Swapping magnet in GusG coil pack

big kurka

big kurka

New member
Looking for some insight. I put a set of the Gus blackouts in a Schecter solo 6 that’s solid mahogany and it really brought guitar to life but there is this annoying mid frequency thing going that is very overwhelming. I’ve been messing with pu adjustments and it has help. I’ve lowered the pu. I screwed the two middle coil screws all the way in and raised both outer screws. It’s helped quite a bit but there is still this annoying mid honk.
So my question is has anyone tried swapping the mags in pu with the blackout module and if so did you notice a difference. The Gus g’a have A5 mags and I wondering if putting a ceramic mag would help reduce this mid honk thing I’m hearing. Oh one other thing was I installed chrome covers on the pu’s.

What are your thoughts on this???
 
I am a bit puzzled about hearing a A5 pickup producing a mid honk. My experience is more a mid scoop.
But in fact a ceramic mag would worsen the situation.
A chrome cover is at least a slight damper of highs. This also makes the mids and lows more stand out.

Edit: Interesting reading

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/foru...ackouts-system

‚Alnico 5 magnets deliver rich, detailed tones. The bridge pickups larger magnet adds more low-mids for fatter, fuller-sounding leads.‘

Maybe a normal sized A5 would help?!?
 
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A5 is the most scooped mag so it isn't that. Also, double thick magnets, if that's what's in the bridge, doesn't create honk. The first thing I'd think it could be is the mahogany wood of the guitar. Tough to tell though with all the variables. I've never tried that system.
 
AFAIK, the GusG coil pack is a variation of the Blackout active thing, itself based on a differential preamp, like EMG's - albeit corrected by Duncan engineers to be balanced for less noise, and a bit more complex by the number of components involved.

IMHO, the mid bump aforementioned is most probably due to this topology... Maybe swapping A5 for a ceramic mag would make the same kind of difference than with EMG85 vs EMG81... But I'm not sure it will/would correct the EQing in itself, that I'd tend to attribute to the preamp section.

What makes me think that is how mid-centric EMG active humbuckers are, compared with passive pickups. Example: https://www.cycfi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/all-freq-response-768x480.jpg

Suggests that tweaking the preamp might be more efficient than modding the pickup, although it might be interesting to put LRC components in parallel or in series with the coils before the preamp input...
 
Thanks guys, Mid honk probably wasn't the best description there. I suspect that mahogany is the main culprit. The d and g string have this very strong unpleasant presence about them. I have a 59n pu laying around I'm thinking maybe I should try that first seeing how there is no soldering involved. Thanks again.
 
Most of this is the preamp. There’s literally a high and low pass filter in the EMG-style preamps that results in a wide-band midrange hump. So there’s not that much that can be done at the pickup level.
 
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