Strat-humbucker squeeling like a pig...

[jakeDK]

Hey guys...great forum, I just signed up!

Well, I have a Mexican Standard Strat, and I recently bought a H-S-S pickguard, so that I could install a humbucker (the body was prepared for it).

Now It's all wired up, with a 3-way leverswitch and 3 volumes (no tone-cntrl). I have set the height of the two singlecoils (stock Fender) just right, and then adjusted the humbucker (old Ibanez epoxy-potted HB, 12,3Kohms) to match the volumes of the Fender's... All three pickups run through 250K pots.
Clean, it sounds bright, but still just like a normal bridge-HB, but when I hit the distortion-pedal, the HB squeels uncontrollably! I will have to turn my gain-levels about 50 % down to make it stop.
If I install the Ibanez in my Les Paul, with the same amplifier-gain/volume-levels, nothing's wrong. Plays normally... Why doesn't it work in the Strat?

I tried installing a Gibson '57 Classic+ instead of the Ibanez - same problem! What am I doing differently opposed to a standard fat-strat?

Please help?

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Strat-humbucker squeeling like a pig...

Hello and welcome to the greatest forum on earth!

Does the back of your pickguard have any shielding on it? Sounds like your strat could use some overall shielding at least on the back of the guard and around the pots...How close is your bridge humbucker to the strings?

John

[Inge Malmstein]

Re: Strat-humbucker squeeling like a pig...

Mabye your wiring could be wrong? 3 volume pots without tone is a very unusual wiring. I would not know how to wire this.

[jakeDK]

Re: Strat-humbucker squeeling like a pig...

Hello and welcome to the greatest forum on earth!

Does the back of your pickguard have any shielding on it? Sounds like your strat could use some overall shielding at least on the back of the guard and around the pots...How close is your bridge humbucker to the strings?

John

Yes, it's properly shielded. Everything is by the book... What bugs me, is the fact that it still squeels when I put in the Gibson pickup. That tells me that the Ibanez HB isn't the source of the noise...

The HB is 3/32" from the strings when I depress them at the last fret. In this position, the HB apparently has the same volume (on clean amp-settings) as the singles...
I have thought of the height of the HB to be the source of the problem too - would it help to move it further away from the strings? I mean, I have looked at some fat-strats in my local guitarshop, and those humbuckers were just as close to the strings as mine.... But by lowering it, wouldn't that effect the amount of drive/distortion (I play hardrock/metal)?

I know that I must expect a brighter sound from any humbucker, when installed in a strat. That's why I use a 250K pot instead of a 500K. I thought that it might be the extra brightness that caused the troubles, but maybe not...don't know.

This kind of wiring is actually pretty basic - you just connect the hot wire from the pickup to a volume-pot, and then to the selector-switch. Then do the same on the other pickups... It's the same as on a Les Paul - you just use 3 pickups and 3 volumes instead of 2 pickups and 2 volumes...

[Kac]

Re: Strat-humbucker squeeling like a pig...

The problem lies in the fact that you are not using Seymour Duncan Pick-ups...

sorry, I'm just kidding, but if it were my strat I would try another humbucker to see if the problem is still there.

Rock On.

[Mephis]

Re: Strat-humbucker squeeling like a pig...

He already has. What kind of amp is it? some amps squeel like a pig under high distortion (especialy cheap ones) and are your strings grounded?

[jakeDK]

Re: Strat-humbucker squeeling like a pig...

I currently use a Marshall JMP 50 Lead head with 2x1960-cabs.
The weird thing is that my Les Paul doesn't squeel (same volume/gainlevels). If I take out the '57 Classic+ of my Gibson and throw it in the strat, it still squeels. The strings are grounded, and there is no groundloops. The two remaining singlecoils doesn't squeel - it's only the humbucker position. The original bridge-singlecoil did make some noise (as expected, when using singlecoils at hi-gain), but no squeeling like the HB.

Waxpotting has crossed my mind, but since the Ibanez-HB is encapsuled in epoxy (plus, it works fine in the Les Paul), this could hardly be the issue.

It only happens at high gain levels. Even though I play hardrock/metal, I don't use any insane gainsettings - just normal Marshall-crunch. Like I said before, when it squeels, I have to reduce my gainlevels 30-50%. And I really don't play that loud... I have this Korg AX1000-board for homepracticing (connected to my home-computer), and there the strat sounds fine - even at the most extreme Rectifier-setting...