# Pickup/feedback issues, help please!



## Goatfork (Jan 9, 2011)

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, so if it isn't I apologize.

I've noticed that whenever I turn my amp up to performance level -practice with band, stage level, or otherwise- that I get intense feedback when I'm not playing and I have the volume knob up. Not the kind of feedback that a gate fixes however, I've got it all gated up really tight. I've noticed that my pickup is vibrating or something, and I've read up on it before but still don't know exactly how all of that works.

Will a guitar with a pickup screwed directly into the wood instead of 'floating' in a plastic pickup ring still have this problem? Also, how can I fix it on a guitar with one pickup in one of those rings?

All help is greatly appreciated, thanks!!


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## Rook (Jan 10, 2011)

What guitar, pickup and amp are you using? Any pedals? Compressors maybe?


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## Goatfork (Jan 10, 2011)

Home-built (from parts) guitar with a Seymour Duncan Sh-5 in the bridge position 'floating' in one of those black mounting rings. It's going directly into a Peavey Rockmaster preamp w/ a dbx 266xl compresser/limiter/gate in the effects loop, and then it goes into a Rocktron Velocity 300 poweramp (but currently into a Peavey Classic 50/50 instead because the Velocity 300 broke and I'm getting it fixed). This rack rig goes into whatever cab I happen to have at the time, all cabs have reacted the same way to this rig at these volumes.


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## Rook (Jan 10, 2011)

I don't know if your using much gain and/or compression but it sounds like one of two things;
Over-compression; having too much compression from a compressor or by having lots of gain means that you never get a dead signal and every little noise from the guitar gets set into your Preamp at full blast, hence comes out the other end very loudly making it easy to get feedback loops whereby the signal from the amp unrelentingly causes the strings to vibrate which goes round in a big, vicious cycle, lol.

Alternatively, you say your guitar is home built, is it chambered or are any of the cavities particularly large? If either of these is the case, if your amp puts out a frequency similar to that of the natural frequency of one of the cavities (normally only the case with big cavities or chambers) you will get feedback. This is why modern 'chambered' guitars tend to have lots of little chambers rather than one big one.

Try bypassing the compression on the 266XL altogether to begin with. To test the guitar itself, go to the clean channel and turn up the volume and just play the D string open, that would normally be enough to set off a chambered guitar. It's a good test because getting feedback on the clean channel isn't easy because there's no compression; it could only be the chambering.


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## Goatfork (Jan 10, 2011)

It's a solid bodied guitar, and I don't use a whole lot of compression, just a tad. I do, however, run the preamp pretty high gain, at around 6 on pregain and 8 on postgain.

I won't be able to test anything for a few days, but on that alone do you think I should pull the gain back?


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## Goatfork (Jan 19, 2011)

. . . . ?


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## Ryan-ZenGtr- (Jan 30, 2011)

Could be microphonic pickup, needs wax potting or replacing.

Standing too close to amp... Use the volume on the guitar to quickly mute between notes, when you need silence.

Other option, turn down TONE control on guitar and add treble on amp to balance. that will also stop an old pickup from feeding back.


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## James Blood (Jan 31, 2011)

First up: with enough gain and volume any guitar will scream that nasty feedback-scream.
What helps with your current gear is lowering the pickups.


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