Wolf Tones On High E String

[matthew bryan]

Hello all,

I have a mexican strat with a SSH set up. No matter what pick up I play, or what I am playing through (amp, pedle, or unplugged) I get some strange ringing or ...wolf tones above the 12 th fret on the high E string. I have checked my set up and it seems fine with no buzzing. I have also moved the bridge pick lower to see if it would help but no deal. Any ideas here.....it is really bugging me.

Thanks

[anderekel]

I would suggest you try moving all the pickups lower. From what I've heard, those wolf tones are cause because of the pickups being too close to the string and creating too much magnetic pull, blah blah blah. If that's what it is then you need to move all the pickups down unless you know which one it is. That's my only thought on it.

[WezV]

and dont forget that single coils in a strat usually (but not always) have magnets as polepieces inside the coil whereas the humbucker has magnets underneath the coil contacting metal polepieces.

basically the magnets in single coils are closer to the string, so the pull is sometimes much more noticable

[psw]

Ohhh...a case of stratitis....

wolf tones are generally caused by single coils, generally the neck and/or middle pickup.

Basically the strong magnetic strength directed in one direction (as in a SC pup) can pull down or dampen the strings at certain harmonic points like touching harmonics, above the twelfth fret you are also pushing the string down closer to these pickups...particularly the neck pup...making the effect worse.

Generally you solve this problem by adjusting the SC pickups away from the strings till it goes away.

HB pickups tend not to have as much "pull" and do so over a wider area and can be adjusted very close to the strings without ill effect. The main reason is that each coil has a different polarity and the magnets are attracted to each other more than they pull on the string.

Unfortunately the HSS combination can lead to a loud bridge pickup and it is tempting to raise the SC's to compensate...not a good idea unfortunately. On my strat I have hotter neck and middle pickups but they still have a tendency to be weaker than the bridge HB...such is life.

In sustainer land, I have developed a personal preference for the basic single coil driver over fancier dual coil systems because they seem to have more "throw"...this means they can be a little further from the strings. On my tele sustainer I reversed the polarity of the single coil driver to the neck pickup next to it so that it wouldn't have quite so much of this wolf tone effect...more like an HB magnetically perhaps.

pete

[psw]

Hmmm...it occurs to me though...thinking a bit more...that you might have a completely unrelated problem. It could be insufficient pressure on the saddles...a neck shim and re setup might fis this if lowering the pickups has no effect. It may be that the high e crashes into the frets a little above the 12th fret...this can be from a poorly adjusted neck or far too low an action. The string can just touch the frets enough to dampen things and set off "wolf tone" effects. As I understand and experience it, magnetic wolf tones tend to happen more on the lower strings that have more mass for the magnets to work on...which made me think again.

Lower the pickups...if that doesn't help...take a good look at the frets, neck bow and the breakover on the saddle to ensure there isn't something else going on.

pete

[westhemann]

The string can just touch the frets enough to dampen things and set off "wolf tone" effects.

This is what I suspect as well...I have had this happen on numerous guitars and most often it is because most people don't play as much on the higher frets...so the 22 fret is usually brand new,while the 12-17 are worn flat...causing the slight ringing sound...