SA2200 Pickups - bridge pickup farty/spitty

Has it been this way since new or did it occur later? Does it happen in both single and humbucker coil tap modes? Your pups should be +- 1/8" from the bottom of the strings. For some reason my SA 2200 came with the pole screws adjusted to follow the neck profile. It's the only humbucker guitar I've ever had that came out of the box that way. I suspect yours came the same way. It's probably a good thing but I wonder why Yamaha felt the need to do it unless it's got something to do with the pick up design. Try this. Lower all of the bridge pick up pole screws flush with the pick up cover. Then adjust the pick up height to a starting point of 1/8" or until the farty sound is eliminated then patiently adjust the other pole screws to regain balance. The SA 2200 comes with great stock pups. Hate to see you spend the money on another only to find out that it was just a matter of adjustment.

If all of that fails check you string height and neck adjustment. If you are smacking that E string ultra hard it may just be bottoming out. I don't know how extreme your attack is but if you dig in hard enough you can make almost any electric guitar fart.

 

Your tech sounds like a very experienced and smart guy. I can't tell you how many times I've messed with my set up thinking it's gone out of wack only to find I've waited far to long and am well overdue for a string change..

 

Oh, by the way. Great choice of guitars. I consider mine to be one of the best in the stable.