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I just purchased a JB SH-4 and installed it on my Ibanez 7-string. The tone and sound I get are outstanding. But, it has no sustain. The signal fades very quickly. Can anyone offer any advice? Is it the soldering job? Or is the pickup bad?

Hey man, welcome to the forum!!!

First I must ask a stupid question,

Did you get the version with 7 polepieces?

If you did and are not getting any sustain but the pup sounds good then the pup shouldn't be the problem.

1. I'd check my pots and make sure they weren't melted during the soldering process

2. I'd check the solder joints

3. Make sure that your pup is close to the strings. The JB sounds better when it's close to the strings. That might be your problem.

Continue to keep us posted where we can help you out man.

Luke

Thanks for the welcome Luke Duke. Yes, I do have the 7-string version of the pup with 7 polepieces. It's not a stupid question. I should have been clear. I don't think the pots melted, but I'll check those and the solder joints. Maybe too much solder on the joint? The pickup is as close to the strings as it can be without being buzzed by them. Thanks for the advice. I was hoping it's merely my soldering abilities and not the pup itself.

I don't the soldering would hinder sustain......it's either connected or it isn't or it's cutting in and out but that wouldn't hinder sustain.Furthermore, how close is the pickup to the strings?? I'd recommend moving it somewhat away from teh strings.....the further the magnet the less it will pull on the strings.

The issue with sustain has much less to do with your electronics, unless you are hearing an overtone quot;sustainingquot; or using a Compressor wide-open like Trey from Phish.

If a note is fretting-out (or quot;dyingquot;) as I like to call it, you may need some fret adjustments.

With your other pickups, were you getting sustain?
Is this an issue on the quot;Gquot; string around the 11-14 frets?
Do you get sustain when you do a full bend on the quot;Bquot; string starting on the 10th Fret?

If the tone it's good I don't think there is any problem with the solder. When a pickup it's located too close to the strings the magnet can atract them an limitated they vibration. Ussually this problem it's more important with fender style single coils and I am not sure if it even can be a problem on humbuckers. Jb has a AlnicoV magnet which isn't specialy strong and the effect should be the same as a, say, a 59'.

Anyway I'd try to lower the pickup a bit, and also check if the neck bucker it's too close too. The effect of both buckers together could be the reason.

Another posibility could be the output of your previous bucker. Sustain can be also misundestud with the output of a pickup. Think you have a Emg85, this high output pickup makes amps to saturate very easely and get into their quot;compresed rangequot;. In this range any input, regardless of it's amplitude, will have the same output. So, when the string starts to decay, the amp will give the same output throught the speaker. This can give an affect of a great sustain from the string but in fact it's only an effect of the overdrive situation. If you replace your pickup with a lower output one the amp won't get to that quot;much compressed rangequot; and would give the impresion that tone decays faster.

Old strings could a reason but I guess you allready chage them!!!!

I was getting plenty of sustain out of the stock pickups. The guitar is perfectly dialed in, except the tone was always too muddy (cuz of the rather cheap stock pups - some nameless humbuckers). Now, no matter what note I play the signal dies quickly. Honestly, you can hear the thundering roar of the JB when you pick the strings, but as soon as you stop playing, the roar turns into a whimper and then it dies. I'll move the pickup a bit further from the strings. If that doesn't work, I'll resolder the joints. I'll check back with you all and let you know how it went. I appreciate everyone's advice.

Martin, as the other guys said, there is a too close. When this happens the strings are so pulled by the magnetic force of the pup they quit vibrating prematurely. The weakest magnet that Duncan uses in buckers is the A2. It has the least string pull, wheras the ceramic magnet has the most. The A5 is situated right in the middle.

As was also stated the solder joint shouldn't matter as long as it is consistent, if you get a constant (I thought earlier this might be an intermittent problem) signal, but it dies quickly I'd try lowering the pup now.

