OMG... Wayyy to bright, how to TONE it down.....

[jay4cars]

Re: OMG... Wayyy to bright, how to TONE it down.....

Thanks to all for your help! I swap my tubes in the ampeg to groove tubes today and.... Wow, it sound sooooo much f***ing better!! My high end is more warmer and hotter and the mids are more clear. My bottom is still a little light, but i'm going to go to the 10-52 strings and see what it sound like. Again thanks to all......

[Chickenwings]

Re: OMG... Wayyy to bright, how to TONE it down.....

cool!
What are you using to get your crunch from the ampeg? If you dont have a pedal for that (and i know you are asking about pickups) then
this thing is really cool into a vintage type amp for modern big crunch tones. You can add a prodigious amount of bass, and you can also fine tune the tightness and punch or loose/sponginess of the low end response too:

worth considering.
Then adding something meaty as hell like duncan custom in the bridge and you will have epic tones from a pretty small rig.

[KnifeR]

Re: OMG... Wayyy to bright, how to TONE it down.....

nice box

[Scott Marceau]

Re: OMG... Wayyy to bright, how to TONE it down.....

A pickup swap can always help, but have you tried 250k pots yet? Sometimes just lowering potentiometer values will tame high end. If you don't like how the stock pickups sound in general, even when you turn the tone down, then I'd swap pickups, but a cheaper way to experiment is sometimes just sticking some 250k's in.

[Rockstar216]

Re: OMG... Wayyy to bright, how to TONE it down.....

Since you said you already swapped your tubes and the amp sounds better I would suggest starting with smaller changes to see if you can get the sound you want.
Believe it or not your pick can change how bright your guitar sounds. What pick are you using? Also try messing with your pickup height to see if that helps.

[Securb]

Re: OMG... Wayyy to bright, how to TONE it down.....

I would suggest a decent EQ. A pickup swap will get you part of the way there but I don't think the Ibanez EX-1500 is the best guitar for the tone you are chasing.

[astrozombie]

Re: OMG... Wayyy to bright, how to TONE it down.....

A pickup swap can always help, but have you tried 250k pots yet? Sometimes just lowering potentiometer values will tame high end. If you don't like how the stock pickups sound in general, even when you turn the tone down, then I'd swap pickups, but a cheaper way to experiment is sometimes just sticking some 250k's in.

I was going to suggest this myself but I'm wondering what's being interpreted as "bright" maybe bright is "thin"?

[GilmourD]

Re: OMG... Wayyy to bright, how to TONE it down.....

FYI, in case this helps any so we have a baseline reference for what we're working with.



It's a maple body with Powersound pickups.

I think the guitar is the least of the problems here, although certainly not what I'd personally use for Metallica tone.

I'd scope out getting a nice distortion box and an EQ. I personally like the MXR 10-band, but a lot of success has been had with the Boss EQ pedal, too.

As far as the distortion goes, I'm hearing a lot of great things and great demos of this little inexpensive guy right here.

http://www.amazon.com/Quality-Portable-Adjustable-Deluxe-Distortion/dp/B008Y90Q62/ref=sr_1_1?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1387936728&sr=1-1&keywords=joyo+jf-39

[jay4cars]

Re: OMG... Wayyy to bright, how to TONE it down.....

I think i'm going to go with a 250 pot first and see how it goes, then try the SD-11 and go from there.......

[jay4cars]

Re: OMG... Wayyy to bright, how to TONE it down.....

My sound is still a little "thin" on the high end and need more bass on the lower end......

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Re: OMG... Wayyy to bright, how to TONE it down.....

FYI, in case this helps any so we have a baseline reference for what we're working with.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]49354[/ATTACH]

It's a maple body with Powersound pickups.

I think the guitar is the least of the problems here, although certainly not what I'd personally use for Metallica tone..

Unless you're a member of the club that thinks the type of wood used in a guitar is not a factor in its sound, I don't understand how we could conclude that the guitar itself is the least of the factors in contributing to the OP's complai t that the overall tone is way too bright, when the spec sheet says thay this guitar has the unusual charcteristic of being an ALL Maple guitar. Maple is one of, if not *the*, brightest of the tonewoods, and this guitar is ALL maple, not just the neck. I would suspect that 50% or more of the problem is from that bright tonewood.

I see it's still an issue even after changing to a 250k pot, giving another reason to consider the body and neck woods as a factor.

I also think Custom Custom is not a good choice for replacement pickup in this guitar, if the EQ spec on the SD Tone Comparison Chart is accurate with the Bass at only 3 of 10, the Mids at 7 of 10 and the Highs at 7 of 10. That sounds like adding fuel to the fire. But again, contingent on how accurate the SD Tone Chart spec is, as I have not personally tried that pickup.

I think the OP has to look at the Invader (as has already been recommended) or other Bass heavy, squashed Highs pickup options. Taming the highs and mids in this guitar will be a challenge.

[jay4cars]

Re: OMG... Wayyy to bright, how to TONE it down.....

The SD-11 i was told would work great for bright guitars like mine; i had seen the tone chart and thought the bass was too low and it seem the invader would bring out the high end too much because of the output......

[wolf]

Re: OMG... Wayyy to bright, how to TONE it down.....

How about a suggestion that will definitely cut the high end and will cost nothing? How about wiring the pickups in series?
I'd like to hear from others about this suggestion.

[namklak]

Re: OMG... Wayyy to bright, how to TONE it down.....

I have a guitar with a sycamore body (almost as bright as maple but a little dead) - I tried a Custom Custom in the bridge and it was too bright - the JB was the answer.
My $.02

[GilmourD]

Re: OMG... Wayyy to bright, how to TONE it down.....

I

Unless you're a member of the club that thinks the type of wood used in a guitar is not a factor in its sound, I don't understand how we could conclude that the guitar itself is the least of the factors in contributing to the OP's complai t that the overall tone is way too bright, when the spec sheet says thay this guitar has the unusual charcteristic of being an ALL Maple guitar. Maple is one of, if not *the*, brightest of the tonewoods, and this guitar is ALL maple, not just the neck. I would suspect that 50% or more of the problem is from that bright tonewood.

I see it's still an issue even after changing to a 250k pot, giving another reason to consider the body and neck woods as a factor.

I also think Custom Custom is not a good choice for replacement pickup in this guitar, if the EQ spec on the SD Tone Comparison Chart is accurate with the Bass at only 3 of 10, the Mids at 7 of 10 and the Highs at 7 of 10. That sounds like adding fuel to the fire. But again, contingent on how accurate the SD Tone Chart spec is, as I have not personally tried that pickup.

I think the OP has to look at the Invader (as has already been recommended) or other Bass heavy, squashed Highs pickup options. Taming the highs and mids in this guitar will be a challenge.

I'm most certainly not a member of that club. I certainly believe that wood has a fairly substantial effect on tone.

However... He's running through a small Ampeg and a small Fender amp... Even though the Fender is a Champ XD, I still wouldn't consider either of them ideal for Metallica tones. He needs some sort of distortion box or a different amp that's more appropriate. I think the guitar is closer to ideal than the amps are at this point.

That's not to say that the guitar is ideal. I would certainly swap out the pickup for something darker. Hetfield himself used an Invader in his bolt-on Electra V.