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New pickups or a new guitar? (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/guitars@lemmy.world
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I've got a 1970s Hohner Les Paul and the humbuckers are starting to die. I was looking at Seymour Duncan's but for that cost does it make sense to just get a new guitar?

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[–] 9 points 3 years ago (9 children)

What do you mean by > 'the humbuckers are starting to die?' They're just magnets with copper wire wrapped around them, they don't really wear out. What's the problem you're trying to solve? If it's quiet/scratchy/noisy you probably just have a bad potentiometer or a cold solder joint. If you don't like how to guitar feels then yeah something different may be in order. If you like the guitar but something about the sound isn't perfect then maybe different pickups will help, but your amp will have a much larger impact on your tone than different humbuckers.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 3 years ago (8 children)

    That's a great question! So the issue I'm having is that the sound coming out of the guitar via the amp sounds off and by off I mean off key, out of tune. So I tune the guitar and play (not thru amp) it sounds right. Plug it into the amp and play, it sounds off. Plug in one of my other guitars to the amp and it sounds fine. All I can think of is something ain't right with the pickups.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    Well, to me it sounds like your guitar needs to be setup.

    If you tune the strings but they sound out of tune when you play.. Most likely your intonation is off.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    When I play it not through the amp it sounds fine that's why I suspect pickups but it very well could be something other piece of electronics.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    @sailicalvin @DarkInspiration Try lowering your pickup height. I had an issue similar to what you’re describing, lots of weird overtones that sounded like the guitar was out of tune once the amp was on, but it was in tune when played acousticly. Worth a shot, doesn’t damage anything and it only takes a minute or so.

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  • [–] [S] 10 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Not going to be that guy just leaving it hanging. That was indeed the issue. It was super close. Adjusted it and now it sounds perfect. What's super weird is that pickups on my BC Rich are super close and sound just fine. Guess it is just the pickup spec is different. Thanks for the suggestion.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago

    How close are the pickups to the strings? If they're very close try lowering them a bit. When they're too close the magnetic field from the pickups can influence the vibration of the strings and cause odd sounds.

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