Guitar Gear Forum

I brought my SG special to practice last night as there was 1 or two songs I specifically wanted to use it for for our next gig. Trouble is, with my roadster it's basically unusably noisy at band volumes my single coil fenders aren't anywhere close to as noisy as the P90s in there. It's not just when not playing either, the feedback is practically overpowering the notes while playing. Even on the clean channel Is this a wiring issue? Whether it is or it isn't, is there a way I could re do the wiring so that I get noise cancellation while in the middle position? Are stock gibson soap bars known for being particularly noisy/is there any other P90s I should be looking at?


I really like the tone of this guitar, but I need to do something if I want to ever gig it. I guess I could always go the noise gate route as well but I really don't want to do that

Squealing between notes on the clean channel? That’s pretty extreme.

But it sounds like a microphonic pickup. Potting it would be a place I’d start,

P90s generally are not potted so that could be what you’re hearing. Is it just noise like hum or microphonic feedback?

wax pot the pickups.

make sure the bridge is grounded.

that does sound extreme... granted I have lolars in my Les Paul now but when I had the stock Gibson P90s I could use pretty high gain with no feed back issues, noise... sure.... but not on lower gain settings

That's wild as hell that it's happening on the clean channel. I have completely unpotted pickups that won't even do that

Are the pickups mounted solidly?

the noise is normal. The feedback on the clean channel seems excessive. Make sure everything is grounded and mounted correctly. a bit of foam in the bottom of the cavity can also help. P90s are noisy and can be hard to tame, that's their nature but this seems to be a bit much.

If they aren't potted, then that would be where I would start. My P90s are fairly quiet, outside the expected 60 cycle hum. I personally use Rio Grande P90s and I feel like I could easily get away using them in a higher gain setting; and if I wanted to minimize the 60 cycle hum I could do so with a noise gate at minimal settings. Also keep in mind P90s also usually push more mids than other single coils. That could be something else causing an additional effect.

Cole

Potting pickups is easy and I find it weirdly satisfying. I say give it a try.

I played a few gigs with a LP special. The P90s were definitely noisier than I liked but not unusable like you described.

Thanks boys I'll do some investigating....

I will say, when I first got the SG I took it to a couple practices where I was running my ENGL thunder, and while it was kind of noisy, it was nothing like this. Same with the JVM but I haven't done the sg/marshall combo at band volumes

Could be a slighty microphonic in the amp too and the p90 is exacerbating the problem.

GuitarBilly wrote:Could be a slighty microphonic in the amp too and the p90 is exacerbating the problem.

Wouldn't I likely notice that on any of my other guitars though?

Guitars are finicky beasts.. The same electronics in a different guitar might be fine.. And if the ground is lifted on that pickup, it would be SUPER noisy.. Not feedback noise either.. I just had to pot a brand new Bareknuckle. And they are usually good at that sorta thing.. I even potted it the first time for only a few minutes cause Figured it didn't need a "full" potting and just needed to warm up and let the wax reflow and it did nothing.. So as a last stitch effort I went for over 10 minutes potting it the other day, which is more typical, and sure enough the fucker is finally quiet.. But I also was having feedback between notes with it.. With high gain , of course, as to have any sort of feedback on clean.. Man you either have to be ridiculously loud or that pickup is just in bad need of some wax to silence it.. And maybe there is poor wiring or shielding etc.. That kinda stuff can maybe make a tiny bit of difference but from your situation, its not the REASOn for what you're experiencing. At least, best I can tell without actually hearing and looking inside the guitar myself...

But yeah It was unplayable really until I got it silent.. Hopefully its the same for you.. And don't let the idea of potting seem overwhelming.. Get some paraffin and bees wax, put it in a coffee can or sumthin.. I drilled a few holes on each side of the can to attach some wire to use to "tie it down" in a pot of water.. I usually tie it to the handles of the bigger pot IM using to boil the water.. As you really don't want to pot it just using the can over an open flame.. I mean, I've done it! But for sure you can get that shit too hot and deform the bobbins.. But with boiling water, its usually pretty easy to keep from fucking it up..


As far as your other question about wiring the 2 pickups in series or parallel.. You can.. But Im sure those are 2 conductor, so you won't be able to do that AND have em be on a 3 way.. You'd have to basically wire them together like the 2 coils of a hum bucker.. So not likely the solution you want.. Maybe with some added components, one could maybe make them all switchable.. But id have to really think about that.. lol But in stock form, I can't see how you could do that

Yeah, I'd echo the comment that it sounds like your ground connection is not great. I have Gibson P90s and they're no louder than my normal Fender single coils. 60 cycle hum when not playing but otherwise they're fine.

