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Topic: Pickup too sensitive......Help!!! |
Dwight Lewis
From:
Huntsville, Alabama
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Posted 17 Apr 2017 11:07 am |
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I have a Later model Sierra S12 and I have 3 pickups for it, GL 12-1, BL912, and a TA-12. The TA-12 picks up ever noise in and around the guitar(pedal movement). If I increase the volume you can hear all of the pedal noise and if I tap on the guitar itself you can hear the tapping pretty good. The BL 712 is the same but only slightly. Since these are unique slide in pickups, does anybody know who is the master at fixing these pups?
Thanks
Dwight
dwightlewis652@gmail.com
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Dekley (PRS-10C), BMI S12 |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 17 Apr 2017 11:52 am
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It sounds like the TA-12 is highly microphonic.
I've heard of having them re-waxed, re-potted or whatever you want to call it. |
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Lane Gray
From:
Topeka, KS
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Posted 17 Apr 2017 4:01 pm
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I'd shoot Forum member Bob Hoffnar a message: he makes/made the pickups, he can probably give you tips on the repotting.
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2 pedal steels, a lapStrat, and an 8-string Dobro (and 3 ukes)
More amps than guitars, and not many effects |
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Dwight Lewis
From:
Huntsville, Alabama
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Posted 17 Apr 2017 7:43 pm Pickup noise
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Ok, I will see what Bob had to say.
Dwight
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Dekley (PRS-10C), BMI S12 |
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Dwight Lewis
From:
Huntsville, Alabama
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Posted 21 Apr 2017 10:28 pm Pickup noise....Rewinding Humbuckers
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Does anyone know anyone that can rewind these type of humbucker pickups?
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Dekley (PRS-10C), BMI S12 |
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Jake Bopp
From:
Tallahassee, FL
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Posted 22 Apr 2017 6:11 am
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| Microphonic is what that bad boy is. Re-potting is the solution. Not a difficult process, no need to re-wind. |
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Pat Chong
From:
New Mexico, USA
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Posted 22 Apr 2017 6:20 am
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Hello, Dwight,
You said that they are "slide-in" pickups. Being microphonic they may need rewinding, but check and clean the electrical contacts. Dirty contacts may be the problem.....try the easy stuff, first....
...............Pat |
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Dwight Lewis
From:
Huntsville, Alabama
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Posted 22 Apr 2017 10:31 am Humbucker pickup Noise
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Looks like we are getting warmer, come on fellas, dig deep into those brains for me. The pickup sounds wonderful very crisps and smooth and warm. Just has that microphonic character to it. You guys think Jason Lollar could fix this pup up right?
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Dekley (PRS-10C), BMI S12 |
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John Billings
From:
Ohio, USA
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Posted 22 Apr 2017 2:05 pm
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Jason wrote the book considered to be the rewinder's Bible.
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Dr. Z Surgical Steel amp, amazing!
"74 Bud S-10 3&6
'73 Bud S-10 3&5(under construction)
'63 Fingertip S-10, at James awaiting 6 knees
'57 Strat, LP Blue
'91 Tele with 60's Maple neck
Dozen more guitars!
Dozens of amps, but SF Quad reverb, Rick Johnson cabs. JBL 15, '64 Vibroverb for at home.
'52 and '56 Pro Amps |
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Chris Reesor
From:
British Columbia, Canada
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Posted 22 Apr 2017 8:54 pm
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Dwight, a magnetic pickup is supposed to only put out a signal when the magnetic field is affected by the string; this induces a signal voltage in the pickup coil.
If the pickup coil can move relative to the magnets under the influence of mechanical vibrations, this will also produce a signal, and you now have a microphonic pickup.
To deal with this, pickups are often potted by saturating the windings in melted paraffin. Of course one would first make sure there were no loose screws or such basic mechanical issues.
Any competent pickup maker should be able to fix this for you, probably quite inexpensively.
I have a Tonealigner on my Excel and dig it a lot; good luck getting yours up to snuff again.
