dirty clipping/crackle sound while playing clean w\ seymour duncans

[lulufinder]

I'm hearing a dirty clipping/crackle sound when playing completely clean through my blues jr.

It seems like this crackle I'm hearing only happens when using the neck and bridge pick-ups on my Fender strat (both seymour duncan humbuckers). This recording alternates between my middle single coil and my neck humbucker. You can clearly hear the gross crackle after-taste in the 2nd and 4th chord:

http://www.thelulufinders.com/clip/pickupswitch.mp3

If I dial the volume back on my guitar this effect lessens. It's as if the pick-ups are too hot for the input of my amp. It also does this when playing direct into my audio interface.

Any Ideas?

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: dirty clipping/crackle sound while playing clean w\ seymour duncans

Yup, that's one of the inherent properties of a humbucker. Not only does it cancel out - or "buck" - the 60cycle hum single coils are known for, but since there's a whole 'nother coil in there, it's twice as loud as a single coil, thus, will overdrive an amp's input, causing the phenomenon heard in your clip.

Either raise your middle pickup to match their volume or lower the humbuckers to match the middle pickup's volume. Either method will affect the tone of the adjusted pickup as well as its output level.
Whether this is good or bad is entirely up to you.

Alternatively, you can replace your middle single with a stacked humbucker that will match the other 2 in volume, then simply decrease the input gain on your amp.

 

[lulufinder]

Re: dirty clipping/crackle sound while playing clean w\ seymour duncans

Thank you for such a quick and thorough reply! I'm going to have my guitar setup this week so I'll see if I can have the two humbuckers lowered to match the middle single coil. I've tried lowering the input gain on my amp (I'm assuming it's the 'volume' and not the 'master' on my blues jr), but it still clips out even at .3/.5 out of 12. I'm not sure exactly which seymour duncans are in there (I had them put in probably 10 years ago), but I remember them being referred to as 'really hot'. Should I maybe consider getting some humbuckers that are in the 'moderate' range?

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: dirty clipping/crackle sound while playing clean w\ seymour duncans

Definitely, or replace the single with a hotter model, depending on what music you're going to spend the most time playing.

You can get all moderate-output pickups and add external Gain if you need it, but if you start with hot pickups, you're stuck with hot output.

However, with so many pickups out there to choose from, you could be swapping out pickups for a good long while :lol:

I'd say start with a '59 bridge and '59 neck. That's a good all-around pickup that's designed to capture the tones from original 1959 Les Pauls - louder than a single coil, with more lows and mids, and highs that are not as harsh as a single coil.
It's a moderate-level pickup that's suited for lots of stuff - Country to Jazz to Metal.


And yes, I believe the "Volume" knob on the amp, when fully cranked and the Master lowered to a manageable level, will give you distortion. Conversely, setting the Volume low and the Master high should just give you more loudness without distortion, other than that caused by overloading the speaker and/or the Master volume section itself (which isn't typically used for say Metallica but not everyone would find it clean enough).