Zach Crawford
From:
Nova Scotia, Canada
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Posted 16 Aug 2023 7:21 am |
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Hi all,
I recently acquired a Fender Custom T8 Console steel and it has some faint acoustic metallic rattle on two of the pickups on the lower strings, a little bit on the middle strings. I tune these two necks to the Kayton Roberts/chris scruggs tunings, so the low strings are pretty low especially on the C6, low A. The rattle comes through the pickups to the amp. It's not overpoweringly bad, but just mildly irritating, probably would be a problem when recording. It dissipates shortly after the string attack but its audible in the amp.
The bobbins don't appear to collapsing into the strings, and I took the bobbins out and cleaned the inner casing and plates, put some pickup tape around the bobbins to secure any part of the coil that the lacquer would come off, and the problem remains.
The pickups also measure open, even the one that doesn't have the rattle problem. They all work. I've never heard a Custom T8 in person but this one sounds something like what I'd expect. However I can't get a reading from my meter (I've tried two, an old meter and a modern Fluke meter) for any of them, which makes me think that the signal is being transferred by capacitance in the pickup itself. Am i wrong?
Also another issue which may or may not be a huge problem, there is bow in the steel that goes from neck to neck. Below are some pics. the inner and outer necks are pointing down on either end. It's still playable, but I'm not sure that this may be the source of the problem. The rattly pickups are the ones on the inner and outer necks. also the lower strings seem to be slightly closer to the top plate of the pickup (not touching but closer) than the treble strings.
I've been in contact with Nick Fryer about getting some trapezoidal bobbins wound, but I want to rule any other causes of the problem before going that route. They'll need to be replaced eventually, but I'd like to get them working ok in the short term. This is a long post, I know, I've searched the forum and elsewhere for information related to this and have come up dry.
So, does anyone know if the rattle I hear in the pickup might be caused by a loose coil rattling somewhere in the wind or are there some other possibilities?
I've attached pictures on the bow in the steel with a straight edge to show how much the guitar is bowed.
Thanks in advance.
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Aaron Jennings
From:
Montana, USA
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Posted 17 Aug 2023 9:05 am
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The symptoms you describe are identical to what I went through with my triple custom. Most likely there are micro fractures in the coils themselves. I tried all the other tricks to save the original pickups, chase down rattling screws, etc.
Nick Fryer does a great job, and a lot of pros are using his pickups at this point, and you get to keep the original bobbins. Your guitar will sound great. Win win. |
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