This is the best potting tutorial I've found online. It's well written and with simple but great pictures:


https://www.marshallforum.com/threads/w ... tos.19374/


Like EndTime said, don't let it overwhelm you, it's not hard. Practice on a cheap pickup first if that makes you feel more comfortable

this is very fascinating to me, I had no idea potting a pickup was literally just dumping it in wax

Yep. That’s all it is. Just watch your temp so you don’t melt your bobbins and make sure you do some kind of double boiler setup. It’s not hard to do at all.

I still don't think wax potting is the only issue at play here. I regularly play unpotted pickups without these level of issues. I've gigged multiple Gibsons with P90s over the years and never had an issue with the pickup feeding back while playing unless there were other wiring issues present.


good luck either way, this shit is super frustrating.

I had a 63 SG Special that was so noisy I couldn't use it live. I had a tech friend look at it and he had it quieted down in no time. It was the grounding wire to the bridge. I'm not a tech but I think this video shows what he did.

One is usually reverse wound so essentially its humbucking with both pickups full up

Seems like checking the grounding should definitely be the first step...

Is it possible I pulled that loose or something when I was messing around with raising my bridge pickup to get more volume from it?

spawnofthesith wrote:Seems like checking the grounding should definitely be the first step...

Is it possible I pulled that loose or something when I was messing around with raising my bridge pickup to get more volume from it?

hmmm.... is that when you started to notice the issue? how close to the strings is it now?
P90s don't like to be super close to the strings.

GuitarBilly wrote:

spawnofthesith wrote:Seems like checking the grounding should definitely be the first step...

Is it possible I pulled that loose or something when I was messing around with raising my bridge pickup to get more volume from it?

hmmm.... is that when you started to notice the issue? how close to the strings is it now?
P90s don't like to be super close to the strings.

I really only noticed it in a meaningful way the other night at practice at band volumes with the roadster, but I hadn't been playing the sg at such volumes (or through the roadster for that matter) much recently


I raised it a lot but I still wasn't getting a really balanced volume between the bridge and the neck so I backed it back down a little bit. I was still having the same feedback issues in the neck position as well though. So I'm kind of wondering if when I was raising the bridge it I might've put too much strain on the ground wire?

spawnofthesith wrote:

GuitarBilly wrote:

spawnofthesith wrote:Seems like checking the grounding should definitely be the first step...

Is it possible I pulled that loose or something when I was messing around with raising my bridge pickup to get more volume from it?

hmmm.... is that when you started to notice the issue? how close to the strings is it now?
P90s don't like to be super close to the strings.

I really only noticed it in a meaningful way the other night at practice at band volumes with the roadster, but I hadn't been playing the sg at such volumes (or through the roadster for that matter) much recently


I raised it a lot but I still wasn't getting a really balanced volume between the bridge and the neck so I backed it back down a little bit. I was still having the same feedback issues in the neck position as well though. So I'm kind of wondering if when I was raising the bridge it I might've put too much strain on the ground wire?

I don't think adjusting the pickups would have affected the ground wire specially on these P90s were the ground is the braid around the pickup wire. If there is a grounding issue it's probably somewhere else.

GuitarBilly wrote:

spawnofthesith wrote:

GuitarBilly wrote:

spawnofthesith wrote:Seems like checking the grounding should definitely be the first step...

Is it possible I pulled that loose or something when I was messing around with raising my bridge pickup to get more volume from it?

hmmm.... is that when you started to notice the issue? how close to the strings is it now?
P90s don't like to be super close to the strings.

I really only noticed it in a meaningful way the other night at practice at band volumes with the roadster, but I hadn't been playing the sg at such volumes (or through the roadster for that matter) much recently


I raised it a lot but I still wasn't getting a really balanced volume between the bridge and the neck so I backed it back down a little bit. I was still having the same feedback issues in the neck position as well though. So I'm kind of wondering if when I was raising the bridge it I might've put too much strain on the ground wire?

I don't think adjusting the pickups would have affected the ground wire specially on these P90s were the ground is the braid around the pickup wire. If there is a grounding issue it's probably somewhere else.

Same. These should be braided cables so adjusting height shouldn’t have done anything to cause an issue. Check all the other usual spots. Make sure you’re ground wire from your bridge is connected proper, your ground leads between your pots are solid and double check ground on the output jack and switch. If those are good, then it’s not a ground issue. Check the back of the pickups and make sure the baseplate is tight. There’s two screws on the baseplate that hold it all together. That noise and squealing is caused by vibrations at high gain. If it is tight, potting would be the next option.