The how to pot pickups thread for those with annoying feedback.

[vklobucar]

Wow!

I had simply wanted to share with others what I found to be an easy method of removing feedback from my humbuckers. Did not want to start a war of words mind you!

The fact that these pickups are Shaw's and that they come out of my favourite Les Paul is not lost on me. However I simply love this guitar (even more so after the mod) and trust me when I say that I will never sell it.

I have owned literally dozens of guitars over the last two decades and stopped buying any new guitars since I own my three Jackson PC1's as well as my three Les Paul's.

They are somewhat modded to my tastes be it stupid heavy string gauges (13-56) or new or modded pickups.

I play them each and every day and as such they had better perform to my standards or out they go! Kind of like the many tools that are in my work truck really. Function over all else in my book.

Take my opinion for what it is please.....solely my personal thoughts....

V

[tonemonster]

Yea I know, I go stirring the pot on every thread. in general, if a thread dont relate somehow to blues rock chatter, double stop bends, or the cock dragon graphic, I am generally not interested.

[Devotee]

Yea I know, I go stirring the pot on every thread. in general, if a thread dont relate somehow to blues rock chatter, double stop bends, or the cock dragon graphic, I am generally not interested.

I have exactly the same issue!

[DonP]

Here you go. Seymour Duncan taking the original Derrig AFD Les Paul from Slash and dropping the bridge pickup into wax.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/showthread.php?t=228488

I couldn't even imagine what the price of that guitar, let alone that pickup must be.

[CowboyFromHell]

I know I'll prob catch hell from some for resurrecting another dead thread, but oh well. Kudos to vklobucar for making his guitar more his. There's purists who are more concerned about the value of something, then there are others who are more concerned with how something works for them. To borrow a song lyric... "you can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself". Thanks for posting this for others that it may help with a similiar issue. To me, sharing knowledge and experiences with those who need it is what JCF is here for.

[Grim]

Funny... his stove says Gibson...

[Twitch]

Funny... his stove says Gibson...

Wow, it does. Sharp eye you got there.

[murkat]

I pot pickups all the time.
Some change in tone a little bit, most do not.
I use hot plate, double insulated tub,
50/50 parafin, bees wax mix.
temp no hotter than 150 degrees,
I let them soak and shake periodically for at least 20 minutes
then let them cool to room temp.
For my High gain settings, it is a must to avoid microphonic feedback.

[Sharkfin]

StewMac sent this newsletter out today about potting pickups that might be useful to anyone planning on doing it. There's some good info there provided by Lindy Fralin. He's using 100% paraffin was as opposed to his earlier recipe of 80% paraffin & %20 bees wax. He says the bees wax can darken the tone of the pickup.

http://www.stewmac.com/tsarchive/ts0168.html

[toejam]

StewMac sent this newsletter out today about potting pickups that might be useful to anyone planning on doing it. There's some good info there provided by Lindy Fralin. He's using 100% paraffin was as opposed to his earlier recipe of 80% paraffin & %20 bees wax. He says the bees wax can darken the tone of the pickup.

http://www.stewmac.com/tsarchive/ts0168.html

Also got that newsletter today. I always look forward to getting their emails and learning new and informative stuff.

[vklobucar]

But the stove MUST be a Gibson in order for the potting to work well! LOL!

[Sharkfin]

Also got that newsletter today. I always look forward to getting their emails and learning new and informative stuff.

Indeed, some of them are really cool and very informative. Just and FYI for anyone else, they are archived on StewMac's site.

http://www.stewmac.com/tradesecrets/archive

[silar]

I pot pickups all the time.
Some change in tone a little bit, most do not.
I use hot plate, double insulated tub,
50/50 parafin, bees wax mix.
temp no hotter than 150 degrees,
I let them soak and shake periodically for at least 20 minutes
then let them cool to room temp.
For my High gain settings, it is a must to avoid microphonic feedback.

I do it the same way. The bees wax makes the wax less brittle and a little more pliable. Keeps it from cracking. I am surprised that no one mentioned the Temperature before. I usually keep mine as close to 147 degF as possible.

As far as covered pickups, you do not have to remove the covers to pot them. Just dip and let sit for a few minutes. Agitate it a bit to get the air bubbles out. The wax will go into the pickup through any open crevice. Sometimes I'll double or triple dip them to get some additional layers of wax on really microphonic pickups..