# Pickups squealing like a PIG...SOLVED



## VBCheeseGrater (Mar 3, 2013)

Hopefully this will help a few folks out as I felt like I had to search to the end of the internet for this solution....

I picked up an Ibanez SA32EX over the weekend with SD JB/Jazz set pickups in it. Sounded great but when I got to practice today they started squealing badly, even on loud clean tones. To top it off my A/B amp switcher crapped out 5 minutes later so I had no pod (my cleans and effects). Bad guitar day.

So I fixed to ab switch, just some bad solder joints. One down. Guitar squealing had me trying everything, foam in the cavities, searching every seymour duncan forum. Finally I found something saying the chrome pickup covers on the jb/jazz set may be the culprit...

I removed them by heating up the solder joints and prying off with a flathead to reveal clean new pickups with the sd logo. Screwed it all back together, fired up the distortion and od boost.....no squeal or feedback!!!

Forgive me if this would be obvious to you, but it took half my evening to find the issue....if anyone out there is having feedback/squeal issues with covered pickups, remove the covers. Fixed it right up. Supposedly some putty under the cover will help too,but I was satisfied with the look of my axe minus pickup covers.


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## HOKENSTYFE (Mar 4, 2013)

So is this any Chrome covered pickups? I have Chrome covered BKP's and so far, so good. Not quite a year but, like I've said, so far...


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## mcd (Mar 4, 2013)

I've had similar problem in a few guitars, and none in a bunch more. It's all pup dependent, now if your BKPs fuck up you know what to try


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## Rook (Mar 4, 2013)

I personally wouldn't go recommending everybody rip the covers off of pickups if they make noise without trying everything else and seeking advice. I believe SD don't print on their pickups that get covered and their covering method is quite rigorous. If you simply unsoldered something and the pickups were pure and clean and logo'd to boot likelihood is was a home-job, somebody bought the pickups and put the covers on themselves.

When a pickup is covered the pickup bobbins are placed (wound and fully assembled) into the cover then a load of melted wax poured in. Literally LOADS and this holds everything still relative to each other inside the cover. When with old covered pickups they start getting a bit squeaky - and there are 50-60 year old specimens that are still fine - simply repotting the pickup solves it.

Not potting and allowing air inside the pickup and allowing the cover to have any movement relative to the bobbin will massively increase microphonic noise (thus squealing) and doesn't help the radio aerial effect of the cover at all.

I dunno. Obviously it worked for you, but with the information you give your conclusion can be a little misleading. And largely, to answer the other question, covered pickups aren't usually any noisier than uncovered and can apparently be quieter, but there is the scope for more noise if done improperly. The bobbins (plastic formers for the windings) get potted when they're wound anyway and doing that badly will have the exact same effect, so it could just as easily be one as the other.


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## HOKENSTYFE (Mar 4, 2013)

@Rook - I was under that assumption, which was why I felt confident about the Chrome covered pickup. Boutique shops have a lot to lose in a case like this.


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## baptizedinblood (Mar 5, 2013)

Yeah, I definitely don't recommend going around telling people to pull the covers off their pickups...you must have had a set with covers added on. 

Basically what Rook said =  spot on


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## thedonal (Mar 8, 2013)

I had this problem with my Epi Black Beauty. I repotted the pickups and all was good. It's a bit time intensive and you need to take care to avoid melting the bobbins.

It actually improved the sound of the Epi stock pickups too- tightened them up a touch.


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