D and G string neck pickup volume balance advice

[Ron C]

I’m having trouble getting a good volume balance for the D and G strings on my Vintera II Nocaster neck pickup. Low E, A, B, and high E all balance well. The balance is fine at the bridge pickup. The pickups and electronics are stock.

I’m using these strings:
E .011
B .013
G .017 (plain)
D .028 (D’Addario Chrome flat wound)
A .038 (D’Addario Chrome flat wound)
E .048 (D’Addario Chrome flat wound)

Problem is that the G is considerably louder than the D. I’ve already upped the gauge on the D twice and lowered it’s action, which has improved things. I’d rather not change to a skinnier G string.

I get that with the 7.25” radius, the D will always be farther from the neck pickup than the E or A.

I’ve tried switching the G to a wound .020 but don’t like the sound, plus it then became the quietest string. I also don’t want to rely on a compressor.

If you’ve had this problem, did you find that a switch to a pickup with adjustable pole pieces (Wilde micro-coil, Gibson style bucker, faux P-90 Tele pickup, etc) solved it? I’d rather not switch, but am running out of ideas.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[BryMelvin]

Try adding a small neo magnet on the bottom of the "d" slug

 

[Ron C]

Try adding a small neo magnet on the bottom of the "d" slug

Thanks! How small do you recommend? Looks like anything from 2mm x 1mm up to 5mm x 2mm might fit and are available from Amazon.

 

[hungahunga]

Why flat wound?

 

[Boreas]

What happens if you let that string "age" compared to the others? There are reasons - other than cost - that some people don't change their flatwounds as often. Kinda like some bass players never change strings. They mellow nicely.

 

[cousinpaul]

Try some different gauges for the wound third. A .017 or .018 wound might be better.

 

[Ron C]

Why flat wound?

Just my current preference for the tone and feel.

I play more jazz than anything else (solo American songbook stuff or organ trio collaborations) and find it easier to get close to the "bright hollow body" sound I like with flats and adjustments to my attack.

Also the feel - I love really low action and the higher tension of the D'Addario chromes* gives the strings a smaller arc, so I can make it lower than with comparable size round wounds.

The surprising thing is that I still get my preferred rock and country tones on the bridge pretty easily with the flats (again, needs some adjustment to my attack, too). Truly feels like an any gig, any genre guitar.

*Lot of people like Thomastik's flats - I think they're a different animal with lower tension and a different mix of gauges in their sets, so I don't think that anything I wrote above applies to them.

 

[Ron C]

What happens if you let that string "age" compared to the others? There are reasons - other than cost - that some people don't change their flatwounds as often. Kinda like some bass players never change strings. They mellow nicely.

Don't know yet. I've only had this guitar a few months and have been switching string types and gauges around during that time, so nothing's had a chance to age yet. It'll be interesting to see how time changes things.

 

[Ron C]

Try some different gauges for the wound third. A .017 or .018 wound might be better.

I was thinking that, too. I tried a wound .020 (flatwound) and that ended up being the quietest string of the set (I just switched the problem from the D to the G). If I switch back to roundwounds in the future I'll give that a try, though.

 

[Ron C]

Try adding a small neo magnet on the bottom of the "d" slug

I've ordered some 3mm x 1mm and 4mm x 2mm neo magnets which should arrive tomorrow. Will give this a try and report back.

 

[Kodachrome]

With a grain of salt, perhaps a lighter gauge G would be helpful.
Might seem counterintuitive but I recall watching this video a few years back and when they put 8s on the guitar it had a much different result than conventional wisdom says. Comparisons start at 11:49 - unfortunately they don't use any clean examples.

 

[frisco slim]

You could try a stainless steel half-round on the D. Half-rounds move a little more freely than flats, and might give you a little more amplitude.

If you were using round wounds, I'd say try pure nickel wound on the E and A and nickel-plated steel on the D.

 

[Zepfan]

Your G & B strings are the same size as found in a set of 10 Guage strings while the others are 11's.
Change the G to the size you would get with 11's.

Magnets
Don't know what pickups you have and the type of magnets within them.
Neodymium magnets are very strong and too much can be another problem.

Baby needs a bigger G string!
If that doesn't fix your issue, then we could see a pic of your pickup(top n bottom) and go from there.

 

[hungahunga]

Just my current preference for the tone and feel.

I play more jazz than anything else (solo American songbook stuff or organ trio collaborations) and find it easier to get close to the "bright hollow body" sound I like with flats and adjustments to my attack.

Also the feel - I love really low action and the higher tension of the D'Addario chromes* gives the strings a smaller arc, so I can make it lower than with comparable size round wounds.

The surprising thing is that I still get my preferred rock and country tones on the bridge pretty easily with the flats (again, needs some adjustment to my attack, too). Truly feels like an any gig, any genre guitar.

*Lot of people like Thomastik's flats - I think they're a different animal with lower tension and a different mix of gauges in their sets, so I don't think that anything I wrote above applies to them.

Try round wound. What ya got to lose? Flat wounds always sounded dull to me.

 

[Ron C]

Thanks, all, for the suggestions.

Today I tried a couple:
- added a 4mm x 2mm neo magnet to the bottom of the D pole piece (see photo). I didn't notice a difference. Then added a second magnet below the first one...pretty good! Then D string was louder, not as much as I'd like but good enough.

- swapped out the .017" G for a .016". Output was perfectly balanced but it felt a little weird to have so little tension there next to a .028" D. So the .017" G went back on.

Tomorrow I'll try swapping the E-A-D flat wounds with 48-38-28 round wounds.

Try round wound. What ya got to lose? Flat wounds always sounded dull to me.

You're right, it's just $7 and if I like them better than the flats, that saves me $$ on strings going forward.