Jump to content
Gibson Brands Forums

Lee Malia dummy coil problems?


AJ Bans

Recommended Posts

I'm now on my second Artisan Explorer. The first one was sent back because of the ridiculous buzz of the p94 neck pickup, which allegedly the dummy coil was supposed to cancel. Upon sending it back a "Sweetwater engineer" confirmed that the dummy coil wasn't working. (A testament to Sweetwater's 55-points of inspection being garbage).

 

I recently bought an over-stocked one off of eBay that was brand new and "inspected" by Sweetwater again, and it's the exact same issue.

 

Help me out here. I'm an experienced player and have number of Gibson and ESP guitars, but have never owned anything with a single coil or p90-p94.

 

Going through a Mesa Rectifier on high gain settings, I find to neck pickup buzz to be beyond tolerable. I've taken it to two different techs. One said the dummy coil wasn't working, the other said it seemed to be working, it just isn't doing what it's supposed to.

 

Has anyone else had this problem? Do p94s just buzz uncontrollably with high gain, regardless of a dummy coil, or do I just have the worst luck ever?

 

AJ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Has anyone else had this problem? Do p94s just buzz uncontrollably with high gain, regardless of a dummy coil, or do I just have the worst luck ever?

 

I don't think it's your luck. I know zip about a dummy coil, so I can't help you there. I'm not sure exactly what you refer to as High Gain, Are we talking like Gain all the way up, and amp cranked? or something else?

 

All I can tell ya, is my SG Classic with P90s, if I dial in a lot of gain, absolutely make a TON of noise. It's like a strat or a tele, you learn to control it if your dipping into the High Gain sounds.

Which I don't usually do anyway, just occasionally for yucks.

 

I toss it up to the pay back for using a pickup that has THAT sort of growl. With the p94 magnet being even bigger, I would assume the "hum" would even be some what more.

 

How's it work if with clean tones, or some grit added for a more bluesy kind of tone? if you're looking for shred/metal sounds, a P94/P90 might not be your best Pickup choice.

I'm not 100% sure these pickups are designed with these kind of High Gain tones in mind. They're more meant to push the amps and into a more natural grit, sort of what you'd want if you're a blues player looking to get some sustain and bawls out of the amp without applying lots of distortion. I can say that to my ears, nothing sounds like a P90, when it's dialed in right. so for that, I accept the "BUZZ"...

 

perhaps you could consider a noise gate?

Edited by kidblast
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have an ESP LTD Viper-256P with noise cancelling P90 pickups. When I got it new it buzzed a lot, in fact more than your normal P90 equipped guutar.

 

Then I read on the Internet a couple of owners with buzzing guitars claimed the factory wiring was wrong and two wires needed swapping. I tried to find the info, it's on Musician's Friend website review, but I am in UK so new data protection law won't let me access it.

 

If you are in the USA have a look at the reviews at the link below to find the info about swapping the wires. It worked for me, my P90s are quiet as a mouse now.

 

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/esp-ltd-viper-256-p-electric-guitar

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a Gibson BluesHawk and an Epiphone Blueshawk that use the Dummy Coil, My Epiphone that uses P-90 Pro's is quieter than my Gibson that uses Blues 90's. When you use the P-90 by itself the selector switch is supposed to connect in the Dummy Coil essentially making the circuit act like a humbucker, essentially providing hum-cancelling. The selector switch would have more complex wiring on it to open and close connections. My Blueshawk uses what looks like a Strat style selector switch different than what your Explorer uses. I have not seen how the wiring is done on your guitar It depends on how they wired in the Dummy Coil if its direct or goes through the switch. In either case the wiring would be more complex than normal. It would be advisable to contact Gibson directly.

 

GIBSON CUSTOMER SERVICE

 

EMAIL: http://www2.gibson.c.../Talk-2-Us.aspx

 

PHONE:

 

In the USA: 1-800-4GIBSON (1-800-444-2766)

 

In Europe: 00+8004GIBSON1 (00+800-444-2766-1)

 

If the guitar makes noise no matter what position the selector switch is in, this would indicate a different problem.

 

If noise only when switch is in neck position it would indicate something wrong relating to the Dummy Coil.

Edited by mihcmac
  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Going through a Mesa Rectifier on high gain settings, I find to neck pickup buzz to be beyond tolerable. I've taken it to two different techs. One said the dummy coil wasn't working, the other said it seemed to be working, it just isn't doing what it's supposed to.

AJ

I use P-90's exclusively these days. When I first started using them I was primarily using humbuckers with lots of overdrive. P-90 style pickups have twice the amount of windings that other singe coils have making them very loud and a bit dirty to start with. I started using 1/2 the amount of overdrive or gain that I used with humbuckers to get the similar result. Currently I use 3 overdrives each one set to be no louder than my channel volume. Using each one individually but normally using no more than 2 at a time to boost my leads that almost doubles the signal level. Short answer try using 1/2 the amount of gain that you would with a humbucker. Maybe even setup a pedal specifically for the P-94, for experimenting.

 

Their are things that can go wrong during the assembly of guitar that uses a dummy coil like it could get flipped over creating the wrong magnetic field for hum cancelling.

 

If you need to get support for your guitar the retailer normally wouldn't have a clue, contact Epiphone support which is actually Gibson support.

 

Epiphone Customer Service link...

 

Note: A lot of different manufacturers are building guitars with a hot humbucker bridge pickup and a P-90 style neck pickup for extreme tone variation. A P-90 neck pickup can give a wider range of usable tone than a humbucker in the same position.

Edited by mihcmac
  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

For what it's worth, I just picked one up yesterday and there is almost no noise, even with higher gain settings.

There's bound to be some new, tiny problem with the release of something most people -such as myself- had never even heard of.

..but dang if it doesn't sound like the coolest option

Edited by 212West
  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

***UPDATE***

 

So I took it to a good tech and he confirmed it was a wiring issue and fixed it. It sucks that the quality control on Epiphones (and Gibson in general) is so poor these days, but after it was fixed and set up properly, it's an absolute beast and I couldn't be happier with it.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
On 8/6/2018 at 3:46 AM, AJ Bans said:

***UPDATE***

 

So I took it to a good tech and he confirmed it was a wiring issue and fixed it. It sucks that the quality control on Epiphones (and Gibson in general) is so poor these days, but after it was fixed and set up properly, it's an absolute beast and I couldn't be happier with it.

 

I am having the same issue, do you have wire diagrams.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 years later...

EASY FIX !!!!  remove the back plate...unscrew the two silver screws that secure the dummy pickup....flip the dummy pickup over and screw it back down,,,,replace the back plate,,,screw it into place,,,and tock that neck pickup with no noise,,no hum,,,no problem,,,in fact,,i rhink i may even have gotten a bit more volume,,,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...