Top E sounds dead

[gilles27]

I play an Ibanez SZ320 all mahogany with a Jazz neck and 59 bridge (trembucker) and 10 guage strings through a Stock Fender HotRod Deluxe. The amp is EQ'd a little on the bright side with the bright switch on and the treble values on a higher setting than the bass and mid.

The guitar sounds fine across all strings bar top e (the high pitched one). I am tempted to go up a string guage but i guess this will probs only mean that the E is still less 'present' than the other strings. is my setup just too dark? (i do like all my pedals set to a darkish sound). There just seems to be less volume and response from the e string. help?

 

[bungalowbill]

Re: Top E sounds dead

Does the string buzz? Maybe you have a bad bridge piece or the nut is wallowed out.

 

[gilles27]

Re: Top E sounds dead

nah no buzz at all. OctaveDoctor did a bronze nut for me about a year ago and it still works good as far as i can tell. How would i tell if the bridge was at fault?

 

[DesertRat]

Re: Top E sounds dead

Couple of questions:

How old are the strings?

Have you tried adjusting the pickup height or pole pieces?

 

[bungalowbill]

Re: Top E sounds dead

nah no buzz at all. OctaveDoctor did a bronze nut for me about a year ago and it still works good as far as i can tell. How would i tell if the bridge was at fault?

It is hard to tell. You might try to replace the high "E" with a heavier guage string and see if the problem clears up. It could be pick up height and or polepiece adjustment like Desertrat said.

Whatever you do, only change one thing at a time, so you can tell what helps and what hinders.

 

[gilles27]

Re: Top E sounds dead

pickups are under covers, not even sure if polepeice adjustment is an option for me. pickups are as low as they'll go but that is till quite close to the strings. problem persists with new or old strings.

 

[Metalman_666]

Re: Top E sounds dead

The first thing that caught my eye was that you're using a trembucker in the bridge. I used to have the SZ520QM and that guitar only had a stop tailpiece, not a tremolo of any kind. If I remember correctly, the SZ320 is the same isn't it?

I have no experience with trembuckers myself but since they are spaced differently than regular pickups specifically for use with tremolo systems, my guess is the difference in pole piece spacing of the pickup under the cover and the actual spacing of the strings from the bridge might be causing your problem. Hopefully someone else with more experience can chime in though.

 

[pinto79]

Re: Top E sounds dead

The first thing that caught my eye was that you're using a trembucker in the bridge. I used to have the SZ520QM and that guitar only had a stop tailpiece, not a tremolo of any kind. If I remember correctly, the SZ320 is the same isn't it?

I have no experience with trembuckers myself but since they are spaced differently than regular pickups specifically for use with tremolo systems, my guess is the difference in pole piece spacing of the pickup under the cover and the actual spacing of the strings from the bridge might be causing your problem. Hopefully someone else with more experience can chime in though.

The stock Duncan/IBZ pickups that were used in the SZ had a trem-spaced bridge model. The string spread is trem wide.

 

[gilles27]

Re: Top E sounds dead

yeh i measured it all up, the bridge pup needs to be a trem as the bridge itself is trem spaced. Plus the low E is fine to my ear

 

[DesertRat]

Re: Top E sounds dead

Is the problem worse with the 59 or the Jazz? Or the same?

 

[gilles27]

Re: Top E sounds dead

i was hoping someone would ask that as i was trying to figure it out today. it semms worse with the jazz but i guess that's because it's in the neck and will have a more bassy eq. problem is evident in both pickups tho

 

[DesertRat]

Re: Top E sounds dead

Try an .011 on the high E like Bungalow Bill suggested and see what that does. Since you can't adjust the pole pieces, and the other strings seem balanced, that would be a good place to start.

 

[DesertRat]

Re: Top E sounds dead

+ look for wear or a groove in the bridge piece when you change the string.

 

[Sludgenutz]

Re: Top E sounds dead

Gilles, all pickup are NOT clones of each other. Some pickups might be a tad weak on either end. For zero money, I would turn the pickup around 180*. This might cure the problem for free.

 

[gilles27]

Re: Top E sounds dead

yeh 11 on the top sounds like a plan. i prefer thicker strings anyhow. cheers, i'll post again if this doesn't fix anything