Please help me fix unstable output LP Studio

[Deam]

For a while i bought a used Gibson Les Paul Studio [LPSTEBGH1]. 

I dont exactly know how to explain my issue. For me it sounds like the guitar cant hold the tone / vibrate / shake. 

Propably the best would be if you could listen to my 5 sec audio shortly:

https://voca.ro/1285rgk1TUux

 

Some informations:

- i have done a overwrap

- neck relief is 0,01"  (0,25mm)

- string action is 1/16" (1,6mm) low E and 0.055" (1,4mm) high E

- pickup height currently 1/8" (2 mm)  

- pickup poles are almost flat (issue still there if all flat)

- standard tuning

 

On my Katana amp i dont use any effects at all, equalizer all set to medium, gain + volume 100%, amp type: brown. 

On my guitar all potis 100%, the issue is on treble and aswell on rhythm (on rhythm slightly less).  

I have a second guitar (Yamaha) with an equal setup, no issue on that guitar. 

 

Can anyone tell me whats wrong please ? 

Edited June 14, 2022 by Deam

[SteveFord]

It's not sustaining?

What's your pick up height like?  Try a nickle under the bridge pick up low E, penny under the high E

For neck try a penny under the low E, dime under the high E string and see what you get.

[Deam]

@SteveFord Thanks for quick response.

I dont think sostain is the issue here, sostain should be fine. All details about setup should be in first post already, have added both values now inch and mm.

The tone is jumping around, like a amplitude. The output swing around the tone / shake. 

Im sorry i dont know how i could explain it better. English is my third language and i dont know music/guitar terms. 

 

Edited June 14, 2022 by Deam

[SteveFord]

If both pick ups are doing the same thing I'd mess around with the amp settings.

[Sgt. Pepper]

None of my Martins do that.

[SteveFord]

That was predictabe.  No tubes, either.

[Sgt. Pepper]

5 minutes ago, SteveFord said:

That was predictabe.  No tubes, either.

No. My only amp is a for my Fender J Bass and it's a SS Acoustic B100. 

[jdgm]

Interesting - hard to tell from the soundclip but..it sounds a bit like 2 adjacent notes 'beating' which is amplified by the distorted tone.  It sounds like the guitar electronics are working ok but you could always remove the backplate and see if there is anything obviously wrong.   DEFINITELY try lowering the pickups 2 or 3mm and see if that stops it.  That would be the very first thing I'd try.  

1)  Are you simply playing one single note and is there also another note or open string ringing?   To tell if it is the guitar itself, unplug and play the note completely acoustically while putting your ear to the body.  If you still hear the 'beating' then it is probably a matter of setup and you may have some sort of fret issue.  Which fret and note(s) is it occurring on?

2) Unlikely if your other guitar works ok, but it might be occurring in the amp somehow or between the amp and speaker; a distorted amp into a small speaker can do something like this.  So - turn the amp gain down a bit first to see if that changes things, and then try doing the same with the volume.  If you can,  also try the amp through a different speaker. 

 

I'm making a wild guess here, but it could be that if a pickup is very close to the string, it is getting overloaded and so sending a distorted signal to the amp.

Best wishes, hope you fix it.

Edited June 14, 2022 by jdgm

[Deam]

@jdgm thanks for your respone.

Yes it occurs on both pickups but it seems to be worse on treble pickup (2-3 times worse).

I have already tried to increse pickup height, i think it is even recorded on ~4mm pickup height. (cant remember)

1) I played on 1 string, 2 tones. D string and tones are G# and G. This shaking/vibrating occurs on fret 5 (string D, tone G). This is a part from a solo "Nirvana - Smells like teen spririt". No there is no string ringing beside the d string of course. 

Accoustically it seems to be fine, but i think the issue is related to electronics. This happens very randomly on a lot of frets and strings unluckily. 

On most songs i dont notice this issue, happens only on "solos", if the string is played for a few seconds and not for all notes. "Green Day - holiday" is another song where this issue occurs, but not as much like in the recorded audio. The part where you go higher and higher on B string. 

2) There is no other hardware involved beside my guitar, cable, Boss Katana 50. I have tried already to play around with gain and volume witouth success.

