Surfer pickup-microphonic-pickup advice

[stevesemich]

Hello,

I have a 62 strat reissue. The Surfer pickup in the neck has just started squealing uncontrollably...Wondering what could be going wrong? The guitar has aluminum pickguard shield, copper cavity sheilding, Suhr BPSSC silencing system.

I am also looking to get more mids and fuller sound out of pickups on this guitar. I have the demeter mid-boost circuit in alot of my guitars with a push button bypass. Wondering if this would work well with the surfers?

Any pickup advice for a different set of pickups for this guitar with less treble and more fullness?

Steve

 

[Curly]

Re: Surfer pickup-microphonic-pickup advice

interesting ... I just got a set of Surfers to go in my '62 VHR strat

the squealing might be cured by repotting, as long as you've isolated the problem to just the neck pickup

pickups that aren't as bright: Antiquities or APSs, which both have Alnico II mags. You will give up a little bass though.
you haven't said what the other two pickups are --- the stock pickups are slightly underwound, so yes, they're a little bright .. they also don't overdrive enough for me.

since you've used Demeter's circuit, you might consider his Fat Control pedal -- I thought that Sonny Landreth used that, although I don't see it listed in his gear.

one small, simple, cheap thing you can do is change the cap value.

the other issue is your amp

at a certain point though, you're getting away from the basic nature of an early 60s strat.

FWIW, I have another '62 VHR. I replaced the pickps with a set of 60s Chubtones (alnico 5), and through a tweed amp, I can easily dial out the brightness, and they sound great.

 

[stevesemich]

Re: Surfer pickup-microphonic-pickup advice

Thanks for prompt advice Curly...

Amp is a Bogner Ecstacy classic. It is only happening on the neck pickup on the gain channnels. I select the neck pickup and without playing high microphonic squealing...horrible..

I never thought it could be amp..But may need to look at preamp tubes.. Testing other strats and slight microphonics in neck pickup selection..Not as bad as this guitar. when I add the Tube screamer it gets worse.

I really want to try to get more of a violin type sound/sustain out of this guitar. Seems a bit on the thin side.


Steve

 

[Curly]

Re: Surfer pickup-microphonic-pickup advice

it sounds like it's the potting, since you've narrowed the problem to that guitar, that position ... the gain of your amp or pedal just bring it out

repotting is fairly easy, but if you haven't done it, you'd probably want to get a friend or tech to do it, or send it to SD

I'm not sure what the other pickups are, but on the '62 VHD they weren't graduated much -- mostly all 3 the same output - so the bridge position will always sound weak in that case, as it was on vintage strats.

there are quite a few sets made with slightly hotter bridge pickups - even on the Am Standard
however, I don't think a Surfer in the neck should sound thin -- it's a vintage type pickup, but at ~6.3 - 6.4K, it's on the hotter end of the scale.

the point is that slightly hotter pickups tend to get more mids, other things being equal

I'd suggest you tell us what the other pickups are, or put a meter on them so we have a point of reference.

and if you have another strat, is it just this one that sounds thin?

one other issue is that mixing SD and Fender pickups can be a problem -- they can be out of phase, but it's something I haven't dealt with, so someone else would need to address that

 

[stevesemich]

Re: Surfer pickup-microphonic-pickup advice

Thanks

Other pickups in the guitar are also Seymour duncan surfer middle and surfer custom bridge..

I am bringing to my tech today. He told me he would put ssl-6 in the neck and middle and a ssl-3 in the bridge.

I thought that would may be too hot..Plus the Suhr silent backplate system recommends pickups between 6-8k...

Steve

 

[Curly]

Re: Surfer pickup-microphonic-pickup advice

you know, I haven't tried the Surfers yet, so I can't say for sure ... I've heard some say they're bright, and some love 'em

the fact is, vintage strats were bright!

However, as I said, the Surfers are at the high end of vintage specs, and the custom bridge even higher.
before changing pickups, I'd verify the cap value ... the Fender diagram shows a .1 cap stock, which is not a bright cap. Since the pickups were changed and you're guitar sounds bright, it's possible that the cap was also changed.
you may have a .02 cap, if so I'd try a .05 (.047) cap before changing pickups -- or another value is .033

this is a quick, cheap, and easy solution if it works

if you end up changing pickups, I'd suggest SSL-1s with SSL-5 bridge. There are several people here who love that set.
The SSL-6 has flat mags, so it's not the best match for your 7.25" radius.

 

[stevesemich]

Re: Surfer pickup-microphonic-pickup advice

I thought the SSL-1's were similar to the surfers. I will have the tech look at the cap on the pot inside.
The guitar was re-radiused and refretted with jumbo frets a couple f years ago...It has a 10-14" compoud raius and 6105 fretwire on it..

I just dropped guitar off with my tech. When you tap on the pickguard you get a lot of noise thru amp. He thinks something came loose or potting is bad on pickup..

Steve

 

[Curly]

Re: Surfer pickup-microphonic-pickup advice

I thought the SSL-1's were similar to the surfers.

that's true ... I don't think the pickups are the real problem, unless you just can't dial out enough highs with your tone knobs. The other thing to do is jumper the bridge pickup to the tone pot, if you haven't -- like on the '62 VHR or Am Std.

I just mentioned SSL-1s 'cause I think SSL-6s are going too hot without finding the real solution.