Is there something wrong with my Alnico Warpig?!

[engwei]

I think there's something wrong with the Alnico Warpig bridge pickup in my new Skervesen Raptor 6!!

Here's some recordings I did with a few of my guitars.

https://soundcloud.com/eng-wei-chua/sets/bridge-pickup-test

I'm happy with all my other guitar sounds. Track 4 is the Warpig in the Skervesen and to me the low end respose is more akin to the Strat in track 5! Compared to 1, 2, and 3, 6 it's almost like the Warpig is not in full humbucking mode.

I did some more tests - I wired the warpig straight to the output jack and that's what you can hear in Track 7. Same result.

Finally I took the Warpig out of the Skervesen and put it in my guitar which has a Juggernaut in it. You can hear the difference in track 8 and 9. The muted chugs are almost non existant with the alnico Warpig in it that Skervesen gave me.

Do you think the pickup is faulty? It readys about 21kohms on the multi meter.

Would appreciate your thoughts on it!

Thanks

[Kiichi]

All I can say is that it does sound like faulty wiring, but since you wired it straight to the jack that is kinda out too if you did not mix up wires to have it run wrongly. Since you also read seemingly correct Ohm values I am pretty confused.
Make triple sure that the correct wires are used and that there is nothing else wrong.

Otherwise, the only thing that kinda makes sense is that it is either faulty or wired wrong (human error). That could be found out by wiring it with series / parallel switched and also out of phase. If one of those that normally should sound thinner sound bigger, then there was a simple mixup during making. Otherwise, I am guessing there is something wrong.

[Dave Sloven]

My A-Pig sounds nothing like that

Even throught the factory Gibson wiring it will tear your head off

Maybe the wires are connected incorrectly inside the pickup?

[engwei]

Thanks guys. I've got green and white together, black and bare to ground and red to hot.

How can I test if the internal wiring is OK?!

I find it strange that if it is wrong in someway then it got missed by BK and Skerv.

Thing is I originally ordered a Ceramic Nailbomb in the bridge as I tried one in another guitar and liked it. It was too thin with no bass in my Skerv so I thought I'd get the Abomb. When this arrived and also sounded thin i thought it was down to the guitar woods. (Nailbomb neck sounds brilliant though).

Thoroughly confused

[Dave Sloven]

Have you got the bare wire connected to ground as well as the black?

Also, how experienced are you will soldering?  It's possible there's a cold solder joint

[engwei]

I don't have any qualification in it, but I do have 15 guitars and probably swapped out about 50 pickups in the past. Yes bare to ground also.

Tim and Ben from BKP have listened to the clips and say they can't hear anything wrong! So I'm a little lost. I'm waiting to hear back from Skervesen.

[ericsabbath]

well, I can't hear anything wrong either, since I don't know the guitars core reference tone

in my experience, the alnico pig is lower output than the c-bomb and will only sound thicker than a c-bomb when set really close to strings
it's doesn't have a 'pushing' sound, although it delivers some compression

[Dave Sloven]

Maybe I have mine set high, but I can do some sick pinch harmonics with mine ...

Also mine has a LOT of bottom end, that's what I am not hearing

I am assuming that the OP has done everything to get those characteristics via the amp, but I am just not hearing them

I am wondering if it is a little amp

[engwei]

well, I can't hear anything wrong either, since I don't know the guitars core reference tone

in my experience, the alnico pig is lower output than the c-bomb and will only sound thicker than a c-bomb when set really close to strings
it's doesn't have a 'pushing' sound, although it delivers some compression

Well how about tracks 8 and 9 - same guitar. 8 is a jugg and 9 is an alnico warpig. There is a lot less low end with the warpig, I'm actually palm muting and they're just not there with the warpig

[engwei]

Maybe I have mine set high, but I can do some sick pinch harmonics with mine ...

Also mine has a LOT of bottom end, that's what I am not hearing

I am assuming that the OP has done everything to get those characteristics via the amp, but I am just not hearing them

I am wondering if it is a little amp

All of the recordings were with a Kemper, same profile, same settings. Track 1, alnico warpig is what I expect. Lots of low end. Chugs sound huge. Then track 4, same amp same settings, and there's no low end and really scratchy high end.

That's what I hear and experience at least.

[Dave Sloven]

Track 4 sounds anaemic compared with track 1. Just to clarify, they are two different A-Pigs, right?

I know it is not the same setup, but this is a clip of my A-Pig equipped SG at band practice last week. The amp is a Peavey 6534+ (lead channel), Pre-Gain 4/10, Bass 4/10, Mids 6/10, Treble 7/10, Resonance 3/10, Presence (7/10) [I was borrowing a bassy cab), with a clean boost (MXR/CAE) set at 9 o'clock in front of the amp with an MXR Custom Comp (set for sustain) in the loop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7qRWNJhyOo

Quite bassy (but please allow for the fact that this is in C standard tuning) and plenty of push. Please excuse any cr@ppy playing.  I was making up that riff on the fly and my bandmates were trying to follow me.

It definitely has more bass than my A-Bomb equipped Explorer, and whereas the A-Bomb is getting help from the bass of the Explorer the A-Pig gets none at all.  The A-Pig used to be in my Explorer but was unusable there due to all the bass.  Now I actually roll back the bass on the amp when using the SG (for the Explorer it is set closer to 5/10).

[engwei]

Track 4 sounds anaemic compared with track 1. Just to clarify, they are two different A-Pigs, right?

I know it is not the same setup, but this is a clip of my A-Pig equipped SG at band practice last week. The amp is a Peavey 6534+ (lead channel), Pre-Gain 4/10, Bass 4/10, Mids 6/10, Treble 7/10, Resonance 3/10, Presence (7/10) [I was borrowing a bassy cab), with a clean boost (MXR/CAE) set at 9 o'clock in front of the amp with an MXR Custom Comp (set for sustain) in the loop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7qRWNJhyOo

Quite bassy (but please allow for the fact that this is in C standard tuning) and plenty of push. Please excuse any cr@ppy playing.  I was making up that riff on the fly and my bandmates were trying to follow me.

It definitely has more bass than my A-Bomb equipped Explorer, and whereas the A-Bomb is getting help from the bass of the Explorer the A-Pig gets none at all.  The A-Pig used to be in my Explorer but was unusable there due to all the bass.  Now I actually roll back the bass on the amp when using the SG (for the Explorer it is set closer to 5/10).

Yep I can't even get close with this pickup in the Skerv. With my mesa roadster on the red channel I have to crank the bass to full to get any kind of fullness. very strange

[johnson]

Is it an ash body and maple neck?

[ericsabbath]

I still can't hear anything wrong with it
The juggernaut has thicker wire (lower awg) and a much stronger magnetic field, so if they're set at similar height, the juggernaut should sound thicker, louder and bassier
As I Said, in my experience, the alnico pig has a quite weak magnetic field (and having a quite thin wire makes it considerably less loud than an alnico nailbomb)
It only sounds big very close to strings, and preferentiably with a high action string setup
Big mahogany guitars like explorer and Les Paul tends to compensate for that, but I wouldn't expect an Ash superstrat to sound HUGE with it
I only played it in a brazilian mahogany bodied 7 string Ibanez RG and a Gibson V
The ibanez sounded Good, but not thick or punchy at all

[HEadoftheAges]

I am having similar issues with my Miracle Man, at present.  I think it might have something to do with the Push Push pot I have in the tone knob. I ordered an additional 550k pot and will forego any coil splitting.

- Alec