JP6 pickup ring mod!

[swammbo]

I just got this account and wanted to post this because I have searched everywhere for someone who has done this with their jp6 and havnt found anything about it. So I decided to do it myself. First of all, I just want to state, I love these guitars and havnt played anything close to it. Its awesome in every aspect. With that said I would like to state few things. I play metalcore/ Post-hardcore music. (ex: Devil Wears Prada, Asking Alexandria, August Burns Red, etc)..I play through a peavey 6505+ with quite a bit of gain. When I bought this guitar I was not playing this style. I played progressive metal (thus the reason I bought this guitar). As I slowly changed I realized that my guitar feeded back alot. I soon realized it was microphonic feedback. I could hardly do a breakdown without their being a high pitched "SQUEAK" after every note. Even with the threshold of my noise gate all the way up, I still got this. I also have a piece of crap ibanez I got at the pawn shop with stock pickups in it. It doesn't feed back at all. It pissed me off that my $2000 guitar was making more noise then the $300 piecer of a guitar. So I looked and looked for someone with a similar problem. Couldn't find anything. I called CS and they told me it might have to do with the pickups mounted to the body. So I took that into consideration. I took a dremmel tool, took the pickup out and cut down the pickup hole so the pickup sat lower into the body (yes I know there are people on here that would kill me if they saw me do this to one of these guitars...i don't care. Tone is tone and Ill do whatever it takes to achieve that). After making the hole deeper, I took a pickup ring and mounted the pickup to that instead. I tested it out and like I figured, no microphonic feedback. I don't know why EBMM is mounting their pickups to the body but all I know is my guitar sounds way better mounted to a pickup ring. Maybe John wants a ton of sustain or something. Thats cool and all but seriously? Whats the point. Most guitars use pickup rings. Plus, everyone wants to personalize their tone. You cant do that if their mounted to the body. But whatever. I wish EBMM would make a wider range of guitars. Maybe get away from Dimarzio (I know the luke has EMGs) and try some bareknuckle or Seymour Duncans too. Plus use the pickup rings instead of mounting them to the body!! I heard they did this with the new silo or something. But they should do this with all their guitars. Im not bashing on the company Im just making a statement. Let me know if you want pictures of my guitar!!

[littlephil]

Wall of text!

I much prefer not having rings. It depends on your picking style, if you watch JP playing, he anchors his little finger on the body, and he's said before that not having rings makes that more comfortable, and being his signature model, it has the features he wants!
The body also looks a lot cleaner without pickup rings IMO.

I don't see how having direct mounted pickups stops you personalising your tone though?

As for using different pickups, I doubt any mass manufactured guitar would come stock with boutique pickups like Bareknuckles. Plus I feel that Dimarzio's work better with EBMM guitars, and its probably more beneficial to the company to just stick with one brand of pickups rather than getting them from everywhere.

I've never had any problems with feedback/microphonics on my JP either.

[gforce013]

For the brief time I had the jp6 I never had a problem with feedback either , I actually used to have a ton of trouble with my les paul and feedback. I think the Jp looks cleaner without the rings also.
As for the dimarzios on the guitars all the EBMM i Have tried with them sound amazing so why change something that works.
hey its all preference and if putting on the ring worked for you then its cool you found what you like but if you read this forum theres not anyone else who has wanted pickup rings on a JP.

also welcome to the forum enjoy it , its very useful and everyone is very friendly and has a passion for EBMM.

[Stratty316]

Customer Service for EBMM told you it was the lack of pickup rings making the noise?

[shredhed]

All you had to do was mount a bit of foam under the plate of the pickups. Height adjustment and pups are off the body, all without molesting your guitar.

It's just a suggestion, but you might consider asking around on here and other places you trust the advice, before you dremmel your favorite guitar.

As far as using Dimarzios, I would suppose they would tell you that the majority of MM owners are happy with them, and they can't please everybody. I didn't like the bridge pup in my JP so I put a TZ in it. It screams now. I'm not squeemish about changing pups

[straycat113]

Well I give you kudos for taking the risk of ruining a 2K guitar but am glad things worked out well for you and you achieved the results you were looking for. I had known shredhed had changed the height of his pups in a less drastic approach, and could not say if the results are similar unless I heard them live. But since this is your first post and congrats on that, maybe you should of looked here first for some help. It does not matter now but you could of tried shreds way first and then if you did not like the results then taken the risk, but again you got the results you were looking for.

On the pup front I know a lot of guys are raving over a lot of the boutique (the new word for very expensive lol) pups but as someone who threw DiMarzzio's in there Tele 20 years ago and which was my pup of choice for a pup swap I am glad EB uses them almost exclusively, nothing against the new guys but Dimarzzio who was an apprentice for Bill Lawrence has been doing this I believe longer than anyone else alive. Thats the great thing about guitars if you dont like the pups switch to whatever you like.

[swammbo]

in response to shredhed, odviously this wouldn't of worked because I wanted the pickups to sit lower into the body. Most guitars if you take the pickups out have a pickup hole thats almost 2x deeper. I know my schector stoped squealing as soon as I lowered the pickups. Thats why i wanted to cut the hole deeper. (and honestly, i wasnt mutilating my guitar, it doesn't even look bad and no one can tell) and as dimarzio go, they are good. I have nothing against them. I just thought it would be cool for them to experiment, try new things. Isn't that what its all about these days?

[Mark-NL]

Isn't lowering the PUP not basically reducing the output of the guitar and thus reducing the amount of gain being output by the amplifier...an easier solution would be to reduce gain on the amp..

..might be oversimplifying things...again

[DrKev]

I don't know why EBMM is mounting their pickups to the body but all I know is my guitar sounds way better mounted to a pickup ring. Maybe John wants a ton of sustain or something.

He prefers the sound that way. That's his preference and that's why it's made that way. You found something that works or you, that's cool too.

[Mordimer]

Isn't lowering the PUP not basically reducing the output

It is!
The reason why there's no microphonic feedback when using pickup rings is that the pickup is mechanically isolated from body. This is why putting a bit of foam under the pickup works too.

[swammbo]

foam works to an extent, but it didn't work very good for me. I tried it before...idk, i just like the pickup a bit lower. Im not playing crazy solos so i don't need it that close to the strings. And trust me, Mark-NL...there is a big difference from lowering the pickup and reducing gain. I had to lower my gain down to 4 and turn off my tube screamer just to make it not feedback. Don't see why i had to do that when i could turn the gain up to 7 and have my tube screamer on with my ibanez and have no problem. Lowering the pickup might not produce as much sustain and tone but when it comes to gain, i didn't notice much difference. at least to my ears, it sounding exactly the same as it did before (just without the feedback)....plus, to be honest guys, I love just customizing guitars. I love knowing I am making a guitar my own. havnt done it much, so I need the practice. and,why not do it on my 2k guitar haha? i have more at stake so I take my time and perfect my work. I learn a lot faster that way.

[agt]

Photos by any chance?

[swammbo]

Here it is

[swammbo]

[yellowv03]

You only did the bridge pickup? I'm sorry, but that just looks bad and is a fix for a non existent problem. Foam would have cured your issue. Also running a boosted 6505 w/ the gain set to 7 is ridiculous. No wonder you got noise. I run my 5150 at no more than 3-4 gain and it sounds crushing. What setting are you playing in? How close to the amp are you? What noisegate are you running? There are a lot of other things you should have looked into before dremeling away. Also from your pic it really doesn't seem like your bridge pickup is any lower than it would have been otherwise. Funny how bands like Born of Osiris are tuning JP's down to G and their direct mount pickups work just fine.