 

EDIT:

I just tried on my cheap 30$ china battery amp. This issue occurs there aswell. I dont have other hardware unluckily.

Edited June 14, 2022 by Deam

[jdgm]

So from what you say it must be in the electronics.  It may be that a previous owner changed/rewired the pickups and didn't do a good job.   There is some sort of mismatch going on - it may be a capacitor is faulty or has the wrong value.  Could it be due to a 'dry' solder joint?  Seems unlikely but worth checking - it the solder is matt and messy it may need redoing.  Do you have a can of electronic switch cleaner?  If so, try spraying it into the pots and selector switch (put a cloth over the guitar body to protect it) and work the pots/switch to loosen any dirt inside which might be causing this.  It can be messy - you have to spray quite a lot of switch cleaner and get it inside the pot via one of the tiny little apertures next to the tags.

Good luck, Deam!

Edited June 14, 2022 by jdgm

[Sgt. Pepper]

Could your pups be going microphonic.

[jdgm]

1 minute ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

Could your pups be going microphonic.

Good point.  Tap them with your fingernail and if you can hear it through the amp they are microphonic.

[Deam]

On 6/14/2022 at 9:56 PM, Sgt. Pepper said:

Could your pups be going microphonic.

@jdgm

Thanks guys for your time.

Yeah on both pickups i can hear "tapping" through the amp like dull knocking.

The same happens on my other guitar.

But our current is not grounded, the tapping i can hear could be because of that.

 

Tomorrow i can open up the backside and post a picture. 

 

Unluckily i dont have a switch cleaner, but a soldering iron.

Edited June 15, 2022 by Deam

[Deam]

Ok i have made a few photos now from electronics. At first look everything seems to be fine, beside the slightly molten Neck connector (last pic).

 

 

Edited June 15, 2022 by Deam

[kidblast]

Try to lower the pickups,   there is some sort of artifact there,,  it is possible magnets are too close the strings.

Try another sound clip, but with no distortion/gain.  

Edited June 15, 2022 by kidblast

[Sgt. Pepper]

All your pots must be grounded to the PC Board. Usually the wire that goes from screw of the bridge gets soldered (not soldiered)  to all the pots.

[badbluesplayer]

When you look at the switch in the second-to-last and third-to-last pictures, it looks like two of the tabs are very close to touching.  The center tab was soldered off center.  I'd bend the one on the right in the pictures away from the center tab.  See if that helps.

[Big Bill]

20 hours ago, badbluesplayer said:

When you look at the switch in the second-to-last and third-to-last pictures, it looks like two of the tabs are very close to touching.  The center tab was soldered off center.  I'd bend the one on the right in the pictures away from the center tab.  See if that helps.

I believe they are supposed to be that way.

[Rondak46]

It looks like your ground wire is making contact with the pot. Bend and shape out of the way.

[Deam]

@kidblast there is no difference changing pickup height

@Sgt. Pepper yep all pots are soldered to the board. I think ground is connected to all pots via the board.

@badbluesplayer no they are not touching, but i have bend them a little bit more to the side though.

@Big Bill mine are the same not ? I personally have not done anything and the person which owned it before seem not to have touched anything aswell. It have to be a building error from Gibson, if its not correct.

@Rondak46 no they are not touching, but i have bend the ground wire more out of the way slightly aswell.

 

Edit: I probably have found one or the issues.

The neck curvature wasnt the same on high E like on low E. On low E it was around 0.3-0.4mm and on high E it was more like 0.1-0.2mm. The recommanded values are 0.2-0.5mm.

So on high E it was probably to less, i have fixed that (high E ~ 0.3mm, low E 0.5-0.6mm) and it seems like the issue is gone on D string, but not on high E and rarely on B. 

So my vertical curvatur might be off... there is not a lot i can do about rather then going over the recommandations for low E. Its an old guitar though... 

Anyway i will leave it like that for now as i dont play a lot on high E, maybe the issue completly dissappear if i set up new strings (my current ones are very used).

Edited June 20, 2022 by Deam

[Big Bill]

3 hours ago, Deam said:

 

Anyway i will leave it like that for now as i dont play a lot on high E, maybe the issue completly dissappear if i set up new strings (my current ones are very used).

That may be your problem right there, dead strings. Let us know how it sounds after you change the strings out.