Broken Delano pick up. Would it affect the sound? How? Bass is sounding weird...

[BELA]

I hope this is the right forum for this.

I have just noticed this crack in the pickup. This particular bass has two of them (MM).

Is it just a cosmetic issue or do you think it can affect the sound. If it can affect the sound, how?

 

I have been struggling with this particular bass for a while because it sounds reasonable ok up to the 12th fret aprox but, from there up, it sounds weird. It sounds like the note you are fretting and the harmonic sound at the same time.

The bass has been set up, intonated, and checked by a luthier, but it still sounds weird to me.

Could this crack in the pick up be the problem.

Could it be a thing of pick up placement?

 

Help!!!

Edited November 15, 2021 by BELA

[LeftyJ]

I would message Delano to ask them if the pickup covers are available separately. Maybe they can send you one? 

As for the sound, I would imagine a broken cover wouldn't affect the tone of the pickup. It's just a plastic casing, and it's not shielded on the inside, so it wouldn't affect the magnetic field of the pickup in any noticable way. 

[Doctor J]

The crack won't affect the tone. If you want, take the cover off and put some black tape on the inside to hold it together, or buy a new one.

 

For the tone, I would try lowering the pickup away from the strings. MM types are usually quite powerful and it's possible the magnetic pull of the pole pieces is affecting the vibration of the string. Lower the pickup down and see if it makes a difference.

[Rich]

^^ This. I had the same problem with my Wal many many years ago... after reading a similar piece of advice, I dropped the polepieces away from the strings and it made a huge difference. Definitely worth a try.

 

[martthebass]

2 minutes ago, Rich said:

^^ This. I had the same problem with my Wal many many years ago... after reading a similar piece of advice, I dropped the polepieces away from the strings and it made a huge difference. Definitely worth a try.

 

As Rich says, with powerful pups like this if the pole pieces are too close to the strings you can get strange 'wolf tones'.  I've got to do an adjustment on my MM Sterling 4H for the same reason.

[BELA]

I have just lowered the pickups to the max. Let´s see what happens.

The only thing left to do, if this does not work, is to remove the pickups, take away the springs/foam/whatever there is under them, and put them back in. That would give me another couple mm...I guess

[NikNik]

17 hours ago, martthebass said:

As Rich says, with powerful pups like this if the pole pieces are too close to the strings you can get strange 'wolf tones'.  I've got to do an adjustment on my MM Sterling 4H for the same reason.

Definitely sounds like poles too close/wolf-tones

[Hellzero]

@BELA, here's a good way to check if your pickups are too close to the strings and therefore attracting them so much they will generate false harmonics as the issue you describe.

 

Simply press your string at the last fret on the treble side and check the gap (distance) between the bottom of the string and the top of the pole piece and then repeat on the bass side.

 

For such a pickup, I would recommend 2.5 mm on the treble side and 3 mm on the bass side for the bridge pickup.

 

For the neck pickup, start with 3 mm on the treble side and 3.5 mm on the bass side, so both pickups will have balanced outputs.

 

If the neck pickup is really close to the ... neck, go for 3.5 to 4 mm.

 

Use Allen keys (as they come in these exact dimensions) to check the gap, it's fast, easy and accurate.