A transducing head includes a sensor element having a plurality of
terminal pads and a shunt electrically connected with the sensor element
in parallel for protecting the sensor element from electrical damage
during fabrication of the transducing head. The shunt includes one or
more fuses, where the shunt configured to be repeatedly tested around
during fabrication to allow testing of the sensor element. The shunt is
structured to be permanently electrically removable prior to operation of
the transducing head by directing a shunt removal current through the
shunt which effectively creates an open circuit in the shunt without
causing a damaging current to flow in the sensor element. In another
embodiment, the transducing head includes a shunt electrically connected
with the sensor element in parallel. The shunt includes a plurality of
removable resistive elements, each resistive element having an element
resistance, and an adjustable transducing head resistance defined by the
sensor resistance and the element resistances. Sequential removal of some
or all of the resistive elements establishes a desired transducing head
resistance.