Vintage Guitar Pickup Problem?
I recently bought a vintage 335 copy bass guitar. it has a PHAT pickup right below the neck (it’s about the size of a boss pedal) and besides the 335 style body is one of the reasons I bought the guitar.
but after trying to play it during a gig, i noticed that only the A string and D string pick up at normal volume, the E and G strings are really quiet. I had to crank up the volume AND the the bass to get any reasonable level out of the E string and it just sounded horrible.
I’ve already spent a reasonable amount getting this old girl gig-ready (luthier, new flatwounds, mean vintage strap etc) so I dont want to spend too much more at my rip-off luthiers just for them to charge me and not actually do anything. I also really don’t want to have to replace the pickup (or at least not the outer shell, I could probably swap over some electrics underneath as long as it still provides a phat sound… i dunno much about this kinda stuff) so what do you thin kthe problem could be?
the strings are flat and the pickup is flat
Kansieo.com
August 27th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
is the pickup angled so it’s the same distance from each string ?
if it’s flat with the surface of the bass that could be part of the problem
August 29th, 2010 at 8:50 am
I know little about guitars but I do understand the electronics and the science behind the pickups. Is it possible that the pick up used is intended for a lead or rhythm guitar? This would mean that the frequency range of the pick up does not suit the frequency range (pitch) of the guitar. Try another pickup or use a couple of notch filters to select and boost the attenuated frequencies.