Might have a broken M3 pickup.........please help confirm

[Herzomud]

Hi,

after finding out the pickup combinations of my hollow Atom with M1/M1/M3 I confirmed the combinations and splits by touching a screwdriver to pole pieces in each setting.

The only odd thing I get is that when selecting the M3 alone in the bridge position it registers the screwdriver tip on the pole pieces furthest from the bridge but does not make any sound when touching the bridge side pole pieces. As this should be full humbucker I assume I should get noise from both sets of pole pieces.

The pickup heights are set in line with the string heights with bridge highest and neck lowest, (all are very close to the strings). With this setup the bridge pickup does add a little bit of gain compared to neck or middle. (Maybe similar gain difference to a strat bridge pickup vs neck in a calibrated set).

However I have not owned these pickups before and I am not sure if I should be hearing a bigger gain difference with it being an M3 vs M1. (I am assuming that the sound would be quite weaker from the bridge in position 1 if only 1 coil was actually working)

If I had never checked the pole pieces by touching them I would probably not even noticed

Please help............

[pipedwho]

I have M1s in a guitar, but never tried an M3, so take this with a grain of salt. But, the M3 is supposed to be noticeably stronger than the M1s, so you should hear a pretty decent level increase when you go between the middle or neck pickup and the bridge.

The M series do sound 'plinky' when you split them, and they lose their fullness. However, the M3 may be strong enough to not suffer quite so much as splitting an M1.

It does sound like the M3 might have a shorted coil (that is assuming no one has played with the wiring/switching since it left the factory). You should definitely hear something when you touch any of the pole pieces with a screwdriver.

[tom]

is it humming when on by itself? if one coil is not working it should be humming. if i remember correctly, it does split when in combination with the middle pickup.

[Herzomud]

Sent my guitar to my local tech who told me that he had fixed a couple of solder joints that were looking worse for wear.

I am completely clueless on the wring aspect of guitars therefore would not have even known what to look for.

However, happy result is that the guitar is working great and everything is OK with the pickups.

The M3 is no louder, (as far as I can tell from memory), but definitely works like a true calibrated set, which I am very very happy with.

And old school testing confirms that both sets of pole pieces make a noise when I touch them with a screw driver now.