i have a cheap old bass guitar and was thinking of using the pickups on a cbg build but the pickups have gone microphonic. is there anything that can be done with them??? cheers :0)
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Or just dip 'em like the first person said, gently shake 'em a bit when immersed, hopefully to help the wax move into the windings better.
If they are covered pickups, it's pretty hard for the wax to get in...be careful not to damage any tiny wires if you do open them...which isn't always easy...
I haven't waxed any pickups yet but have hoarded the materials...a crock pot, some regular white paraffin candle wax and some beeswax. I've read that some 'boutique' guitar pickup winders like about 20% beeswax, the rest regular wax...I think the point was that ratio makes the wax less brittle, and not as messy as beeswax alone...
150 F/65C temperature...use a candy thermometer...remember wax burns well, so how to keep from overheating it is something to pay attention to...somehow...
I have a large crockpot, but have been interested in the tiny ones that look to be almost useless for cooking...they look like they only hold a couple cups!
I tend to over-think things...I recently saw a huge crock pot modified for some industrial use, with a silicone gasket around the top and a heavy Plexiglas (acrylic) lid and a vacuum hose to draw a vacuum inside...forces air bubbles out of the windings...I wanted to build one, which is kind of another step or two removed from the pickups themselves...so I don't finish projects. If you want vacuum, I read on another site that electronic blood pressure cuffs have a small vacuum pump with low power needs (battery?)..you don't need much vacuum....just to see bubbles appearing then gradually disappearing (over several minutes total).
The usual disclaimer...don't wax any valuable vintage pickups as the alteration likely devalues them, and the sound could be a little different (I'll stop here...way off topic...highly dependent on the impedance of the pickup and what it's plugged into...whether it's audible or not is arguable, but there are electrical properties that unquestionable are altered by impregnation with a different material)...but the topic here is buzz-kill anyway...hopefully I didn't achieve that verbally...
I'm not sure microphonic pickups are automatically a bad thing. Admittedly they can cause feedback problems if you're using them in a gigging environment at high volumes - but, on the other hand, some great sounding pickups of the kind that vintage fetishists obssess over have microphonic tendencies.
If you're really concerned that they'll sound horrible I suppose you could try taking the casings off and dipping the coils - but you'd be better getting advice from someone else on that. I'd try 'em as they are first.
I'm not sure microphonic pickups are automatically a bad thing. Admittedly they can cause feedback problems if you're using them in a gigging environment at high volumes - but, on the other hand, some great sounding pickups of the kind that vintage fetishists obssess over have microphonic tendencies.
If you're really concerned that they'll sound horrible I suppose you could try taking the casings off and dipping the coils - but you'd be better getting advice from someone else on that. I'd try 'em as they are first.
Replies
If they are covered pickups, it's pretty hard for the wax to get in...be careful not to damage any tiny wires if you do open them...which isn't always easy...
150 F/65C temperature...use a candy thermometer...remember wax burns well, so how to keep from overheating it is something to pay attention to...somehow...
I have a large crockpot, but have been interested in the tiny ones that look to be almost useless for cooking...they look like they only hold a couple cups!
I tend to over-think things...I recently saw a huge crock pot modified for some industrial use, with a silicone gasket around the top and a heavy Plexiglas (acrylic) lid and a vacuum hose to draw a vacuum inside...forces air bubbles out of the windings...I wanted to build one, which is kind of another step or two removed from the pickups themselves...so I don't finish projects. If you want vacuum, I read on another site that electronic blood pressure cuffs have a small vacuum pump with low power needs (battery?)..you don't need much vacuum....just to see bubbles appearing then gradually disappearing (over several minutes total).
The usual disclaimer...don't wax any valuable vintage pickups as the alteration likely devalues them, and the sound could be a little different (I'll stop here...way off topic...highly dependent on the impedance of the pickup and what it's plugged into...whether it's audible or not is arguable, but there are electrical properties that unquestionable are altered by impregnation with a different material)...but the topic here is buzz-kill anyway...hopefully I didn't achieve that verbally...
Murray
steve dodds said:
I'm not sure microphonic pickups are automatically a bad thing. Admittedly they can cause feedback problems if you're using them in a gigging environment at high volumes - but, on the other hand, some great sounding pickups of the kind that vintage fetishists obssess over have microphonic tendencies.
If you're really concerned that they'll sound horrible I suppose you could try taking the casings off and dipping the coils - but you'd be better getting advice from someone else on that. I'd try 'em as they are first.