So the honeymoon is over on one of my home wound pickups

[Meowy]

Like every other piece of gear it sounded great at first.

I am talking about an ~8.6K pickup I hand wound for my San Dimas build. For the most part it has a nice EVH-ish growl and grind to it (which is what I was after). But I am just really noticing a (hard to describe) hairy, fizzy, scratchy, sizzly kind of overtone, especially when playing dissonant chords with mild overdrive. But now I even notice it with single notes at very low volumes, so I know it's not a microphonic issue.

I've tried Alnico 4 and 5 magnets and pickup heights from near to far. I am wondering if the winding is too tight or even too loose or if my wire (Essex 42) is garbage, or, or, or... ???

Any ideas what could be the possible cause of such a symptom?

http://www.animl.com/guitars/charvel build/san dimas 01.jpg

[David Schwab]

I was surprised how bright the humbuckers were I wound. I like that tone though, but they are bright and plucky like a warm tele.

What value pots are you using? Try 250K instead of 500K. I'd also suggest an alnico 2 magnet, they sound nice and smooth.

You can also try wrapping some conductive copper foil around the coils... that might knock off some of the upper resonant peaks.

[Meowy]

I was surprised how bright the humbuckers were I wound. I like that tone though, but they are bright and plucky like a warm tele.

What value pots are you using? Try 250K instead of 500K. I'd also suggest an alnico 2 magnet, they sound nice and smooth.

You can also try wrapping some conductive copper foil around the coils... that might knock off some of the upper resonant peaks.

Thanks. I am using 500s with a .22 cap and a tone bypass pushpull. A couple of people on other forums also recommended a 250K volume pot. Definitely worth a try

[DCinDC]

Just tack solder a 500k resistor acrosss the pot's outer legs.

Easy to see with that method if that is the sound you are after.

I only buy 500k pots for this reason.

[Meowy]

Just tack solder a 500k resistor acrosss the pot's outer legs.

Easy to see with that method if that is the sound you are after.

I only buy 500k pots for this reason.

Question - I've got some 220Ks, I can just put 2 in series to try it out, right?

[DCinDC]

yep, and you can try just one of the 220k resistors too. I once had to get it down to about 180k to get a Tele sounding right.

[black_labb]

why change the value of the pot when you can just turn the tone down? is there something i am missing?

[Meowy]

why change the value of the pot when you can just turn the tone down? is there something i am missing?

It's not an adjustable tone issue. it is an overtone. Best I can tell in the high mid freqs. I have wound a new pickup which is better, but still I'd like to clip some of the undesirable tone out still.

Maybe I could try a higher value pot too. I have a 22 in now

[David Schwab]

why change the value of the pot when you can just turn the tone down? is there something i am missing?

The resistive loading will lower the resonant peak of the pickup. It's kind of like the discussion that was posted on using caps to tune the coil.

The tone control will do it, but at a different center frequency and with a broader slope. The pot value will warm the tone up and take the edge off without the tone getting too dark.

But I use a smaller value cap in my Tele's tone control just for that reason. It's super bright with the tone up, and if I roll it back a bit it has a different vibe.

[R.G.]

Does it do it on all amps/setups, or only on one? Are you using any electronics between it and the amp, like a buffer or an effects chain which is nominally "bypassed"?

I say this because the symptom very much resembles what people say when their amps go into ultrasonic or RF oscillation. Pickup characteristics ...can... cause ... some... amps to do this intermittently.

[David Schwab]

I think he just has a bright guitar mated with a bright pickup. My carved top Tele has 500K pots because I needed long shafts to go through the top. It's too bright for my tastes, and would sound much better with 250K's. I had a buffer in it for a while, but that was way too brittle sounding.

[Meowy]

Does it do it on all amps/setups, or only on one? Are you using any electronics between it and the amp, like a buffer or an effects chain which is nominally "bypassed"?

I say this because the symptom very much resembles what people say when their amps go into ultrasonic or RF oscillation. Pickup characteristics ...can... cause ... some... amps to do this intermittently.

Well I think I solved the problem -

It was in part the pickup which was just inherantly a little harsh for my tastes. I wound a new one, not quite as hot and a different winding method.

The other half of the solution was a bad V3 tube that was fizzing, sizzling, whatever you want to call it - and for some reason more with this particular guitar than my others.

And I'm still experimenting with resistors, caps etc just to dial in that perfect sweetness :)

Thanks everyone for your input

[black_labb]

thanks for the explanation dave schwab. might do a bit of modelling with different tone pot and cap values to understand it better.