software

I'm looking for an excuse to begin pickup swapping, which will surely be a mess of buying and re-buying, after having the same pups for nearly 20 years...

I was playing a practice with the band, and when I hit an E chord the sound faded out like a slow volume pedal was being pressed. It came back, and a minute later it happened again. It was near the end of the night. Marshall JCM900, last tube change in the mid 90's. (It's been a hiatus for this amp).

I changed the batteries in my on-board preamp within the last 6 months - they usually last at least a year, but that could be a culprit. But the preamp is a mid boost, not a volume control.

Another wierd thing was a non-squealing feedback when I played the d and g strings, Sounded cool, but there was no controllong the note. I just started moving my fingers all over and laughing as it became clear I wasn't making the cool sound...

Do I need new tubes, or are my pickups shot?

Dan

Tubes first, sounds like ghost notes or microphonice. Do you get them following the scale? Could also be caps.
Try your guitar and fx chain in another amp and another guitar in yours.

1

Troubleshoot some before spending $$$.

yea, as much as we like to swap pups and buy stuff, most guys here are cheap enough to try the free or low dollar solutions first ... saves money for when we wanna buy something REAL expensive

good luck .. my guess is batteries/tubes/etc will get you fixed up so that you can come back and ask abot pickups

cheers
t4d