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help needed!


jerome_travis

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Hello all !

 

seems to have some issues with my Burny SG.

 

There seemed to be a marked decrease in volume when i switch to the neck pickup. The bridge is loudest and most articulate, and the vol decreases from middle to neck. I had a Epi casino and it seems to be the other way round - neck loudest, subtle volume drop only in the bridge.

 

could it be a cable problem or something? First time using hums - always been a sc person

 

thanks!

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Could be that the neck pickup is too low or the bridge is too high - raising them will tend to increase the volume and lowering will decrease it. I think* common practice when setting up a guitar is to set the bridge pickup to a standard height and then adjust the neck one until it's the same volume.

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Could be that the neck pickup is too low or the bridge is too high - raising them will tend to increase the volume and lowering will decrease it. I think* common practice when setting up a guitar is to set the bridge pickup to a standard height and then adjust the neck one until it's the same volume.

 

If I had money, I'd bet that is the cause - easily fixed with a screw driver.

 

 

 

mark

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What pickups are in it? If the bridge pickup is considerably higher output than the neck pickup, that could be part of the reason for the difference in volume. And I'd agree with the pickup height having an impact.

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After setting the bridge to the proper height,

set the pickups this way.

1. Fret the bass E string at the last fret, and adjust the screws so that

the top of the pickup is 1/16 from the bottom of the string.

Do the same with the treble E string.

It's important to fret the string at the last fret.

If you don't the picups will be too high and will contact the strings when playing

in the upper registers.

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The pickup is attached to the ring by 2 screws.

They should be in the center, on each side.

The other 4 in the corners, are to attach the ring to the body.

 

If your guitar has typical humbuckers in a Les Paul style body, this would be the setup.

See the pic below.

 

LesPaulBody.jpg

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Yeah if you twiddle the screws on each end of the pickup one way they will raise, and the other way they will lower. So either raise the neck pickup or drop the bridge pickup - or a bit of both. Have a play around and see what sounds good. But don't put your pickups TOO close - the magnets in them will interfere with string vibration and sap a little of your sustain if you bring them up too much. Set your EQ on your amplifier flat (everything at 5) while you make this adjustment, then you'll get the true effect of how loud the pickups really are compared to each other. I'll hazard a guess that the reason why your Casino probably sounds louder on the neck pickup is you're cranking the bass on your amplifier.

 

I'm not surprised your Burny guitar was set up this way. It's really really common for people to set up guitars with the bridge pickup closer to the strings (and therefore louder) than the neck pickup. This way a player can keep their volumes all on 10 all the time and use their pickup selector as a dynamics control. Since the bridge pickup is usually the pickup of choice for leads, it means that you can use the switch to make your leads cut through and do rhythms more int he background the rest of the time. It's also one of the easiest adjustments to make on a guitar.

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I see! that was insightful, thanks Bkitten! Great to learn this stuff always. Thing is my amp only has a tone control - no EQ - its a vox ac4tv! So inherently the casino sounds this way, i dont know why! I'll probably match up the neck a little higher! I can't get that smooth jazzy sound form the neck pickup when it's soft and slightly muddy!

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