SA pickups in my new Drop Top too hot for my amp?

[GaryMcT]

I'm getting a bit of input overload sounding distortion when I use the SA pickups on my new drop top. What do folks normally do about this? Lower the pickups? I don't have this problem with my Atom since in general the pickups don't seem to be as hot. Seems odd that the amp is so sensitive to input level. Also, I don't have this problem with the bridge H2. . . could it be related to the wider frequency range of the SA pickups?

[Dave K]

I've found that it's voicing and output, both with the SA and SD. Play with the pickup height and your amps EQ, mainly dropping some lows and adding a little highs. They are pretty hot in output, especially compared to vintage type single coils.

[morty]

I found my SD`s much lower in output compared to my Fender, and they have less bottom. Maby the Basswood generally have less bottom than Alder, but compared to my Fender pickups, I have to raise the amp volume to get to the same level with my Anderson as with my Fender! I actually tryed to raise my pickups, but I did not like the voicing

[GaryMcT]

I found the problem!!! My AC30TB module has this bug:

from http://www.grailtone.com/guitar-tone-articles/randall-modules-modifications.html :

"There was an issue discovered after several production runs in all the clean to mid-gain Randall models including the Clean, Blackface, DLX, Top Boost, Plexi, JTM, & Brown, that causes excess distortion overloading the input gain. Too eliminate this issue and clean up these modules, position R1 which is a 470 ohm 1/2w resistor, needs to be changed to a 150 Ohm 1/2w resistor. This is only the early production Randall models and some of the early Egnater models. The new modules have been fixed at the factory but you should check any current module that you have. You can identify what value is in your module by the color bands located on the resistor, 470 ohm resistors have yellow, purple, and brown color bands, where the correct 150 ohm resistors have brown, green, brown color bands."