Need help with ALNICO Pro II (Neck pickup has very little output and is muddy)

[dthibod]

I installed the Slash pickup in my newly constructed guitar, and my neck pickup has very little output and sound very muddy (almost like if it has distortion and reverb). The bridge pickup output seems to be ok but still a bit muddy. My guitar is a copy of the ESP eclipse, so 2 volume, 1 Master tone and a 3 way toggle. I followed the seymour duncan diagram for this setup and with that configuration, the neck output was low. After reading some of the post, someone mention that magnet might cancel each other and recommended to swicth the hot wire for the neck pickup from the other lug to the center lug. It help for the output, however the sound is still muddy. Is this common for these ALNICO PRO II .

thanks

 

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Re: Need help with ALNICO Pro II (Neck pickup has very little output and is muddy)

I personally find most neck humbucker pickups to be muddy. And that is even after trying low output puckup like the SD Jazz Neck. To counteract, I have utilized bright-voiced pickups in the neck position like Dimarzio Humbucker From Hell and Dumarzio Eric Johnsob Custom.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Need help with ALNICO Pro II (Neck pickup has very little output and is muddy)

it shouldnt be muddy
what size volume pot do you have in it

what is the pickup height (how close to the strings is the pickup)
fret at the last fret, measure height at the e strings
please measure both sides

photos help
can you post some?

 

[dthibod]

Re: Need help with ALNICO Pro II (Neck pickup has very little output and is muddy)

Thanks guy,

I know the volume pods are 500k Alpha. I will mesure the pickup height and string at the last fret tonight and will try to upload a pic or two. Remember that this is my second build from scratch. the wood working part is easy, My biggest challenge is always the electrical. That why my other guitar has EMG (soldeless kit). This time around, i wanted an old school pickup. The guitar tech i used to bring it to, has moved away, so it up to me, and i would like to learn that stuff too. So my only ressource is you guys.

thank

 

[925SS]

Re: Need help with ALNICO Pro II (Neck pickup has very little output and is muddy)

At this point, there are a few questions
Since you admit this is your first round of soldering, what watt iron do you have? what solder do you use?
could you have "burned a pot?
do you have any cold solder joints
No offense but I wasn't that great my first few times.
Give us a few good pics of the control cavity as well

 

[orpheo]

Re: Need help with ALNICO Pro II (Neck pickup has very little output and is muddy)

At this point, there are a few questions
Since you admit this is your first round of soldering, what watt iron do you have? what solder do you use?
could you have "burned a pot?
do you have any cold solder joints
No offense but I wasn't that great my first few times.
Give us a few good pics of the control cavity as well

exactly my thoughts. I suggest you solder off the alnico 2 pro and solder off all the connections you have on the output jack and solder the pickup DIRECTLY to the output and see what that does. If the tone is still muddy, it's more likely that the pickup is the culprit (eventhough the alnico2pro is warm it should NOT be mushy; take a listen at Slash' tone!). If the tone becomes clear again, it's more likely the pot or a burned capacitor making that the tone is muddy.

oh, and check the pickup and polepiece height.

 

[dthibod]

Re: Need help with ALNICO Pro II (Neck pickup has very little output and is muddy)

thanks for the feedback guys,

Here are the specs. Alpha pods, Soldering gun 45W, electical rosin core solder Lead free, Capacitor is a ceramic .473. Wire 22 awg.

Neck pickup height is 8/64 on the Bass E and 6/64 Low E.
String height at the last fret is 8/64 on Bass E and 6/64 on Low E. the action is a bit high according to the gibson specs of 5/64 and 3/64. But at least there is no fret buzz and for my playing, it ok.

I did notice that the ground wire from the toggle was connected to the bridge volume pod, and on the diagram for SD it should be grounded on the neck volume pod. Did the changes, but did not have the time to test if it made any change to the neck pickup.

The funny part is that the bridge pickup sound amazing. So my problem must come from either the connection, the pod itself or the pickup.

I uploaded pics that you guys requested on my album, under my profile

 

[orpheo]

Re: Need help with ALNICO Pro II (Neck pickup has very little output and is muddy)

where the toggle is ground doesn't actually matter as long as the circuit is closed (all pots are ground).

Just do what I suggested and see if the pickup sounds good directly on the output jack.

 

[dthibod]

Re: Need help with ALNICO Pro II (Neck pickup has very little output and is muddy)

Right now the output jack has a ground and hot connection. So unsolder these connections and just replace with the hot wire from the pickup for the hot connection and the Braided shielding for the ground and this should tell me if the pickup is defective. I will try this tonight

 

[orpheo]

Re: Need help with ALNICO Pro II (Neck pickup has very little output and is muddy)

thats right. solder the hot connection off the jack and replace that with the hot of the pickup.

make sure you get a ground running from the pickup to the jack to the bridge otherwise you're still getting bad results!!!

 

[925SS]

Re: Need help with ALNICO Pro II (Neck pickup has very little output and is muddy)

just got back to this thread, orpheo has you on the right track, BUT, I will make 1 suggestion at this point.
You said you're using a ,473 cap. I don't usually run anything highr than .022 with humbuckers, & most of the time, I run .015, or .010 on neck pups, it tends to "brighten" em up a lot, you should try it, I think you will notice quite a bit of difference. also, 45 watts is a bit much for the finer work, don't spend a lot of time in one spot. when you go to solder the cap, hook an alligato clip up by the disc on the leg for a heat sink, so you don't burn the cap

 

[dthibod]

Re: Need help with ALNICO Pro II (Neck pickup has very little output and is muddy)

Ok, i will try these suggestions and see what kind of result i"ll get and will let you guys know. Thank for the help.

How can you test if a Pod has been burned. The Iron that i used has a pointy tip and in some instance, i had to let it set on the pod a bit longer in order to melt the solder. especially working on the pod within the control cavity.

 

[925SS]

Re: Need help with ALNICO Pro II (Neck pickup has very little output and is muddy)

When soldering to the back of the pot, it's best to make sure it's turned down to zero, so you don't burn the carbon track inside. Also it's good to scrape, or scuff the area where you'll connect, then "tin" this spot. to save me typing, here is a vid on testing pots

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5hocq2ClpY

 

[Guitaraxz]

Re: Need help with ALNICO Pro II (Neck pickup has very little output and is muddy)

You said you're using a ,473 cap. I don't usually run anything highr than .022 with humbuckers, ...

I agree, no 473 caps! I prefer .0047's. That's double 0, do not confuse with .047.

When soldering to the back of the pot, it's best to make sure it's turned down to zero, so you don't burn the carbon track inside.

Good one! i'd never thought of that.

Get a 25W soldering iron, 45 watters will burn your pots!

 

[dthibod]

Re: Need help with ALNICO Pro II (Neck pickup has very little output and is muddy)

Ok Guys, over the weekend I connected the neck pickup to the output jack to see if the output problem was from the Pickup itself, and no, the pickup sounded great. I reconnected everything the way it was and it played the very best. So the problem must came from a bad solder joint. I am very please that it's fixed. Loving the pickup.

Thanks you so much for the help, and I learned alot along the way.

Dthibod