My Strat feeds back a lot

OilCityPickups

axisus said:

"and do you HAVE to wear that bloody  T shirt while you're playing me ... AGAIN?"

57Deluxe

Guitar feedback is their equivalent to them throwing up all over your feet...

Hattigol

Mine feeds back like a bastard too. Then again, I do have this turned on - might that be the cause?

https://digitech.com/en/products/freqout

OilCityPickups

Hattigol said:

Mine feeds back like a bastard too. Then again, I do have this turned on - might that be the cause?

https://digitech.com/en/products/freqout

Lol ... but serious point:
Feedback and squeal are two different animals: feedback can be brought in at various harmonic points and controlled. Squeal caused by severe microphhony is on one narrow, high band ... and simply squeals uncontrollably whatever you do.
I used to gig a semi-acoustic fitted with very high gain pickups and a dirty great Marshall stack back in the eighties, it would feedback like a bugger, but I could control it by choosing where I stood on stage, turning into the amp on certain notes etc. 
Guess I was going through my Ted Nugent phase :-)

MatthewShreddery

Yes, good point @ ;
I mean squeal 

bbill335

TheGuitarWeasel said:

Hattigol said:

Mine feeds back like a bastard too. Then again, I do have this turned on - might that be the cause?

https://digitech.com/en/products/freqout

Lol ... but serious point:
Feedback and squeal are two different animals: feedback can be brought in at various harmonic points and controlled. Squeal caused by severe microphhony is on one narrow, high band ... and simply squeals uncontrollably whatever you do.
I used to gig a semi-acoustic fitted with very high gain pickups and a dirty great Marshall stack back in the eighties, it would feedback like a bugger, but I could control it by choosing where I stood on stage, turning into the amp on certain notes etc. 
Guess I was going through my Ted Nugent phase :-)

I'm getting real squeal on my tele bridge pickup at rehearsal/gigging levels. I'm gonna swap the pickup springs for rubber tubing next string change and see if that helps but I'm not sure what else I can do really 

impmann

You could always just turn the gain down a bit... ;-)

bbill335

impmann said:

You could always just turn the gain down a bit... ;-)

I mainly play clean!

MatthewShreddery

impmann said:

You could always just turn the gain down a bit... ;-)

Heresy!!!

OilCityPickups

bbill335 said:

TheGuitarWeasel said:

Hattigol said:

Mine feeds back like a bastard too. Then again, I do have this turned on - might that be the cause?

https://digitech.com/en/products/freqout

Lol ... but serious point:
Feedback and squeal are two different animals: feedback can be brought in at various harmonic points and controlled. Squeal caused by severe microphhony is on one narrow, high band ... and simply squeals uncontrollably whatever you do.
I used to gig a semi-acoustic fitted with very high gain pickups and a dirty great Marshall stack back in the eighties, it would feedback like a bugger, but I could control it by choosing where I stood on stage, turning into the amp on certain notes etc. 
Guess I was going through my Ted Nugent phase :-)

I'm getting real squeal on my tele bridge pickup at rehearsal/gigging levels. I'm gonna swap the pickup springs for rubber tubing next string change and see if that helps but I'm not sure what else I can do really 

Likely to be a loose baseplate.

ICBM

TheGuitarWeasel said:

bbill335 said:

I'm getting real squeal on my tele bridge pickup at rehearsal/gigging levels. I'm gonna swap the pickup springs for rubber tubing next string change and see if that helps but I'm not sure what else I can do really 

Likely to be a loose baseplate.

It can also be the whole bridge vibrating - it tends not to be tight to the body at the front. Likewise double-sided tape or silicone can help.

Try temporarily jamming a bit of folded paper or something under the front corners of the bridge and see if it stops it or reduces it.

bbill335

Will check next time the bridge is off. Thanks!

munckee

ICBM said:

poopot said:

got around it by covering the back of the guard with gaffa... you will also need to add some sort of shielding once you have applied the tape.

No, just cut enough of a circle in the tape around the volume pot that it makes contact.

Hi @ICBM I have taken delivery of the offending anodised scratch plate.  I had a little dig around and have seen various solutions, one is to ground the plate, one was to put strips of electrical tape on the plate but leave gaps then there is the gaffa tape solution but I don't have shielding tape.

I hardly ever use lots of gain, just a tubescreamer but want to deal with it now.

Whats the quickest/easiest/most idiot proof solution with what I will have to hand.  I have wire if it is to solder a wire from the plate to something.

ICBM

If you scrape the coating off around the volume control - on the underside obviously - it will do it. I know what poopot said, but I can only assume it somehow didn’t bite right through the anodising on his one. If you have metal-to-metal contact, it *will* work as a shield without needing to do anything else.

You can then use double-sided tape or silicone - as sparingly as you can - to stick the plate to the body and stop it vibrating. I’ve also done a few - actually including a couple of plastic ones, which vibrated enough to make the pickups too ‘lively’ - just by stuffing some soft padding into the cavity. Polyester wool as used in hi-fi speakers seems to work well.

munckee

ICBM said:

If you scrape the coating off around the volume control - on the underside obviously - it will do it. I know what poopot said, but I can only assume it somehow didn’t bite right through the anodising on his one. If you have metal-to-metal contact, it *will* work as a shield without needing to do anything else.

You can then use double-sided tape or silicone - as sparingly as you can - to stick the plate to the body and stop it vibrating. I’ve also done a few - actually including a couple of plastic ones, which vibrated enough to make the pickups too ‘lively’ - just by stuffing some soft padding into the cavity. Polyester wool as used in hi-fi speakers seems to work well.

Brilliant thanks will let you know how it goes.

menamestom

bbill335 said:

Will check next time the bridge is off. Thanks!

I had similar with mine.  Got the most squealy bridge possible for the classic tele sound (glendale) then had to dampen it with silicone.
It’s basically like a tuning fork.

The Callaham is very good if going the other way.  Thick and has screw holes at either end.
Sounds different, loses twang but sounds fuller and has less of the high Roy Buchanan put your teeth on edge treble.

bbill335

menamestom said:

bbill335 said:

Will check next time the bridge is off. Thanks!

I had similar with mine.  Got the most squealy bridge possible for the classic tele sound (glendale) then had to dampen it with silicone.
It’s basically like a tuning fork.

The Callaham is very good if going the other way.  Thick and has screw holes at either end.
Sounds different, loses twang but sounds fuller and has less of the high Roy Buchanan put your teeth on edge treble.

I haven't actually got under the hood to fix it yet but I don't think the bridge plate is my problem, it's the base plate on the pickup. The fixes I've got are to swap the height-adjustment springs for rubber tubing and to fix the base plate more securely with carpet tape. Again, will report back when I get around to doing it.

MatthewShreddery

So just a quick update. I changed the scratch plate and now it does not squeal, unless I want it to!

munckee

Well Matt sold me the anodised plate, I roughly sanded round the volume pot as advised by @icbm until I could see the silver colour underneath and no issues, I don't play tons of gain but no vibrating or microphonics and looks terrific, nicely worn in by Matt too.  Here are the pics @lovestrat74

https://i.imgur.com/mgrZs3L.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/I3Gg4ia.jpg

lovestrat74

Looking good @munckee ; 8 holer too