Miracle Man / Warpig set into Epiphone Explorer

[Roboten]

I had a problem when installing my warpigs, the sound would cut in and out unless I held it in a very specific position. After hours of resoldering I finally found the problem. The hot leg of the volume pot was touching the cavity wall very slightly, which seemed to be covered in conducting paint to stop hum, i guess. If you're having problems with everything installed that might have something to do with it?

[Dave Sloven]

Thanks Roboten, I just logged in to say that I have solved the issue and it was exactly the same problem as yours, the neck pot red and black shorting due to contact with shielding paint in the very tight cavity.  This explains why it worked fine with the pots hanging out and then as soon as I tightened everything up I lost power!  After I worked out that it was the shielding paint causing the issue I rotated the pot half a turn, tightened everything up and it was fine.  Lucky for me as none of the multimeters I got from the local Mitre 10 were any good, so I was unable to diagnose it with a continuity check (I got my money back on those).

First impression: no usable clean (everyone says this about Warpigs, but the contrast with the Cold Sweat neck and even the Nailbomb bridge in my SG was quite stark), much more bassy sound than the NB but not overly dark or bassy.  In terms of sheer output it seems less than the Mighty Mites but with more dynamics.  The Mighty Mite has a LOT of compression, which is one reason why they sound so loud.  I will have to adjust my playing style on this axe to suit and after I am used to it I will say a bit more.  I also need to experiment with my amp EQ.

I also bought some extra leads for my effects loop on the Peavey so now I can run the ISP Decimator G String II, which works how that it has all four leads plugged in.

EDIT: No real joy with the ISP (see thread in amps, effects, etc) but here's a photo of the guitar with Warpigs fitted.

[GuitarIv]

Just play around with the height and your amp settings, eventually you will find the sweet spot. I loved the A-Pig in a mates axe, but then again tastes differ as much as guitars tend to do.

[Dave Sloven]

Just play around with the height and your amp settings, eventually you will find the sweet spot. I loved the A-Pig in a mates axe, but then again tastes differ as much as guitars tend to do.

Cheers, I will try to set the bridge height and adjust the truss rod ASAP so that I can then move on to adjusting pickup heights.  Something tells me this guitar/pickup combo will be less finicky in that regard than the A-bomb/SG combination

[GuitarIv]

It really depends on the guitar and BKPs are especially picky when it comes to the instrument, more so than other pickups, but I'm sure you will find the sweet spot. Had similar issues with my Painkiller until I found a setting that worked fine :)

[Dave Sloven]

I did fiddle with the pickup height a little tonight, very roughly but I did even out the volume between the neck and bridge (the neck was louder so I raised the bridge).  I also adjusted the bridge height to get rid of string rattle.  I did try to adjust the truss rod but the gap between the strings and the truss rod hole are both very small and I could not use the wrench that came with my SG.  The neck looks pretty straight though.

Also I played the guitar through a Fender amp tonight and the clean sounded much better than what I could get on the 6534+ with these pickups, acceptable but still nowhere near the clean of the Cold Sweat.

EDIT: I just played it again through the 6534+ and I got some great crust and UK hardcore tones out of it, ripped through 'Nazi Die' by Doom and 'Sick Boy' by GBH and it sounded great for both of those.  Which augurs well for getting '80s style grindcore sounds from it once tuned down and the pace picked up some with double-picking etc.  I also tried playing 'Ausgebombt' by Sodom and I am getting better tones with that each time I fiddle with settings etc.  Not sure if people usually play this kind of punk with Warpigs but it seems to work (bridge pickup anyway).  The Exploited didn't sound as good through this guitar as through my A-bomb SG, but I didn't expect that.  Same with Poison Idea and RDP.

[GuitarIv]

Good to hear that you have found a setting that works, I find different flavours and sounds in every BKP I own every day more and more :)

[Dave Sloven]

Tuned it down to C# standard tonight ... the Ernie Ball Light Top Heavy Bottom set were fine for that, and I was digging the light high strings, very expressive in an Iommi kind of way ... the low strings sound like a bass with these pickups!  Tried playing a bit of the old Countess Bathory by Venom, sounds a lot more bassy and less middy than what Mantas used to get.  Maybe some fiddling with the Maxon OD-9 pedal might give that Venom tone

[GuitarIv]

Keep on experimenting ^^

[Dave Sloven]

I had an interesting problem with this guitar today:

I noticed that the pickups were a bit high as they would occasionally touch the strings and squeal.  This was interesting as I never noticed it doing this the last time I played it.  I then tried to adjust the pickup height with a screwdriver, and found that the pickups would tilt and move backward and forwards in the pickup rings.  I'm assuming this is something to do with the pickup cavity being too tight in spots and the baseplate catching on the sides of the cavity as it moves up and down.  Currently the bridge pickup is on a slight tilt.  I want to pull the pickups out and play around with the wiring anyway at some point, and I am not gigging the guitar at this point, but I think I will have to take them out and hog out the cavities a bit more with my Foredom flex shaft before applying some more shielding paint.

Anyone else encountered a similar problem?

[GuitarIv]

I had to file down the legs of my Painkiller/Coldsweat combo in order to fit them into the cavities of my Jackson Fusion Pro (I would have ordered triangular tabs if I knew the cavities would be so tight), I had some similar issues with pickups tilting due to lack of space, but that only happened to me in cheap guitars so far.

[Dave Sloven]

Well, it's an old Korean Epiphone that cost me $500 with case (and the Mighty Mite MBs and 500K pots and an orange cap fitted), so that was cheap!  I think I can fix it with my Foredom flex-shaft.  I didn't remove much from the front of the rear pickup cavity, and I think that's where it's rubbing.

For a cheap guitar it sounds killer and the neck is nice.  It also stays in tune better with the Grover tuners than my Gibson SG does with its thin neck and Kluson tuners.

[GuitarIv]

Nothing wrong with a good cheap guitar. They just tend to need a little bit more attention and work than expensive ones :P

[Dave Sloven]

I think the tilt in the pickup was due to the pickup lead.  There is no real contact between the pickup and the cavity wall, although I did find a curious rough spot that looked like something was rubbing.  The lead may have been pulled too far into the control cavity or something.  Anyway when the techie installs my Triple Shots (after I get the harness sorted out) I will have plenty of lead there for him to play with.