Pickup Potting

[morbe]

Okay so I have an Ibanez PF300. It looks like a Les Paul. The poor thing is over 20 years old. I'm getting some real bad, non-musical feedback on the one pick up closer to the bridge. From what I have read and what I know about this guitar its the "Super 70 tri-tone pickup." This feedback is so horrible and can not be controlled. Does any one out their know if this particular pick up can be potted?

[ChrisK]

Do you have a picture of the pickup, preferably from both the top and bottom?

Paraffin wax potting a pickup is often done. It requires a double boiler or preferable an electric melting pot for safety purposes.

One does need to be careful, paraffin is quite flammable (it's why candles work so well). The vapors can be explosively ignited in the right mixture of oxygen (no, I don't admit to knowing this, nor is this a suitable science project theme).


I have never tried this this way, but have used a heat gun to sloooooooly heat a covered pickup that I'd disassembled to repair and then reassembled. It was easy since I was very careful and saved all the wax that fell off. To be fair, I didn't remove any wax from the coils in the first place.


I would search for "wax potting pickups" a'web.

Here's a link thereon;
www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=256219

Here's a patent on it by Leo.
4,885,970

[morbe]

This is probably the best pic I have of the pick ups.

[morbe]

its the guitar on the left. Yeah I have been reading about potting pickups all this morning. But I did read that if the pick up was already potted at the manufacture then you should attempt. I havent taken the pickup out, nor have I tried to repair it. I can get away with turning the tone knob down half way to put the feed back at bay. But I really would like to have this fixed.