Picked Up My 3 Guitars From Repair Shop Today - They Didn't Do Anything!?

[Charvel1975]

Well I picked up my Charvel model 5fx, Gibson Les Paul Special p100's and my Partscaster from guitar repair shop this morning, they had all 3 guitars for over a month and NEVER got them on the bench?! Not happy at all, going to try another place to have work done on the guitars 1 guitar at a time.

Anyhow, here's what's going on with the guitars:

The Charvel and the Gibson are both thin sounding and just uninspiring to play as they just don't sound right and the Partscaster is has very shrill high end. They're all tuned to standard E tuning.

1998 Gibson Les Paul Special - Factory P100 Neck & Dimarzio P90 Super Distortion Bridge pickups with .010 - .046 nickel wounds strings - needs wiring looked at as the Dimarzio P90, its thin/low output and possibly needs setup and from what I've been reading the P-90 P90 Super Distortion needs wired in series to give the full output and a fatter sound.

1988 Charvel Model 5FX - EMG 81 Bridge & SA neck pickups, Original Floyd Rose - Was setup before the end of last year by guitar repair shop with .009 - .042 nickel wounds strings with the .042 replaced with a .040, very sentimental as my parents got me this guitar for Christmas and was my 2nd guitar ever. The guitar sounds the same as the Gibson right now, thin and low output and uninspiring! New 9V battery was installed and EMG-81 raised closer to string but to no avail?! I've thought about just getting a new EMG-81 cause it comes with the wiring etc. but everything is sautered in because the EMG's in it are old and long before they did the quick connect stuff. I've debated if I wanted more versatility being able to go to single coil in the bridge pickup or not? I was reading up on the EMG-81TW, EMG-89R and EMG-57TW and some people said those pickups should fit my Charvel's bridge pickup cavity but I wonder how any of those would sound? I'm pretty sure the slant neck single coil is an EMG-SA although I've never removed it and the logo color is worn off. How do the new EMG-81 sound versus my old EMG-81?

Partscaster with .009 - .042 nickel wounds strings and a bridge Seymour Duncan TB-4 JB Trembucker wired to an Alpha push/pull volume pot, 500K I'm pretty sure, no tone pot. I haven't been playing it right now because it's really bright and ice picky and I think the pot is bad because the sound cuts in and out when rolling the volume knob up or down whether it's pushed in or pulled out. I read that the JB was designed for 250k pots and found a Mojo Tone CTS Push-pull Potentiometer - Short Shaft - 250k online @ Sweetwater I got to have installed but I just hope I don't lose too much high end. I don't think there is anything wrong with the wiring but then again, I'm no guitar tech.

 

[TotallyRadGuitars]

I can't weigh in on your thin tone issues but I can tell you that I've had both new and old EMG's (at the same time) and I can't tell the difference between a brand new 81 and a soldered/vintage 81 through the same amp. The 81TW also sounds identical to a regular 81 the only difference is it can be coil split. The 89 (and 89R) are the same as the 85 but with the ability to split coils (the R just changes which coil is active when in single coil mode, neck side or bridge side). If your EMG's were wired to a 250k or 500k pot they will also sound a little odd, they should use 25k pots.

On the Partscaster, not having a tone knob will make the JB sound brighter, even if you never even touch the tone knob. If the 500k volume pot is a "no load" it will also be brighter, something else to keep in mind. Some people definitely like the 250k pot to tame it but it is a subtle change to my ears.

Les Paul, definitely if the Super Distortion is wired in parallel or worse, single mode, it's not going to sound like you would think a thick super distortion

I'm sure you've been through this already, but you don't notice the thin tone issues with other guitars through the same amp? Even with variables removed like just plain guitar into amp, no pedals/effects/etc?

 

[FourT6and2]

The Charvel and the Gibson are both thin sounding and just uninspiring to play as they just don't sound right and the Partscaster is has very shrill high end. They're all tuned to standard E tuning.

And what do you expect a shop to do to change this? It's like bringing a car to a shop and saying, "It doesn't feel right. Fix it." They have no idea what you're talking about and might be why they didn't touch them. Maybe that's just how those guitars sound? I get it though, maybe they sound different than they used to? I dunno.

1998 Gibson Les Paul Special - Factory P100 Neck & Dimarzio P90 Super Distortion Bridge pickups with .010 - .046 nickel wounds strings - needs wiring looked at as the Dimarzio P90, its thin/low output and possibly needs setup and from what I've been reading the P-90 P90 Super Distortion needs wired in series to give the full output and a fatter sound.

So all you wanted done to this one is rewire pickups to be wired in series and a basic "setup"?

