My Pickup Doesn't Work

  So you wrapped your pickup, and you connected it to the amplifier.  But it won't work!  There are a few things that you can try to do to fix this situation.

  First of all, check all the obvious stuff.  Is the amplifier turned on and plugged in to a working plug?  Is its volume turned up loud enough?  Did you do all your wiring correctly?  Make sure that everything is connected correctly; the really obvious stuff is the root of your problem more often than you would think here.

  One less obvious thing to try:  Try rotating the tuning fork as you test it.  If you hold it at just the wrong angle, the vibrations of the two prongs of the fork cancel each other out at the pickup, and you get very little, if any, sound  Try using the tuning fork at several different angles to counteract this effect.

  Also, make sure that you have thoroughly cleaned off the ends of the wire, so that you have a really good connection.  The end of each of the two wires coming from the pickup should be copper-colored; you're trying to get down to bare copper.  If it's red or black, try sanding the end down some more with sandpaper.

  If that doesn't solve it, you must have cut the wire somewhere in the wrappings.  If you can unravel the wire a little to find the break, simply throw away the broken-off segment and use what's left.  If you can't find the break, sorry; you have to start all over, and re-make the pickup from scratch.  Sorry; be really careful next time.