Low E string bark

[Paul P]

I have a new Heritage H535 (similar to a Gibson 335) with Schaller Golden 50
humbuckers. Strings are d'Addario EJ21s, 52-12. I'm playing through a SE
parallel 6v6 amp, cathode bias.

Playing clean with no effects using the neck pickup the tone is fine for all
strings except the low E which is much louder than the others and has
quite a bark or honk to it. It's not so bad playing the string open but it
gets worse moving up the neck to the point where you can hardly tell the
difference between two different notes. Lowering the pickup enough to
tame it severly affects the other stings.

I'm new to electric guitars and tube amps so I don't have much of an idea
of what the trouble is or how to go about fixing it. I don't think it's a bass
response issue with the amp since playing the same note on the A string
sounds fine.

Is this a common thing and is it just a matter of lowering the pole piece ?
Currently the pole pieces are all about flush to the pickup.

Paul P

[David Schwab]

Start by lowering that side of the pickup away from the low E. That's the most common way to angle a pickup because the lower strings are louder, especially with those heavy gauges.