Microphonic pickup help/suggestions

[rockchic56]

Just bought a used but not abused red 1982 Fender Bullet H 1 for $200. It really is an odd guitar with the metal pickguard/bridge combo. The maple tele neck is what really attracted to me the guitar. It's very thin & great for my small hands. The rest of the guitar is in awesome condition too, considering it's almost 30 years old. My only issue with it at this point, is that the bridge humbucker is kind of microphonic with the higher gain settings on my Boogie and Vox AC50CP2 & I likes my gain! I'd like to the keep the guitar stock if possible. If I get the pickup dipped in wax, will that help eliminate the microphonic qualities, or should I just relieve my Bullet of its original pickup and slap in a JB? This guitar has a push button coil tap for its 1 bridge humbucker, so any possible replacement humbucker will need to sound good when split. Any thoughts or recommendations?

-Sara

[milo]

Hi Sara,
I'm not overly familiar with that pickup, but I would expect that some of the same fixes for a Telecaster/Asat Classic bridge pup might also work on that guitar. The easiest thing to try would be to get some surgical tubing to use in place of the pickup mounting springs. This will help isolate the pickup a bit from the metal pickguard. I think Fender may sell a little blister pack of three pieces as a replacement part for the Tele bridge pup (if they're long enough for your application) or you could probably get a foot of something suitable from a good hardware store or aquarium/fish shop.

If the pickup cover or the windings are just a touch loose, having the pickup wax potted may also solve the problem without having to swap it out. Either one of these should be a relatively inexpensive thing to try before resorting to a replacement pickup. If you can turn a screwdriver you can try the tubing trick for next to nothing.

Good luck.

[cloudy]

I've wax-potted Teisco pups before - it's really pretty easy to do if you find you need it. No impact on tone, just killed the squeal (and I culd hold that guitar to my face and do "darth vader" by yelling at the bridge).

Here's a link from my blog regarding potting, with photos and notes.