Custom Core Pickup's experience?

[rwinking]

In another post I mentioned how I found a store doing a BOGO with H-150 CCs. So I ended up with an Artisan Aged CC for less than half price. It is a great guitar but I was suprised at how "meh" the pickups were especially the neck pickup. (I assume they are not potted as they squeal at higher volumes) They just seem to lack a certain sparkle that most high end pickups seem to have.

Anyone else experience this?

[TalismanRich]

Maybe my memory is off, but I thought that all the Heritage made pickups were potted.   There was the wax potting setup in the pickup winding room.   I'm wondering if the squeal is due to the covers rather than the coils themselves.   It's easy to test... when it starts to squeal, press on the pickup cover and see if it stops.  

[rockabilly69]

Yes these are potted! But like Rich says, check the covers, they are the source of a lot of problem squeals!

Edited Wednesday at 07:31 PM by rockabilly69

[rwinking]

I'll try that. What are the experiences regarding tone? Like I said, the neck pickup is pretty dark. So far I prefer either the Dimarzio Anniversay PAFs or the Seth Lovers.

[zguitar71]

I thought they were using an A3 magnet in the neck which shouldn’t be dark. Maybe they changed to an A4 which I sometimes find a bit dark. A4 an are pretty common in the neck. You could try to change the magnet to an A2. Also see what the ohm reading is. If they are in the 8s then they tend to be dark in the neck position imo, the low 7s is great for a neck.