improvement.

guitars4you

SteveRobinson said:

Yes they are prone to dodgy soldering, I think on those little drop wires that link the coils.

The covers can be swapped and come off easily.

First thing I tried Steve - On the neck p/up, when I remove the 'fly' cables I still have no reading - So obviously p/up dead/at fault - The middle p/up was on/off for a while, so I thought some bad luck to have 2 broken p/ups on the same guitar, but turned out to be an intermittent wiring issue which I think I've solved

guitars4you

impmann said:

guitars4you said:

Part of me feels like gutting it - Keep the DH1 with blower switch and just fit 2 good Strat p/ups and dump the S1 - Guitar is a nice player

TBH, I hate the Fender Noiseless pickups (lifeless crap)... so it would (IMHO) be an improvement.

I'm probably edging towards this - Need to go thru' my bits box and see what Strat p/ups I have that would be suitable - Bit odd in that I only need two, so don't want to break up any nice sets I might have - The DH1 can stay and keep the blower option - But if I change I'll simplify the whole wiring loom/option

ICBM

Yes, this is a common problem on all modern Fender pickups, particularly any with plastic bobbins. In order to stop the bobbins melting, the workers don’t get the joints hot enough and a fair proportion end up ‘cold’. It’s even sometimes a problem on the fibreboard ones too.

Loobs

Why do you want noiseless pickups though? 

Offset

Many years back I had the same problem with a Fender Lace Sensor.  I was told to replace it as it wasn't repairable. I presume the technology (and therefore the issue) is the same?

ICBM

Loobs said:

Why do you want noiseless pickups though? 

So they don't pick up hum and noise.

If you've never played anywhere with really noisy electrics you might think it doesn't matter enough, or a little bit of noise is just part of the character of single-coil pickups... but imagine playing somewhere where the hum and buzz from the pickups is as loud as the string signal when you're playing, even clean - let alone with a lot of distortion. I've played a couple of places where the only way to make single coils usable was to stand at a very specific awkward angle on stage, and not use high-gain sounds.

There is a reason Gibson invented something called the 'humbucker' back in the 1950s, and why Fender didn't make very many new guitars - none, other than the entry-level Musicmaster and Bronco - without some form of onboard hum cancellation after 1957, even if meant having to use both pickups together (RWRP).

Offset said:

Many years back I had the same problem with a Fender Lace Sensor.  I was told to replace it as it wasn't repairable. I presume the technology (and therefore the issue) is the same?

Similar construction, although the biggest problem is that they're resin-potted, so you can't get at the connections - although if you're careful and lucky with which one has failed, it's sometimes possible to cut into the resin to reach them.

Funkfingers

Lace Sensors are single coils, with rubberised magnets, housing within a lorra, lorra shielding.

Fender Noiseless pickups are stacked coils.

Fender Super 55 pickups have two short coils, one sensing EAD and the other sensing GBE.

•

The output conductor connections Lace Sensors can be repairable with extreme caution. 

If the green shielding conductor fails inside the pickup, simply make a new connection to the baseplate of the pickup.

The start and finish connections are made on the two elements of the "comb". These are bloody difficult to get at with even the narrowest soldering iron tip.

Loobs

Right: flame suit on. Rock n roll is about noise. Why must every single extraneous noise be seen as undesirable, controlled and eventually eliminated?

Yes, we've all done gigs where the lighting or whatever introduces more hum than is ideal. So you work out how to deal with it, play with less overdrive, stand in a different position or whatever. Turn all your pedals off. Learn how to get through the gig. Big deal. It's part of it. 

 I guess what I'm also trying to say is that I've never heard a 'noiseless' pickup that sounded much good.  

Noise should be enjoyed. If you can't handle a bit of hum with your single coils, you shouldn't be playing them. Play humbuckers through a fucking noise gate or something! 

ICBM

Loobs said:

Right: flame suit on. Rock n roll is about noise. Why must every single extraneous noise be seen as undesirable, controlled and eventually eliminated?

Yes, we've all done gigs where the lighting or whatever introduces more hum than is ideal. So you work out how to deal with it, play with less overdrive, stand in a different position or whatever. Turn all your pedals off. Learn how to get through the gig. Big deal. It's part of it.

You've obviously never played in a venue where the noise is so bad that approach is unworkable. Yes, you can get through it if you stand in a special position at an angle to the stage all night and don't use any overdriven sounds... but that's not going to be an enjoyable experience for you or probably even your audience.

Or you can solve the problem by using a sensible bit of technology which stops the noise and lets you get on with making the music you want to. That's why I don't have any guitars with traditional single coil pickups any more - just stacked or mini side-by-side humbuckers - and they still sound fine to me.

I like the sound of single coil guitars and I don't like noise gates so I don't want to use humbuckers and one, thank you . And in any case, for the amount of noise I'm talking about, noise gates aren't any use because the noise is still as loud as the guitar when you're actually playing.

I'd agree that a lot of noiseless pickups don't sound that good, but they've improved over the years and there are some pretty good ones now. (Fender Noiseless aren't among them though.)