Anyone ever had a pickup model that didn't get along with your amp?

[Ward]

With most any passive pick up you don't want them too close to the strings they will lose sustain and harmonics.
I'll bet if you back them down that problem will go away.

Remember the poles are magnets and strings are metal.

I'll vary the pickup height tomorrow night when I can crank up to practice volumes, anything is worth a try. But I always set my pickups further away from the strings than recommended. These pickups are 4-5mm away from the strings when depressed at the last fret.

Also, the strings are not moving at all. The feedback happens when I have them covered with both hands, and there is no vibration whatsoever. So I don't think it is the magnets pulling on the strings that is making this noise. The strings are not moving at all (I wrapped a towel around them once just to test it) and it howls like a wounded animal, so something else is making the noise.

But I'll mess with pole pieces and heights tomorrow when I can turn up the volume a bit. I've been wrong before

[Ward]

My jazz neck in my RR1T goes microphonic at medium to high gain settings at moderate volumes even though it's been potted. My problem is it sounds so awesome clean that I can't bring myself to change it out or repot it to mess with it's mojo.

That's why I would like to solve this mystery. I love the sound of these pickups. If I could just get rid of this noise...

[Newc]

Definitely sounds like too much gain. With Distortion-class pickups, the idea behind them is that they push a low-gain amp harder. Running them into a high-gain amp that doesn't need any help, or into a pedal that's already pushing the amp, means you're stacking too much gain boost. Either cut the boost pedal off when using the DDs or back off the amp's gain.

You could also add a noise gate so that whatever isn't strings is not heard. However, you might lose those volume swells and slow-decay fades.

[charvel750]

Yeah, Jeff, Matt's pretty much spot on. Even though your JB is a high output pickup, the Distortion is even more so, and made to slam your preamp, so you don't need mega gain. You can even try rolling the volume down especially if you know you're coming to a break or the end of a song. I recall watching old, live Sabbath videos, during War Pigs (with all the stops in between) Iommi squealing like a pig with his SG's single coils just unable to hush up when he stopped playing.

[jdr94]

I used to get a bit of noise sometimes at band practice. Turned out it was only when I stood under or near the flourocent lights...maybe somethin like that could be the issue.

Although that wouldnt explain why its only those guitars

[Newc]

Or it could be you got the rare set of undercooked pickups and simply need to give them some heat.

I've got an old Gibson Dirty Fingers that does that. Stop playing and get instant feedback. It's an original 80s model, so I'm sure the wax has worked its way loose from the coils over the years of playing, warming up, then melting slightly and re-setting.

[neptoess]

You could also be too close to your amp. You should be a good 5-10 ft away from your cab and facing away from it when playing loud. As for the microphonic argument, microphonic pickups will squeal even at low gain, even when playing. Another good test is to scream into the pickup. A microphonic pickup will actually amplify this sound. Good example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L0srh-iCUU that intro is Scott yelling into an old Les Paul. So next time you change strings, turn your amp up a bit and start screaming at your guitar at close proximity

[Ward]

Well I finally got some time that I could crank the amp up today.

Verdict: Newc was right. I don't use a boost pedal (just guitar into the amp), but turning the gain down on the amp or lowering the guitar volume got rid of the feedback type noise.

The problem is, I don't like the sound of this pickup with the gain turned down as much as other pickups with the gain cranked

So I guess I have to choose between keeping the pickup and only using these guitars for playing alone at bedroom level volumes with the gain cranked, or switching to some other less hot pickups that I like the sound of so I can crank the gain & volume and use them as band guitars. Not sure if getting a noise gate for 1 or 2 specific guitars makes much sense...

General question: How do you determine if a pickup will 'slam' your preamp? Joe mentioned that the JB is high output but the Distortion is more so. On the SD site the specs were almost identical, but my amp seems to love JBs at high gain & volume, and hates Distortions. So how does one know if a pickup will overload an amp with gain? What specs do you look at to tell? I don't want to keep trying pickups only to find that they create another situation with too much gain.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. It's great to have a resource with so many knowledgeable minds in one place.

