gibson dirty fingers. micrphonic! help

[northernbackwoodsboy]

Hey guy I got an 1981 explorer and as soon is I start pushing some high gain they squeal. Mainly my hand covering the pickup causes it. I know I could wax them but I would also loose the openness of them. Any ideas on how cut this down some? Thanks

[big_teee]

Hey guy I got an 1981 explorer and as soon is I start pushing some high gain they squeal. Mainly my hand covering the pickup causes it. I know I could wax them but I would also loose the openness of them. Any ideas on how cut this down some? Thanks

IMO all pickups played in high gain environments need to be wax potted.
If you wax them quickly with the covers on, sometimes the cover is the cause, and the wax cures that.
If it has no cover, the wax will cure that too.
T

[northernbackwoodsboy]

The dirty fingers don't have covers. I might just give then a quick bath

[David Schwab]

Wax potting the pickups will not change the tone, or lose any "openness," especially on a pickup wound that hot.

Forget he quick bath nonsense, just pot the damn things! You won't hear a difference. I leave mine in for 10 minutes.

I had the ES-347 gold closed covered/epoxy potted versions, and they sounded fine and didn't squeal. But they had more hum than I liked, probably due to the coil tap wire.