Help on solving feedback problem

[H-evolve]

I just got a new 7 string guitar Iron Label Ibanez with Bareknuckle Aftermath pickups.

Sent it to my guitar tech right as I bought it, thinking I'd rather first play with it when it's set up to my favorite settings

Meaning today was the first time playing it. Sounds great and everything but, it does a lot of feedback when using the 2 high gain channels from my amp. More precisely :

I used the exact same settings that I have on my other 7 string which has Dimarzio D-Activator. I don't know if the Aftermath really have that much output so that they have even more that D-Activators, but I never had this issue with my other guitar.

The Ibanez does no feedback using the neck pickup, or if I use the bridge pickup in split coil mode. But when using the bridge pickup in full humbucker, it feeds right away.

Tried turning off the Overdrive, didn't solve anything.

Tried a completely different rig (rig of my bandmate) and still there was feedback

My guess, and this is where I'd like advice or opinions, is that I suspect that my tech has raised the pickup closer to the strings. It's not major, since the pickup doesn't look absurdly close to the strings, but for now it's my only theory. Is it possible? Anybody had that same issue caused by this?

What would be the next possible solution?

Thanks for the help

 

[H-evolve]

I thought I'd give an update in case, maybe, perhaps, someone is interested.

So I looked around and Bareknuckle doesn't really give the output in mV of their pickups. I only have the electric resistance. From what I was able to find, it is not necessarily a direct measurement of the output, but it is often a good indicator.

The Aftermath has a resistance of around 14 kOhm for the bridge pickup. The D-Activators are around 11 kOhm. With this, it was pointing towards the fact that "Maybe" the Aftermath has indeed a lot more output.

That being said, when measuring the distance between the pickup and the string, it was clearly closer on the Ibanez with Aftermath than with the LTD with Dimarzios.

Finally, I tested both guitars in my interface, and reading the max signal level on the fadder in Reaper. Trying to strike the strings at the same intensity, I was able to reach -4.5 dB with the Dimarzios, while it was clipping with the Aftermath.

One thing though, the Dimarzio guitar has old strings while the Aftermath guitar has brand new NYXL. I assume this could affect the output, but I doubt it would change it by 5+ dB. At least I hope....

So I dropped the pickup by a big margin, until it wouldn't clip at least in Reaper. I wasn't able to bring it low enough to go to -4.5 db, but again, assuming new strings mean more output, I was OK with it being louder than the Dimarzio. So I was able to set it at -2 dB.

I will test it on the rig that was doing feedback only in two weeks sadly (it is in the local where we practice and exceptionally next practice is in 2 weeks).