Spoooky: Zombie Neck Pick-Up on Ric

[Michael_B]

Perfect problem for the Halloween holiday: a zombie neck pick-up.  It seems dead and then comes to life.

The neck pick-up often does not produce any sound.  When I lay the guitar down and open it up, all the soldering looks good, the wires appear to be in fine condition and there's no apparent oxidation on any surface.  While open, I'll plug it in and everything's working fine.  Jiggle individual wires, and the sound does not cut out.  After I close it up, it'll work for a short while and then go dead, again.  

While I could, of course, only play it while the control panel is detached from the body and the guitar is laying flat, I'm looking for a more elegant solution.  Any ideas on what may be causing this?

[Dave Scepter]

Take a jumper and bypass the cap to see if it's breaking down... most of the time I will temporarily install a different pickup or "swap neck and Bridge pickup positions" in its place just to see if it's the pickup or something in the existing wiring ie: Cap, potentiometer, resistor, cold solder joint, "pitted contact on the pickup selector switch"... hope that helps

[ARM OF HAMER]

                                                 I had this happen on a guitar I owned long ago, it turned out to be one of the things Dave mentioned...............the pickup selector switch. Good luck hope you get it sorted out. 

[murkat]

cold solder joint somewhere in the circuit.

[DaveH]

On October 29, 2016 at 7:39 PM, murkat said:

cold solder joint somewhere in the circuit.

Most likely this. Re-flow all the joints and button it back up.

[Jakeboy]

Did it get fixed?

[Michael_B]

Yes and no.  I didn't do anything, and it was working fine until I packed it away, again.  

Next time I open it, I'll go ahead and resolder everything.

Thanks for the responses and suggestions.