Need pickup for Gibson

Lonnie Bennett · From: Upstate New York

I’m not sure if this is the right place but…I just acquired a Gibson Century 6 Lap steel in excellent condition. I would like to play it out but the pickup is so noisy (like a bee’s nest). Is there a replacement for the pickup with the same string spacing and mounting pattern? Don’t want to alter the body if I can help it and the cavity is already shielded. Any help would be appreciated.
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Big Ben

HowardR · From: N.Y.C.-Fire Island-Asheville

Hi Lonnie......I would suggest getting in touch with Jason Lollar, who specializes in retro pick ups and the rewind of them.....

http://www.lollarguitars.com/mm5/merchant.mvc

Blake Hawkins · From: Florida

Lonnie, Your pickup may not be bad. Just picking up some external interference.
There have been many previous posts on how to isolate the source, such as moving to a different room, move your guitar farther away from the amp.
Turn off all lights that have electronic dimmers
and such.
You didn't say if you could hear the guitar signal through the noise.
It is possible that the pickup could be open,
you can easily check that with an ohmmeter.
If the pickup is defective, you could have it
rewound so that you wouldn't have to alter the
guitar at all. Jason Lollar and Jerry Wallace both rewind Gibson pickups. (And do excellent work.)
HowardR and I were writing at the same time....follow
his link.

Bill Creller · From: Saginaw, Michigan, USA (deceased)

Getting it re-wound would seem like the way to go. Several places to get it done. lollarguitars.com is just one.
Getting it re-wound would save the fooling around with fitting another pickup etc.

And maybe the pickup isn't the problem anyway. The volume pot and/or the wiring could be the source of the noise. Even the jack can be noisy in some instances. Do an inspection of the wiring etc and see if it's OK. Poking around in the wiring when it's plugged in the amp, with a pencil, may show some loose or bad connections etc.

Ron Simpson · From: Illinois, USA

All Gibson single coil pickups are noisy. If a problem doesn't show up, I'd suggest a visit to your local music store to try an Electro Harmonics Hum Debugger. There were some very positive opinions about them recently in the Electronics section of this forum.

Roman Sonnleitner · From: Vienna, Austria

I'd also check if the bridge/strings are still grounded - if the ground wire from the bridge has com loose, that would cause quite a lot noise...

Laurence Pangaro · From: Brooklyn, NY

Hi Roman,

Please tell me more about the ground wire. This sounds like it could be the problem I have with my BR-6. As long as I'm touching some metal part of the instrument, there's no major problem, but if I pick up my hands there's a significant hum.

thanks,
LP

Roman Sonnleitner · From: Vienna, Austria

Ah, OK, if a lot of the noise disappears when you touch the strings, it means that your strings are grounded/the ground wire is OK (to make sure you could use a multimeter to see whether there is continuity from the strings/bridge to the output jack).

It is quite normal to hear more noise when you don't touch the strings, esp. with a guitar with a single coil pickup, like your Gibson; as long as most of the noise disappears when you touch the strings, it's OK (when you're playing you're resting the bar on the strings, or keeping your right hand palm on the strings for muting, anyway, so you're touching it most of the time). If the hum bothers you in pauses between songs, you could get a muting tuner (like the Korg Pitchblack), or simply turn down the volume pot when not playing...

Andrea Tazzini · From: Massa, Italy

Hello Lonnie, I have a 1961 Century 6 in near mint condition and I had the same problem. I polished and shielded the cavity pots with an aluminum sheet and the hum decreased a little bit. Then I leaved the guitar untouched in a dry place for some months. Now it sounds fantastic! I don't know if the problem was the umidity of the wiring but it is so. Smile

Laurence Pangaro · From: Brooklyn, NY

Thanks Roman,

One of these days I'll get around to learning a bit about how the guts of an electric function.

It's true the hum isn't a big problem, because I'm usually in contact with the strings when playing. Open string licks can require a little extra care though.

ciao,
LP

Steve Ahola · From: Concord, California

FWIW I just "adopted" a 1948 Century-6 and there was hardly any signal at all from the guitar. You could crank up the amp all of the way just to get a normal low volume. But with the amp cranked up that much it made the noise that much louder.

I figured it was a really good chance that the problems were with the 3 controls and the foil lined control compartment. Nope- it was a bad pickup after all. It is the pre-50's P90 with magnetic pole pieces rather than adjustable screws (not your typical P90!)

Yes, Jason Lollar can rebuild these and the price depends on whether you just need it rewound or if it might require other repair (replacing one or both bobbins or any of the magnetic slugs). Great work at reasonable prices!

If the wiring in your house is decent and there are no appliances/TV's/etc. putting electronic noise into the ether, you can usually reduce the hum on single coil pickups almost completely by rotating your guitar horizontally and/or vertically. Shielding the control and pickup cavities makes a big difference as well as the basic "star" ground technique popularized at Guitarnuts.com. (In a nutshell <groan> you keep the shield grounds separate from the signal return leads from the pickups or controls.)

On the other hand some bars can be a real nightmare for single coil pickups. Cheap dimmer circuits can create a lot of noise; some bars have strings of Christmas lights going all over the place- and connected to a cheap dimmer for "atmosphere" they say...

HTH

Steve Ahola
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