Sometimes the most complex-sounding tonal problems can have very simple solutions. Recently we looked at what can happen when a pickup is too close to the string: its magnetic field can cause ‘wolf notes’ and weird oscillations. It can drive you crazy and mess with your tuning too. And we’ve also looked at ways to tweak your tone by adjusting pickup height. But there’s something else that can happen when your pickups are too high: the string can touch the pickup itself – either the edge or the pole piece – and create a sitar-like buzz or even an odd, harmonic-type tone which sounds before your actual note.
Sometimes it can be muffled, sometimes it can be clear, and sometimes it can deaden the note completely. A lot depends on the design of your guitar, including the angle of the neck pitch and the placement of the pickups. And some of it is due to the geography of the pickup surface itself.
This odd little tone can be subtle or quite pronounced depending on how high the pickup is, and sometimes it may only appear at certain points on the fretboard: the higher frets which steepen the angle of the string in relation to your fingertip. It can be a tricky problem to spot at first, because unless it’s really bad and easily identifiable, it usually only happens when the string is pressed down and you’re about to pick a note.
So if you’re noticing this unusual overtone at the beginning of your notes, have a look at your pickups. You may find that it only happens with, say, the bridge pickup but not the neck. Look at both pickups closely, because often the sound can be caused by one pickup but actually captured by the other.
And the best part is, there’s an easy fix: simply lower the pickup to a more suitable level and keep riffing!
WRITTEN ON JULY 30, 2012, BY