Danuman Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 Hi all, I have a lovely playing P that just doesn't seem to want to sound right. Acoustically it sounds brilliantly deep and zingy, but when I plug it in, there's just a big lack of presence. It's like there's a blanket over it that needs to be lifted... It's driving me nuts! I'm currently on my third pickup. The first one was pants, so in my mind that didn't count. The second one was supposed to be good, so when it didn't sound right, I concluded I probably just don't like it. The third one is quite expensive, and does indeed sound better (well, more predictable, to be precise), but it still seems lacking in the same respects - so now I can't shake the notion that something is off electrically. I've replaced most of the wiring (except to ground), pots, and capacitor - so far to no avail. The wires I used were of the, err, cloth variety and of unknown make, so I don't fully trust it and I will be replacing it together with the input. I'll have swapped out everything at that point. How do I then measure the wiring and make sure that's not what's causing the issue? Suggestions more than welcome, thanks for reading! Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikay Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 Hmm, I can't really see this being a wiring issue, particularly as you've already changed the pots and cap without improvement. Have you tried adjusting the pickup height setting? I'm sure you have but that's the first thing I'd play with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grangur Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 (edited) I'm with @ikay. This is likely to be setup. Is it quiet on all strings? What's the distance from the bottom of the strings to the top of the pickup? Please measure this with the strings fretted at the last fret. Also, what's the height of the strings above the last fret? Edited January 4, 2018 by Grangur Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 Is this all going into the same amp? Maybe the amp is the issue rather than the bass? Or the cable as its passive. If I had that problem I would remove the volume and tone from the circuit entirely, so the wires from the pickup go straight to the jack socket. If you don't have the sound you want doing that, its never going to be right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danuman Posted January 4, 2018 Author Share Posted January 4, 2018 (edited) Cheers guys! After tinkering with it for the past year I was fed up, so I went out earlier today, bought a new input, a bunch of wire, and I spent the evening completely rewiring the guitar. I suppose my previous post already half implied I didn’t have terribly high expectations, but there it was - a subtle yet clear improvement! I decided, well screw it, let’s try the other pickup again. Lo and behold: The air and detail I’d been looking for all this time! I put Logic’s spectrometer on it, and I could finally see something happening above say, 1kHz. Still not sure what was wrong exactly, but it’s such a relief! Edited January 4, 2018 by Danuman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danuman Posted January 5, 2018 Author Share Posted January 5, 2018 After some more thinking, I think it must’ve been the output socket. I had previously tried what @Woodinblack suggested above. Unfortunately, that didn’t help, which is why I concluded I didn’t like the pickup - although I thought it was a bit odd. Quite an expensive case of trial and error, I’m afraid... but at least I’m happy with the result. Looks like there’s an expensive pickup going onto the marketplace soon. Thanks again for the helpful replies! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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