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Help! E string is wearing away pickup!

bill_banwell

bill_banwell

Oct 19, 2002
2,074
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England
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#1
Hey, right i got a problem, i dont know if its a big or small problem but on my jazz pickup i can see a wear in the side where the string has caught it and slowly wore it away, and the side is a bit worn, is this because my strings are too close.. or just the fact im plucking too hard with my right hand?..

i attached a picture to show where its rubbing and slowly wearing away. its where the red ring is.

Thanks.
 
#2
ahh cheers man! thats helps! its currently not making a pop or any noise, but yeah i guess ill try and play with more of a gentle technique, but i mean, it wont hurt or damage the sound if the pickup is wearing away?.. and it would help if i raised the strings, from the bridge to prevent it?

Thanks.
 
#3
Yeah, i see, because i also have a P bass and its pops all the time, because the P pickup has 4 metal coils on each of them, and when i slap the string whacks of it, and pops.. but this is a jazz pickup, and its just pure black. i think its cos when i pluck the string i pluck downwards instead of walking with fingers pointing back at body, when i pluck or pick it with my finger or whatever u wanna call it, (fingerstyle) i hit the string and my finger hits the body and then comes up again, and repeat. but when i play and having more a plucking motion in the technique, it feels and is im pulling the strings back and maybe slowly loosening them..

Thanks for the current advise. i was just slightly worried i got this bass 3 days ago.
 
#5
I can relate to that, because I play really hard. I have a jazz bass with exposed poles, so I have to lower the pickups way down to prevent me from digging into them. Looks like you have casings, so it's not a huge problem, but if you consistently run into that, you may want to lower the pickup. Just get a screwdriver and tighten each screw down a bit. Playing hard is cool though. You get a really killer, hot tone when you do that. John Wetton was infamous for playing really hard, and I love his tone. Larks Tongues in Aspic is a good example, if you're interested in hearing that style.
 

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