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Author Topic: Painkiller Set - "wah" tone?  (Read 1735 times)

hideous

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Painkiller Set - "wah" tone?
« on: May 05, 2008, 10:36:37 PM »
Loving this new Painkiller set. Best pickups I've played on with high gain.
One thing has surprised me about it though: -
when I mix the front and bridge pickups (middle position on the 3 way selector), there is a distinct "wah" tone happening for lead playing. I've never heard anything like it from pickups alone.
I've recently wired in some orange drop caps as well, so I'm just wondering -  is what I'm describing normal for the painkiller calibrated set?

Antag

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Painkiller Set - "wah" tone?
« Reply #1 on: May 06, 2008, 11:30:27 AM »
hmmm interesting.  I never use the middle selector position on my Charvel, so I'll have to try that when I get home....
BKPs: HD, MM, NB, PK, CS, Ab (b&n); Am (b only); VHII, Tril (n only); IT, Slow, Sult (m&n)

hideous

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Painkiller Set - "wah" tone?
« Reply #2 on: May 06, 2008, 12:23:38 PM »
Me too, I never usually use the middle position (mix of neck & bridge) at all - it's normally either the neck humbucker or the bridge for me.
But with this set, I'll be using the middle a whole lot now.
Only way I can describe is it sounds a bit like the tone you get from a wah wah pedal, when you set it in position on the treble side. But better.

Separately, the bridge and neck pickups sound perfect - just as I'd expect them to, so I can't see how I've wired them out of phase or anything like that - but I'm open to suggestions if anyone knows what's going on here.

avdekan

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Painkiller Set - "wah" tone?
« Reply #3 on: May 06, 2008, 03:18:38 PM »
Sounds like a phase problem to me.
Reversing the phase of a pickup wouldn't affect its tone by itself (as far as I know), but it  stands in relation to the other pickup.
Check if both lead wires from both pickups (red wires) are the live ones and that the black wires are grounded.
 Also the neck pickup should be positioned "upside down", meaning the screw coil towards the neck. if both coils are indistinguishable from each other (both slugs or hex) then the point at which the 4 conductor leaves the neck pickup should be opposite of the bridge pickup (top right vs. bottom left).
Hope it helps
Guns don't kill people, Bare Knuckles kill people!

hideous

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Painkiller Set - "wah" tone?
« Reply #4 on: May 06, 2008, 03:57:21 PM »
First, sorry mods - I've posted this in the wrong forum - I guess it's a "Tech" thread now....

Back to topic:
I guess they must be out of phase with one another then. I'll check again, but I could have sworm I did it the standard in series way.
Thing is, when I've tried other pickups out-of-phase before, there has been a BIG drop in volume. I'm getting absolutely no drop in volume with these.
Anyways, I'm very impressed with they way these sound like this and I'm not going to change it.