Clacking Sound When I Touch My Humbucker

Sounds as if the pickup may be fairly microphonic. A plus in my book with the music I normally play but looked down on by most as it's an indication of not being potted completely. Unless you play metal or high distortion often you MAY come to like it

Dave

 

Some are worse than others. That pup should be pretty good though. Try touching a wire from the control plate to the pickup and see if it helps, if so, run a ground wire to the pickup.

 

SD Antiquity pickups are not potted and so they exhibit microphony. I do not play pickups that are not potted. Ommv.

 

Yeah, the grounding thing is easy to try, but I'm not hopeful it helps that much. Just a thought.
It bugs me too, maybe it's the way I pick.
But potting is fairly easy, I've just used old white candle wax before. Other than that, the SD Seth Lover's are close to the Antiquities but are potted.

 

EVH used to pot his own with beeswax. You could do that in a double-boiler, but you can't leave the pickup in for long because AlNiCo magnets start to degauss when they get too hot. It's a bit of an artform of its own.

 

fwiw, that SD Antiquity will be grounded well...as long as it was installed correctly. And....the lack of a ground will cause a pop from an electrical action rather than this mechanical clacking thing you are hearing.
That Antiquity can be potted to eliminate this microphony. Potting is not difficult, but care should be taken. It requires A double boiler, a candy thermometer, and some decent wax. The material used for the bobbins dictates the temperature range that one should use. Fiberboard bobbins can withstand higher temps than can plastic bobbins. 170-180degrees Cent. For fiber...140-150 for plastic.
The pickups have to be suspended and jiggled in the wax until the air bubbles are not present....or very much reduced.

 

I never tried a double boiler, just a pan with heat very low. I figured "melted is melted" and lowest temp that did that is what I did, but maybe that's wrong. A small sauce pan in a large one with water would get you there.

For a full potting though, not sure if you need to unsolder the cover or not...? I looked inside one after potting to find the wax wasn't throughout.

 

Pot the whole pickup...cover and all. If you have ever adjusted the poles on a potted adjustable,pole,pickup, you will see wax come out of the cover when the screw is elevated out of the cover. Hang the pickup from a wire. I am not against quick chilling the wAx/pickup in the freezer after pulling it from the pot so as to prevent runout.

 

Is the pickup cover grounded properly to the bottom plate of the pickup? Somebody might have added the cover later, and not properly grounded it.