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Excel Superb U12, MIJ Squier tele, modified Deluxe Reverb RI, Cube 80XL, self built acoustics & mandolins |
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Dwight Lewis
From:
Huntsville, Alabama
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Posted 22 Apr 2017 9:34 pm Pickup Noise
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Thanks and yes the TA-12 sounds wonderful. Thinking about getting a TT-12 for this guitar; one tapped for like 9.5K/19.5K.....
Dwight
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Dekley (PRS-10C), BMI S12 |
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Brad Higgins
From:
New York, USA
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Posted 23 Apr 2017 5:56 am
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| Hi Dwight, all you have to do is completely rubber mount your pickup, and I mean including the mounting screws, the pedal noise will only conduct through solid contact. The pedals on my homebuilt steel are extremely noisy acoustically, but, since my pickup is entirely mounted with neoprene foam rubber, NO pedal noise comes through the amp AT ALL. |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 23 Apr 2017 6:00 am
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And besides that, since the pickup is highly micro-phonic, you can sing through it.  |
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Brad Higgins
From:
New York, USA
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Posted 23 Apr 2017 5:33 pm
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| Erv Niehaus wrote: |
| And besides that, since the pickup is highly micro-phonic, you can sing through it. |
That could actually be a good thing. Just take two feet of vacuum cleaner hose, attach a piece of elastic to one end, so that end can be secured (hands free) in front of one's mouth, take a short piece of coat hanger or 1/8" welding or brazing rod to secure the other end to the steel, right over the pickup, and you'll be able to sing while playing, without having to use a microphone, you could even do songs from the elephant man. All kidding aside, even if the pickup is highly microphonic, rubber mounting it will drastically reduce most of the pedal noise from coming through to the pickup. |
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Brad Higgins
From:
New York, USA
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Posted 23 Apr 2017 7:23 pm
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| Hi Dwight, one final note, a microphonic pickup on a steel is NOT picking up sound waves through the air causing pedal noise being heard through the amp, if it were, every time you played on stage, your steel amp would be feeding back and picking up all of the other instruments on stage, but it's NOT, it's picking up pedal noise because there's solid contact between the pickup and the body causing a solid transmission from the body to the pickup, causing the windings to vibrate. If you took the pickup off the steel and held it right over the strings, near where it's normally mounted, and started hitting your pedals, you wouldn't hear ANY pedal noise at all. I'm telling you all of this from personal experience, I build violins (hand built over 100)and violin pickups (PZT & PVDF piezo pickups, in the hundreds), for a living, and also made quite a few magnetic guitar, mandolin, and steel pickups. You have a choice, you can listen to someone with 53 years of experience building stringed musical instruments and pickups, or not, it's up to you. If you would like to see my qualifications just go to www.bradivarius.com . Good luck. |
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Henry Matthews
From:
Texarkana, Ark USA
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Posted 24 Apr 2017 10:51 am
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Brad, you make a lot of sense. In my 40 years of playing, I've never seen a micro phonic pickup or one that has gone micro phonic. I have had steel that you would swear they were but isolating the pickup from a solid contact to the body eliminated the problem as you stated.
I guess one could go micro phonic but there would have to be some tangible reason but can't think of what would make one do it. I've tried and every steel I have you can talk thru pickup if you turn amp up enough. At our rehearsals, I play my IPhone thru the pickup on my steel to listen to a song, they all do that. Some one is going to have to actually show me a micro phonic pickup before I believe it. Now, cheap pickups are going to do that but I don't believe an Emmons single coil or any well made pickup will ever go micro phonic, I'm stubborn, LOL.