JB's can be GREAT pups, but you have to tinker with them to get them perfect. The guys who have their JBs in the perfect place will use no other pup.

Luke

EITHER pickup being too close to the strings could kill sustain......just because you're using the bridge pickup doesn't mean the neck pickup couldn't be pulling the strings either. But if you haven't changed anything with that pickup at all then it might just be the bridge.

Yeah a pup will only ring as long as the string is vibrating
the magnet being too close can make this vibrating stop faster obviously

As others have mentioned, either your pickups are too close to the strings, or there's an issue with your setup. Sustain is usually dependant on the setup of the guitar, not the electronics. But if it was fine before and now it's not, I'm guessing you have the pickup way too close to the strings.

Ryan

First of all, thanks everyone for your advice. I finally got some time to work on it last night. In order to move the pickup a bit further from the strings, I needed to do a little extra routing to deepen the pup cavity since the JB pole pieces stick out further from the bottom of the pup than my old pup. It helped the overall sound, but the wimpering was still persistent. So, I figured I should clean up my joints a bit (one of the solder joints was a bit cloudy looking), make them nice clean shiny joints. And it worked... for a few minutes. I played for a few minutes revelling in JB joy, when the pickup started sounding tinny and the signal started fading again. Palm muting did exactly that, mute, all of the sound. It sounded like a was playing an old beatup Squire through an old beatup ready-to-die Squire 30 amp (I used to have both many many years ago). So, I decided to bypass the switch entirely (suspecting I could have burned a connection during soldering) and connect the pickup directly to the volume pot (and ground). That worked even better, for a while. I am back to where I started (no sustain) plus the added bonus of a tinny sound that dies. Could there be a short somewhere? Help? Please?

I believe you may have accidentally split the pickup, if it's getting a tinny sound. Make sure the red and white wires are soldered together and taped off; if they touch a ground, you now have a single coil.


Originally Posted by DeadSkinSlayer3I believe you may have accidentally split the pickup, if it's getting a tinny sound. Make sure the red and white wires are soldered together and taped off; if they touch a ground, you now have a single coil.

Thanks. I'll check that out. When you say quot;taped offquot;, what exactly do you mean?

I mean literally taped off. Put some electrical tape around the connection.

I agree. Could have soldered the pick-up wrong. I have made that mistake a few times. Just out of curiousity. What type of guitar is it? Have you started using a noise gate recently?

Sorry DeadSkin, if the red and white wires are soldered together (which they are), do you mean I just tape that connection? Or do you mean I should tape the red and white and pot connection somehow? Right now they are connected to the pot. The black (hot) wire is connected to the lug on the pot. And my green and bare wires are connected to ground (tremolo claw).

No noise gate. It's an Ibanez 7420.

You have connected the red and white wires to the pot? If you aren't planning on splitting the JB, simply solder the red and white together-then put tape over that solder joint so that it won't make contact with the other parts that are crammed into your electronics cavity (if it does make contact, you short out a coil). If you solder those wires to the outside of the pot, you're sending one of the JB coils to ground (if your pot is grounded properly to start with). If you're JB is humming like a Strat with stock singles, you've split it.

Also, some may disagree with me, but if you're using stock Ibanez wiring, do yourself a favor and replace them with quality stuff, like CTS pots, etc. I think it helps the noise and the parts last longer.

Mark


Originally Posted by \M/artinSorry DeadSkin, if the red and white wires are soldered together (which they are), do you mean I just tape that connection? Or do you mean I should tape the red and white and pot connection somehow? Right now they are connected to the pot. The black (hot) wire is connected to the lug on the pot. And my green and bare wires are connected to ground (tremolo claw).

After you solder the red and white together wrap the joint in electrical tape, or a piece heat shrink. This will insulate the wired and keep it from touch a pot, etc.

One question about the other soldering, Was your old pup soldered to the trem. claw? or was it soldered to the pot? I have mine soldered to the pots, then the pot has a wire that goes to the trem claw, or body.

Luke