ASAT SPECIAL MFD ISSUES... PLEASE HELP

[Brobb]

Good evening,
I currently just bought a used G&L Asat Special with a Bigsby.. I'm finding the MFD pickups to be very fuzzy if you add any distortion... Is this normal? I'm using a Fender Mustang amp, but it just seems strange... The videos I see on Youtube have nice bright distortion... Mine sounds like Crappy Headphone Fuzz... Any one ever experience this issue? Would adjusting the pick up magnets have any effect?

Thanks,

[john o]

would play it through a different amp(s) to see if there is a problem.
fender mustang is a dsp modeling amp that has some patches that sound great and some that sound like dirt (like the bassman) depending on your gain settings. try the gtr through a real tube amp like fender twin or a marshall or a blackstar at a guitar store, and put it through the motions. those MFD pups should have a very broad frequency range with clarity, nice highs/lows, and through a quality high gain amp should drive it into nice sounding harmonic distortion with good note separation.

[themikeaustin]

How does it sound without distortion? Closer to what you've heard in the YT demos? If yes, then it would seem to indicate the amp/patch/effect. If it still sounds fuzzy, then check the pickup height. Others here will disagree, but I think the pickups sound better when they're lower. The MFD pickups are hotter than alnicos and having them closer to the strings may be contributing to the "fuzziness".

[Brobb]

Hey guys,
Thanks for taking the time to read and reply.
After tinkering around with magnet heights, pick up heights and amp settings, I have come to notice that if I turn the volume knob on the guitar, at what i would call 7 (if there were numbers on the knob) the fuzzy distortion sound vanishes.... Does the volume switch work as some sort of bass booster after you get to a certain volume level? I guess the previous owner could have made some changes to the guitar.. It sounds really great now.. Just can't turn the volume up all the way on the guitar... Is this normal? I've never owned a G&L until now.

[Elwood]

Just curious..do you run the Bass control on the guitar all the way up? You might find the signal cleans up with it at
6-7, so that you can turn the Volume control up.

It sounds like the guitars signal is a little hot for the amp input, for whatever reason.
Can you turn down the input Vol on the amp and bring the Master Vol up? If so that might help too.

elwood

[Elwood]

I guess the previous owner could have made some changes to the guitar..

If a mod was made to put the pickups in series, that'd give you a nice hot signal, with less highs than normal.
Maybe open her up for pics the next time you change strings.