Nailbombs just don't sound right

[wgmj]

Hi guys,

Tried to find a thread on this but no luck. Long story short, I got a calibrated set of NB's put in my Ibanez. I loved the tone, but they just didn't sound...off the hook the way I expected them to. I buy a Warmoth off of a guy that has Emg's, this guitar is a high quality build, so this thing sounds awesome. Now my Ibanez is sounding worse and worse. I rip it apart, buy mojotone CTS 500K volume, 250K tone, mojotone cap paper in foil oil filled blah blah...I re-wire, using better teflon insulated silver strand wire to replace some of the junk the "luthier" used. Now when I play it I can't get any distortion from them...??? They are clean as clean can be, they sound good tone wise, but I need overdrive. Any ideas?? This is the first time for me to wire up a guitar. I had to back back and re-solder some grounds, that took care of the hum, but why aren't these NB's knocking my socks off???? I know they should be.

[schantist]

Wire colors and wiring is your best bet,
red is the hot signal for BKP's.

What kind of Ibanez are we talking about, Gio stuff or something halfway decent ?

[darkbluemurder]

Now when I play it I can't get any distortion from them...??? They are clean as clean can be, they sound good tone wise, but I need overdrive. Any ideas??

Hi,

When you say "clean" do you mean that they have very low output, and compared to which pickups (EMGs)? What pickups were in that guitar before you put the Nailbombs in? We just need to make sure that there is no wiring error.

EMGs - especially the 81 - have a very high output due to the integrated preamp. The output is so high that it distorts some amps' inputs even if the gain is not really set high. The Nailbombs are not that high in output but should still be able to overdrive most preamps. But one characteristic of all BKPs is that they are clear - there are no artificial overtones or sizzle, thus making the sound appear to have less overdrive.

What is your amp and pedal set up?

Cheers Stephan

[wgmj]

My Ibanez is a RGA72TQM, so its a mid grade guitar. It had the Ibanez active pickups in it before the NB's went in. I had a tech with a good rep put them in initially, but they had real low output then, so I put in new hardware and wiring and rewired. I am running through an Egnater Renegade 212 w/matching extension cab, pedals are Boss NS-2, Bad Monkey Tube Driver, my rack is G-Major, BBE 362 Sonic Maximizer, and Pyle Pro Power Conditioner. So when I said clean, I meant zero overdrive, and I had the tube driver on, and the gain on 10 and it was clean as a whistle. I did just find out my amp is having issues, its going into the shop today. But honestly, I don't think it was the amp, because I'd pick up the other guitar and it would be overdriven, unless those emgs run that hot, and maybe they do. I guess maybe I need to wait and see what it sounds like when the amp is fixed. The amp has no clean channel right now, the EL34 side is not working at all, only the 6L6's are working right now, so I guess we can put this on hold until the amp comes back. Thanks for your responses, and yes I know the red wire is hot, I read the schematics over and over and over before I even touched it. What bugs me is I heard these samples on this website of these pickups, and mine sound nothing like them, that kind of irks me a bit. I almost feel mislead, but I don't want to jump off the the wagon yet because they may be installed wrong. I did read where another guy reversed the red and black and that fixed his problem. Is it possible some came out wired wrong from the factory??? ANyway, thanks for your help. I'll chime back in when the amp comes home from the tech.

[schantist]

My Ibanez is a RGA72TQM, so its a mid grade guitar. It had the Ibanez active pickups in it before the NB's went in. I had a tech with a good rep put them in initially, but they had real low output then, so I put in new hardware and wiring and rewired. I am running through an Egnater Renegade 212 w/matching extension cab, pedals are Boss NS-2, Bad Monkey Tube Driver, my rack is G-Major, BBE 362 Sonic Maximizer, and Pyle Pro Power Conditioner. So when I said clean, I meant zero overdrive, and I had the tube driver on, and the gain on 10 and it was clean as a whistle. I did just find out my amp is having issues, its going into the shop today. But honestly, I don't think it was the amp, because I'd pick up the other guitar and it would be overdriven, unless those emgs run that hot, and maybe they do. I guess maybe I need to wait and see what it sounds like when the amp is fixed. The amp has no clean channel right now, the EL34 side is not working at all, only the 6L6's are working right now, so I guess we can put this on hold until the amp comes back. Thanks for your responses, and yes I know the red wire is hot, I read the schematics over and over and over before I even touched it. What bugs me is I heard these samples on this website of these pickups, and mine sound nothing like them, that kind of irks me a bit. I almost feel mislead, but I don't want to jump off the the wagon yet because they may be installed wrong. I did read where another guy reversed the red and black and that fixed his problem. Is it possible some came out wired wrong from the factory??? ANyway, thanks for your help. I'll chime back in when the amp comes home from the tech.

The Enter key is your friend, man; use paragraphs...

Get your own gear right before you suspect production faults
and you won't feel misled anymore when you hear the NBs through a working amp.

[darkbluemurder]

So when I said clean, I meant zero overdrive, and I had the tube driver on, and the gain on 10 and it was clean as a whistle. I did just find out my amp is having issues, its going into the shop today. But honestly, I don't think it was the amp, because I'd pick up the other guitar and it would be overdriven, unless those emgs run that hot, and maybe they do.

If they are clean as a whistle with all overdrive on, and there is plenty of overdrive with the other guitar it is not very likely the other equipment's fault, even if it obviously got issues.

... because they may be installed wrong. I did read where another guy reversed the red and black and that fixed his problem. Is it possible some came out wired wrong from the factory???

I forgot to ask whether they hummed considerably more than the other guitar's pickups - that would strongly hint at a wiring issue. The BKP code for regular series humbucker wiring is red to hot, green and white together and taped off (if single coil operation is not desired) and black to ground. If e.g. the connection between green and white were not solid the pickup would not work. Very strange should this happen with two pickups.

I doubt that there are many pickups wired wrong from the factory, especially two pickups at a time but if so it can be easily corrected. Take a digital multimeter (DMM), disconnect the pickup leads from the circuitry and measure red to white. Do you get a reading of about 8k ohms? If yes, reverse the red and white wires (white to hot, green and red together, black to ground). The pickup should then work as expected. Did you not get a reading? Reverse red and green (green to hot, red and white together, black to ground).   

Good luck
Stephan

[BigB]

So when I said clean, I meant zero overdrive, and I had the tube driver on, and the gain on 10 and it was clean as a whistle.

Then you have a problem. One thing you can do while you wait for your amp coming back from repair is to get your multimeter and check your wiring, pots, and the pups DC resistance.

Oh and yes:  please use your enter key - trying to read this one big block of text was really a PITA.

[wgmj]

Ok, I'm going to tear it down again and check everything. Sorry about the whole paragraph thing. I'll chime in when I'm done checking the pups, pots, and anything else I can check.

[Transcend]

Your problem here i reckon is that the stock pot wasnt changed from the 25k linear pot that was in use with the stock actives.

I also made this mistake

Oh hold on i just noticed that you have since changed the pots.

Have you tried wiring the pickup directly to the output jack?

[wgmj]

Ok, thanks for all the instruction Stephan, and thanks to everyone else too, turns out both of my pups hots are white. The only thing I have to play through right now is my kids little practice amp, but I can tell a huge difference. Big sustain, pinch harmonics are alive, just the over all feel of them is a lot better now. Can't wait to plug em in to the Egnater and hear them.

[darkbluemurder]

turns out both of my pups hots are white.

Yes, that puts both coils out of phase, effectively cancelling all signal and no longer cancelling hum - worst of all worlds. Glad you got it sorted now.

Cheers Stephan