New Painkiller "Problem"

[musicmaker29]

Hi guys,

I bought a PK neck pickup and just had it installed the other day, I love the power that my guitar now has and I like the responsiveness of the pickup, but I just have one issue with it and that is that it 'quack's (the only way that I can describe it!).

I guess it may be because its so middy, but is there anything I can do to reduce this aspect of the sound, it just sounds very very harsh at the moment because of it - I have an eq pedal (mxr), and I think I need to cut some mids, but what would you change in my situation? (pup height, tone, volume, eq......) I play hi-gain metal stuff and the unwanted tones sound worst on clean, still present on distortion but doesn't sound as bad.

it also squeals a lot, but I think that a noise surpressor might sort that!

Thanks very much,

Alex

[indysmith]

"Quacks" sounds like an odd description of a humbucker. You couldn't have wired it out of phase could you?

[Nolly]

That's odd, the PK neck is almost scooped sounding. I trust you have bought a specific neck pickup, not a PK bridge and put it in the neck?

[syr2012]

It sounds like it's out of phase. It's also possible that there's only one coil wired instead of both. You should definitely take a look at the wiring.

[m0jo]

...

it also squeals a lot, but I think that a noise surpressor might sort that!

...

Does it hum more than a humbucker should? Because this would indicate either one coil or out of phase wiring like syr2012 says.

Their shouldn't be any squeals at all though.. maybe something wrong with the pickup although I find it hard to believe..

[dheim]

i'd try to install it again... i don't know if PK's peculiar mid response can be described as a "quack", and i'm not sure if the squealing you hear comes just from improved presence and attack (then you should change something in your EQ)... does it happen even on low strings?

[ericsabbath]

my holy diver squeals a lot, specially with the drums
it's extremely sensitive
my friend's pk squealed too, but he got it rewaxed

[syr2012]

my holy diver squeals a lot, specially with the drums
it's extremely sensitive
my friend's pk squealed too, but he got it rewaxed

I don't think it's normal for your holydiver to squeal, the only time mine ever did so was in a situation where I was running too much distortion through an amp that wasn't really made to handle that in the first place.
How's your pickup height?

[ericsabbath]

it always squealed at any height in all the 3 guitars I had it installed

specially with boosters
and I always a lot of mids and highs
but it's extremely sensitive to any kind of vibration or interference by itself