Author Topic: why is my guitar pickup not picking up the mids here?  (Read 1141 times)

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Offline ELS122Topic starter

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why is my guitar pickup not picking up the mids here?
« on: December 19, 2019, 08:49:26 pm »
so I used a coil and a sweep generator to test my pickup's frequency response because it sounded like "life-less" when I pluged it in an amp.
and I saw this weird graph, I was imagining a drop off at the end like all pickups have cause of the capacitance, but what's weird is that there was a major low-spot at the middle, at around 140hz,
I set the sweep generator to speed from 1hz to 16k, maybe it is caused by my phone because I used a online sweep generator, or maybe the coil itself,
also the high spot at around 50hz is probably the mains, I will try to input a higher gain signal for a higher signal to noise ratio and post the result here.


 

Offline ELS122Topic starter

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Re: why is my guitar pickup not picking up the mids here?
« Reply #1 on: December 19, 2019, 08:51:51 pm »
Here’s the coil, I know that it’s a crude one but it was the best thing I had lying around, also the fact that there isn’t many windings might even be good cause more windings also cause more capacitance that might interfere whit the result.
 

Offline ELS122Topic starter

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Re: why is my guitar pickup not picking up the mids here?
« Reply #2 on: December 19, 2019, 09:01:56 pm »
I repeated it whit a higher signal input and still, no lows, and some mids are not being picked up
 

Offline Electro Detective

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Re: why is my guitar pickup not picking up the mids here?
« Reply #3 on: December 19, 2019, 09:07:12 pm »

If it's a humbucking dual coil pickup, and has about 5 or 6 colored leads, it may be miswired to the switch, pots and caps,

or have an internal wire short or broken wire in the pickup itself.

Also if the pickup has been dismantled in the past, the magnet/s may be flipped the wrong way upon re-assembly.

Either of the above cancels the lower to mid frequencies.

Worst case, one of the coils may be dead or half gone, or faulty from manufacture and never tested before shipping.

Good luck  :-+

 

Offline ELS122Topic starter

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Re: why is my guitar pickup not picking up the mids here?
« Reply #4 on: December 19, 2019, 09:12:21 pm »
so I found this graph that shows the response of the pickup I tested on the blue line and a more quality pickup on the red line.

also, I have used one coil from the neck pickup and one from the bridge after I heard rumors about that increasing mid response, and probably the reason I am having these problems is that I have like 50 switches that connect the pickup in different ways, I but every other combination sounds either super dark or really "twangy" and like Idk dumb sounding.

but if they would be out of phase, which would be a good explanation for this, I would have near 0 output, I tried that already, it's probably now in parallel the pickup.

also, it's the bridge pickup so that might lower some low response.

I will disconnect the pickups from the circuit, test in what way it was connected, and test the response while connecting it like usual, either in parallel or series, in phase.
892696-0
 

Offline ELS122Topic starter

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Re: why is my guitar pickup not picking up the mids here?
« Reply #5 on: December 19, 2019, 09:13:54 pm »
NO, it has originally 2, and is wired in series. and even 4 conductor pickups have only 4 wires and one for the shielding/case. no dual coil pickup can have 6 conductors (well only if it doesnt have coil taps, but it doesnt)
 

Offline ELS122Topic starter

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Re: why is my guitar pickup not picking up the mids here?
« Reply #6 on: December 19, 2019, 09:15:17 pm »
also putting the magnet in backwards doesn't change anything, only flip the phase. but if you connect a neck pickup to the bridge THEN it will cancell out the low frequencies.
 

Offline ELS122Topic starter

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Re: why is my guitar pickup not picking up the mids here?
« Reply #7 on: December 19, 2019, 09:19:04 pm »
I checked and the pickup was wired in parallel and in phase. I will now connect it in series and check some more
 

Offline ELS122Topic starter

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Re: why is my guitar pickup not picking up the mids here?
« Reply #8 on: December 19, 2019, 09:31:37 pm »
UPDATE: YES! I fixed it! turns out it was the wiring, which was expected for many reasons. still not what I was expecting (bright sounding) but also there is some GAIN  :bullshit: finally.

I will post if anything interesting happens after.
 

Offline ELS122Topic starter

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Re: why is my guitar pickup not picking up the mids here?
« Reply #9 on: December 20, 2019, 05:42:35 pm »
but why when I test it is really low at low frequencies?

maybe it's because I connect it to a line output and not trough an amplifier.

so will connecting an amp make it respons better at low frequencies?
 

Offline Electro Detective

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Re: why is my guitar pickup not picking up the mids here?
« Reply #10 on: December 21, 2019, 09:07:55 am »

Not sure if we are on the same page mate  :-// but..

afaik guitar signals sit somewhere between way above microphone and just below home hi-fi and pro line levels

A guitar amp has the proper input impedance and active gain structure to cater for it

That said, if you plugged a properly wired pickup powered guitar into a stereo system, the low frequencies will be good but the highs not so, they tend to roll off

 

Offline ELS122Topic starter

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Re: why is my guitar pickup not picking up the mids here?
« Reply #11 on: December 21, 2019, 03:08:52 pm »
no I meant like why are the low frequencies lower than expected, it should be flat until the dropoff which is caused by capacitance in the coil and the resistance in my pc which loads it a bit.
so could it be than I need a power amplifier to drive the coil?
 


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