My first build! ATL-1SW

[Simon Barden]

Not easy to do remotely. Tele neck pickups are known for being quite dull and low-output. The coil is a lot smaller than the bridge pickup or a Strat pickup so low output can be expected, and the capacitance of the grounded metal cover also knocks some of the treble off.

They generally need to be set as high as they can, about 1.5-2mm just below the strings when held down at the top fret. That will beef up the output a bit and also get as much treble from the pickup as possible.

But 'buzz' is a strange one. Have you got a multimeter? If so, you could measure the DC resistance of the pickup. Have the volume and tone controls up fully, select the neck only, plug in a guitar lead and measure the resistance across the tip and screen of the other end of the cable. It should be around 6k ohms, though may be between 5-7k ohms.

It could be down to a bad switch connection giving a high resistance.

If the pickup hasn't been wax potted properly, then the coils can vibrate from loud sound waves, and produce a high pitched scream that doesn't go away when you mute the strings. But that's not really 'buzz'. But such a 'microphonic' pickup will also pick up any taps on the guitar body, far more so than the bridge one (assuming that is OK), and sound really loud if the pickup itself is tapped. Not just a 'clunk' but a real 'THUMP'. So it's worth checking for that a sit takes seconds. If it is, I'd email Adam and request a new neck pickup (unless you now plan to upgrade the pickups to something like Toneriders).

[joshyouare80]

Not easy to do remotely. Tele neck pickups are known for being quite dull and low-output. The coil is a lot smaller than the bridge pickup or a Strat pickup so low output can be expected, and the capacitance of the grounded metal cover also knocks some of the treble off.

They generally need to be set as high as they can, about 1.5-2mm just below the strings when held down at the top fret. That will beef up the output a bit and also get as much treble from the pickup as possible.

But 'buzz' is a strange one. Have you got a multimeter? If so, you could measure the DC resistance of the pickup. Have the volume and tone controls up fully, select the neck only, plug in a guitar lead and measure the resistance across the tip and screen of the other end of the cable. It should be around 6k ohms, though may be between 5-7k ohms.

It could be down to a bad switch connection giving a high resistance.

If the pickup hasn't been wax potted properly, then the coils can vibrate from loud sound waves, and produce a high pitched scream that doesn't go away when you mute the strings. But that's not really 'buzz'. But such a 'microphonic' pickup will also pick up any taps on the guitar body, far more so than the bridge one (assuming that is OK), and sound really loud if the pickup itself is tapped. Not just a 'clunk' but a real 'THUMP'. So it's worth checking for that a sit takes seconds. If it is, I'd email Adam and request a new neck pickup (unless you now plan to upgrade the pickups to something like Toneriders).

Thanks for the detailed reply Simon. I dont have any of those fancy tools sadly, but I think I may have figured it out. It seems this neck pickup has quite a bit more output compared to the bridge pup and it was feeding back a little... Once I dialled back the volume on the guitar, and the gain on my little amp I was able to get it sounding quite nice. I am an acoustic player so this is all new to me!

As for upgrading the pups, I am thinking about putting in a set of Keystones! Not that much more than toneriders and by all accounts they are amazing...