Les Paul Custom - Muddy sounding neck pickup.

Toopy14

Axe-Master
I was curious to know if anyone else finds that the neck pick-up on their Les Paul sounds muddy and if so, are there any other things you've tried that helped, besides replacing the pickups.

I have an 87 LPC, with 1980 T-Tops in it. When I first got it, I found both pickups sounded really muddy. I checked the pots and they were 300k pots, so I swapped them out for 550K CTS pots. That made a huge difference for the bridge pickup, but the neck pickup still sounds muddy. I've experimented with pickup height, pole height, etc., and it still sounds muddy. It's currently wired using the 50's style wiring configuration.

wiring50s.jpg


I've done quite a few searches on the Internet and it seems to be a fairly common issue. While I was searching, I came across this solution on the Seymour Duncan website and I was going to give it a shot...it's a simple mod. I have a .05 ceramic cap, which should be close enough.


muddyneckpickup.jpg


https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/tips-and-tricks/mod-squad-muddy-sounding-neck-pickup
 
Neck pickup on LP is frequently muddy sounding, due, in part, to where the pickup is. The same pickup on SGs and various 24-fret HB guitars often sounds a bit brighter, due to location a couple frets closer to the bridge.

Try a Duncan Jazz pickup there - it is a very bright HB....
 
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The thing is many of the 80's Gibson suffer from this issue. It is most likely that pick up is just a tad too hot for the neck position combined with a LP custom design.

A more vintage style would work well there, like a seth lover or an antiquity. Something in the 7.5k range. The T-Tops are cool but they are slightly hotter and that will make all the difference here.

I had an 81 335 with hot pick ups - it was ok, but the output from the bridge to the neck was too far apart. I put antiquities in there and it was perfect. Then I sold it!
 
My experience - on older Les Pauls, I’ve owned three vintage customs (well 1972 and earlier), of the three one balanced on the pickups as well as a standard.

The other two, absolutely foot on the monitors rocking on the bridge and mud on the neck.
 
On a humbucker the magnet is underneath the pole pieces - not the same as a Fender s/c. You could easily change the magnet but I’ve never had to do that even on ones from the 50s
 
The pole pieces might be dead also. The older style stuff can lose their field over time.
Interesting. First I've heard of it, but makes sense. I may try the original 87 pickup...which is probably the same or very similar to the T-Top. My understanding about the T-Tops, is that they put the 'T' on the bobbin, so the winders would all wind them the same way, with the 'T'...on top!
 
So I tried the mod. I mentioned in my original post, ie., the .05 uF cap. in series with the hot output wire and it definitely made a difference.

I will keep experimenting with the suggestions being made...I really appreciate all the feedback and ideas!!!

I should probably do the simple things too, like put new strings on it! I think it's been a while and a dead, lifeless low E string, certainly won't help!
 
Interesting. First I've heard of it, but makes sense. I may try the original 87 pickup...which is probably the same or very similar to the T-Top. My understanding about the T-Tops, is that they put the 'T' on the bobbin, so the winders would all wind them the same way, with the 'T'...on top!
Yeah older pickup magnets, the AlNiCo (Aluminum Nickel Copper) ones, depending on the mix of metal and quality control of the time, can start demagnetizing in the 30-60 year time range. It's highly variable. Newer type rare-earth magnets (neodymium or "neo") take orders of magnitude longer to degauss naturally.

Of course that's if there are no magnetic accidents that could make shipwreck of the atomic organization of the alloy - alignment of the electron orbitals of each atom of metal during the process of cooling and magnetization is what gives the metal it's magnetic properties.

Of course it could just be a bad wire.
 
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