Out of Balance Pups

[Bobstay]

Hi Gang............

 

 

For a long time I had a Sunburst 335 Dot(Korean)

 

It was stolen last August!

 

 

I replace it with a Natural 335 Dot (China)

 

I love the guitar even though the neck

is a bit chunkier than my other Dot.

 

 

Right away I noticed that the neck pup

is much louder then the bridge pup.

 

This didn't change much even when I

adjusted the height or the pole pieces.

 

I recently bought Mean 90's from GFS.

 

(as well as a black tuneomatic bridge a

black tail piece and black top hat knobs)

 

These look great with the black pick

guard against the natural finish.

 

Even with the new pups the neck pup

is louder then the bridge pup!

 

 

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

 

(in the next week or so I am going to replace

the pots and wiring and install a treble bleed0

[stein]

Try adjusting the whole pup, instead of just the pole pieces?

[SNick]

I have found that dropping the base side of the pup by 1/32 can get rid some of the darker tone. Did you radius the pole pieces the way Gibson used to do or just screw them up and down individually?

[jfine]

Strings vibrate more in the middle than they do on the ends. With the same pickup design, set the same way, in both positions, the neck pickup will be louder because it picks up more string vibration. Try this--fret the treble E string at the last fret, then adjust the overall height adjustment screw on the bridge pickup until the front edge of the pickup is about 1/16" from the string--you don't want the string to fret out on the pickup when you're playing high notes. Then, do the same thing on the bass E string, and you'll probably want to set the bass side of the pickup a little lower to compensate for the increased output of the big E string. Then, switch to the neck pickup and adjust the height adjustment screws at either end until they match the bridge pickup--you'll likely need to lower the neck pickup--keep switching back and forth. Once you've got them pretty evenly matched, adjust the individual string screws until you've got them all even in output. Use your ear; don't go by what they look like. When you get one pickup balanced out (I'd start with the bridge pickup), go to the other and do the same thing. Keep switching back and forth and listen closely to the levels--it may take a while. Don't count on these adjustments being done at the factory--they basically assemble them, check to make sure everything's working, and ship 'em out. Those adjustments are very much personal preference anyway--most dealers won't bother with them either, unless there's something obviously wrong, like a string buzzing against a pickup. If you still can't match them up this way, you may need a hotter bridge pickup.