1988 Charvel Model 5FX - EMG 81 Bridge & SA neck pickups, Original Floyd Rose - Was setup before the end of last year by guitar repair shop with .009 - .042 nickel wounds strings with the .042 replaced with a .040, very sentimental as my parents got me this guitar for Christmas and was my 2nd guitar ever. The guitar sounds the same as the Gibson right now, thin and low output and uninspiring! New 9V battery was installed and EMG-81 raised closer to string but to no avail?! I've thought about just getting a new EMG-81 cause it comes with the wiring etc. but everything is sautered in because the EMG's in it are old and long before they did the quick connect stuff. I've debated if I wanted more versatility being able to go to single coil in the bridge pickup or not? I was reading up on the EMG-81TW, EMG-89R and EMG-57TW and some people said those pickups should fit my Charvel's bridge pickup cavity but I wonder how any of those would sound? I'm pretty sure the slant neck single coil is an EMG-SA although I've never removed it and the logo color is worn off. How do the new EMG-81 sound versus my old EMG-81?

So what do you want a shop to do here? Guitar 1 sounds thin/lifeless. Guitar 2 sounds thin/lifeless. Guitar 3 sounds thin/lifeless. Starting to see a pattern here. Maybe it's not the guitars?

Partscaster with .009 - .042 nickel wounds strings and a bridge Seymour Duncan TB-4 JB Trembucker wired to an Alpha push/pull volume pot, 500K I'm pretty sure, no tone pot. I haven't been playing it right now because it's really bright and ice picky and I think the pot is bad because the sound cuts in and out when rolling the volume knob up or down whether it's pushed in or pulled out. I read that the JB was designed for 250k pots and found a Mojo Tone CTS Push-pull Potentiometer - Short Shaft - 250k online @ Sweetwater I got to have installed but I just hope I don't lose too much high end. I don't think there is anything wrong with the wiring but then again, I'm no guitar tech.

Another one that sounds thin/bright/ice picky. So what do you think a shop is can do with these instruments? You typically need to communicate a specific problem you'd like a tech to fix. But a generic, "it sounds wrong" without a specific issue they can see or measure isn't going to yield good results. I get it though, I've brought my car to a shop knowing there is an issue because it feels or sounds different. And it being my car, and seeing how I drive it every day, I know what's "normal" and what isn't. But a tech has no idea what we're talking about. So in absence of a specific symptom someone else can perceive, kind of hard to remedy it.

 

[japetus]

I feel as though one of the most important and money saving things you can do is learn to do simple pickup swaps and guitar setups. It brings you closer to the "feel" of your guitar and the incremental changes that you experience really let you dial in where you want to be.

 

[GOHOINC]

I'd offer to take a look if you want to drive to Cincy.

 

[TotallyRadGuitars]

I feel as though one of the most important and money saving things you can do is learn to do simple pickup swaps and guitar setups. It brings you closer to the "feel" of your guitar and the incremental changes that you experience really let you dial in where you want to be.

I can't even count the number of times I've solved a problem on a guitar but just touching a few spots with the soldering iron and tightening a few screws.

The issues OP describes sound a lot like that's all that is needed on these, it's possible the shop took the guitars and played them and nothing was wrong so they didn't really know what to do, and they aren't going to charge just to play somebody's guitar for a few minutes.

 

[Diary of a Axeman]

Well I picked up my Charvel model 5fx, Gibson Les Paul Special p100's and my Partscaster from guitar repair shop this morning, they had all 3 guitars for over a month and NEVER got them on the bench?! Not happy at all, going to try another place to have work done on the guitars 1 guitar at a time.

Anyhow, here's what's going on with the guitars:

The Charvel and the Gibson are both thin sounding and just uninspiring to play as they just don't sound right and the Partscaster is has very shrill high end. They're all tuned to standard E tuning.

1998 Gibson Les Paul Special - Factory P100 Neck & Dimarzio P90 Super Distortion Bridge pickups with .010 - .046 nickel wounds strings - needs wiring looked at as the Dimarzio P90, its thin/low output and possibly needs setup and from what I've been reading the P-90 P90 Super Distortion needs wired in series to give the full output and a fatter sound.

1988 Charvel Model 5FX - EMG 81 Bridge & SA neck pickups, Original Floyd Rose - Was setup before the end of last year by guitar repair shop with .009 - .042 nickel wounds strings with the .042 replaced with a .040, very sentimental as my parents got me this guitar for Christmas and was my 2nd guitar ever. The guitar sounds the same as the Gibson right now, thin and low output and uninspiring! New 9V battery was installed and EMG-81 raised closer to string but to no avail?! I've thought about just getting a new EMG-81 cause it comes with the wiring etc. but everything is sautered in because the EMG's in it are old and long before they did the quick connect stuff. I've debated if I wanted more versatility being able to go to single coil in the bridge pickup or not? I was reading up on the EMG-81TW, EMG-89R and EMG-57TW and some people said those pickups should fit my Charvel's bridge pickup cavity but I wonder how any of those would sound? I'm pretty sure the slant neck single coil is an EMG-SA although I've never removed it and the logo color is worn off. How do the new EMG-81 sound versus my old EMG-81?

