SD Super Distortion sounds awful - Help !

[charlieratz]

Hi , i recently bought a used Les Paul as it was advertised as having a Seymour Duncan Super Distortion pick up in it and I wanted the pickup for my Les Paul. I’ve had the pickup installed by a qualified Luthier and it sounds awful - is there anything I can do to check it’s working properly or is a legitimate Seymour Duncan .

 

[jeremy]

welcome to the forum!

well... lets start with there is no seymour duncan super distortion pup. there is a seymour duncan distorion, sh6 model # or a dimarzio super distortion.

im a little confused. you bought a les paul that was advertised as having this pup, but had a luthier install it?

 

[charlieratz]

welcome to the forum!

well... lets start with there is no seymour duncan super distortion pup. there is a seymour duncan distorion, sh6 model # or a dimarzio super distortion.

im a little confused. you bought a les paul that was advertised as having this pup, but had a luthier install it?

I had him remove the pickup from the guitar I bought and fit it in my guitar as per the post above mate .

 

[charlieratz]

It’s been a heavy few days and my brains not working properly it seems ! You are , of course , correct. The pickup I have is a Dimarzio Super Dostiortion not a SD . Either way tho , the issue is the same so if anyone can shed any light as to what the problem may be or what to check etc then I’d be very grateful

 

[nienturi]

You can, first, decribe the problem. Your new pickup sounds thin? Muddy? Weak? Too weak? Too loud?

Moreover you can use a patch cable and a multimeter to see if soemthings wrong with the pickup itself. You can see if you read soemthing wierd or maybe no reading at all

 

[jeremy]

ah, i got ya now. bought one lp with the pup and had it swapped into another lp you already had.

the dimarzio sd should sound pretty thick with good output. do you have a multimeter? if so, you should be able to check dcr, even when its installed

 

[Sam SG]

Yea I have a couple DiMarzio SD they are thick and bitey.
Have you played with height adjustment?
Plug a patch cable in the output jack. Put selector switch on the SD pickup. Turn knobs to 10. Then measure the resistance accross the tip and sleeve of the jack. A Super D should be around 13.5k....youll be reading the resistance of the guitars circuit too so it wont be spot on but should be somewere around there.
If its way lower it may be wired wrong.

 

[jeremy]

right, it wont be exact, but itll tell ya if the coils are ok

 

[charlieratz]

Yea I have a couple DiMarzio SD they are thick and bitey.
Have you played with height adjustment?
Plug a patch cable in the output jack. Put selector switch on the SD pickup. Turn knobs to 10. Then measure the resistance accross the tip and sleeve of the jack. A Super D should be around 13.5k....youll be reading the resistance of the guitars circuit too so it wont be spot on but should be somewere around there.
If its way lower it may be wired wrong.

Thanks for that very useful information . I’ve just checked with my multimeter and the SD is reading 12.63 and the stock neck pickup is 8.4 so that all seems correct - right ?

 

[Sam SG]

Seems ok.
Next could be incorrect height or maybe hot and ground reversed at hook ups

 

[Securb]

Yea I have a couple DiMarzio SD they are thick and bitey.

I have the single-coil-sized Tele SD, and even that barks and bites. If it is reading 12+ it must be the height.