Where's The Beef??

[Blackbasser]

Howdy gang. Looking for some recommendations. I have a thin ash bodied guitar, and every humbucker I've tried in the bridge sounds pretty shrill, with very little bottom end. I know the body doesn't help matters, but hoping for some help from you folks. It was suggested to me to try a Custom Custom, but was hoping for some other ideas. I enjoy a high gain chunky tone (a la muted metal sound). I needs mah beef!!
TIA

[ArtieToo]

Hard to beat the Perpetual Burn. Punchy, crunchy and not too bright. It's one of my new favs.

And welcome to the forum/

[misterwhizzy]

I'd consider the PATB-1. It's got a very full tone throughout, and you get sustain forever. On paper, I think a PATB-2 might be a better fit, but I can't recommend that, as I haven't played one.

[GuitarStv]

Tone Zone

[alex1fly]

Air Zone? It's beefy in everything I've tried. There's only so much you can do to overcome the natural sound of the guitar, though. Bigger strings, thicker picks, EQ pedal all help.

[Blackbasser]

OK for reference, when I was 8 years old, (1976) I got a 1965 Fender Mustang for Christmas. When I was a teen, I made the terrible mistake of hot rodding the crap out of it. So I had a Kahler trem flush mounted, and a humbucker in the bridge, and single in the neck. As stated, this one is the ash body, with a 22 fret maple one piece neck. I tried a Fury ZP20 to try to get as much power out of the humbucker (reads out at 19.5k ohms). Powerful, but way too shrill. I also tried an old Bill Lawrence XL500L (reads at 7.5k ohms). Also very shrill. I really want to tame the highs and add some beef in the bottom. It's a sweet little guitar that I'll never get rid of, mostly due to sentimental reasons, but I want it to still be functional. I've switched out all my other guitars to EMG 85's, or Blackouts. (Tried to upload a photo, but files size is too large)

[Blackbasser]

Hard to beat the Perpetual Burn. Punchy, crunchy and not too bright. It's one of my new favs.

And welcome to the forum/

Thanks for the kind welcome!!

[Blackbasser]

Air Zone? It's beefy in everything I've tried. There's only so much you can do to overcome the natural sound of the guitar, though. Bigger strings, thicker picks, EQ pedal all help.

I understand the size and wood of this guitar limits what I can get out of it tonally. Because of the small stature of this guitar, I can't really put too heavy a string on it. I do use Cobalt Slinky's on it, and 2mm Delron picks (use on everything). Flush mounted the Kahler to try and get some sustain and resonance.

[Ashurbanipal]

The Invader is another plenty beefy pu, like a wild yak. It's voiced to emphasize lows and mids more, which may help with the shrillness problem you're having.

[Blackbasser]

The Invader is another plenty beefy pu, like a wild yak. It's voiced to emphasize lows and mids more, which may help with the shrillness problem you're having.

Never heard an Invader I liked. But thanks for the suggestion.

[pskorz]

I’m thinking a JB could work well.
or a dimarzio super distortion? I have that in the bridge of an ash strat with a maple neck and floyd. It has a nice sounding high end, but good beefy lows and mids. Very well-rounded sound.
Or a super 3 if you need some more added low-end definition.

[Mincer]

I'd go Black Winter. Certainly not shrill, and much tighter for metal than the CC.

[dystrust]

OK for reference, when I was 8 years old, (1976) I got a 1965 Fender Mustang for Christmas. When I was a teen, I made the terrible mistake of hot rodding the crap out of it. So I had a Kahler trem flush mounted, and a humbucker in the bridge, and single in the neck. As stated, this one is the ash body, with a 22 fret maple one piece neck. I tried a Fury ZP20 to try to get as much power out of the humbucker (reads out at 19.5k ohms). Powerful, but way too shrill. I also tried an old Bill Lawrence XL500L (reads at 7.5k ohms). Also very shrill. I really want to tame the highs and add some beef in the bottom. It's a sweet little guitar that I'll never get rid of, mostly due to sentimental reasons, but I want it to still be functional. I've switched out all my other guitars to EMG 85's, or Blackouts. (Tried to upload a photo, but files size is too large)

Do you have a Kahler cam system, or one of their vintage of Floyd bridges? If you have a cam system, does it have steel cam and rollers? If that's the case, you can knock off a ton of brightness by swapping to a set of brass rollers. I have a Kahler cam system on one of my Charvels, and I've tried every combination of steel and brass on it as those were the parts I had on hand. With steel cam & rollers, the only bridge pickup I liked in it was an Invader as it was shrieking bright with pretty much everything else. With brass cam & rollers the Invader was muddy, but most other pickups sounded decent. I currently have it set up brass / brass with a Custom Custom, but I'm going for a tone somewhere between EVH & Jerry Cantrell. I've previously had a Full Shred, JB, & Custom 5 in there and all were usable though the Custom 5 was a bit bright, thin, and scooped.

[Blackbasser]

Do you have a Kahler cam system, or one of their vintage of Floyd bridges? If you have a cam system, does it have steel cam and rollers? If that's the case, you can knock off a ton of brightness by swapping to a set of brass rollers. I have a Kahler cam system on one of my Charvels, and I've tried every combination of steel and brass on it as those were the parts I had on hand. With steel cam & rollers, the only bridge pickup I liked in it was an Invader as it was shrieking bright with pretty much everything else. With brass cam & rollers the Invader was muddy, but most other pickups sounded decent. I currently have it set up brass / brass with a Custom Custom, but I'm going for a tone somewhere between EVH & Jerry Cantrell. I've previously had a Full Shred, JB, & Custom 5 in there and all were usable though the Custom 5 was a bit bright, thin, and scooped.

It's a steel cam, and I just replaced the brass rollers. (The old ones actually had grooves worn in to them, and they didn't always roll.) The Kahler is actually inset in to the body, to try to get more resonance and sustain. I wish I could upload a picture, but they are all too large a file. And there's nothing wrong with getting a Jerry Cantrell sound.

[Top-L]

Tone Zone

This is the pickup that ibanez puts in all kinds of mid/high range guitars. Its thick.