Pickup Rec. for a Strat.

[Ikiru]

Hi!
I have a SSH Yamaha strat and I want to change its pickups instead of getting another guitar which I don't see myself doing within the next 5 years lol. But I'm a complete noob with technical aspects like these. I'm open to all sorts of genres though basically I play quite a lot rock, pop, metal, anything with distortion, but frequent the clean channel as well. Could anyone kindly recommend me some good pickups suitable for my playing? And a rough range of prices? (no budget at the moment)

Question, under what circumstances should i change all my pickups (if i have all that $$ to spend )? Is it advisable to do that, or should i just change the pickup I most frequently use, eg the humbucker?

Another slightly OT question: Every time my cable is shifted slightly while I'm playing, or if the area near the input jack is tempted with during movement, the guitar/amp gives off a lot of noise and cracking sounds. I'm not sure what's the cause; cheap cable, faulty amp, or broken input jack? There's also a lot of buzzing going on. Any idea? It's starting to get really annoying. Doesn't seem to cause the same problems when I'm running the guitar directly into toneport though.

Thanks for replying me.

 

[lightice]

Ans:

Q1) Is there a reason why you want to change pickups? What do you find lacking or wrong with your current pickups? What direction do you wish to go from there? Letting us know what you're hearing now, and what you wish to achieve will be a great help for us to recommend you something.

Q2) As for the buzzing, check that your output jack is tightened as regular use can loosen the mounting nut. Try moving it with your fingers, if its shaky, you need to tighten it. Else, you might want to try looking at the wiring, there could be some bad soldering which could be the root of the problem. Let us know.

 

[teleplayer]

Haha. You might want to get a decent amplifier before getting pickups.

imho.

 

[Ikiru]

Ans:

Q1) Is there a reason why you want to change pickups? What do you find lacking or wrong with your current pickups? What direction do you wish to go from there? Letting us know what you're hearing now, and what you wish to achieve will be a great help for us to recommend you something.

Q2) As for the buzzing, check that your output jack is tightened as regular use can loosen the mounting nut. Try moving it with your fingers, if its shaky, you need to tighten it. Else, you might want to try looking at the wiring, there could be some bad soldering which could be the root of the problem. Let us know.

well, for Q1, I'll have to get back to you on that. I've been using the guitar for almost 4 years and have grown tired of the factory pups, the tone just doesn't seem to satisfy anymore. Not deep enough, or no punch, I feel. I'd adjust the EQ but it just gets muddier or plain bad. Kinda hard for me to explain. I wanna start composing songs with heavy riffs, kinda like power metal, but I just don't hear it from my gear. Sounds bland.

Q2. I've checked, often I reach to tighten it, even tried with a wrench, but it's as tight as can be. When I touch metal parts on the guitar the buzz goes away though. I'm clueless about wiring and all that so... can't say much when I don't understand what's going on inside.

edit: I'm using a Roland Cube 30x ._.

 

[RayKnight]

Another slightly OT question: Every time my cable is shifted slightly while I'm playing, or if the area near the input jack is tempted with during movement, the guitar/amp gives off a lot of noise and cracking sounds. I'm not sure what's the cause; cheap cable, faulty amp, or broken input jack? There's also a lot of buzzing going on. Any idea? It's starting to get really annoying. Doesn't seem to cause the same problems when I'm running the guitar directly into toneport though.

Thanks for replying me.

Your problem is the same as mine, check out the "Changing input jack" that I made.

As for the pickups, depends on how you use and what you frequently play. I hardly use my neck, only Mid and Bridge. So I'm planning on changing those two.

 

[Ikiru]

Thanks, I'll check that out. I had my input jack changed before, but I guess the job wasn't very well done. I'm gonna bring my guitar for a setup one of these days -machine head is breaking apart... for some reaso- and hoping to get pickups installed if I ever get them. I use bridge and neck pickup mostly, play jrock/pop/alternative...etc.

 

[PatheinRaindropMoe]

bout the jack giving problem, lets look at it in 2 different directions

1) When touching the jack or any other metal parts on the guitar itself, the buzz(the usual term is hum) will go away.

For this sorta case, most likely its due to the grounding of the guitar not done properly, thus when we touch any metal parts, our body became the alternative route to ground. This one is simplified explanation. For more proper grounding info, google on it

With humbucker equipped guitar, there should not be any or much hum. The way a humbucker pickup is constructed(for more info, google on it, its 2 single coil pickup wound in reverse and opposite polarity), its supposed to eliminate the hum(thus the name, humbucker).

Typical single coil guitar, on the other hand, will induce hum in general, unless using those noiseless pickup.

If its a dual humbucker configuration pickup geetar and theres obvious hum and it goes away when touched, then theres somewhere in the wiring circuit where the grounding was not done properly(for any metal surface like the bridge of the guitar, back of the pots(our volume and tone control) and the output jack. This "not done properly grounding" will result in the hum that we are hearing, through the amp. The term to describe it is called a floating ground. Floating ground, in general, is bad and can be dangerous in some context. If theres any electricity leakage, the "live" electricity cannot be properly dissipated to ground and if we accidentally touched any "live" source(metal or any conductible parts), we will become the path for this live electricity to travel to ground. This result is known as electrocution.

Of course, for guitar, it aint so serious, since the electricity that we are dealing with, is very very very small. So in the guitar context, if theres any wiring where grounding is not done properly, we will have a floating ground. And so if we touched any metal parts, we will be the path to ground, thus the hum/buzz we are hearing, will either be much more quiet or totally gone.

If its single coil geetar and dont like the hum, either changed to noiseless pickup or another alternative to reduce(but still not totally getting rid of the hum) is to shield our guitar cavity(area which we have the pickup, pots, output jack wiring). Shielding of guitar, again, can be googled and plenty of info around the net. Shielding of guitar is bascially creating a faraday cage within our guitar cavity. For more info on faraday law and who he is to have such term named after him, hehe, yup, go google on it.

And for the 2nd direction to look at the output jack, why when we wriggle our cable, it will caused buzzing and all sorta noise, is the following

our output jack on the guitar is made of metal. Our geetar cable with the plug, is also metal. So when we connect cable plug to the jack on the geetar, we are connecting 2 pieces of metal together. This connection will ensure the guitar signal is being transferred from pickup(vibration of strings), through the selector switch to the pots(volume and tone control) output jack, to cable plug, travel thru the cable and to the amp.

Anyway, the crucial thing is that our guitar signal will go thru output jack and cable plug, which are made of metal and amplified thru the amp. And these metal jack/plug, over time, will tarnish/oxidize. The immediate sign we can see is that the metal is no longer shiny and small patches will form on it. These small patched will hinder conductivity(aka passing signal from guitar to the cable and to amp).

When we are adjusting the cable at the outputjack of the geetar, we are turning the metal part on the cable plug against the metal surface on the output jack. Any tarnish patches either on the jack or cable plug, it will result in guitar signal being lost for short moment and getting it back when the touching metal parts have no tarnish patches. This "on/off" process will result in the noise that we are hearing thru the amp, when adjusting the cable.

Other then the above, another thing as what some have already mentioned, it could be the wiring not done properly, thus when we wriggle the cable, it will cause the connection to be connected for that short while and losing it again(again, this on/off thingy will reseult in the noise we hear thru the amp)

anyway, the good thing is, changing the output jack is a really minor job. So it wont cost too much.

Hopefully the above is useful for some, to understand the basic of geetar hum/buzz and its solution.

 

[Ikiru]

Wow, that was insightful! Thank you.

My pickup enquiry is still not answered though lol...