joeljamerson
New member
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2006
- Messages
- 1
My 94' sterling started becoming a very sloppy performer about a year ago. Slowly but surely, the bass became unusable due to the microphonic pickup. I contacted EB and my dealer about it and there suggestion was take the bad pickup out, send it in and get a new one.
Since i've never needed another bass i had to buy a backup bass for the week or two without this one. However, when further inspecting my pickup I found the problem!
The 3 coil pickup puts the magnet on the 3rd dummy coil, and attaches this coil to the pickup using an epoxy of sorts. Over time, the layer of epoxy had failed and the magnet was now free to move on its own, pickup up vibrations, canceling phase on notes (particularly in the 100-200hz region). Not only had that epoxy failed, but it appeared that the factory had applied too much epoxy in the first place, putting the magnet off of the intended location a little more than a few mm's extra, causing a posible weaker magnetic field.
I carefully removed the bad epoxy from the pickup and cleaned all surfaces up as best as i could. The pole pieces had developed a slight rust to them over the years and that rust was sanded off. I then applied a very thin layer of 30-minute epoxy to the pickup and magnet and clamped it together for 2 hours. After the epoxy had set, i used hot-glue to seal the pickup together (easy to remove if needed) and re-installed the pickup.
The change is absolutly stunning! my bass now sounds better than i would expect a new sterling to sound. Lows were greatly restored, highs are much more present, and mids are no longer honky.
I know that my epoxy layer was less than 1mm, but the factory epoxy was at least 3-5mm away from the poles. This is something EB should look into. Your pickups come alive when that magnet touches the poles on the coils. Also for other MM owners (5 string and sterling) with the 3-coil pickups, if you experience microphonics, this is the first place you should look. 5$ at a hardware store saves you much lost time and money instead of replacing an entire pickup.
Since i've never needed another bass i had to buy a backup bass for the week or two without this one. However, when further inspecting my pickup I found the problem!
The 3 coil pickup puts the magnet on the 3rd dummy coil, and attaches this coil to the pickup using an epoxy of sorts. Over time, the layer of epoxy had failed and the magnet was now free to move on its own, pickup up vibrations, canceling phase on notes (particularly in the 100-200hz region). Not only had that epoxy failed, but it appeared that the factory had applied too much epoxy in the first place, putting the magnet off of the intended location a little more than a few mm's extra, causing a posible weaker magnetic field.
I carefully removed the bad epoxy from the pickup and cleaned all surfaces up as best as i could. The pole pieces had developed a slight rust to them over the years and that rust was sanded off. I then applied a very thin layer of 30-minute epoxy to the pickup and magnet and clamped it together for 2 hours. After the epoxy had set, i used hot-glue to seal the pickup together (easy to remove if needed) and re-installed the pickup.
The change is absolutly stunning! my bass now sounds better than i would expect a new sterling to sound. Lows were greatly restored, highs are much more present, and mids are no longer honky.
I know that my epoxy layer was less than 1mm, but the factory epoxy was at least 3-5mm away from the poles. This is something EB should look into. Your pickups come alive when that magnet touches the poles on the coils. Also for other MM owners (5 string and sterling) with the 3-coil pickups, if you experience microphonics, this is the first place you should look. 5$ at a hardware store saves you much lost time and money instead of replacing an entire pickup.
