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

[Ward]

I've been doing some pickup swapping. I put a Duncan Distortion in two guitars. Both guitars sound great, but at band practice volume, there is feedback when I have the strings muted. It is not a high pitch feedback, it is mid to bassy. There are certain places I can stand that it does not appear, but most places it does. Usually my setup is dead quiet, but not with these two guitars. If you hit a chord and stop it dead, the feedback is there immediately when the strings are covered.

I have narrowed it down to the pickups with the following info:

It is only the two guitars with Duncan Distortions that have the feedback issue. Every other model pickup I own (JB, J50BC, J80, Super Distortion, EMG 81 & 85, Burstbucker) is fine at the same amp settings and volume.
If I switch to the other pickups while the guitars are feeding back, the feedback goes away.
I rewired a JB back into one of the guitars, no feedback. Put the distortion back in, feedback re-appeared. Neither of the guitars had this issue with their original pickups (JB in one, J50BC in the other).

I have tried eq-ing to get rid of the feedback, but it doesn't work without totally changing my sound (if I scoop the bass down to 0 or 1 it goes away).

Just wondering if anyone had an experience like this. I really like the sound of the Distortion pickup, but unless I can figure out what is going on, I may have to go with a different pickup. Everything else I have tried is dead quiet with my rig.


So has anyone else ever found a pickup that just didn't get along with their amp, or is there something else going on here that I'm missing?


Thanks for any thoughts...

[alphadog808]

Could it be that the pickups have gone microphonic? Or maybe you can try rewaxing/potting the pickup...there's a number of way to do it but the gist is to get the wax flowing again to make sure nothing is moving/causing feedback...You might want to check the 4 screws on the plate of the pickup and make sure they're in solid. But don't crank to hard as the screws are going into plastic...

[Grim]

Definitely something funky going on here.

[Ward]

Could it be that the pickups have gone microphonic? Or maybe you can try rewaxing/potting the pickup...there's a number of way to do it but the gist is to get the wax flowing again to make sure nothing is moving/causing feedback...You might want to check the 4 screws on the plate of the pickup and make sure they're in solid. But don't crank to hard as the screws are going into plastic...

I don't know much about microphonic pickups, but I highly doubt it. They are both brand new pickups fresh from the box. Both had wax residue on the base plates from when they were waxed.

[javert]

I've had the same issue with the SD Distortion and the SD Custom in my SL2Ts. I EQ'ed my way out of it and turned down the gain slightly.

[javert]

Mine are also fairly new, by the way.

[Ward]

Thanks for that, makes me feel better that someone else has had the issue...

I'm driving myself nuts trying to figure it out what else could be causing it, but I'm convinced it has to be the SD distortion. Now I just have to find something else with a similar sound without the same feedback...

[javert]

What else could it be when it happens even when the strings are muted?

[Ward]

True.

But I had never heard of this problem, and didn't find anything searching online for issues with SD Distortions. So I wondered if I just wasn't thinking thoroughly enough and was missing something.

[straycat]

I have an old set of SD distortions on one guitar and its quiet as a mouse.
Check the screws on the base plate first.DD tend to be very sensitive to height so try not to get them too close to the strings.
You could adj the pole pieces to where the are flush with the bobbins, lower the pick ups get the vol about the same on each pick up and tweak the pole pieces to taste.
Last resort dial back the gain on the amp.

[markD]

i have had qutie a few pickups that clash with my amp - mostly the dimarzio super distortion and its derivatives, i.e. super 2, super 3, etc....

they don't cause feedback, but they just sound assilicious through my rig.

[mrhiwatt]

Perhaps your pickup is to close to the strings. When muting the magnets of the pickup cause string to resonate.

MrHiwatt

[straycat]

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.

[javert]

How can they sustain when you mute them? The strings have to move to induce a current...

[Hellbat]

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.