String isn't amplified correctly on Squier Strat Classic Vibe 60s

Hey there,

a friend of mine has lend me his Squier Strat Classic vibe 60s. It has been sitting around for 5 years (he stopped playing guitar). One thing that I remarqued instantly was that one of the strings wasn't amplified correctly with the middle pickup (G string). It sounded like it was deaden, and only on the middle pickup. This problem occured with older strings and also with new strings (I restrang the guitar with fresh d'addario). Also, the pickups in general are buzzing a lot (even for a single coil guitar), and doesn't like distortion (it sounds pretty weawith some distortion). So I'm thinking there might be an electrical issue somewhere. What do you think? Ever had / heard about a similar problem?

Thanks for helping Greetings Yann

Perhaps the pole is lower than the rest. I don't think it would be an electrical issue if all the others work.

I was going to say microphonics, but would like to change my answer to corrosion. I suspect corrosion on the windings of the pickup.

If the guitar is untouched for 5 years, pull apart and look for corrosion, (green, orange or white build up on anything metal... like the pickups UNDER the plastic covers.

hmmm, the G polepiece should be highest on a 50s or 60s style strat pickup as they are compensated to amplify the smaller wound strings that were often quieter than the 2 lowest wounds and the plain strings (Gs used to be wound universally, unwound Gs were innovated by british players who sued banjo strings in place of the stock wound one) and despite the common use of a plain G 11 gauge or less by most strat owners the very high G polepiece is thought to be a part of the original recipe strat's signature sound... if the G si the highest polepiece then Boom is wrong...

this one is out there, but I have run into weirder things... consider that the neck wood may have harmonic dead spots that aren't heard the same by each pickup (every pickup on multiple pickup is under a different harmonic node)... this may be intrinisic to the enck but more likely given the symptom it may be an issues with the way the neck is coupling to the body in the pocket or the amount of relief on the truss

address all of those neck issues before examining the pickup just to be sure that your pickup

corrosion?