stereo guitar + effects pedal = blown pickup?

[jeff]

 Most pedals I've seen use a stereo jack at the input and the ring is connected to the battery - so when you plug in a mono cord it grounds the battery. But what happens if you have a stereo guitar with one pickup to ring one pickup to tip? if you plug that into a pedal won't you be putting the pickup connected to the ring in series with the battery? Could this blow your pickup?

[HotBluePlates]

... if you plug that into a pedal won't you be putting the pickup connected to the ring in series with the battery? Could this blow your pickup?

Yes. And probably not (but depends on how much current the pedal is pulling from the battery).

On the flipside, few guitars are stereo. And very much fewer pedals are stereo input. So the moral is if you have a stereo-wired guitar, use a splitter cable (as this is required to get more than 1 pickup 99.999% of the time anyway).

[drgonzonm]

Off the top of my head, DI Boxes, can have what appears to be a stereo output, if it is outputting a balanced signal.  These are a special case.   If your pedal has what looks like an XLR plug, on the output or input, then you might have a 1/4 plug that also uses a balanced signal. I can think of another couple of boxes that look like pedals that have produce a balanced signal. 

[sluckey]

Off the top of my head, DI Boxes, can have what appears to be a stereo output, if it is outputting a balanced signal.  These are a special case.   If your pedal has what looks like an XLR plug, on the output or input, then you might have a 1/4 plug that also uses a balanced signal. I can think of another couple of boxes that look like pedals that have produce a balanced signal.

Has absolutely nothing to do with what Jeff asked.