Tone-bros: help me tame a bright, maple/mahogany guitar.

[Nigel]

It's a late 70's ibanez studio 100.

3ply maple set neck, 24 frets, rosewood board, body has a maple center and mahogany wings, stoptail bridge.

This guitar is extraordinarily bright.

Have tried 250 pots, but that chokes humbuckers. It seems like it needs a high output bridge to tame the highs...

Any pickup suggestions? PRails with 250K pots are too consticted, with 500K's it's too bright even in series HB mode.

This is through a Rivera M60, Mullard long plates, RFT EL34's biased warm, with solid cables.

 

[glpg80]

something with a seymour duncan Alnico 8 magnet. a character similar to A5's but a darker/deeper character to them.

try a tonezone, they are noticeably darker and respond to being much darker in attitude in guitars with rosewood FB's. stock tonezone's are A5

stick with 500k pots, 1M pots will eccentriate the highs more than what you need. only when you get the right pickup would i change the pot. also, if you are running a short cable consider upgrading to a longer cable - 25ft or so. larger cable capacitance in regards to ground insulation wire to the inner signal cable will bleed off more of the bright character.

 

[GuitarGoat]

EMG 85

 

[J.B.]

If it were me, I'd throw a Tone Zone in there and see what happens.

 

[chumbucket]

I third the suggestion for the ToneZone.

 

[steve_k]

It's a late 70's ibanez studio 100.

3ply maple set neck, 24 frets, rosewood board, body has a maple center and mahogany wings, stoptail bridge.

This guitar is extraordinarily bright.

Have tried 250 pots, but that chokes humbuckers. It seems like it needs a high output bridge to tame the highs...

Any pickup suggestions? PRails with 250K pots are too consticted, with 500K's it's too bright even in series HB mode.

This is through a Rivera M60, Mullard long plates, RFT EL34's biased warm, with solid cables.

Did you try playing with the capacitors when you were changing pots?

Steve

 

[Erock]

BK Holydiver, the perfect compliment to a bright guitar IMO.

 

[mboogman]

Can't count out the air norton in the bridge. Phat.

 

[FourT6and2]

Duncan JB + 300k volume pot = win

 

[Mr. Willy]

Rio Grande BBQ is pretty dark. Sounds good too.

 

[Mr. Willy]

I third the suggestion for the ToneZone.

What guitars are you guys playing these in? I thought the TZ was mud city.

 

[The Hoff]

Tom Anderson H3.

 

[glpg80]

I third the suggestion for the ToneZone.

What guitars are you guys playing these in? I thought the TZ was mud city.

guitars that have bright woods in them

the tonezone with a 1M pot is extremely high output and with a bright guitar it will work great. you will have to do some definite EQ'ing on the amplifier side of things to get it to balance out correctly.

tonezone's hate downtuning - they cant handle it and turn to mush. but they are the first thing i go to in order to tame a bright guitar because they do the job well - if the guitar is going to be downtuned with thicker gauge strings then i go to other more viable options.

 

[Mr. Willy]

Tom Anderson H3.

I love my H2+. Anderson = killer pickups. Keep it on the down-low, we don't want others to know.

 

[Mr. Willy]

I third the suggestion for the ToneZone.

What guitars are you guys playing these in? I thought the TZ was mud city.

guitars that have bright woods in them

Do you consider Basswood bright?

 

[glpg80]

I third the suggestion for the ToneZone.

What guitars are you guys playing these in? I thought the TZ was mud city.

guitars that have bright woods in them

Do you consider Basswood bright?

having owned a basswood wolfie, i would say no, its more neutral. brighter than mahogany, darker than maple, more resonate than alder; a very very resonate wood. dings easily too - very hard to keep them from getting dented/damaged unlike alder.

IMHO basswood is very touchy as to what neck and fretboard wood you are using. you can really shape a basswood guitar in tone with a simple neck wood change, have to be more careful with it compared to example mahogany/maple top which is more dominant in tonal control to the guitar as a whole.

i preferred the stock wolfgang pickups in basswood. that combination was just fucking unreal - a serious tone beast.

 

[Nigel]

something with a seymour duncan Alnico 8 magnet. a character similar to A5's but a darker/deeper character to them.

try a tonezone, they are noticeably darker and respond to being much darker in attitude in guitars with rosewood FB's. stock tonezone's are A5

stick with 500k pots, 1M pots will eccentriate the highs more than what you need. only when you get the right pickup would i change the pot. also, if you are running a short cable consider upgrading to a longer cable - 25ft or so. larger cable capacitance in regards to ground insulation wire to the inner signal cable will bleed off more of the bright character.

I was thinking the P-Rails hot with the A8 mag. Just need a darker bridge tone. I love JB's, and have one in a Brian Moore I2 with a 333K resistor in line so it sees @140K, like having 250K pots which is where it needs to be in a lightweight les paul type guitar. I really want the single coil tones too...might try that Tone Zone; have little experience with DiMarzios.

Thanks for all the suggestions, y'all! I play all six strings alot, with left-hand muting and droning strings as I favor a modal tuning for rocking out. Cheers!

 

[Nigel]

Tom Anderson H3.

I love my H2+. Anderson = killer pickups. Keep it on the down-low, we don't want others to know.

Love Billy Howerdell's tone on the APC/AD stuff.

 

[Nigel]

Did you try playing with the capacitors when you were changing pots?

Steve

I usually do a .015, modern wired in that guitar because it's too bright 50's style. Maybe I should put a .047 in it. Just don't like the roll off with those for most things. I like rolled back QOTSA type drony-stoner single note riffing..anything over a .022 won't get there. Hell, I just need to wire a switch for a .015 from the volume pot's input to ground and be done with it. hehe

 

[chunktone]

Rio Grande BBQ is pretty dark. Sounds good too.

The BBQ is a great pickup. I'd give it a try. I have one in 2 of my guitars.