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Henry Matthews
D-10 Magnum, 8 &5, dark rose color
D-10 1974 Emmons cut tail, fat back,rosewood, 8&5
Nashville 112 amp, Fishman Loudbox Performer amp, Hilton pedal, Goodrich pedal,BJS bar, Kyser picks, Live steel Strings. No effects, doodads or stomp boxes. |
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Bill Miller
From:
Gaspe, Quebec, Canada
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Posted 24 Apr 2017 12:52 pm
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| My first steel was a very old Sho~Bud S10 and the pickup in that had gone microphonic alright. You could pretty near sing into that one. ( I'm exaggerating ) But it would amplify every little accidental bump or tap on the surrounding area. I took it out and put in a George Ls 10-1. |
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Henry Matthews
From:
Texarkana, Ark USA
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Posted 24 Apr 2017 1:05 pm
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| Bill Miller wrote: |
| My first steel was a very old Sho~Bud S10 and the pickup in that had gone microphonic alright. You could pretty near sing into that one. ( I'm exaggerating ) But it would amplify every little accidental bump or tap on the surrounding area. I took it out and put in a George Ls 10-1. |
Bill, was the steel that way when you got it or did it become that way after you had it for a while. Cheap pickups are nothing but microphones in a sense anyway so if it was that way when you got it, it was probably always that way. If not then I guess it would be possible for some of the windings to short out and possibly make a pickup that way.
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Henry Matthews
D-10 Magnum, 8 &5, dark rose color
D-10 1974 Emmons cut tail, fat back,rosewood, 8&5
Nashville 112 amp, Fishman Loudbox Performer amp, Hilton pedal, Goodrich pedal,BJS bar, Kyser picks, Live steel Strings. No effects, doodads or stomp boxes. |
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Dwight Lewis
From:
Huntsville, Alabama
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Posted 24 Apr 2017 1:15 pm Pickup noise
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Yeah you all are right on target. I only noticed the noise one day when my bar slide against the neck while I was practicing alone. This is when I took the other 2 pup(BL712, GL12-1) and checked them. The GL12-1 was completely quite at full throttle but the BL712 made a little noise but the Tone Aligner was much more. But in the mix with everyone playing around me, its not noticeable. This pup is like a TT/BL mixed together. As for making it to where its not solidly mounted, that would be a little hard cause these pickups are the modular slide in kind. If'n I ever get a voice, I will try singing through it  . Thanks guys for the good info.
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Dekley (PRS-10C), BMI S12 |
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Henry Matthews
From:
Texarkana, Ark USA
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Posted 24 Apr 2017 1:56 pm Re: Pickup noise
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| Dwight Lewis wrote: |
| Yeah you all are right on target. I only noticed the noise one day when my bar slide against the neck while I was practicing alone. This is when I took the other 2 pup(BL712, GL12-1) and checked them. The GL12-1 was completely quite at full throttle but the BL712 made a little noise but the Tone Aligner was much more. But in the mix with everyone playing around me, its not noticeable. This pup is like a TT/BL mixed together. As for making it to where its not solidly mounted, that would be a little hard cause these pickups are the modular slide in kind. If'n I ever get a voice, I will try singing through it . Thanks guys for the good info. |
Some pickups are just more sensitive than others. I don't think it's micro phonic.
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Henry Matthews
D-10 Magnum, 8 &5, dark rose color
D-10 1974 Emmons cut tail, fat back,rosewood, 8&5
Nashville 112 amp, Fishman Loudbox Performer amp, Hilton pedal, Goodrich pedal,BJS bar, Kyser picks, Live steel Strings. No effects, doodads or stomp boxes. |
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Bill Miller
From:
Gaspe, Quebec, Canada
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Posted 25 Apr 2017 5:23 pm
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| Henry, it was that way when I got it in about 1990, but the guitar was already old and in very poor repair overall. It was the original Sho~Bud pickup with a coil tap. Pretty strange guitar overall. It had six pedals and no knee levers. All I knew about steel guitars back then was that I wanted one....didn't even know anything about knee levers. After the Internet and the forum came along I learned more about it. It's been out of my hands for many years now but I think it was a '69 Professional and one of a few single neck C6 Sho~Buds that were produced. It was set up for E9, in a kind of a way, when I got it. |
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memphislim
From:
Austin, Texas
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Posted 27 Apr 2017 7:25 am
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| Henry, just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean it does not exist. I've had a few pickups turn micro phonic on reputable guitars. Pulling them off, dipping them in wax until all air bubbles are gone fixed them right up. There are scores of web pages devoted to this, not sure why you are a non-believer. |
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