# Muddy neck pickup? Try this before buying a new pup!



## crann (May 10, 2014)

Aesthetically, a Les Paul is the most beautiful guitar out there to me. However I cannot stand them, mostly because of how unusable their neck pickup sound is, specially clean. Currently I have a LP with a set of 57 classics. Plays nice, looks great, but the neck pickup sounds like it's under 20 heavy blankets. I was on the search for a new neck pickup, but I found this wiring scheme and decided to try it out. 







First up was a 0.047uf orange drop like the article suggested. A nice improvement! Much more articulation, less "wool" and a great snap. Good, but not great. I had a 0.1uf cap as well, so why not? THIS IS THE SOUND I HAD IN MY HEAD! A beefy mix of strat pop and tele presence. An added bonus was a fender-y middle position. A really cool low cost, low commitment mod I would recommend to anyone in the same position.


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## JBFairthorne (Oct 11, 2014)

Why are you looking for Fendery sounds out of an LP? Just play a Fender. Enjoy nan LP for what it can be...that a Strat or Tele will never be.


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## crann (May 10, 2014)

JBFairthorne said:


> Why are you looking for Fendery sounds out of an LP?


It's not necessarily that but perhaps my idea of what an electric guitar should sound like is based on the classic fender tone. To be clear, it still sounds very much like an LP, just a much clearer one.

I've had 335s, Les Pauls, McCartys, SGs etc and the neck pickups always sound boomy or muddy. Should I stick to bolt on single coils? Maybe, but this mod gives me a balanced neck and bridge EQ where I have much more flexibility in setting the amp EQ. I always thought the 57 classic was a crummy pickup, but I feel that using an in line cap reveals more of the paf character (thick and clear). YMMV and giving people in the same boat a potential cheap solution.


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## jbealsmusic (Feb 12, 2014)

It's a great mod! I often do that as a mod in my HB-equipped guitars. It's a great mod for fat humbuckers and can really help if you find your low end gets a little too muddy. Great for tightening up rhythms in metal if you've got a fat bridge pickup too!

Another one I like to do is put a resistor (on a switch) between the start leads (red and white leads in that particular picture) and ground. You could use a pot too, if preferred. It's to partially split the coils, rather than fully. It's a great way to retain some of the hum cancelling, low end, and output while still getting the clarity you usually get when splitting the coils. To me, it's much better than a complete split. I find most humbuckers just sound thin and weak when split.

PRS uses the resistor thing in a couple of guitars with a 1.1K for neck pickups and a 2.2K resistor for bridge pickups. Those values can certainly be played with to find your preferences... Higher values will retain better hum cancelling, low end, and output, at the expense of having less of that single coil clarity. Lower values will gain more of that single coil clarity, but sacrificing more hum cancelling, low end, and output.


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## Latole (Aug 11, 2020)

Look a great mod.


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## BGood (Feb 20, 2015)

There is a much easier, faster, cheaper and efficient way. All you need is a screwdriver.

On both my LP and SG, neck pickup sounds clear as a bell. If middle position sounds similar to neck position, that neck pickup is too high. Middle should have that nosey quack almost acoustic tone. A neck pickup adjusted with its surface above the ring is of no use to me.

Also, if you come from a Fender guitar background, play with your amp EQ, it's there for something.


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## crann (May 10, 2014)

BGood said:


> A neck pickup adjusted with its surface above the ring is of no use to me.


I've played with pickup heights all day. I've set them so low they fall out of the screw threading! I also tried putting the pickup height as low as possible and bringing the polepiece screws as high as possible. Better but not dramatic.


BGood said:


> Also, if you come from a Fender guitar background, play with your amp EQ, it's there for something.


This is exactly why I like the inline cap much more. The main issue I have with 2 humbucker guitars is the wildly different EQ from neck to bridge. You can set the amp EQ very bright and turn the bridge pup EQ way down, but the middle position suffers. Set the amp EQ so that the bridge sounds good, but the neck sounds too wooly. Now I have both pickups in the same EQ ball park where I can use the tone knobs to make adjustments rather than using them to fix the imbalance. If I get a few moments today I may upload a no cap vs 0.047uf vs 0.1uf neck pickup shootout. The mod isn't for everyone, especially those who love how their HH guitars already sound. Just an option for those who have messed with pup height but don't want to invest in a new set of pickups.


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## crann (May 10, 2014)

jbealsmusic said:


> PRS uses the resistor thing in a couple of guitars with a 1.1K for neck pickups and a 2.2K resistor for bridge pickups


Is this what they use in DGTs? I heard great things about the partial split and that it reduces the large volume drop when splitting coils. I considered doing this in a McCarty I had but ended up trading it before trying it out.


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## aC2rs (Jul 9, 2007)

I like the idea of this mod, I have a guitar that has a noticeably muddy neck humbucker that I can't dial out so I might give this a try.


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## Mikev7305 (Jan 6, 2020)

I've been wanting to do this mod for the last couple months but never got around to it. I'm really glad to hear it worked out well for you and hoping I have similar results. If you get a chance to upload a sound clip with the various caps/no cap I'd be very interested to hear it


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## SWLABR (Nov 7, 2017)

It’s funny what our ears like. I have a “Traditional” LP with those same 57’s. To me, that is honey, honey, honey! No mods necessary. 
A Strat in the bridge position dirty? BARF! Plenty of folks like it though.


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## crann (May 10, 2014)

Sound clips and poll added here:









Muddy Neck Pickup Part 2: Sound Clips and Blind Poll


Finally got around to making some sound clips of the in series capacitor mod for HB neck pickups. Because it took so long to get we might as well have fun with it. The youtube video takes you through three options (in no order): no capacitor (factory standard), 0.047uf capacitor and 0.1uf...




www.guitarscanada.com


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## crann (May 10, 2014)

SWLABR said:


> It’s funny what our ears like. I have a “Traditional” LP with those same 57’s. To me, that is honey, honey, honey! No mods necessary.


For sure, after doing the sound clips my option is still the same, but the differences may have been smaller than originally stated.


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