Getting the "muddy" sound out of neck pickup

[korus]

What comes stock?

I reckon 500k would clean it up.

Yes it will if stock pots are 300k. But how can we answer 'what comes stock' without the brand/model?

 

[astroshagger]

Yes it will if stock pots are 300k. But how can we answer 'what comes stock' without the brand/model?

2013 R9 with Custombuckers.

 

[Elkoki]

When I first got my Epi I thought the electronics and pickups were really really muddy, switching out the pots and wiring made a big difference in the clarity even with the stock humbuckers still in there. I got a set of 4-500k pots,2 orange caps, wiring + the 3 way switch. I think it was around $40 for the whole set from an ebayer called "art of tone". Makes a big difference in clarity and the electronics feel much smoother

 

[mdubya]

Distorted chords through the neck pickup are going to be muddy. That is part of the charm.

If you don't want mud, switch to the bridge pickup.

Clean chords, distorted single string, the neck should be golden.

 

[mudfinger]

Set your amp to the desired sound using the neck pickup. Free.

 

[Mindfrigg]

1 meg pot or bypass switch.

 

[Chadd]

As others have mentioned, these are the steps that I would take. Lowering the pickup and raising the pole pieces to taste is usually enough to suck the mud out of a neck pickup. The next step is usually making sure the pots are actually 500K and swapping them to 1 meg pots will cure all but the worst of the problems.

 

[AudioWonderland]

.015 Cap...

This was my thought.

 

[Alligatorbling]

1 meg pot or bypass switch.

i was thinking this too as well....


many metal guitarist wire their pups straight to the output jack for maximum clarity and scream factor.

if you want to hear what the pickup REALLY sounds like, the only way to hear it pure and unadulterated is going from wire to jack.

 

[wildschwein]

As noted above you can wire a cap in series with the neck pickup and it will subtract some low end from the sound. Values between 0.015uf and 0.047uf will work. Here is a link from Seymour Duncan about it:

Mod Squad: Muddy sounding neck pickup? | Seymour Duncan

 

[DADGAD]

You can not only lower the entire height of the pickup, you can also slant the bass side down to reduce the bass if it is overpowering the treble. Take a look at this screen shot I got of Peter Green. This is an extreme slant.

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[vidguy]

That Peter Green shot is very interesting. Clearly he experimented with his tone a lot to end up there.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

I lowered the pickup and *raised* the polepieces a little, to get more top end.

There you have it. This takes some of the "body" out of the sound.

 

[LtKojak]

That Peter Green shot is very interesting. Clearly he experimented with his tone a lot to end up there.

He was clearly "experimenting", alright.

I don't think I could really say it was about tone, though.

 

[Zoobiedood]

If you do decide to eventually change pickups, I'd go with something with less mids and a more open sound, like a Jazz.

 

[QReuCk]

Pickup height and pole screw heights adjustment can work on their own, all other things being constant. As this is totally free, I would start there and spend some quality time fiddling with this.
If you wanna go the pot value route, think total impedance seen by the PU into the first active stage. If you go straight to jack but use a passive 100K volume pedal before your first buffer or gain stage, then you essentially replace the volume pot with a lower value external volume pot. There's'a reason why people using passive volume pedals usually end up with active pickups.
Also, mud often comes from too much bass into the distorting stage. Several tricks allow to cut some bass before the first distorting stage: bass control in the guitar, EQ before dist, trebble boost before dist, or even using a dist with a built in high pass before the clipping stage (most TS-like pedals have one)

 

[moreles]

Lots of possible causes and fixes. Most likely, as many mention, is having the pickup too close to the strings. If your signal is hot to begin with, and many PUs are just plain hot, you're going to have mud, period. Second most likely cause is pot/cap values. If yours is not 500K (or more, but 500 should be fine), get one. I like the .015 cap value someone else mentioned, but .022 is ballpark. Yours may have an .047 and if so, yuk. Many of other the suggestions mentioned, such as changing bridge and stud materials, are fine adjustments, not basic ones. Get the basic clean tone you want; then you can do those fussier changes if you want. But lower the PU to begin with. A hot signal at the PU is usually the beginning of mud-making.

 

[Seanizle]

I've tried throwing a 1 meg pot in the neck, and although it helped reduce some of the boom and mud, buying a quality pot, like an RS Super Pot, and throwing a cap in line is definitely the way to go.

In regards to raising pole pieces + lowering pickup; I've done this to no end with two Wolfetone pups and although it helped a bit, it took some of the harmonics out of the pickup.

 

[marc1kim]

.

 

[marc1kim]

I put in a P-90. Fixed.

Ever since owning my old BFG, I'm a fan of P-90 in the neck spot. It was the cleanest neck pickup of any of the 16 Gibsons that I've owned. Currently I'm playing a Junior ( no muddy neck worries), but I'm fixing up an Epi and plan on putting a P90 in the neck spot, and some sort of PAF style bucker in the bridge.