Bad Sounding Bridge Pickup

[Mr K]

Hi Guys,

Not sure if this should be in this section or tech, but I've got a problem with one of my BK pickups

I recently bought a 2nd hand Jaden Rose from Gumtree (awesome guitar!) which came with BKP's in it but it sounded bad in the high end, very tinny. I'm not 100% sure what BKP set it's got, the ad said Painkillers but I think it might be Aftermaths. The guitar itself is great so I'm going through a full re-wire of it as some of the soldering looks suspect and going to change to a set warpigs.

I've taken the Painkiller/Aftermath set out and installed them into another guitar of mine (Jackson Kelly) and the bridge pick-up just doesn't sound right in the high end, same as when it was in the Jaden Rose. The neck pickup sounds fine with a nice tone throughout and I know it's not the guitar that's the issue as the Jackson had a Nailbomb in the bridge before and sounded fine

The sound is weird, the closest thing I can describe it as is if you imagine a normal sounding note as a flat line of one tone, this sounds 'wavy' like it's a really cheap guitar, but I know it's not the guitar as the neck PU sounds fine as did the Nailbomb in it before. It sounds worst from the 12th fret upwards on the high E. I've tried playing about with pickup height too but it didn't help

Any suggestions as to what could be causing this???

Thanks!

[ericsabbath]

If it has twin screw coils, it could be an aftermath, warpig or juggernaut

[Dave Sloven]

There might be a short somewhere in the pickup, a broken wire on a coil, or a broken wire between a coil and the pickup wires.

I'd check the resistance reading and see if that comes up strange

[ericsabbath]

There might be a short somewhere in the pickup, a broken wire on a coil, or a broken wire between a coil and the pickup wires.

I'd check the resistance reading and see if that comes up strange

sometimes a shorted coil might still read within the regular dc range
I had a couple of gibson and dimarzio pups that didn't sound right and the output was way lower than expected, but they both gave regular readings
I probably screwed the gibson pup when I tried to remove the excessive wax on bad addvice before I knew anything about pickups
might have melted some of insulation or something
the dimarzio pup was a dirty old original 1978 PAF model and clearly was bathed in decades of sweat (the coils went from cream to brown)

the description alone can't pinpoint the issue...
it could be even a loose spring
I'd probably try the full rewire first

[Mr K]

Hi guys, thanks for the replies

I checked the resistances and I'm getting 15.17 for the bridge and 11.54 for the neck. That and it's got twin hex bolts makes me think Aftermaths unless you guys think that that reading for the bridge is too far out? I don't know what the tolerance is for the stated values on the website

I don't think wiring is the issue as it's been the same in two different guitars. The odd thing is as well that it's just the high notes that sound bad, the mids (think 5th - 10th fret on the A & D) sound good and the lows sound okay

Is there a way to test for any of the other possible issues mentioned without taking it all apart?

Cheers

[Dave Sloven]

Well it doesn't sound like so dramatic a problem as it was first described; maybe you need to adjust the pole pieces?

Is the Kelly a bright guitar?

Maybe it's not grounded properly?

[Mr K]

I've never adjusted the pole pieces on a guitar before, never even knew you could! I read up on it a bit and gave it a go but no luck it's not really changed anything. I'm definitely thinking it's something up with this pickup because I've never heard any guitar, let alone any of mine, sound like this

I wouldn't say the Kelly is particularly bright, probably middle of the road

Would a grounding fault affect only certain areas of the frequencies? I'd have thought that a grounding fault would affect all frequencies?

[metale]

This is a long shot, but could you be using another wiring color scheme (ie. SD or Fender) and therefore having the pickup connected in split mode or even out-of-phase?