KnightOfNeon
New member
Hey everyone.
So, cutting right to the chase. I've installed a duncan designed detonator (awesome pickups, by the way) in my jazz bass. Yeah yeah, unorthodox but surprisingly, sounds awesome. The problem is, I have a terrible feedback/whale song problem. Touching the strings does not stop it and moving around changes little to nothing, bass keeps squealing (not a high pitched squeal, mind you but... well, feedback!).
The gain I was using wasn't too much and it was the bass amp gain, so no "real" distortion there. Volume was quite high, however, since I have to compete with two loud guitarists so turning down is definitely not an option!
The pickup's also hidden underneath the pickguard. I should note that I'd put a ceramic bar magnet on top of the pickup so as to "expand" the magnetic field and it does do the trick, but it also introduces a whole lot more feedback when on there. When I removed it, the feedback went considerably down (still there though) but down also went the better response it gave the pickup so I'd really like it to remain there, if at all possible.
Now, at first, I had terrible noise when I first installed the pickup, and I discovered that, that was because the poles were touching the shielding underneath the pickguard. A piece of paper between them put an end to that easily enough. Also, I shielded the humbucker's cavity but that seemed to really piss off the detonator and also introduced A LOT more noise. So, out that went as well.
Not to toot my own horn but wiring and grounding is not an issue. The wiring on the bass goes as follows. The two J pickups that were originally on the bass are hardwired in series (acting as a unit). A 500k vol. pot for the twin J's and a 500k vol. pot for the detonator. No switch, wired in parallel, just like on a standard jazz bass. There's a DPDT switch to go from parallel to series, so all three work together (with a massive reading of 19.6k, by the way!). No tone pot. Again, the wiring's not the problem. I checked, checked with a multimeter, double, triple and quadruple checked, soldered and desoldered and resoldered to test, everything works as it should. And in any case, it's only the detonator that's screaming, when turned off (or significantly down, I have an audio taper pot for it for exactly that reason) the twin J's are quiet.
At my place, playing through the usb interface and vst, bass is dead quiet. No feedback. So I'm assuming it's the volume that causes it. I'm not quite sure if the pickup's microphonic. Shouldn't be but it may have become microphonic in the years I've had it stored and unused. It originally was on a 2000something Jackson KE3. I do remember, however, having feedback/squealing issues with that guitar too, back then, with the same pickups. So, perhaps, the nature of the beast...? Hopefully not.
Anyway, sorry for the long-winded post, I wanted to give as much info as I could, so as to find a solution (if possible) faster.
Any ideas?
Many thanks in advance!
So, cutting right to the chase. I've installed a duncan designed detonator (awesome pickups, by the way) in my jazz bass. Yeah yeah, unorthodox but surprisingly, sounds awesome. The problem is, I have a terrible feedback/whale song problem. Touching the strings does not stop it and moving around changes little to nothing, bass keeps squealing (not a high pitched squeal, mind you but... well, feedback!).
The gain I was using wasn't too much and it was the bass amp gain, so no "real" distortion there. Volume was quite high, however, since I have to compete with two loud guitarists so turning down is definitely not an option!
The pickup's also hidden underneath the pickguard. I should note that I'd put a ceramic bar magnet on top of the pickup so as to "expand" the magnetic field and it does do the trick, but it also introduces a whole lot more feedback when on there. When I removed it, the feedback went considerably down (still there though) but down also went the better response it gave the pickup so I'd really like it to remain there, if at all possible.
Now, at first, I had terrible noise when I first installed the pickup, and I discovered that, that was because the poles were touching the shielding underneath the pickguard. A piece of paper between them put an end to that easily enough. Also, I shielded the humbucker's cavity but that seemed to really piss off the detonator and also introduced A LOT more noise. So, out that went as well.
Not to toot my own horn but wiring and grounding is not an issue. The wiring on the bass goes as follows. The two J pickups that were originally on the bass are hardwired in series (acting as a unit). A 500k vol. pot for the twin J's and a 500k vol. pot for the detonator. No switch, wired in parallel, just like on a standard jazz bass. There's a DPDT switch to go from parallel to series, so all three work together (with a massive reading of 19.6k, by the way!). No tone pot. Again, the wiring's not the problem. I checked, checked with a multimeter, double, triple and quadruple checked, soldered and desoldered and resoldered to test, everything works as it should. And in any case, it's only the detonator that's screaming, when turned off (or significantly down, I have an audio taper pot for it for exactly that reason) the twin J's are quiet.
At my place, playing through the usb interface and vst, bass is dead quiet. No feedback. So I'm assuming it's the volume that causes it. I'm not quite sure if the pickup's microphonic. Shouldn't be but it may have become microphonic in the years I've had it stored and unused. It originally was on a 2000something Jackson KE3. I do remember, however, having feedback/squealing issues with that guitar too, back then, with the same pickups. So, perhaps, the nature of the beast...? Hopefully not.
Anyway, sorry for the long-winded post, I wanted to give as much info as I could, so as to find a solution (if possible) faster.
Any ideas?
Many thanks in advance!
