Question Microphonic pickups on a Steve Morse model?

[Arkangelis]

Hi everyone,

first of all let me say Hello to all you guys since this is my first post. I've been lurking here for a couple of weeks and since my Steve Morse model arrived last week I decided to become active

I have to say I am very happy with my new guitar. It is really well built, the neck feels simply amazing and the tone-choices are just extremly fun to play with. I never had such an amazing instrument before, so my praise goes to the guys at EBMM, I love this guitar

I do, however, think that I have some kind of issue with my pickups. I tried some louder sounds during band rehearsal this weekend and the more hi-gain sounds really seemed to produce a lot of feedback.
The guitar is very resonant and I love that, but the feedback is a little buzzkill.
I tried playing with string heights today, but that didn't seem to change alot. While adjusting, I realized that the pickups were picking up the sound of my wristwatch. Also tapping the body or the pickup seems to create a lot of noise. Could this be an issue microphonic pickups? It's strange because it's not just one pickup, all four show this behaviour.
I did search the web and the forum, but before jumping to conclusions or dipping my pickups into wax (don't feel comfortable about this solution for microphonic pickups), I wanted to ask you guys.
Is this a regular behaviour with the Steve Morse model? Has anyone experienced something similar before? Do you have any suggestions on how to fix this?

Again, I am really loving this guitar and the feedback issue does not exist when playing outside of the band situation. I'm just worried that there could be something wrong with my pickups.

Thanks for the help!
Michael

 

[Roubster]

First off, welcome and congrats on a great guitar! I have a Y2D and I love it...love the pickups and tone combing out of the 5 available positions. Now as for the pickups issue, I really do not know. Really the best suggestion that you might have seen on the forum before is to contact Customer Service or your dealer if it is new. It might be a small wiring issue...it could be numerous things as a matter of fact. CS will sort you out I believe.

Now, you must post pics of this alleged guitar .

 

[beej]

Hi Michael,

Welcome to the forum. On the pickups- with a lot of gain, it's not unusual to pick up unwanted noises (watch clicks, converter noises, etc), that sort of comes with the territory. Ditto the tapping noise- if I tap on the p/g of my guitars with the gain cranked I'll hear the vibrations.

With the excessive feedback- if it were one pickup, that could be a possibility, however the fact that you're getting it with all of them pretty much rules that out.

To me, this sounds normal- you're probably playing loud or with a lot of gain and you're right on the edge. Do you have the same issues with other guitars? Just wondering ... there's probably a few ways you can change your rig to help with the unwanted feedback.

 

[Spudmurphy]

I'm +1 with Roubster - welcome to the forum.

The pickups will pick up your wristwatch - it happens with mine.
They will also pick up extraneous noises from your computer if like me you noodle about on the guitar whilst surfing the forum.

My guess is that it could be your amp - I once had a Hiwatt, whose valves were microphonic and my guitars squealed like 4ell!!

If you have a new guitar - contact your supplier, if that doesn't resolve the issue contact customer service. - I mean you wouldn't want me to do a full medical on you via the internet would ya

 

[jakedawgwhite88]

Best option is to call customer service they are always friendly it could be a ground thing with the amp but customer service is always the best choice either email or calling should get you somewhere

 

[Arkangelis]

Hi guys,

thanks for the fast replies.

I'm relieved to hear that my issues could be non at all
Since the noise from the wristwatch and the tapping at the PU occour on all 4 PUs it seems that an issue there is not really probable.

I guess it's really just the amp and the volume we are playing at. I should change the tubes in my amp since they are rather old, this may solve my feedback issues.

Maybe some EQ changes could help, the room we play in has really terrible acoustics.

I will have to check this on the weekend with my second guitar (Ibanez 7-string with DiMarzio PUs), but i guess the Morse is just more resonant and therefor a little bit more "vulnerable" to feedback at loud volumes.

Anyway, I'll take another testdrive this weekend and see what I can adjust to reduce feedback.

Should this problem be persistent I will contact customer support to see what they can come up with

Thank you all for your responses and ideas and calming a newbie down who's not used to such a great guitar

P.S.: Pictures coming soon, but prepare for some crappy cellphone-cam pics

 

[beej]

Anytime!

