I'm new here, so sorry if this has all been said before but I'm getting problems with my 10-year old 360. As soon as I increase volume and/or gain, it breaks into microphonic, mid-range feedback when I stop playing.
I know it's not just me because I 've only used mine for recording but another guitarist emailed me to ask if I had the same problem he was getting on stage. That was when I dialled a little gain into my amp and everything went ape.
The guy who emailed me was up for blocking the soundhole of his 360 but I can't see that helping much.
360 and feedback
Moderator: jingle_jangle
Happens to me too a bit, I'm taking you're using high-gains?
My advice when you're not playing, take the volume off your bridge, change to your bridge pickup, and if you have a footswitch use it to remove boost from your amp if it has it...
Another thing that seems to help is to touch the strings.
Also your position from the amp and all that will have an effect.
My advice when you're not playing, take the volume off your bridge, change to your bridge pickup, and if you have a footswitch use it to remove boost from your amp if it has it...
Another thing that seems to help is to touch the strings.
Also your position from the amp and all that will have an effect.
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simoncroft
Thanks for the reply. Yes, my 360 has the high-gain pickups.
I take all of your advice on board and will use it. I believe a noise gate would give similar benefits, providing the 'release' was gentle enough not to cut the natural sustain of the strings.
A lot of the microphonic effect seems to be resonance transmitted through the body to the pickups. It seems to diminish if you push a pickup down, so that there is less contact with the mounting screws. Has anyone tried using rubber grommits (washers) between the screws and the pickups?
Also, are the high-gain pickups potted in wax? If not, I'm thinking that could help.
Sorry to ask so many questions but after almost 40 years of playing guitar, I've only recently got into Ricks!
I take all of your advice on board and will use it. I believe a noise gate would give similar benefits, providing the 'release' was gentle enough not to cut the natural sustain of the strings.
A lot of the microphonic effect seems to be resonance transmitted through the body to the pickups. It seems to diminish if you push a pickup down, so that there is less contact with the mounting screws. Has anyone tried using rubber grommits (washers) between the screws and the pickups?
Also, are the high-gain pickups potted in wax? If not, I'm thinking that could help.
Sorry to ask so many questions but after almost 40 years of playing guitar, I've only recently got into Ricks!
Welcome aboard Simon. What Patrick told you is about the best you can do with hi-gains but it can depend on where you are in relation to the amp. Sorta the further the better...within reason. If hi-gains aren't going to work for you, try replacing them with the toasters if you can get your hands on some.
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Music is too important to be left to professionals.
Music is too important to be left to professionals.
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simoncroft
It's a great forum Stan and I appreciate the response.
I'm really surprised to discover that the older Toaster pickups might reduce the feedback problem. Although I accept your diagnosis and thank you for it, please confirm:
Ricks fitted with the modern 'hi-gain' pickups are more prone to microphonic feedback than ones with 'toaster' pickups.
I'm really surprised to discover that the older Toaster pickups might reduce the feedback problem. Although I accept your diagnosis and thank you for it, please confirm:
Ricks fitted with the modern 'hi-gain' pickups are more prone to microphonic feedback than ones with 'toaster' pickups.
Simon, so far this has worked in my case. I have one Ric with hi-gains (my 360/12) and the rest with toasters. I don't get a lot of feedback on the 360 but it far more likely, again in my case, to give me a little feedback.
You mentioned the pickups being embedded in wax, have to tell you that is out of my realm.
You mentioned the pickups being embedded in wax, have to tell you that is out of my realm.
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Music is too important to be left to professionals.
Music is too important to be left to professionals.
Thats strange I put my Ric 360 w/ highgains thru a lot of pumped up volume. Such as Bassman's, Hundred watt Tone Master, Twin, hundred watt Kustom with no problems.
I even run pedals on top of the over drive channels. I thought it was just the thicker Ric wood on the 360 that stopped it.
My buddy has a 335 which of course has the feedback block but it still feeds back all over the place. The real howling kind. Whereas the Ric just plays on.
I even run pedals on top of the over drive channels. I thought it was just the thicker Ric wood on the 360 that stopped it.
My buddy has a 335 which of course has the feedback block but it still feeds back all over the place. The real howling kind. Whereas the Ric just plays on.
I'm having a lot of microphonic pickup feedback from my bridge pickup at fairly low levels of gain (bedroom volumes). The bridge pickup is basically unusable with any amount of distortion. I also noticed that it picks up the noise when you touch any part of the guitar, including the strap on the strap buttons. Could the pickup be bad, or is there any way to repair it?
Quick update, I tried one of your suggestions, Simon. Using a hole punch, I cut some small circles out of a large rubber band. I punched a hole in the middle of each rubber circle and used them as grommets for the pickup adjustment screws. There's still some feedback, but not nearly as much as there was to begin with. I may try making grommets for the other four screws to see if that makes any difference.
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atomic_punk
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Dan, you were spot on with your advice. After doing some research at www.guitarnuts.com I decided to have a try at potting the pickup myself. It worked great, the feedback is completely gone. For around $5 in supplies and about 30 minutes of my time, it was well worth the effort.
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fiveightandten
As said above, you need to pot those pickups...it should help a lot. But to add to that a bit...
I had the same problem with my 360. It's a hollowbody guitar with single coils...it's the nature of the beast.
I potted them with a mixture of beeswax and canning wax. Adding the beeswax makes the wax less dry and flaky...and it tends to work better with some of that in the mix. I think the guitar nuts site mentions this.
That did the trick just about as well as i'd hoped...but I play at VERY high volumes, and with a decent amount of gain sometimes. I still had some feedback problems.
So what I did was take a rubber band, and loop it through the polepieces inside the pickup. I wrapped it around each pole piece and zig-zagged it on to the next. Then just tied it off when I had all of them wrapped.
That shut the guitar right up. I really have to be trying to get the thing to feedback. It still will if I have my 100W Orange cranked up and overdriven and I stand right in front of the cab. But that's really asking for it.
The rubber band did the trick. I put that in, and potted the pickup so the wax incased it.
Hope that helps.
-Nick
I had the same problem with my 360. It's a hollowbody guitar with single coils...it's the nature of the beast.
I potted them with a mixture of beeswax and canning wax. Adding the beeswax makes the wax less dry and flaky...and it tends to work better with some of that in the mix. I think the guitar nuts site mentions this.
That did the trick just about as well as i'd hoped...but I play at VERY high volumes, and with a decent amount of gain sometimes. I still had some feedback problems.
So what I did was take a rubber band, and loop it through the polepieces inside the pickup. I wrapped it around each pole piece and zig-zagged it on to the next. Then just tied it off when I had all of them wrapped.
That shut the guitar right up. I really have to be trying to get the thing to feedback. It still will if I have my 100W Orange cranked up and overdriven and I stand right in front of the cab. But that's really asking for it.
The rubber band did the trick. I put that in, and potted the pickup so the wax incased it.
Hope that helps.
-Nick
I run mine thru a Tone Master and a Twin A/B'ed. No feedback problems. I think that once you get the pickups fixed your problems will cease. I even run distortion boosters on mine for some songs.
Thinner hollow bodies tops and backs begin to vibrate. Thats why most arch tops are prone to feedback. Chet got Gretsch to close the F holes to stop it although he wanted them to add a feedback block.
From my 335 experience he got more milage out of the closed F holes
Thinner hollow bodies tops and backs begin to vibrate. Thats why most arch tops are prone to feedback. Chet got Gretsch to close the F holes to stop it although he wanted them to add a feedback block.
From my 335 experience he got more milage out of the closed F holes