Please help - Issue with Miracle Man

[Sixshooter]

Hi everybody, I recently installed a Miracle Man in the bridge of a Tom Anderson Classic (strat style) that was originally a SSS configuration. The pickup is a 4 conductor, so I soldered the black and the bare wires to the back of the volume pot, the red wire to the exact spot that the original bridge pickup was wired to, and left the white and green wires together and didn't put them anywhere.

Problem is, this pickup just doesn't sound good, so I'm wondering if I did something wrong on the install? It sounds very thin and hollow, but has no issues with volume, so thats where I'm stumped. Do you think that maybe this pickup just isn't a good fit for this particular guitar? I have a few other BK's and have been super impressed, so that makes me wonder if I installed something incorrectly on this one. It should also be noted that I am not very familiar with strat type guitars, I usually play Les Paul types, so maybe I am just expecting this guitar/pickup combo to be something it can't be?

Any ideas are greatly appreciated!

 

[Dave Sloven]

A few things come to mind.

1. Pickup height.  You might want to raise the pickup

2. Pots.  I am assuming that you have 250K pots suitable for single coils.  This is a hot humbucker.  It needs a 500K pot.

My suggestions would be (1) experiment with pickup height first & (2) experiment with moving the red (hot) wire directly to the hot lug on the jack, hence bypassing the pots.  You can leave the black and bare where they are for now.  If that suddenly transforms the guitar soundwise then the issue is in your wiring harness, in terms of it being inadequate for the pickup and needing a few changes.  If it doesn't have any effect even after you have fiddled with pickup height then the issue is either (1) a defect in the pickup or (2) a mismatch between the pickup and your guitar.

Get back to us with the results and I am sure that if need be you can get some advice on making some changes to the wiring harness to get all your pickups working well together.

[Sixshooter]

Thanks for the advice Agent Orange. I did play with the height a good bit, and it didn't seem to help any. I'll try wiring straight to the jack tomorrow and see if it has any affect, I hadn't even thought of that. And yes I do believe they are stock 250k pots, I have heard conflicting things on 250k vs 500k and how much it can affect the sound, could this alone be enough to to cause the issue I'm having?

Either way, I'll play with it tomorrow and report back, thanks again!

[Dave Sloven]

Given the fact that the Miracle Man is a high output pickup it might very well be the cause of the issue.

That said I was running a Warpig with 300K volume pots (stock Gibson harness) until recently (when I installed a custom harness with 500K pots) and while it has been improvement it hasn't been as stark a difference as your experience seems to indicate.  It's always worth trying straight to jack though as a diagnostic device.  Also make sure that your solder joins have all flowed properly. A cold solder joint can often cause a lot of problems.

[ztevie]

I don't think a 250 vs 500 k pot is the issue. If something, the pickup should sound darker or a little muffled with 250 compared to 500, but the power and basic sound should be similar.
Thin and hollow sounds more like out of phase? If I were you I'd follow the advice to connect it straight to jack first. If it's OK there resolder the whole thing, making sure all joints are properly done. If it's not OK, resolder anyway.  :)
Even if it's rare it could be the pickup itself that has an issue.

[Dave Sloven]

Yeah, the higher pot value just opens the sound up a bit

I suspect there is something wrong in the harness somewhere, so wiring it direct to jack is a good test.  If that doesn't make a big difference send BKP an email, because it could be a problem in the pickup itself.

[ericsabbath]

volume pot value does affect the output perception, since you're messing with everything between 2khz and 6khz (upper midrange and treble)
the miracle man already doesn't have a ton of upper mids unlike most bkp models and using a lower resistance pot will tame it even lower

also, in my experience, this pickup sounds better and fuller in the mids very very close to strings, just up to the point where the low end starts getting overbearing in the lowest E

but you definitely should check the wiring too

[Sixshooter]

Thanks for the help Gentlemen! I haven't had a chance to play with it yet, but as soon as I get a free minute I'll wire to the jack and see how that works.