Pickup Vibration Problem

[MichiganBoySB]

I like to play very loud and my bridge pickup begins to vibrate then hum. I need to then dampen it with my finger then all is good. Anyway I decided to electrical tape my pickup in place and it improved the sound quite a bit, was wondering if you knew of a better way to keep my pickup from vibrating. Let me ask this ... should it vibrate at all? You see I hear other sounds while I'm playing so I'm trying to improve its clarity and tonal focus. Came here to see if you guys would know. Thanks for any help.

ttyl,

Ken

[Daniel Sorbera]

Do you have the correct springs on the pickup mounting screws?

Just how loud are you playing?! Hearing loss is no joke.

[SwedishLuthier]

I would try rubber tudes instead of springs. Much higher damping in those I would think.

[RAI6]

You could always stuff the pu cavities with some foam.....

[dugg]

Are they humbuckers? Just mount 'em solid to the body of the guitar. Lots of 'boutique' makers are doing that these days, I think it got started with MM guitars in the mid 70's. The last couple axes I made have single coil pickups, but I've heard that solid mounting reduces microphonics and improves sustain, especially with humbuckers.

[zyonsdream]

improved sustain???

Make sure your springs are string enough to prevent too much wobble on the cavity. A small piece of foam under the pickup is a good fix. My guess is, the pickups are not the best quality and there is more noise coming from the pickup it'self and not from the mounting of the pickup. Are your pickups wax potted?

[WezV]

but I've heard that solid mounting reduces microphonics and improves sustain, especially with humbuckers.

not sure about the reasoning behind that...

if anything i reckon that microphonics would be worse because the pickup is not as excluded from the bodies vibration as it is when i has a dampener (spring or tubing) between it and the body... but the microphonics shouldnt be a problem with a decent pickup anyway.. not exactly sure how you could say it improved sustain but whatever... never played a well set-up guitar that lacked sustain anyway.

to me direct mounting is just another way of shaping the sound a little. i find you pick up a bit more of the bodies vibration which leads to a richer sound i quite like but can be a bit much for more 'clinical' styles of playing.

[ae3]

Dimebag taped his neck pickup like that, that being said, I wouldn't want tape on my guitar.....

When you say loud, do you mean the amp is up loud or your picking loud?