low E string is muddy on neck pup of tele w/minihum

[teleboi]

I just got my tech to put a SD SM-1 vintage mini-humbucker in the neck of my Am. Telecaster. It sounds great, except for the low E string doesnt seem as defined as the other strings, the A string in a way as well, but not as bad the E. All the other strings sound awesome and have the right amount of cut and warmness.

When I look at the pickup it looks like it isnt perfectly aligned in the center of the pickguard, and the tech told me this since he said he had to do it like this to make it fit the pickguard with the mini-humbucker. I'll try and take a picture and show you guys what I mean, I dont know if this would have anything to do with the low e string being somewhat mushy or not. Either way, I'm gonna contact the tech as well and see if this is normal or not.

 

[teleboi]

here is a link to the picture:

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=10413020

as you see the pickup is placed a bit more to the right and is farther away from the lower strings. Could this be the problem? thanks.

 

[KokoTele]

It doesn't make any sense that the pickup is off-center. I'd get him to fix that, or at least refund your money. You can get a pickguard made for you from many sources that will make it right, and attaching a pickguard is a pretty simple task that you can do yourself.

Have you tried adjusting the height of the pickups to tweak the sound? Typically the best sound is had when the pickup is roughly the thickness of a nickel away from the strings. Sometimes two nickels, sometimes three. I usually set the neck pickup as high as it will go without interfering with the strings when fretted at the highest fret, which gets it close to the optimum height for when I fret at any other position. And typically I lower the bass side to balance the tone with the treble side.

 

[Pvee]

Looks like the neck angle is off a little also.
If you pivot the neck down a little and slip a small shim in the top of the pocket to help hold it there that should take care of some of it.

You could then adjust the pickup height to possibly help some also.

 

[teleboi]

I have tried playing with the pickup height, but it doesnt really help that much, the low E is always rather dull compared to the other strings.

I gave the tech a normal tele pickguard routed for a single coil and told him to rout it for the mini-hum, and I told him that I want the rout to be where the single coil would be on the pickguard and not higher up (like where the 24th fret would be) and he told me he had to make it a bit off-center in order to fit it the way that I wanted. btw, this tech is one of the most renowed techs in this city, and is well-known for his amazing work.

so do you think the fact that the pup is a bit off-center is contributing the low E being mushy/muddy? or could it be other things...

 

[Tiddles]

Strange looking pup (for a Tele), but looks like active part nowhere near low E string, so expect poor output on low E. On the other hand, I often see pole pieces nowhere near aligned under strings, & yet output is great on all strings. And conversely, I see poles beautifully aligned, yet find poor vol balance between individual strings (mostly high or low E is weak). I’d ask the tech to center it up, then adjust height to tweak to your preference. One thing though … if pup is too high you can get all sorts of crazy sonic effects. 2cents.

Ian.

 

[KokoTele]

Does the low E sound muddy when you play the bridge pickup?

Ask the tech to show you exactly why it had to be off center. And btw, the normal tele neck pickup is located very near the 24th fret, which is why you get such muted harmonics from the neck pickup.

 

[teleboi]

the low E on the bridge pickup is fine, no problems. Only the neck pup. Looks like I'm gonna have to go and have a chat with the tech.

 

[Nashville Tele Player]

Mini Humbucker

That is peculiar, I installed a Duncan Mini recently in the neck. and I centered the pick up under the strings. The problem with this was the opposite occured with the high E being weak and tinny. So I ended up moving the pup to the right like in the photo and the problem was solved, and no problem with the low E. I had the feeling the magnets are not in the right place under the cover or are not wide enough to reach all 6 strings. I love the pickup. BTW I went through 2 pick guards before I got the placement correct.

 

[Al Nico]

I dunno, the pickup looks more or less centered on the pickguard, but that neck is definitely tilted too much toward the treble side. Loosen the neck scews a bit and pull the neck back into alignment (towards the bass side), and screw it tight again. I bet that will fix the problem (visually anyways). A little tilt goes a long way. Could also be you're accustomed to the bass string snap of a true single coil.

 

[sparky]

It looks like your tech aligned the pick-up with the neck, but the strings are not centred on the neck.
Also a mini-humbucker is designed for Gibson string spacing so it is possible that the focussed part of the magnetic field will only reach both 'e' strings on a (wider-spaced) Fender (if at all) when it is perfectly aligned to the strings, with no margin for error.
I would look at the possibility of moving the strings on the saddles, or re-aligning the neck as described above.

 

[Kelsey]

You might also check with Seymour Duncan's tech support. Some of the SM series pickups have a steel blade attached to the bottom-loaded magnet that should allevaite this sort of problem, but I'm not sure which ones. I have an SM-3 in the neck of a Tele, and it sounds fine. It has significantly more bass than a traditional Tele neck pup, but it's strong across all 6 strings. I know that some people have put these pickups in the bridge position of a Strat with good results, and the spacing there would be even wider than in your case.