P.S.: Pictures coming soon, but prepare for some crappy cellphone-cam pics

We'll take what we can get

 

[fogman]

Michael congrats on the guitar and welcome to the forum!!!

 

[banjoplayer]

I will have to check this on the weekend with my second guitar (Ibanez 7-string with DiMarzio PUs), but i guess the Morse is just more resonant and therefor a little bit more "vulnerable" to feedback at loud volumes.

Hi,
yes you should check your tubes and compare it to your Ibanez. My Morse (which is the only one I ever played so I can only speak for this one) does deal very well with high output/loud volume levels. it is very firm against bad feedback. So I guess it rather has to be the amp. Had a microphonic valve once in a Marshall DSL 410. That was really annoying. Good luck and take pics

 

[jam3v]

You should definitely contact customer service...

But I've had some experience with microphonic pikcups in the past, and it's not fun.

First you really need to understand whether it's normal feedback or microphonic feedback. You can distinguish this by listening to how long it takes for the feedback to get unbearably high pitched.

'Normal' feedback has a generally slow ramp up, while microphonic feedback will almost instantly be at ear piercing pitch.

If it is microphonic feedback there's 2 likely causes:

1) Your pickup internals - they would need to be 're-potted', which means re-filled with wax.

2) Your pickup mountings - Your pickups need to be secured to the body of your guitar better.

The size of the room you're in, where you're standing, and which direction your cab is facing will also have great influence on pickups that are susceptible to microphonic feedback.

I owned a guitar that came with padding underneath the pickups, and this caused it to have microphonic feedback. Once I secured the pickups to the body with thicker screws and removed the padding underneath, it was usable, but in really small rooms with an amp that was pushed hard you would still hear it...
----

Note: this is not meant to be a scientific post, it simply outlines my experiences. Definitely try another guitar to rule out microphonic tubes in your amp(this happens too!). However, be warned, the guitar I had a lot of microphonic issues with was a 7-string Ibanez (RG1527)

 

[fbecir]

Hello and welcome aboard

I really love my Morse and for me, the secret to unlock the full power of the Morse is the pickups heights. Personally, my humbuckers are quite low, the slanted single coil is really low and the bridge single coil is quite high (I have more or less the same volume between the bridge humbucker and the bridge single coil). Steve Morse does the contrary (the single coil is low).
In my case, I have no problem with feedback and I play loud (but my gain is not so high).

Waiting for the pics

 

[Colin]

welcome and don't forget to post some pics of your Morse

 

[Coffeemug]

Welcome aboard fellow austrian neighbor and congrats on your new Morse!
It'd sure be nice to see a couple pics of your beauty...

 

[Arkangelis]

Hey guys,

thanks again for all the advice and the welcome wishes, really appreciate it

I did play around with the volume on my solid-state practice amp at home, and here I also get feedback, but really only at ridiculous volumes. Again, this happens on all 4 PUs and the feedback starts of at a low volume and gets steadily more ear-ripping.
So i guess this is just a natural response to the volume.
I will check this again this weekend on my tube-amp and since I'm going to change the tubes anyway, I'll keep you up-to-date, just in case somebody experiences the same "issues" or is just as paranoid as I am

Anyway, now to the fun part: I found some time after a loooong day at work to shoot some pics of my beauty They're only cellphone pics, but I so love this guitar, how could I not love the pictures of it

Here you go:

I really love those 2 :

 

[lumberjack]

Very nice. Congrats on the Morse. And welcome to the forums.

Scott

 

[bazxkr]

Superoso... beautiful Morse congrats

Cheers
Baz

 

[browndog]

Welcome. Thats quite a nice SM.

Pics aren’t bad for a cell phone.

 

[guitfiddle]

Hey there. Gotta love a Morse in Blue Burst, and that's a real sharp looking one. I agree that the pics are quite decent for a cell phone.

I haven't had any feedback from my Morse. I am not a really high gain player (volume gets up there though). If you get a chance, post side shot so we can see how high your pickups are set.

 

[bazxkr]

Yeh, pipckup height would be interesting, can compare to the what the actual man himself, Mr Morse, has setup too as Tommyindelaware was good enough to post this info about 3 months back

The only feedback I get from either of my Morses is from the rest of the family in as much as 'shut up & put that thing down'

Cheers
Baz