Nasty Overtone From Steel - ?

[Johnny-99]

Hi everyone, I'm hoping someone can help me out here, I've got a bit of a head-scratcher.

My steel seems to be making a nasty deep sort of overtone when I play with any volume - here is an example:

https://vocaroo.com/1mpunaN0rcHb

(in person it seems worse to me than what's captured on that recording)

It happens no matter what I'm plugged into - Twin Reverb, Nashville 122 etc and I've tried changing leads/without volume pedal - it is definitely the instrument. I had assumed it must be an electrical problem but I showed it to a local tech who was convinced it must be something physical on the guitar resonating. I even switched out the pickup - the current one is a Wilde LxR-16 - to no avail.

Does anyone have any idea what is happening here? Thanks for your help.

[Willie Gamble]

Hi Johnny 99, what make is the guitar and what age would it be,is it pedal or non pedal.
Where in Scotland are you located, I live In Lochwinnoch, are you anywhere within striking distance.
Asleep at the steel

[Johnny-99]

Hi Willie,

It's a Sho-Bud Professional circa-1970 - the transmission was all redone by Ronnie Bennett at some point. I'm on the east coast, I split my time between Aberdeen and Edinburgh, but I'd be willing to travel a bit for someone to take a look at it. I've been asking around for months but everyone seems equally puzzled!

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

has string bitten into bridge at either end?

[Johnny-99]

Hi John,

I can't see anything wrong along those lines, I restrung it earlier in the week and took care to make sure everything was seated correctly, to my understanding anyway. When the local tech was looking at it we spent an hour with him dampening every part of the instrument as I played, but still no improvement.

Here are some quick snaps in case I'm missing something obvious:

https://imgur.com/a/MtkNj4C

[Johnny-99]

Here's another quick example of the strange sound I'm getting -

Into the high input of my Nashville 112 with the pre-gain at 4 I get this: https://vocaroo.com/1mpvdnlRtTjy

It does seem to be tempered a bit when I use the low input with the pre-gain right down at 1: https://vocaroo.com/1ayCpXN3H58X

Maybe that is normal behaviour? It is quite a hot pickup at 20.6 kΩ.

[bradsteel]

Hi Johnny. Try screwing the pickup down a little more. I used to have some hot humbuckers with exposed poles on my steel and they needed a little more clearance than my George Ls.

[Johnny-99]

Hi Brad - that definitely sounds like it's worth a go, I'll give it a try when I'm back in front of the instrument tomorrow. Thanks for the suggestion!

[bradsteel]

No problem Johnny, hope it works somewhat!

[Johnny-99]

I forgot to mention - adjusting the pickup did in fact solve the issue, thanks a million