Baloney Balderdash Posted December 5, 2020 Share Posted December 5, 2020 (edited) After having struggled for quite a while with my tone changing from time to time I plugged my bass in, sometimes while it was plugged in as well, and sometimes quite radically, and after having tried to source down the problem, changing instrument and patch cables, leaving out effects one by one to determine if they were the source to the problem, and even installing a new barrel jack plug in my bass and completely re-soldering the DiMarzio Model P pickup that I have currently installed in it, I came to the conclusion that the issue unfortunately have to stem from some fault with the pickup it self. So as I don't have enough knowledge and skills to be able to source the issue down further and even less fix it, and that I don't have the money right now to buy me a new Model P P pickup, I decided to conduct an experiment with adding a neodymium bar pickup right down under the pole pieces of each of my EMG Geezer Butler P pickup's two halves (that is on the bottom side of the pickup plastic enclosures, since these pickups are completely sealed), hoping to make it as hot, aggressive and hopefully overall more similar feel and tone-wise to the Model P pickup, the Model P being wound to have just ever so slightly higher DC resistance than the Geezer, but with a much stronger magnetic field from it's ceramics pickups than the Geezer's Alnico V magnets have. I haven't actually installed the modified Geezer P in my bass yet, but testing the magnetic pull with a piece of iron against the pole pieces of respectively the Model P and the Geezer P it seems that they now are very similar in magnetic strength, and with the neodymium allegedly supposed to have tonal characteristics to what some describe as ceramic magnets on steroids I hope that the combination of the stock Alnico V and the added neodymium magnets in the modded Geezer P has resulted in it becoming at least somewhat in the ballpark of the Model P in terms of feel and tone. I will update this thread with a summarize of how the experiment actually went when I have installed the modded Geezer P and tested it out, and I'll try to get an audio clip recorded that I'll then post a link to as well (even if I guess it would have made more sense with an actual before and after clip). Anyway this is how it looks (having used hot glue to attach the added magnets, that way making them fairly easy to remove again if the experiment turns out to be a failure or that I at some point would want the standard Geezer P tone) : Edited December 5, 2020 by Baloney Balderdash 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baloney Balderdash Posted December 5, 2020 Author Share Posted December 5, 2020 (edited) Update!!! Huge failure! The Geezer P for some reason had even less output than usual, and the tone was really thin and anemic. . And no it wasn't because the magnet field choked the strings, as said it weren't stronger than on the Model P pickup, and the sustain was actually fine. Also I am not even that sure it's the Model P pickup that is the cause to my issue, doesn't seem like it would be the sort of issue you would get from a faulty pickup. I am at a loss. No idea what causes the issues with the tone of bass changing randomly with random intervals, sometimes quite radical changes even. Sometimes it will stay good for a longer period, and I can turn my setup on and off and come back to it and it will still sound good, other times it will change several time while I practice, but usually the change happens after turning my setup off and coming back to it later. Sometimes there is way too much bass and subdued highs, other times it has piercing high end without much bass, sometimes it is just perfect, snappy and punchy, but well balanced, and other times it is thin and dull. A huge mystery to me what could possibly cause this, especially since I think I've been through the usual suspects, cables, pedals, as said even changed the barrel jack input socket on my bass for a new one and completely re-soldered the pickups, heck I even experimented with how I power my pedals, but to no avail. What really puzzles me though is that it will randomly change between several different kind of tones, and that sometimes it will sound awesome or only require minor EQ re-adjustments to do so, while other times it will sound absolutely horrible, and just about everything in between those two extremes. Anyone got any ideas what could possibly cause this? Edited December 5, 2020 by Baloney Balderdash Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoulderpet Posted December 5, 2020 Share Posted December 5, 2020 2 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said: Update!!! Huge failure! The Geezer P for some reason had even less output than usual, and the tone was really thin and anemic. . And no it wasn't because the magnet field choked the strings, as said it weren't stronger than on the Model P pickup, and the sustain was actually fine. Also I am not even that sure it's the Model P pickup that is the cause to my issue, doesn't seem like it would be the sort of issue you would get from a faulty pickup. I am at a loss. No idea what causes the issues with the tone of bass changing randomly with random intervals, sometimes quite radical changes even. Sometimes it will stay good for a longer period, and I can turn my setup on and off and come back to it and it will still sound good, other times it will change several time while I practice, but usually the change happens after turning my setup off and coming back to it later. Sometimes there is way too much bass and subdued highs, other times it has piercing high end without much bass, sometimes it is just perfect, snappy and punchy, but well balanced, and other times it is thin and dull. A huge mystery to me what could possibly cause this, especially since I think I've been through the usual suspects, cables, pedals, as said even changed the barrel jack input socket on my bass for a new one and completely re-soldered the pickups, heck I even experimented with how I power my pedals, but to no avail. What really puzzles me though is that it will randomly change between several different kind of tones, and that sometimes it will sound awesome or only require minor EQ re-adjustments to do so, while other times it will sound absolutely horrible, and just about everything in between those two extremes. Anyone got any ideas what could possibly cause this? There is a mod that is popular with people who own the Squier as jaguar bass, the stock j pickup is weak and people have boosted the output by putting neodymium magnets on top of the pole pieces rather than underneath them so perhaps you need to do the same Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maude Posted December 5, 2020 Share Posted December 5, 2020 Is the polarity of your magnets the right way around? If they work against the pickup magnet it will sound weak as you've described. Somebody on here posted a link to a great little write up they did on the Squier Jag as mention above, explaining what happens when the polarity is wrong, I just can't remember who it was now though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baloney Balderdash Posted December 6, 2020 Author Share Posted December 6, 2020 (edited) 17 hours ago, Maude said: Is the polarity of your magnets the right way around? If they work against the pickup magnet it will sound weak as you've described. Somebody on here posted a link to a great little write up they did on the Squier Jag as mention above, explaining what happens when the polarity is wrong, I just can't remember who it was now though. They should be attached the right way, the side where they are naturally attracted to the pickup vs. the side where they are repelled, made sure they did, so not sure what is wrong. Anyway I really like the tone I get with my DiMarzio Model P pickup, and as I wrote in my update I actually doubt my tone changing issue stems from the pickup, so I will install the Model P pickup in my bass again and then go through my pedals once again, this time starting with just one pedal and keeping it like that for a while, to see if the changes occur, and then proceed that way, slowly adding pedals until the tone changes happens, that way hopefully pin pointing which are causing the issue. I also took the opportunity to shield the Model P pickup, which is quite noisy when not touching the bridge (or other metal parts), unlike the Geezer, which is dead quiet, even without the bridge ground connection, cause it is shielded internally and got shielded wiring (sort of a braided net of thin metal threads surrounding the insulated lead wire) as well from stock, having added a strip of conductive copper shielding tape covering the bottom of the two halves of the Model P pickup, making sure the tape touches the underside of the pole pieces too, and then cut off the thin un-shielded wires that the pickup comes with from stock and instead attached shielded wires, with the shield being soldered to the copper tape and connected to the ground, which I hope will give a, at least approximately, noise free result, similar to the Geezer. Edited December 6, 2020 by Baloney Balderdash Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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