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Thread: Is it worth wax potting the pickups

  1. #1

    Is it worth wax potting the pickups

    Is it worth wax potting the pickups for the falcon hollow body kit. Are the overly microphonic?

  2. #2
    GAStronomist Simon Barden's Avatar
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    All pickups can vary slightly. Even wax potted ones aren't always non-microphonic. The only way you can really know is by testing them before installation. You could simply wire each one in turn to a jack socket connector, plug it into an amplifier and turn the volume up. Tapping on the pickup should result in a dull, low-volume knock/thud, but if it's a very bright, loud and clear knock, then it indicates that it's probably microphonic to some extent or other.

    If even on a clean amp setting and without touching the pickup, you get high pitched squealing, then it's clearly very microphonic. If you only get it when the amp is loud and there's a lot of gain, then it is slightly microphonic, but probably not worth worrying about as with the Falcon, you'll be having problems with body feedback well before that point. Note that most old Gibson PAFs are slightly microphonic as they weren't wax-potted, but it doesn't stop them (or accurate reproductions) being highly sought-after.

    Sometimes it's just the back-plate that's loose a bit loose, and you can often tighten the screws that hold the back-plate to the bobbins (but not by too much as the bobbin plastic is quite soft and you can strip the threads).

    If you aren't thinking about wax-potting the pickups yourself (and remember it's not just the coils, but the cover should also then be wax potted to the coils; harder on this type of pickup with semi-open covers), then the cost of someone else doing the potting for you is bringing you close to the cost of some better made and sounding replacement pickups.

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