Problem - Clean Sound with Super 58 Pickup

[carmelobene93]

Hi. I have a semi hollow Ibanez as93 with super 58 pickup. I have a polytone 1 and sounds good but with loud volume the clean is not very very clean. I tryed an other amp, also fender deluxe reverb and is a little better true clean but with a loud volume( ever in my house but in a big room) i dont have a true clean. Maybe i dont love hambucker? Maybe is the pick up? I tryed also dv mark 12 but nothing. . ( i use usually the first pick up( switch)

[whiskey02]

How close is the pup to the strings? Turn the screws to drop it down flush with the plastic pickup rings; listen and slowly adjust until you're happy.

[icr]

You could try 300k pots. Many people don't know this but the pot's resistance wafer (whatever ohm it is) ALWAYS dumps signal to ground, irrespective of the wiper (or knob) position. So a 300k pot (compared to 500k or 1M) lowers the pickup output and lowers the peak resonance because it is always dumping more signal to ground than the other two. That might be just what you need.

Of note, my Ibanez ES-175 copy from 1970s, never sounded right. When I went to change the pickkups I measured over 2 meg on the pot. Wound up changing to 300k pots and kept the pickups!

[Gitfiddler]

As noted, pickup height is the first thing to check when loss of clarity is an issue. If the pickup magnets are too close to the strings there can be unwelcome frequencies, squealing or distortion.

Super 58's are nice paf-style pickups and very versatile for jazz or overdriven tones.

Ibanez Chinese/Indonesian made Custom 58's do not have the same construction, and are not as toneful as Super 58's. However, some players can adjust them to get a decent tone.

[st.bede]

There are different sound qualities with different magnets, in even the same PU. I wonder if that is what you are hearing as not clean. I do not know what is in your PU.

For example ceramic magnets can be forward sounding, with good attack. Sometimes that is good, sometimes it is not, all depending on other factors.

However if you like the guitar, and its’ sound not plugged in, you can always swap out PUs. I like to listen to the guitar and try and find a PU that will move the tone in the direction I want. If the guitar sounds bad, I do not think any PU can make it sound good. However you can nudge a guitar, tonal a bit, with a PU swap.

As mentioned above getting the “right” value pot for the PU is important. (Right meaning: doing what you want). I tend to think about those two as one issue.