Mag pickups breaking up at full volume

[JamieCrain]

I’ve got a Majesty 6 which I’ve owned since new in 2015. It’s always had a higher output compared to my other guitars but I’ve noticed that lately when I strum harder when using the mags, the sound is breaking up and it’s very noticeable on clean sounds. I thought it was the batteries but these have been changed a few times. I also replaced the preamp and all switches after a battery drain issue but the sound problem with the mags is still there.
The only way to resolve it is to roll the volume back a little. It’s almost like the dB boost is on (it’s not - if I activate that then the problem is multiplied).
I can’t lower the pups as they are direct mounted.

Any thoughts on the issue here? It feels like the pre-amp is set too high. Is there a way to tweak it?

Re amp, I am running a Y cable into a Helix - the mags straight into the guitar input, the piezo through the FX return.

Thanks!

 

[xjbebop]

Sounds like a question for customer service...

 

[beej]

Is it really an issue? The pickups are high output- just sounds like they're just too hot for the input of the Helix. Just turning down a bit sounds like the right answer.

You've had the preamp replaced- is the output higher than it was before this? If you feel strongly that something is actually wrong with the guitar, and the output is unreasonably high, then drop the customer service team a line.

(If you had the chance to compare against another Majesty through the same device, that would of course be handy.)

 

[DrKev]

Hi Jamie, I’m wondering if this is a helix issue. A quick search produced lots of responses like this…Hot Pickups – Helix Help

Is this something you’ve already tried?

 

[JamieCrain]

Yes I think it might be an issue with Helix. On reflection, the guitar was always more 'powerful' than my others, but since switching to Helix, the difference has been magnified to the point that the signal is now distorting. I can now see that the input signal is being clipped by the Helix, but curiously only on the Majesty no matter how hard I hit the strings.

Thanks for the tip re Helix Help, @DrKev. I've tried changing that global parameter but unfortunately it doesn't make a real difference, but definitely worth a try!

Re Pre-amp volume before/after, no I don't think there's been a difference in output. I think everything is working as it should, just a very hot output.

I'll keep looking for another way to attenuate the guitar signal without manual intervention (e.g. turning mag vol down) and report back.

 

[St_G]

Well, on the upside: actives tend to maintain a pretty stable eq curve as you turn them down.

 

[JamieCrain]

Update: I've added a 3 band compressor to the front of the chain and it's made a massive difference. The tone is now completely clean unless I really hit the strings hard (which I wouldn't do normally).

So in summary it seems that Helix is just a little too sensitive to high output instruments and may need to be tweaked (in this case using the compressor) to produce a totally clean sound. Crisis averted!