What would cause a pick up that’s been in a fire to have a higher impedance than it did before?

[stingrayII]

What would cause a pick up that’s been in a fire to have a higher impedance than it did before? I am working on a jaguar HH modern player that has been in a house fire the rhythm pick up is nine ohns and a stock Lead pick up is about 11 ohms but this lead pick up is 23 ohms I checked all the wiring and it’s fine, I’m guessing that the enamel melted a little bit. But shouldn’t that lower the impedance?

[oid]

Well, you say Ohms, which would suggest huge shorts in the winding and both have dropped drastically from the KiloOhms they should be, but if they got hot enough to melt the enamel the bobbins and covers would be quite a mess as well.

I assume you meant to say KiloOhms and long before the enamel would melt the solder would soften, a less then good solder at the eyelet could increase the measured impedance, resolder the eyelets and take a new measurement. Also make sure if you measuring on the leads and not the eyelets that the wire is clean, soot or the like built up on the copper could cause a poor connect and a higher then expected reading.