SA-6 MagMic pickup nothing but a radio antenna? What gives!? Help please.

[BryanMichael]

I recently purchased an SD Mag Mic acoustic pickup and played with it for awhile before installing it. First, let me say that the only reason I am continuing with it is becasue it sounds so good.
But the radio interference is unbearable!! It's as if notihing at all is sheilded in this thing.
Am I the only one that has had this problem?

Please Help-
Bry

 

[Robert S.]

I stuck the big dogs on this one for you. I have never heard of this issue with the MagMic.

 

[Wabash Slim]

I just bought one last week. Tried it thru my Peavey Ecoustic and studio system, both direct & thru an AG Stomp. No problems at all, and this old house is ungrounded and is very noisy with my Strats and other electrics. There was a trace of hum that stopped when I touched the plug but that's the least of what I expect in this house. If you don't normally get interference, hum, noise, etc then I'd guess you've either got an open ground in the cord or the pickup's just plain bad. Try it in the store & see if others do it.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Mag is short for Magic. Now, just make sure the radio is dialed
into James Taylor and you'll sound like god at the next acoustic
open mic night. LOL

 

[Evan Skopp]

Hi Bryan:

Thanks for the post. I'm sorry to hear that you're picking up RF with your Mag Mic. This is the first I've heard of this.

The first thing that comes to my mind is the cable you're using. Do you have the same problem with different types of cable? If so, what type of cable are you using?

Some other questions:
Have you had RF problems with other audio devices in your playing environment?

Do you have the same RF problem in other environments?

Please let me know. Also, you can e-mail or call our tech department, but they'll probably ask you the same questions.

Thanks,

- Evan

 

[BryanMichael]

Thanks for the quick replies fellas-
I've tried several different cables- I'm unsure of the brand names on them, one of them is a ProCo instrument cable- I am uncertain of the others.
There is some sligh RF problems with my electric (A Godin LGXT) but you reall cannot hear it at all unless you have a preamp really cranked and you have headphones on. I'm really disappointed, when I am downstairs, sitting in the kitchen, plugged into a headphone amp and turned exactly the right way- I can get the RF interference to ALMOST disappear..but not quite IMO it is coming directly from the pickup. If I put my hand over the pickup or pull the pickup out of the soundhole (it's not easy with the strings on!) and move it about or cover the back of the pickup with my hand, the RF changes dramatically. Is this just a bad pickup? I will head out to some music stores and try it there-
but it is really pronounced RF- you can litterally hear the radio (thanks for the James Taylor comment-if I can figure out how to tune the station with the volume knob I will be all set!)

On the other hand- what do you guys think of this pickup?
The only reason I'm working so hard to fix this problem is becasue in all honesty, I think it sounds DAMN GOOD.

-B

 

[Wabash Slim]

Bryan, I'd swear you have a dud pickup there. Can you find out from the place you bought it from if it was a return? Maybe somebody had it before you & they either returned it for the same reason, or they abused it & broke it somehow. I had that happen with another Duncan pup I bought; somebody had scraped the coil open and returned it, the store didn't check it out before reselling it.

I put the Mag Mic in a jumbo Guild 12-string that I preferred not to mess with the saddle. 12's can be a lot trickier to get the balance right. Plus, with a MM you're getting more pup for the money instead of forking over a good chunk for installation.

When I saw Kottke last year he was using these in his Taylors, and while I was surprised that he didn't sound more "purely acoustic", he did sound very good....very un-piezo-like. Besides, I run my acoustics thru a Yamaha AG Stomp w/ mic modeling and that can turn the cheapest piezo into something, well, acceptable. I'd try another MM Bryan.

 

[ezequielo]

SA-6 MagMic picks up a radio antenna

SA-6 MagMic picks up a radio antenna

Evan
hi
I've just bought a Seymour duncan mag mic, i'm really happy with it, works great but I have a RF interference problem with it.
When I first plugged it in my house it picked radio really loud. But my house is not grounded so i thought that was the problem.
When i played it live in indoors venues, it's ok, but i've played recently in two outdoors music festivals an the radio interference is back. This is a real problem because i play in a band based on 2 guitars and voice, so you can hear the radio coming out of the PA. It seem to be a shielding problem or something like that, the thing is that i live in Argentina so i can't send the mic back to the store. But if you could help me giving me some info about what kind of modification can i do on the mic to prevent this problem i could handle it to a guitar tech so he can solve the problem
Thank you

Hi Bryan:

Thanks for the post. I'm sorry to hear that you're picking up RF with your Mag Mic. This is the first I've heard of this.

The first thing that comes to my mind is the cable you're using. Do you have the same problem with different types of cable? If so, what type of cable are you using?

Some other questions:
Have you had RF problems with other audio devices in your playing environment?

Do you have the same RF problem in other environments?

Please let me know. Also, you can e-mail or call our tech department, but they'll probably ask you the same questions.

Thanks,

- Evan

 

[jeremy]

Re: SA-6 MagMic pickup nothing but a radio antenna? What gives!? Help please.

i would suggest calling the seymour duncan company to get resolution or sending an email to tech support

 

[flatback]

Re: SA-6 MagMic pickup nothing but a radio antenna? What gives!? Help please.

I asked but heard nothing