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I need another installment of electronics education. I have so far just used piezos, this is my first with a mag. pickup. I don't even know what it is, the guy at the music store, fished it out of a pile of old parts and gave it to me. I have also been having a ball making little front porch amps using 1 - 21/2W pre-wired circuits. Just finished this machine and find that it can't be used with any of those, just blows them away, at any volume level. Sounds great with my Kitana Mini. What are my options: just use the bigger amp with anything with a mag pickup, use a different kind of mag pickup, put a volume control on the instrument, other, all of the above?

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Permalink Reply by JL on July 16, 2018 at 2:19am

add a volume pot to the instrument so you can dial down the signal strength going into the amp.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Williams on July 16, 2018 at 5:43am

Appears to be a "HOT" humbucker.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Williams on July 16, 2018 at 5:40am

Did that, and it completely overpowers the little amps with ANY input at all. I need to educate myself much more about mag pickups. This one puts out massively more power than the piezos I've been using. Wilkinson is the brand, btw.

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on July 16, 2018 at 12:41pm

HI, that's strange, in my experience a pickup with only send to the amp what the volume pot allows it too. Do you have to correct value pot and wired correctly? 500k pots normally for a humbucker but 250k work but with different tone.

You also have a volume control on the amp, I would think. They are very small amps, and I don't think they would do a powerful pickup justice. What's that saying "horses for Courses" or something

Taff

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Permalink Reply by Joe Williams on July 16, 2018 at 3:24pm

The pot is working fine, but with this pickup, the little amps fuzz up with ANY volume, any at all.

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Permalink Reply by Korrigan on July 16, 2018 at 4:20pm

Grounding or shielding issue maybe?

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on July 16, 2018 at 4:53pm

Hi, well if things are ok at the guitar end, you may have to think about building amps suitable for the higher output of a humbucker. Also consider that the little speaker you are using cant handle the extra punch either.

Taff

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Permalink Reply by Joe Williams on July 17, 2018 at 4:53am

I'm pretty much strictly a front porch player. I love the tiny amps much more than the big noise. Went back to the music store this morning and learned that this is a great big 2 coil humbucker with massive built in gain. Made for metal, not front porch. Got a little single coil to replace it. I'll put it in this evening and see what happens.

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Permalink Reply by Cause the Blue rat on July 17, 2018 at 9:41pm

A volume pot actually helps the sound of it as well. Without it the mag can get a bit shrill.

Wilkinson is a VERY good sounding pickup company. One of a hand full of mid priced pickup makers who can match and even out preform some of the bigger brands. If it is a hot pickup then a volume knob is your best bet. You and me have the same taste. I really don't like high output pickups either.

Ok. The little single coil will need a volume pot as well. "A-250K' or audio taper 250K. Real easy to wire up. If you find the pickup still has to much volume you can try lowering it. You could even put it under your box top. As long as your strings are no more than 1/2 above the top.