Steve Morse single coils microphonic with gain, normal?

[gtrnstuff]

Hi,
New forum member, long time fan of Steve Morse since 1975.
Just bought a new Steve Morse guitar. My first Music Man guitar.
Excellent build quality. Very pleased.
I realize the single coils are to Steve's spec, and therefore may be unusual.
And Steve mostly uses one gain channel on the amp and works the guitar controls and pickup selection to clean up.

I notice when using the single coils alone or in combination with the humbuckers with higher gain distortion. they are quite microphonic.
Any tapping on the pickguard or any accidental pick tapping on the pickups produces a noticeable clicking, more than my other strat and tele type guitars.
Not a deal breaker, just wondering if this is normal.
TIA

 

[tbonesullivan]

What guitars are you comparing it to? The slant single is a standard Dimarzio DP-108 Vintage single coil, while the other is a custom wound one. With high gain there aren't many pickups that will not make noise if you physically hit them.

Did you make any changes to the setup when you got the guitar?

 

[gtrnstuff]

Slight action adjustment is all I've done.
I'm familiar with how my other guitars (with various single coil and humbuckers) sound and behave with higher gain. I'll spare you the full list
The SM single coils are much more sensitive to pick or fingernail taps on the pick guard. Even flicking the two-way switch makes a loud click, if either of the single coils is on.

 

[gtrnstuff]

It's something I can work around, or if I really want to, I could swap out the bridge side one with something else.
It measures about 2.758" long, like some other strat pickups I have.
And it makes more microphonic noise than the slant one, which measures about 2.737", which would require modifying the pick guard, which I won't do to this guitar.
I was just hoping someone who owns the 4 pickup Steve Morse model could tell me their experience.

 

[tbonesullivan]

Slight action adjustment is all I've done.
I'm familiar with how my other guitars (with various single coil and humbuckers) sound and behave with higher gain. I'll spare you the full list
The SM single coils are much more sensitive to pick or fingernail taps on the pick guard. Even flicking the two-way switch makes a loud click, if either of the single coils is on.

That just seems odd. I have never noticed my Morse to be any more sensitive to noise from hitting the pickups, pickguard, or body than any other guitar I have. They are all Dimarzio pickups, so both of them being this microphonic seems odd, given their design and Dimarzios experience with potting. Does it have this same effect when only the bridge humbucker is on and you tap the pickguard and/or body?

 

[gtrnstuff]

That just seems odd. I have never noticed my Morse to be any more sensitive to noise from hitting the pickups, pickguard, or body than any other guitar I have. They are all Dimarzio pickups, so both of them being this microphonic seems odd, given their design and Dimarzios experience with potting. Does it have this same effect when only the bridge humbucker is on and you tap the pickguard and/or body?

yeah, unusual for me, too.
When no single coils are on, just either or both humbuckers, there's a bit of a hollow thump when tapping the pick guard, which isn't that weird for a large pick guard and lots of body routing for pickups.
The only guitar I have that comes close to this much microphonic clicking is my Tele, bridge pickup, which I rarely would use for really distorted stuff.

 

[fbecir]

Like @tbonesullivan on my Morse, the single coil pickups are not microphonic.
But the pickup height on mine is quite low ...well I do like Steve

 

[Rbg]

Hi,
New forum member, long time fan of Steve Morse since 1975.
Just bought a new Steve Morse guitar. My first Music Man guitar.
Excellent build quality. Very pleased.
I realize the single coils are to Steve's spec, and therefore may be unusual.
And Steve mostly uses one gain channel on the amp and works the guitar controls and pickup selection to clean up.

I notice when using the single coils alone or in combination with the humbuckers with higher gain distortion. they are quite microphonic.
Any tapping on the pickguard or any accidental pick tapping on the pickups produces a noticeable clicking, more than my other strat and tele type guitars.
Not a deal breaker, just wondering if this is normal.
TIA

I think if you send us a video with an example it will help people to guide you better. We have very different tolerances for noises when it comes to guitar. If this Dimarzio is much hotter pickup with more turns and stronger magnets that your other single, it will of course will be picking more stuff up.

 

[thawk819]

I observed the same with my Kaizen bridge pickup the other day. Was playing a part of a song I was trying to learn from my iPhone with the phone on my knee right in front of the guitar in my lap, and realized it was also coming out of my amp, picked up by the bridge pickup.

I’ve never experienced that with any other guitar I own, but this is also by far the hottest bridge pickup of any guitar I own.

 

[gtrnstuff]

I think if you send us a video with an example it will help people to guide you better. We have very different tolerances for noises when it comes to guitar. If this Dimarzio is much hotter pickup with more turns and stronger magnets that your other single, it will of course will be picking more stuff up.

Thanks. Probably more effort than I want to put into this.
I have about 50 years of playing and modifying guitars, so I can deal with it.
Mainly curious to see if anyone else had a similar experience, and so far, no.

 

[tbonesullivan]

I think if you send us a video with an example it will help people to guide you better. We have very different tolerances for noises when it comes to guitar. If this Dimarzio is much hotter pickup with more turns and stronger magnets that your other single, it will of course will be picking more stuff up.

That's the strange thing: the slanted pickup on a Morse is a DP108 "vintage" single strat single coil from Dimarzio. Probably around the output of the "True Velvet" or less, and it even still has the stagger for the wound G.