Does high gain pickup necessarily mean extra buzz?

[Flores_68]

I can't help noticing the difference in noise I get when I'm playing through Burstbucker Pros (Al 5) and Pearly Gates (Al 2). Any tips on minimising this annoying issue?

[AlexR]

Re: Does high gain pickup necessarily mean extra buzz?

Burstbuckers aren't high gain. They are a vintage PAF type pickup, but from the higher end of the range that was seen. Pearly gates is a medium strength PAF pickup. The difference between the 2 might be 5% at most.

But neither get close to the real high output pickups like the Custom, JB or Distortion that put out about 50-70% more signal.

The tips on your MLP thread are good. But how is your Explorer wired.....does that have the PCB wiring too??

[Mincer]

Re: Does high gain pickup necessarily mean extra buzz?

Is it buzz? Hum? Some of this can be fixed by looking at your gain staging. Make sure you are not hitting the next thing in line with too much signal. Also test your rig somewhere else in case the power isn't as clean as it should be.

[Mr. B]

Re: Does high gain pickup necessarily mean extra buzz?

If either of those is making much noise, there is something wrong with the pickup or wiring. Even high gain pickup like the Duncan Distortion or Black Winter should not be buzzing.

[beaubrummels]

Re: Does high gain pickup necessarily mean extra buzz?

Neither pickup referred to is high gain. Which one are you complaining about? If you are getting a lot of buzz, I would bet it’s somewhere else in the wiring. I’ve played both BB Pros and PGs in Les Pauls that we’re both dead quiet.

[Flores_68]

Re: Does high gain pickup necessarily mean extra buzz?

But how is your Explorer wired.....does that have the PCB wiring too??[/QUOTE]

Nope, it's the old standard wiring. Could that be the problem?

[Flores_68]

Re: Does high gain pickup necessarily mean extra buzz?

It's the BB Pros that are driving me insane

[Mincer]

Re: Does high gain pickup necessarily mean extra buzz?

Well, the first step is to make sure it is wired correctly...all the grounds are connected. That could explain some noise. After we are sure it is not the guitar, we can move on to other aspects of the chain.

[AlexR]

Re: Does high gain pickup necessarily mean extra buzz?

But how is your Explorer wired.....does that have the PCB wiring too??

Nope, it's the old standard wiring. Could that be the problem?

The PCB has all sorts of manual connections that can be perhaps not fitted as solidly due to assembly error.
But the PCB in and of itself should be more reliable theoretically. Any product of course will have a percentage of QC fails, and always a few will get through any checks. But with any non serviceable product there are no fixes possible. So if all of the plugins are solid (and the wires solid in the connectors) then there is little troubleshooting to be done......its simply a case of replacing until you find the culprit.