Partscaster with .009 - .042 nickel wounds strings and a bridge Seymour Duncan TB-4 JB Trembucker wired to an Alpha push/pull volume pot, 500K I'm pretty sure, no tone pot. I haven't been playing it right now because it's really bright and ice picky and I think the pot is bad because the sound cuts in and out when rolling the volume knob up or down whether it's pushed in or pulled out. I read that the JB was designed for 250k pots and found a Mojo Tone CTS Push-pull Potentiometer - Short Shaft - 250k online @ Sweetwater I got to have installed but I just hope I don't lose too much high end. I don't think there is anything wrong with the wiring but then again, I'm no guitar tech.

You should learn to do those mods yourself and when you become good at it ( and you will ), you can experiment in ways that you can't by sending it into a guitar tech.

Last year, I did a mod to two of my traditional Strats, the 7 way sound.
I used a push / push pot for the volume and wired it where my first tone know works for the neck and middle pickup and the second tone knob works on the bridge pickup.

When activate the push / push pot, using a 5 way switch.
The neck position on the 5 way, activates , uses the neck and bridge pickup, like a Telecaster.
On the neck / middle position on the 5 way and the push / push pot activates all three pickups and it sounds like a high gain Metal monster .

My Schaller is S6 pickup is 13.6k ohms and the middle / neck are Fender Custom Shop 69 pickups .
I'm literally pushing 22k ohms + , it's a monster with Classic Strat overtones.

 

[Realityspiral]

Hate when this happens. Before I found my current tech I went to two separate techs who had no idea what they were doing. I needed a pickup set swap and they were wired backwards so they were completely out of phase. Super bummer

 

[Markedman]

I had two identical Steinberger GR4 Guitars. Everything the same. One roared, one was thinner sounding. The only difference was the wiring. I replaced the wiring and it is now a roaring guitar also.

Household light dimmers wear out. When you replace them you have better and brighter light ? ? there might be something to it?

 

[scottosan]

Sound treat your room. Sounds like your sensitive to standing waves.

 

[guitarnate2000]

for what is is worth. Seymour Duncan offers a FREE pickup class. I took it even though I know how to wire most of my pickups. I think this course in brand new. I got wind of it this week

https://tech.seymourduncan.com/
pickup wiring class

 

[Charvel1975]

Hate when this happens. Before I found my current tech I went to two separate techs who had no idea what they were doing. I needed a pickup set swap and they were wired backwards so they were completely out of phase. Super bummer

Yea makes me wonder when they swapped out the 85 for the 81 if they wired it wrong in my Charvel?

I'm still debating on whether or not if I want to go to passive pickups on the Charvel but then I'd have to research what pickups, pots 250K or 500K, new wiring and if it would be beneficialto do 50's wiringwith push pull pot on tone pot and treble bleed mod, Output jack, possibly new 3-way toggle switch?

 

[jb44]

Lame of them to turn down business.

 

[Music&Chaos]

I recently studied heavily to educate myself in guitar wiring/soldering after measuring some pickups in my guitars and noticing issues with output. After getting a hold of some diagrams and understanding the general functionality of it all, I got to modding! Popped a Blender knob and a kill switch onto that same partscaster and corrected the wiring. Turns out the neck pup was at half output, explaining my thin sound. Fixed that and did so much more than a shop could for WAY less. Highly recommend getting into it and studying it for your own guitars. Saves a lot of time and money.

You should learn to do those mods yourself and when you become good at it ( and you will ), you can experiment in ways that you can't by sending it into a guitar tech.

Last year, I did a mod to two of my traditional Strats, the 7 way sound.
I used a push / push pot for the volume and wired it where my first tone know works for the neck and middle pickup and the second tone knob works on the bridge pickup.

When activate the push / push pot, using a 5 way switch.
The neck position on the 5 way, activates , uses the neck and bridge pickup, like a Telecaster.
On the neck / middle position on the 5 way and the push / push pot activates all three pickups and it sounds like a high gain Metal monster .

My Schaller is S6 pickup is 13.6k ohms and the middle / neck are Fender Custom Shop 69 pickups .
I'm literally pushing 22k ohms + , it's a monster with Classic Strat overtones.

 

[Charvel1975]

I recently studied heavily to educate myself in guitar wiring/soldering after measuring some pickups in my guitars and noticing issues with output. After getting a hold of some diagrams and understanding the general functionality of it all, I got to modding! Popped a Blender knob and a kill switch onto that same partscaster and corrected the wiring. Turns out the neck pup was at half output, explaining my thin sound. Fixed that and did so much more than a shop could for WAY less. Highly recommend getting into it and studying it for your own guitars. Saves a lot of time and money.

