BL 705 issue?

Benjamin Franz · From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

I installed a BL 705 in my push pull some time ago. I noticed that through a Sarno Freeloader and then into a passive volume pedal, I was getting distortion and what I guess was intermodulation distortion when i played thirds in the midrange of the guitar. (e.g. thirds on strings four and five, halfway up the neck.) I removed the Freeloader, and it seemed to be problem solved, and so didn't think much more about it.

Today at a recording session, due to a scratchy pot on my Goodrich, I was using a borrowed Hilton Volume pedal, and seemed to be getting the same issue. So my guess is that the 705 and a buffered input are not a happy marriage. Maybe the output of the 705 is overloading the input electronics? Anyone else come across this issue? The 705 on the E9 neck has a much hotter output than the Emmons single coil on the C6 neck. Is it just this particular 705 I'm wondering?

I'm about to order some replacement pots for my Goodrich pedals from Jim Palenscar, so I'll go back to non buffered input anyhow, but just thought I would put this out there to see if I'm alone on this issue.

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

My Franklin came with original model 705's (chrome). I never had a problem with the pickups and a Hilton Volume pedal. Maybe the distance from the strings is too close. Generally a (US) Quarter is OK but maybe too close for your setup. I have a friend who installed Lawrence 710 pickups on an Emmons Legrande II and he had some distortion problems until he got them as far away from the strings as the Emmons mounting would allow.

Lane Gray · From: Topeka, KS

I'm with Jack. That's a hot pickup, and you could be saturating the input.
Lowering the pickup will reduce the output. It will probably also improve the tone; I find that the best tone comes from a greater distance than most people run. Most folks seem to set them two quarters' thickness away from the strings (3.5mm), but I find most pickups sound better at almost 3 quarters, between 5 and 5.25.
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Josh Braun · From: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Super interesting - I recently had some of the same problems (though I'm not sure of the ultimate cause).

In my case, I'd been using a 705 USA RI on my Williams with my Hilton VP. It was set very close to the strings. I didn't notice distortion except in some rare cases - thought I was just overloading the amp's preamp.

Then I added the black box first in my chain, and bam, the high 705 + blackbox + hilton were distorting. Thought it was probably a cable, but after some troubleshooting I eliminated both the amp and cables and am pretty sure I was overloading the buffer into the Hilton.

I was in the middle of changing pickups anyhow (trying out a Wallace True Tone, which has been wonderful and doesn't have issues), so I wasn't super worried. I did try lowering the 705 (though I don't think I was able to get it quite as low as it should have been. That helped immensely.

I like the tone of the 705s, so no dig on the pickup itself. Once I added in the blackbox, though, I couldn't quite get it low enough do eliminate all the distortion (that's just a peculiarity of the way _that_ pickup was installed on _my_ steel, though). I suspect the previous owner just had it cranked way too high up for some reason. It did sound good that way after all, and without the other items in the chain it didn't distort 95% of the time (only enough to make one think one _might_ be approaching the edge of the edge of breakup)..

Lee Baucum · From: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier

Benjamin- Were you using both the FreeLoader and the Hilton pedal together?

Also, have you tried replacing the battery in the FreeLoader?
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Sarno FreeLoader, Goodrich Passive Volume Pedals, Vintage ACE Pack-A-Seat

Pete Nicholls · From: Macon, Georgia, USA

I have two Peterson StroboPlus tuners that both cause me problems when tuning in a noisy environment. Both guitars have two jacks and doesn't matter if the tuner is in-line or straight in. Having the same problem with both guitars, and both tuners. After reading this about the BL705 pickup being so hot, I'm wondering if the noise could be coming through the pickups. Both guitars have BL705's. I know the spacing is 1 quarter's width, so will increase that to 2 quarters width and see if there is any effect. Worth a try.
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Philip Mitrakos · From: The Beach South East Florida

I think 2 quarters stacked is a good sounding height with the 705 and putting a 705 into a push pull takes some work getting the pickup that low so 2 quarters fit between the strings and pick up , I installed 2 of them in 2 pushpulls , dont mind saying 2nd one was easier since I already did it once before...
And how did you wire the pickup ?
Red goes to hot on jack , shield to ground on jack other 2 get twisted together and stowed away...
705 sounds great in the push pull and NO hummmm
Mine are crystal clear im my push pull and sho bud,,, zero distortion , 2 quarters stacked for height between strings and pickup...
And used the Lil' Lzzy buffer on both guitars from time to time with no problems

Benjamin Franz · From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Thanks for the replies. Lee, no, I only used the freeloader into a passive Goodrich pedal. I'll have to have another look at the pickup height. At the moment it's about one quarter's width below the string, and it wasn't easy to get that. My memeoty of installing it is that the pick up is already sitting down on the base plate, so any suggestion are most welcome.

Lane Gray · From: Topeka, KS

I thought the base plate was itself adjustable (but I haven't seen my push-pull in twenty-seven years)
_________________
2 pedal steels, a lapStrat, and an 8-string Dobro (and 3 ukes)
More amps than guitars, and not many effects

Philip Mitrakos · From: The Beach South East Florida

Yes adjustable but it aint enough on a cut tail PP 705'are very tall compaired to the emmons pickup

Benjamin Franz · From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

And Josh, a similar thing, it's only there 5% of the time. Specifically playing those thirds in the mid range.

Georg Sørtun · From: Mandal, Agder, Norway

If a PU was so hot that it made a buffer circuit distort, I would either modify the buffer (lower its sensitivity), or add a simple attenuator (two, or maybe only one resistor) before the buffer.
Lowering the PU itself in order to weaken its output signal, would only make sense if the PU itself went into saturation and distorted.

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