Unwanted compression

[skynyrd]

On my Mace VT if I turn the pregain up to 10 the sound gets compressed and very bassy, with it on 9 it has a very full sound and decent distortion but would like to have better distortion. Once you get the pregain past 9 1/4 it starts to mush up and get compressed and bassy, I am not running any boosters on the input and the pickup is a Duncan Custom ( PAF on Steroids with a ceramic magnet ). I am wondering if the pick up is too hot for the gain stage? Would changing the R1 from a 22K to a 50K help? Or is there a better remedy that will allow the solid state preamp to have better distortion and not compress it? Thanks

[skynyrd]

I figured it out ! !,, I have been doing some modding to the gain stage boosting the distortion a little. Ever since I have had the amp the automix wouldn`t separate the 2 channels, the normal channel stayed on all the time and had the volume turned all the way down and just used the effects channel. The normal channel had a bad squeal and I wond3ered if maybe the jack was just bad and shorting to ground? So I picked up another jack, squeal gone, normal channel very weak and alot of high end, automix still not working. SO I got to messing around and the 2 channels are suppossed to run paralell to each other, well if thats the case both volumes should be equal and 1 channel able to run louder than the other correct? When I have the effects channel set up where I like it and the pregain set on 10 its very bassy and dull toned, when I started turning up the normal channel just to see what happens if anything VIOLA ! ! the compression starts fading off and this crunch tone I have wanted out the amp starts emerging. I mess with the eq`s of each channel and low and behold the sound and tone I have waited for. The guy who had it before me must have had the channels rewired so they would run in series, normal channel driving the effects channel, I haven`t been able to really crank her up above 1 yet on the overall volume to see how far she will go but man you talk about the shock of a lifetime. It has a awesome growl to it, when i roll the tone control back its a thing of beauty at least to me anyways,,lol. I have a Alnico 4 magnet coming along with an Alnico 2 so I can put the 4 in the bridge pup and get rid of the ceramic and open up the fullness of the Duncan Custom, I am going to put the 2 in the stock neck pup and heat it up and drain off some of the excess wax and get rid of the mud and sweaten the tone. I wish the guy had told me about the rewire I wouldn`t have been pulling my hair out and driving everyone else nuts as well,,lol.

[Gtr_tech]

Careful swapping p-up magnets. You better know how to ID polarity and make damn sure you install teh replacement magnet the same way the old one came out else yer outta phase. And.....wax pot the p-ups after swapping magnets or you're asking for trouble.

[skynyrd]

I got the magnet swapped out in the Epi stock pup, got rid of the ceramic and replaced it with an Alnico 2 and it made a very nice difference. It still has the some mud with the guitar at full volume but when backed off to about 8 1/2 it goes away nicely and has that clear vintage neck tone. The magnet swap will buy me some more time until I can afford to get a seymour duncan 59 neck pup, Gtr Tech the epi pups are saturated with wax, no need for extra potting just hit the pup after the swap and all put back together with a hair dryer on high for about 5 min`s gets the wax flowing and basically repots itself. I am going to get rid of the ceramic mag in my SD Custom in the bridge and put an Alnico 4 in it.

[skynyrd]

I swapped out the ceramic magnet in the Duncan Custom for an Alnico 4 magnet and WHAT a difference ! ! The A4 smoothed out the tone and got rid of the harshness, the highs mids and lows are balanced very well and gave me a little more flexibility on the tone stack, $5 for the A4 and made a night and day difference, mag swapping is so easy and inexpensive and will save from having to buy a new pup when you aren`t happy with the sound.