Quiet D/g Strings

[pal1972]

I’ve got a ‘94 fortress and love it but for a while now I’ve been struggling with quiet D&G strings! Gigged it last night and the E/A cut through but when I played anywhere on the D/G strings it was as if I wasn’t playing at all, I could hardly hear the notes! I’ve raised the D/G side pup and lowered the E/A side but still same? I play flats and have same flats on my ‘99 FNA (which doesn’t suffer from the problem) action is low and very little neck relief. Any ideas?

 

[Nachobassman]

Hello there,

Most of the time this is solved adjusting pickup height as you said you did. But, sometimes it is not only a thing of pup height.
Check neck and bridge setup too.

If problem persists, try different strings. May be the set of strings you are using.

 

[DiMarco]

Are the strings also more quiet when playing without amplification? What is the distance between the pickups and the E and G strings?
If I am correct the fortress has passive pickups, this means distance from the strings makes a lot of difference. 2-3mm should be good.

 

[Foal30]

On occasion to liven up my G String I wear it back to front

In Australaisa this is known as the "T-Bar"

 

[pal1972]

Cheers guys, I’ve reset the pup heights and stuck on a fresh set of strings, gigging it tomorrow so will see if this helps

 

[pal1972]

For reference it did have passive pups but I’ve swapped them out for a set of Schaller pbass pups and active MEC jazz bridge pup! Dunno if that makes a difference?

 

[DiMarco]

Well there's your problem.

 

[Nachobassman]

For reference it did have passive pups but I’ve swapped them out for a set of Schaller pbass pups and active MEC jazz bridge pup! Dunno if that makes a difference?

That could be the source of your problem, yes...

 

[pal1972]

Well the fresh strings certainly helped a bit! Still struggled compared to E/A strings . Got home after gig and thought right! Let’s attack it! Adjusted truss and gave a little more relief than I had, also played with saddles. I noticed that the spacing I had meant the G string was sitting at the edge of the magnet inside the pickup so moved saddle inward a little and adjusted all saddle spacing. To my ears it seems it may of helped however not gigging till next weekend now so won’t know for sure till then

 

[jester]

For reference it did have passive pups but I’ve swapped them out for a set of Schaller pbass pups and active MEC jazz bridge pup! Dunno if that makes a difference?

Is your neck P passive? Are you still using your old potentiometers?

 

[pal1972]

Both pups are active, original preamp

 

[jester]

Both pups are active, original preamp

If you haven't replaced your blend pot with one for active pickups, it could very well be causing problems for you.