I noticed the same thing when I first installed my custom. Remember, its not a hot pickup. like the others said, play with the pickup height (thats what i did) and the gain was better. I had to raise the gain on the preamp but not too much but even when I raised the gain a little bit, it still was clear and tight.komaba said:I recently installed a duncan custom in my gibson sg. I'm not getting as much gain as I thought I'd get. I thought I'd get as much gain as the JB. I am just complelety wrong? I did install the pick up myself and I'm wondering if I didn't install it properly. any input?