Invader neck is a strange pickup...

[Chad]

I got a new guitar that came stock with Invader bridge and neck pickups. The bridge pickup is high output and sounds huge and dark. The neck pickup is strange in comparison. It's like a polar opposite of the bridge. Fairly low wind that has high end that will cut your face off.

The guitar has only one master tone control. I'm tempted to disconnect the bridge pickup from the tone and leave it to control the neck pickup only, and I'll dial it back a bit.

Thoughts?

BTW, the bridge pickup is a TB-8 (I pulled it and that's what the sticker on the bottom says). Must be a shop floor custom or something. I didn't even think they made trembucker Invaders outside of the Synyster Gates signature model.

[Grindspine]

Re: Invader neck is a strange pickup...

Leaving the tone control on just the neck pup sounds like a good idea. You won't really need it with the invader bridge.

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Invader neck is a strange pickup...

Does your guitar have one or two vol pots? If it has two, then try a 250k vol pot for the neck...that will remove quite a bit of the highs. You may even want to do a combination of 250k vol and neck only tone if it is as bright as you make it sound.

[gvis]

Re: Invader neck is a strange pickup...

You could try swapping in an A2 mag. I did that and worked out great; tamed it nicely. Never tried it for metal since I don't use it for that, so it may make it too spongy for it. But for me it took an unuseable pup and made it very useable.

[vinta9e]

Re: Invader neck is a strange pickup...

Perhaps, you could remove the "de-mud" capacitor from the neck Invader.

[Chad]

Re: Invader neck is a strange pickup...

Perhaps, you could remove the "de-mud" capacitor from the neck Invader.

Have you got more info on that? Is the cap mounted to the baseplate or somewhere else easily visible/accessible?

Can anybody who has done this comment on the tonal change?

[Guitaraxz]

Re: Invader neck is a strange pickup...

Have you got more info on that? Is the cap mounted to the baseplate or somewhere else easily visible/accessible?

Can anybody who has done this comment on the tonal change?

The cap is between the south coil / north coil, you have to take the black tape off and you'll see it. It's in series so just snip off the wires from either side and rejoin the same wires (cap off of-course), put some tape on it and that's it.

The cap is there to make the pup "less dark", so taking it off may be just what you need. It's an easy mod, wont take long or cost you anything, give it a shot.

[Johnny the Kid]

Re: Invader neck is a strange pickup...

What kind of guitar did you get, if I might ask? I've only ever seen the Invaders on the Syn Gates sigs. I would suggest a warmer neck pickup. If you are willing to do a pickup swap. A PAF will warm that guitar right up, and you will be back to shredding in no time. That's why I don't like one tone on a guitar. If the bridge is good, but the neck sucks, you have to choose between a super warm bridge or a blindingly bright neck tone or do a tone knob dance with your hand.