Riffster Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 Do you know what makes Burstbucker 1 and 2 have such loose low end leading to the inevitable muddiness? I realize that these pickups are vintage voiced and they sound nice at lower gain levels and actually they sound nice for leads with moderate gain but the bass frequencies are far from tight. Why is that? is thera way to tighten the bass? I have read about the capacitor that some folks add to the lead wire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damian Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 Factory BBs are unpotted...BBs sold as PUs are now lightly potted... The magnets can be switched out......Searcy will make the recommendations for you... They do have a loose sound at higher gain... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted October 11, 2012 Author Share Posted October 11, 2012 I have been tempted to experiement with magnets but the Classic 57's on my SG sound great with gain and they have Alnico II magnets and I assume Gibson uses the same Alnico II for everything. I wonder what in the design of BurstBuckers makes them muddy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damian Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 I wonder what in the design of BurstBuckers makes them muddy. I don't know (yet)......I have a set in a high end Gibby I use for clean recorded tracks, never for gain tracks....I'll be putting them in an Epi LP and popping in some Wolftones......I'll ask around as I want to know as well.......Searcy might/should know..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan H Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 I don't know (yet)......I have a set in a high end Gibby I use for clean recorded tracks, never for gain tracks....I'll be putting them in an Epi LP and popping in some Wolftones......I'll ask around as I want to know as well.......Searcy might/should know..... Wolfe makes great stuff, and is fairly knowledgable himself regarding the effects of different factors on the final sound of a pickup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 Do you know what makes Burstbucker 1 and 2 have such loose low end leading to the inevitable muddiness? I realize that these pickups are vintage voiced and they sound nice at lower gain levels and actually they sound nice for leads with moderate gain but the bass frequencies are far from tight. Why is that? is thera way to tighten the bass? I have read about the capacitor that some folks add to the lead wire. The Burst Buckers are what we could consider on the hot side of the PAF spectrum. Swapping out the Alnico 2 magnets for Alnico 5 might make some difference for you. But before all that let's start easy. First, try lowering your pickup 3/8ths of an inch and see how that sounds. It will lower output but you have a volume know on your amp last time I checked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted October 12, 2012 Author Share Posted October 12, 2012 I will give that a try first, the thing with Historic LPs is that the pickup rings are so high it gives the impression that the pickups are at the ideal height, if it sounds good enough I can always grind down the pickups rings since any adjustment down takes the pickup top below the ring edge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 In that case I would think about getting some shorter pickup rings and saving the originals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damian Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 In that case I would think about getting some shorter pickup rings and saving the originals. In that case I'd replace the pickups with pickups that will do the job that the OP wants........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 He didn't say anything about wanting to replace pickups. When trying to adjust tone I never start with swapping pickups. Swapping mounting rings is a matter of a few screws and a few dollars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted October 13, 2012 Author Share Posted October 13, 2012 I did not have the chance to plug in today but I did lower the pickup and also raised the pole pieces since they were a bit below the cover I adjusted them by 1 1/2 tunrs. Frankly I rather make these pickups work, they're fine but need to have tighter low end so if there is a solution I rather go for that. I was planning on filing the rings a bit anyway because the neck ring do not conform to the top carve anyway, plus there are a million reissues out there, not a rare guitar at all. I'll plug up tomorrow and see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 If this adjustment doesn't give the results you want the next step is to see what pots your guitar has. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valeriy Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 Hello, guys. I would suggest,just in case, to interchange with each other the signal and ground wires (near potentiometers). I.e. the signal wire must be connected to the ground, and the ground wire – where was the signal. I had a couple of cases with the guitars when this very helped against a loose sound. Although they were electric guitars (not bass) and one of them it was quite expensive Epiphone. Sound in any way is altered slightly by such permutation (for different guitars with different degrees), but sometimes it can be drastically help toward a dense and elastic sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted October 13, 2012 Author Share Posted October 13, 2012 After lowering the pickups and adjusting the polepieces up the sound on the bridge pickup has improved nicely, less mud and more crunch, the neck pickup does not want to play nice with the same adjustments. The neck pickup is still pretty bassy but I will keep tweaking. The pots are 500k all around, I have measured them and they pretty close to tolerance. I will keep adjusting until I hit a sweet spot, it is a busy day I kind of have my hands full... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted October 13, 2012 Author Share Posted October 13, 2012 Oh and by the way Damian, when I adjusted the polepieces wax came up, so it looks like the pickups are potted, my R8 is a 2009. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 After lowering the pickups and adjusting the polepieces up the sound on the bridge pickup has improved nicely, less mud and more crunch, the neck pickup does not want to play nice with the same adjustments. The neck pickup is still pretty bassy but I will keep tweaking. The pots are 500k all around, I have measured them and they pretty close to tolerance. I will keep adjusting until I hit a sweet spot, it is a busy day I kind of have my hands full... Good reminder that Gibson is generally about, meaty, thick juicy tone. You don't get rabbit food from a steer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 Hell... If I had known that's was what was for dinner I would have come and worked on the guitar myself! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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