I wish I could. Sorry it's been a while since I've gotten on here, our band has been playing out every weekend and I work a full time job during the week. I don't have any time to learn this guitar tech stuff that's why I try to take them somewhere to have this work done.

 

[Music&Chaos]

I wish I could. Sorry it's been a while since I've gotten on here, our band has been playing out every weekend and I work a full time job during the week. I don't have any time to learn this guitar tech stuff that's why I try to take them somewhere to have this work done.

Yeah, I also work...yada yada. It doesn't take that long to study. In my case, I saved the 30m to 1 hour worth of driving and spent it studying and can now easily solve problems in minutes. The wiring isn't that complicated and neither is soldering. You may live close to the shop, so it's more convenient in your case. Seeing as you are experiencing the same issue with 3 guitars and have now used up time to get zero results, I figured I'd give it a shot. Best of luck either way!

 

[Charvel1975]

Lame of them to turn down business.

Yea I know. I will say the owner of the shop seemed more concerned with focusing on his own guitar builds...

 

[Charvel1975]

Well that's good you were able

Yeah, I also work...yada yada. It doesn't take that long to study. In my case, I saved the 30m to 1 hour worth of driving and spent it studying and can now easily solve problems in minutes. The wiring isn't that complicated and neither is soldering. You may live close to the shop, so it's more convenient in your case. Seeing as you are experiencing the same issue with 3 guitars and have now used up time to get zero results, I figured I'd give it a shot. Best of luck either way!

Well that's good you learned how to do that stuff yourself ?

 

[Music&Chaos]

Well that's good you were able

Well that's good you learned how to do that stuff yourself ?

Yeah, the woes of living in the country. You'd better learn your repairs or you have to take a day off work to drive it! This also sounds silly man but if you are using thinner gauges on those guitars, bump them up one and see if that also helps to achieve the sound you are after. I've had 2 guitars that was the case with and have had no regrets since changing string gauge. Also, experiment with brand! Paul Davids has a great video comparison.

 

[ccn]

Well I picked up my Charvel model 5fx, Gibson Les Paul Special p100's and my Partscaster from guitar repair shop this morning, they had all 3 guitars for over a month and NEVER got them on the bench?! Not happy at all, going to try another place to have work done on the guitars 1 guitar at a time.

Anyhow, here's what's going on with the guitars:

The Charvel and the Gibson are both thin sounding and just uninspiring to play as they just don't sound right and the Partscaster is has very shrill high end. They're all tuned to standard E tuning.

1998 Gibson Les Paul Special - Factory P100 Neck & Dimarzio P90 Super Distortion Bridge pickups with .010 - .046 nickel wounds strings - needs wiring looked at as the Dimarzio P90, its thin/low output and possibly needs setup and from what I've been reading the P-90 P90 Super Distortion needs wired in series to give the full output and a fatter sound.

1988 Charvel Model 5FX - EMG 81 Bridge & SA neck pickups, Original Floyd Rose - Was setup before the end of last year by guitar repair shop with .009 - .042 nickel wounds strings with the .042 replaced with a .040, very sentimental as my parents got me this guitar for Christmas and was my 2nd guitar ever. The guitar sounds the same as the Gibson right now, thin and low output and uninspiring! New 9V battery was installed and EMG-81 raised closer to string but to no avail?! I've thought about just getting a new EMG-81 cause it comes with the wiring etc. but everything is sautered in because the EMG's in it are old and long before they did the quick connect stuff. I've debated if I wanted more versatility being able to go to single coil in the bridge pickup or not? I was reading up on the EMG-81TW, EMG-89R and EMG-57TW and some people said those pickups should fit my Charvel's bridge pickup cavity but I wonder how any of those would sound? I'm pretty sure the slant neck single coil is an EMG-SA although I've never removed it and the logo color is worn off. How do the new EMG-81 sound versus my old EMG-81?

Partscaster with .009 - .042 nickel wounds strings and a bridge Seymour Duncan TB-4 JB Trembucker wired to an Alpha push/pull volume pot, 500K I'm pretty sure, no tone pot. I haven't been playing it right now because it's really bright and ice picky and I think the pot is bad because the sound cuts in and out when rolling the volume knob up or down whether it's pushed in or pulled out. I read that the JB was designed for 250k pots and found a Mojo Tone CTS Push-pull Potentiometer - Short Shaft - 250k online @ Sweetwater I got to have installed but I just hope I don't lose too much high end. I don't think there is anything wrong with the wiring but then again, I'm no guitar tech.

Well I picked up my Charvel model 5fx, Gibson Les Paul Special p100's and my Partscaster from guitar repair shop this morning, they had all 3 guitars for over a month and NEVER got them on the bench?! Not happy at all.

Yeah , I wouldn't be a happy camper either , I mean you would think they would do something like polishing it at least .