# Do pick-ups ever "wear out"



## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

So do guitar pickups ever wear out or wear down? Is there anything that can really destroy them or render them useless through time itself?


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## jimihendrix (Jun 27, 2009)

there is a highly technical discussion about it here...if you understand "scientological" talk...ha ha ha...

Magnetic engineering - Alnico vs Ceramic in Guitar Pickups

things are easier to digest here...

GuitarNuts.com - How Magnetic Pickups Work

you are finally lead here...

http://www.q-tuner.com/index.shtml


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## J S Moore (Feb 18, 2006)

The insulation can break down over time and the wire can corrode. The decay rate in the magnetic field of Alnico is about 1% in 100 years so I wouldn't worry about the magnet. I don't know what the lifespan of ABS plastic is.


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## keeperofthegood (Apr 30, 2008)

the ABS life span is inversely proportional to the amount of atmospheric NOx and SOx both of which are key degradation culprits of most plastics. Second to that is UV exposure, but many plastics are treated these days to be less sensitive to that. This would be followed by heat exposure such as fire or leaving them in sun or in hot vehicles.

I would think un-potted would fail sooner than potted, due to wire on wire abrasion over time.

I don't know how the insulation bonds to the copper, I don't know if moisture and gaseous contamination wick under the insulation of varnished wire.


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## dwagar (Mar 6, 2006)

so, be careful with any pickups that are over 500 years old?


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

So basically over normal usage, without any kind of major abuse, they will last forever.


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

dwagar said:


> so, be careful with any pickups that are over 500 years old?


Darn, time to get some new ones then...


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## copperhead (May 24, 2006)

i have seen some pretty dirty guitars that i had to rewind a shorted coil in humbuckers mostly with open coils the style with no covers & with rusted screws that you cant get out, some of that crap along with some of that rust can get into the coils causing to wear thru the magnet wire .maybe they were using it for a paddle
3dgrw


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I think we need to distinguish between simple "wearing out" (as the thread says), and cumulative risk of malfunction over time.

So the polepices in a single coil may not lose their strength over time, and the copper in the coil certainly doesn't lose anything over time. But the insulation stands a greater risk of changing over time, moisture can get into the inner windings nearest the polepieces, and the risks of breakage or shorts in the coil increase with time. Again, though, that is cumulative risk of malfunction, NOT a steady decline in the quality of a fully functional pickup. 

Similarly, the valid points that have been mentioned about the plastic that bobbins are made of pertain to the time-related risk of something interfering with the ability of a pickup to function in the way it remains capable of doing.

Finally, as is discussed in another thread, it IS possible for the magnets to be impacted on by other strong magnetic fields. However, these are anomalies, not normal cumulative influences. If they WERE normal, then none of us woud have such wonderful tales to tell about these assorted vintage pieces that sound so marvelous. I am quite certain that all those fabulous-sounding gutars with pickups 40 and 50 years old do not sound great because they were hermetically sealed in a vault.


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## Phlegethon (Dec 18, 2009)

if you place a guitar close to a large magnet you do run a risk of degaussing it. degaussed magnets in the context of what I'm talking about is a very undesirable thing as pickup magnets that are degaussed don't make a magnetic field. if they don't make a field, you don't get sound. 

fixing this is as easy as reenergizing the magnet though. . .not like this will do permanent damage. avoid doing things like resting your guitar up on a cab (speakers have big magnets in them) for long periods of time . . that sort of thing. it goes without saying that any kind of abuse that would break a wire in the coils or anything of that ilk but that isn't covered by the scope of this thread IMO


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