Alembic STR Strat Pickups, More Susceptible to Feedback?

[Football]

I have a recently refurbed set (Thank you to Alembic :-) of 1980 STR (single coil looking ones) pickups (volume, bass, treble controls) in a Warmoth strat.

They sound great but seem far more prone to feedback when playing loud on a gig and using overdrive/distortion.  Much more so than any non-Alembic pickups I own or have used.

Wondering if that's just the nature of these style pickups.  And has anyone else found this to happen with theirs as well?

[jazzyvee]

That experience sounds completely alien to my experience with those pickups. I have had that same setup in a USA strat since about 2006 and used that guitar on many many large venue stages including indoor (marquee's) and outdoor and festivals across the UK and Europe where the on-stage sound was loud. I can't recall these pickups giving me problems with feedback any more than any other pickups though it is not something I encounter often with any guitar and loud overdriven distortion is not a big part of my sound. The one exception was a parker fly that I soon stopped using as a backup guitar and sold.

The only problem area for me that I found with them is that I disliked was the sound of the alembic pickups when using overdrive or distortion from any digital guitar effects unit (in my case it was specifically the Line 6 XTPro floor unit which I also found generally to be more susceptible to feedback with any guitar. Solid state overdrive/distortion pedal were slightly better but still a bit tizzy sounding .Tube overdrive seems to work better for me with alembic guitar pickups.

What kind of music are you using with loud overdrive/distortion? Heavy rock?

[edwin]

Are they mounted to a pick guard? It's possible that the pick guard itself is vibrating.

But if it's musical notes feeding back, I wonder if that's because the Alembic pickups can give you a more focused fundamental.

[Football]

For solos, sometimes it's very loud rock.  Depends on the song, but definitely gets loud and has lots of overdrive over the course of a gig.  My other pickups don't exhibit this at all (they're also passive).

The Alembics are mounted to a pickguard.  It's some type of metal material, not plastic.  Not sounding like musical notes feeding back.

Thank you for the input.

Hopefully I can test another guitar with these pickups in it (with my rig) someday.

[Football]

Does anyone know what the Alembic STR pickups were potted with back when these were made in 1980?  I had read that paraffin can dry out and become brittle allowing the winding to become loose/microphonic. 

Middle and bridge pickups are very microphonic, neck pickup seems good.

Curious if these could be re-potted if need be.

[Football]

Microphonic problem solved.  Put foam under the pickups (had an extra deep cavity route), changed the springs to tubing, and replaced the anodized pickguard with a plastic one.

Not sure which accounts for the problem going away.  Did read online some people with certain pickups getting microphonic feedback when using anodized pick guards.  Maybe that's the crux of it.

Thanks for the input.

[elwoodblue]

  Did read online some people with certain pickups getting microphonic feedback when using anodized pick guards.

 I can attest to that. I didn't change guards, but I backed the metal one with soft tape and plastered stickers on the top. It reigned in the feedback (mostly).
That was with older Seymour Duncans.
 I've since changed the pickups to activators, I'll report back after the next loud gig.


I bet your right about the guard being the main culprit...it's like a little vibrating radar dish.