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Ne1 have problems with their fingers on MM pickups?

B

boglej2

Dec 3, 2007
156
1
Dublin, Ireland
www.bebo.com
#1
I got a new stingray june 07, an like the tone from it a lot, the actions pretty sweet, and it cuts through deadly in the mix compared to my old mexican fender. But whatever way i setup the pickup, my fingers(right hand) have difficulty finding the strings because of the way the magnets are on the pickup. They protrude out from the plastic casing on the MM pickups, and because of the low volume output the g-string has to be closer to the pickup. So when i go to play the d or g string over the pickup sometimes my fingers get caught on the magnets or i can't make a good connection...

Any1 else have this problem, any suggestions??
 
#5
This was one of my main gripes with my Stingray when I bought it back in '97. At least the newer models have rounded pole pieces, previously they were very sharp. I eventually got used to playing with them, either by anchoring my thumb towards the rear of the pickup and playing closer to the bridge, or anchoring towards the front of the pickup and playing closer to the neck. I did replace the stock pickup with a Bartolini MMC two years ago, since I was looking for a bit warmer sound, and also to get rid of problems I was having with my strings contacting the pole pieces when I played more aggressively.

A word of warning, the MMC is taller than the stock pickup, and might require some routing, depending on whether or not the pickup cavity is the same depth in the newer models.

As for adding shims.... I never thought of that. That's a great idea. The cover comes right off, and you could easily add some closed cell phome (or even a chunk of mousepad) to raise up the case.
 
#10
boglej2 said:
ne chance of gettin a pic of that??
Click to expand...

Unless he took the strings off, removed the pup, took the cover off and then photographed it, you wouldn't be able to see what he'd done. I'll try to explain, tho.

When you remove the cover from a J pup, you'll see the polepieces sticking through two bobbins. The cover has holes through which those polepieces fit, and they sit a mm or two above the plane of the cover. What he did was put something between the polepieces under the cover so the cover would sit higher, and thus level with the top of the polepieces.

Think of a snake (polepiece) in a hole. The ground around the hole is your pup cover. Sticks his head out a bit, you can chop it off with your lawn mower blade (fingertips). He doesn't stick his head out quite as high, you can't- the blade just scrapes the ground.
 
#15
If your Ray has the weak D and G string issue,I'd recommend either the Basslines alnico pickup,or the Norstrand version.I had that issue with a couple of Sterling a few years ago,and I tried the basslines pickup,and the problem went away.You'll be able to lower the pickup enough to give you fingers some extra room.
 

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