Pickup problems.

[Sully807]

Couple of problems I've picked up on since playing at volume with the band recently, as well as at home in a couple of cases.. Need some of your knowledge guys

I have been wondering of the guy that installed my seymour duncan aph2s did a bad job, firstly the pickups don't seem very secure, they seem to rattle around a bit which seems odd, however that's a minor problem, the bridge pickup is quieter and has less gain than the neck, this becomes even more of apparent at higher volumes, could this be from a cold solder joint? I've played with heights but it doesn't have much of an impact. My other thoughts is the volume pot is a bit dirty, could this cause that?

The biggest problem though is the microphonic feedback once I get to volume with the band.. It's almost uncontrolable and a real annoyance.. Could a poor install cause this as well? I know it's typically a sight of unpotted pups but the SDs are potted and shouldn't have failed this soon?

Any thoughts would be a great help thanks

[Mike_LA]

Not too sure if this could be the issue, but from the seymore duncan site, those pups have a coil split option. If they were wired one normal and the second split it might sound like your issue. Open the instrument up and make sure he used the same color wires on the output of both pups.
Best of luck, M

[Cousin Muely]

The way I see it, if something don't seem right then your probably justified in taking a close look at everything. I take all my guitars to a very experienced Luthier. His level of expertise is overkill for most of what I use him for and it's a decent ride to see him. But, when he's done I know it's right. I can do most things but I'd just as soon pay him and save my time. I'd find somebody you can trust and get em to smoke it over.

[Sully807]

Thanks for your responses guys, mike - it wouldn't be that as the aph2s are old school single braded wire jobs, only way you can get split option with with the custom floor options through a dealer..

Cousin this is what I was thinking I'm gunna have to do, just a bit gutting as there's constantly stuff popping up to pay out for, also being my only electric I wanted to keep it's time out of action to a minimum, luckily there's a guy close to me that is reknown as one of the best techs in the country, I'll take it to him

[Cousin Muely]

Yeah Sully. I know what you mean. You've got a nice rig and when the timing is right it'll be money and time we'll spent.

[burnsy]

Could the pickups have been installed in the wrong positions? This would account for the higher output neck you have.
Have the tension springs or rubber tubing been installed under the adjustment screws? This usualy stops the pups rattling about.
Have you checked the amp with another guitar. Could be a crazy coincidence that you have a tube go microphonic at the same time as guitar was being modded. A long short but worth checking.

[Sully807]

I'll check the positions burnsy, also I'll check if things still go microphonic with the neck pick up at rehearsal on Friday although doing a bit if research poorly mounted pups can be a cause of microphonics.. Does anyone know seymour Duncan's policy on failing pups though if it needs repotting etc?

[Mike_LA]

Hummmm, well I was just playing a Tele that I put SD Phat Cats into ( P90 pups in a humbucker case).
I rarely use the bridge pup but when I did switch to it, I noticed that the volume was much lower than the neck pup.
Both pups are at the same height, Curious, it will take a bit to figure that problem out

[Sully807]

That's weird mike, I hear cold solders can be a cause of output loss in a pup..

Here's a sample of the feedback I'm talking about at the beginning of this vid

[Sully807]

So I was at the studio again last night, the feedback is on both pick ups, it's unlikely that the wax potting has failed on both.. So I'm suspecting either a valve or pedal.. Will have to trouble shoot :/

[Marker]

The SD APH regular or Slash edition (or even any other SD or quality pickup) don't feedback like that.

That feedback is coming from something (probably a pedal) you have on the chain that's boosting some particular frequency that makes your rig feedback like that. It always depends on the combination of your amp's eq, your guitar/pickups characteristics and your pedal chain, mostly gain/distortion/eq pedals.

I'm sure if you plug your guitar directly to the VM without any pedals in between or in the loop it won't feedback like that; at most with high volume it'll be a singing feedback (like GN'R's Estranged for example). So you can start from there and keep pluging pedal by pedal to find out where's the cause. One trick some guys use is having a band EQ (your MXR would be fine for this) to cut a/some specific frequencie(s) that cause this feedback.

[Sully807]

You're right marker, the mxr gets used for unboosting so kind of rules it out for being used to iron out the bad frequencies although it isn't nearly as bad when the eq is active, I suspect it might be the cry baby, it's the only pedal that isn't true bypass, the other pedal it may be is the OD

[Marker]

I don't think the Cry Baby does it if it's switched off/bypass mode even tough it's not true bypass.

I got that kind of feedback when I used the TSL and pushed the mid/higher frequencies with a EQ pedal and used it together with the Cry Baby sweeping on the higher frequencies.

[Sully807]

Yeah I wouldn't think a cry baby would do that in good working order, but this once a bit.... Fucked haha