[neptoess]

sd is a little vague on output. They just say 'hot'. Dimarzio, Bill lawrence, Bkp, Others are alot better about it. Really though, You can play high gain at low volume, but even dime had his gain rolled off at stage volume. His noise suppressors help. You could run one through your fx loop

[Ward]

sd is a little vague on output. They just say 'hot'. Dimarzio, Bill lawrence, Bkp, Others are alot better about it. Really though, You can play high gain at low volume, but even dime had his gain rolled off at stage volume. His noise suppressors help. You could run one through your fx loop

Seymour Duncan gives a little more info on the pickup comparison chart, but the JB & Distortion are almost exact. The DC resistance of the JB is 16.4k, and the Distortion is 16.6k. The resonant peak is 5.5khz on both. So that's why I'm at a loss as far as what to look for. Not sure which spec has to do with overloading gain (if either of them do), but with the JB working perfectly for me, I thought I would have been safe with the specs on the Distortion.

But I definitely like the sound of a JB with the gain cranked on my amp more than the sound of a Distortion with the gain rolled back. So I may just put the JBs back in and try to figure out a pickup that produces a thicker, juicier sound than the JB without overloading my amp at high gain & volume. I just don't like the sound of my amp nearly as much if the gain is lower than 8ish.

I have only been playing in a band for a few months, so for ten years of owning a 100W stack I never had to worry about what happened at higher volumes. Spent 10 years getting great sounds with volume at about 1 or 2. The Distortion is killer for that!

[neptoess]

I really don't think the Distortion is much higher output than the JB. If you can be at the same volume level with the JB at higher gain than the distortion without feedback I'd be quite surprised. I use, for example, an L-500XL. This pickup is possibly one of the hottest passives out there, barring that ridiculous Bare Knuckle. My settings for Laney's nonAOR channel (which is basically a very JCM800 type gain) are 10 on every knob but master volume. It is then boosted with my SD-1's level dimed, gain at 9 oclock, tone at 2 oclock. This is a very crunchy high gain sound, and I can still control the feedback, with a pickup that is even hotter and more aggressive on the amp's front end than the distortion. I would resort to seeing if the pickup has gone microphonic, and again making sure it isn't too close to the strings. If it is truly microphonic, it will get the same squeal even when outside of the guitar, so lower it as far as you can, and check squealiness there

edit: also, tapping on the pickup with your finger or a pick is an easier test for microphonic pickups. If it makes a noise through the amp, it isn't properly potted

[Ward]

I guess my amp just loves JBs. I leave everything the same, unplug the guitar with the Distortion that is making that god awful feedback, plug in a soloist that is exactly the same except for the JB pickup, and it is dead quiet if I don't play something. Night and day difference. I don't know how to explain it. I agree that it is surprising, but if I could upload a video I would show you.

The pickups are not microphonic, and they are not too close to the strings. Yesterday I tried every suggestion people gave, even if I had already ruled it out. My pickups are much further from the strings than recommended, but I lowered them as far as they would go (into the pickup ring and flush with the body) and it didn't minimize the noise at all. I yelled into the pickups and tapped on them, and they reacted the same way my JBs did.

I don't want to come off as a know it all, I just want to be clear that I have tried all the suggestions given, either before or after this thread.

But I agree, it is very confusing to me that the Distortion would react SO much differently than the JB when they seem so close on specs. Also seems strange that I need to roll the gain down to about 4 to get rid of the noise, but I do. By then the amp loses the sound I love.

[neptoess]

Have you tried the distortion in the soloist and JB in your other guitar?

[Ward]

Hope this doesn't get too confusing...

One of the soloists that has a Distortion in it now started with a J50BC. I put the Distortion in, and the howling started. I swapped it for a JB which fixed the problem. I put the Distortion back in, the problem came back.

The other soloist with the Distortion in it now started with a JB. It was fine and quiet with a JB, but when I put a Distortion in it the howling started. I haven't swapped it out for a JB yet, because it had one originally, so I know it works in there.

To be clear, I have 2 new Distortion pickups in 2 different soloists, and both exhibited the same issues. So it isn't just a bad pickup, it would have to be 2 bad pickups.

[neptoess]

That's crazy. I've never heard of anyone having that kind of problem with a duncan distortion. What amp?