Wax In Pickups?

[THE UNIVERSAL ONE]

I was not aware of this, but there is wax in around the pole pieces(probably under them). Does this have an effect on sound quality? If so, how can I prevent it from coming out of the pole piece threads?

[Rich]

The whole pickup is dipped in wax, it keeps it from feeding back uncontrollably [microphonic].

[RSVampire]

Rich is accurate. It makes it so they don't squel or feedback or make unwanted noise. No loss in tone or change in tone.

[Lonely Raven]

Let me clarify a little bit here.

A lot of us like feedback. But Microfonic feedback is a whole different
animal. Normal feed back, like Hendrix, or Satch, comes from the sheer
volume of the amps sending vibrations back into the wood of the guitar,
and causing it to resonate (again) at that frequency. Since guitars are
wood, and a lot of stuff effects what frequencies they resonate at, they
all pretty much feedback differently.

Now, microfonic feedback is more of a mechanical feed back.

Your pickups
are blastic or wood or cardboard bobbins with about 5000-7000 winding
of wire around them. They work by generating a magnetic field when
current is run through them, and they "pick up" the vibrations of your
string that's disrupting that magnetic field. The microfonics come in when
one or more of those thousands of copper windings starts vibrating in
it's own magnetic field. The pickup starts "picking up" it's own "micro
vibrations" which comes through the amp as a super high pitched squeel.

Basically imagine a tiny guitar string about 1" long and half the diameter
of a hair vibrating away!! Ouch!

Wax potting is basically soaking pickups in a good soluable wax and letting
it soak in deeply. All the windings are held in suspension in this wax, so
there is no chance for microphonics.

As for messing with the sound of your pickups? No, absolutly not. Well,
except for stopping the nasty microfonics! As stated earlier, the pickup
works by magnetic fields. And everyone who's ever played with magnets
knows that magnetic fields can go through wood, plastic, paper...and wax!

I hope this helps explain Wax Potting some. No offence to the previous
posters here, but sometimes I think better explinations are in order,
or things added to a FAQ sheet as they come up!!

[THE UNIVERSAL ONE]

Thanks guys. Never really had a grasp on the concept of it all but now I'm more informed. I guess this is a time to ask this also, as not to take up another topic spot, how can I get some serious harmonics through my pickups? I love the sound of Zakk Wylde's setup but don't really have the money for EMG's or His sig. amp(which I'm not that fond of in general). Do they make a pedal for this?

[RSVampire]

It's hard to really nail Zakk's sound. Even with his signature gear. What kind of pickups are you using? That has a big thing to do with harmonics in a pickup. Like a FRED can scream on higher strings but really sucks with those lower squels. Where as a Tone Zone has better lower end squels but can't quite get higher squels out like the FRED. EMG's can get some good harmonics and stuff those would be good to start out with. I know pickups can be exspensive. Each pickup has their own EQ and harmonic level. Even though you can really shape a sound with a seperate EQ (Parametric ect.) the eq from the pickups still really stand out. Try checking out the EMG's or other pickups such as the Tone Zone or a Super Distortion (FRED really isn't a metal type pickup). And save up for some of em. Or try working on your harmonics if they aren't coming out very good. kidding man. kidding. Check em out and save up for em...that's all I can really say.

[darren wilson]

I'd say try an EQ pedal in front of your distortion.

One distortion pedal that i found came really close to Zakk's "No More Tears" sound was the old yellow double-wide Digitech PDS-1550 Programmable Distortion. It got really fat harmonics and subharmonics, and sounded great. I only played through one once about 12 years ago, but i still remember how fantastic it sounded.