Headroom and clean amp distortion on output... FIXED (something wonky with EMG pickup)

    OK, last night I spent a little more time trying to track this problem down, and I did. I also suspect that this problem manifested itself in an "ugliness" that I hear when I use Amplitube software in some situations. It's the EMG-85 humbucker that's in the bridge pickup! Here's the guitar:


    http://rockbeareguitars.com/electrics/steinberger/89-gm4t/


    Mine's white, but that's the deal. The sound completely went away if I use the middle pickup or the neck/middle. I did have the bridge pickup pretty high, and backing it down did make the problem almost totally go away. I don't know if this could be part of the issue, but I have a Sustainiac Stealth Pro installed, so that's replaced my neck pickup. BTW, that pickup as a really cool sound when used as a pickup, but that's another story.


    So anyway, my adjustment brought the problem down to nearly zero, and a quick pickup change eliminated it totally. I guess I can live with this as it only seems to happen on some clean models anyway, but this schmutz was probably there the whole time, though masked by distortion.

    Quote from mikeb


    Yes I did that before as well... multiple times. Didn't work.


    Mikeb, you see we can nail down every sound problem without pulling the big hammer, if we look close enough. There is not a single sound problem I'm aware of that couldn't be solved without a flash format.
    Have we had the chance to get a deeper view on your problem back then?

    Quote from ckemper

    Mikeb, you see we can nail down every sound problem without pulling the big hammer, if we look close enough. There is not a single sound problem I'm aware of that couldn't be solved without a flash format.
    Have we had the chance to get a deeper view on your problem back then?

    I didn't consider the format a big deal since you do a backup before hand. I posted about this a long time ago but nevermind. I will not attempt to help.

    Quote from zerocrossing

    In what way? I've always loved the sound of these things. What's better?

    When people talk about EMGs, they normally refer to those 81s that have been popular for metal rhythm sounds for a very long time. For that purpose they were very good at the time they came out. However, they suck at other genres. Clean and Crunch tones don´t come out nicely becuase ot the preamp EQ preshaping, they lack dynamics and string attack and like most active pickups there is a slight basic hiss. In the last years, more and more players changed back to passive pickups which also had the features that only active pickups had before. Before, passive pickup with high output always had the tendency to sound a little muffled because of the higher amount of wire coils. Now you can have all those featues at once. Passive (no need for battery, thus no basic hiss), bright and high output.


    When i had my custom guitar built, i got a recommendation to try Häussel pickups. They are a small company from Germany. Since i play metal most of the time i got the TOZZ XL in the bridge. This thing is a monster... Huge frequency response throughout the whole spectrum, huge output (i have to turn the clean sense down to 1.3). Sounds great in single coil mode too. Check them out if you like...
    http://www.haeussel.com/

    häussel are very cool...
    but, i have to defend the emg a little bit ...the newer 81x and 60x are really really good, not as agressive as the original ones and more dynamic.
    furthermore: the 60x in the neck position delivers a very warm sounding jazzy-kind of tone

    Quote from tylerhb

    When people talk about EMGs, they normally refer to those 81s that have been popular for metal rhythm sounds for a very long time. For that purpose they were very good at the time they came out. However, they suck at other genres. Clean and Crunch tones don´t come out nicely becuase ot the preamp EQ preshaping, they lack dynamics and string attack and like most active pickups there is a slight basic hiss. In the last years, more and more players changed back to passive pickups which also had the features that only active pickups had before. Before, passive pickup with high output always had the tendency to sound a little muffled because of the higher amount of wire coils. Now you can have all those featues at once. Passive (no need for battery, thus no basic hiss), bright and high output.


    When i had my custom guitar built, i got a recommendation to try Häussel pickups. They are a small company from Germany. Since i play metal most of the time i got the TOZZ XL in the bridge. This thing is a monster... Huge frequency response throughout the whole spectrum, huge output (i have to turn the clean sense down to 1.3). Sounds great in single coil mode too. Check them out if you like...
    http://www.haeussel.com/

    I do love me some "metal" tones, even though I wouldn't call myself a metal guitarist. (too slow, too sloppy :wacko: )


    Maybe one day I'll change the pickups on this thing... but I have to admit that other than this issue which was pretty easily remedied, and user error more than anything else, I love the sound of this guitar. I don't hear hiss at all. The dynamic range seems really good to me, but I guess my experience with guitars is pretty limited. I went from a Rickenbacker 320 (hated it) to a G&L Skyhawk (love it) to my GM4T. I still have the G&L and the Steinberger and I love them both for different reasons. They may be "imperfect" but I'll call them "classic."