Re: Basswood Charvels-cant get a decent tone
Grover Jackson once stated he chose basswood for the import Charvels because, in his years of experience, he found that heavier guitars sounded thinner, while lighter guitars had more warmth. You can always add treble via EQ or pickups or hardware choices, but it's harder to take it out of an axe that is so dense and heavy that it has nothing but treble and high-mids.
The brass block is adding weight to the guitar, which will add treble, but along a specific EQ curve, and may result in the cancellation of certain frequencies, while doubling others.
As well, the pot-metal JT-6 is not exactly a tone monster. What a great many people fail to understand about most Jackson imports, even though they note it frequently, is that they put more time, effort, and money into the things that cannot be changed: body, neck, fretwork - than the hardware and pickups. "Restoring" an old import Charvel/Jackson to "factory specs" is a considerable downgrade. The in-house pickups sucked, the bridges sucked (there's a distinct difference between the Schaller-made JT-590 with a Jackson logo and the actual Schaller-branded version of that bridge), and the electronics were the most basic you could get, and were intended merely to get you amplified and playing. You are supposed to upgrade the hardware and electronics. This is how they were able to compete with mass-producers like Hondo, Ibanez, Cort, and Yamaha at the time, and still put out a better chunk of wood.
While they were cutting corners on the wood and overall craftsmanship to upgrade the hardware and electronics, C/J was doing the opposite, and that is what made them rise above the rest, moreso than the Randy Rhoads or other "hot shots" affiliations.
Ditch the Jackson bridge, get a genuine Germany-made OFR or Schaller-logoed model with the stock steel block, put in a quality post and a Switchcraft toggle (the stock toggles are the worst ever, even today) and put the PATB 1, 2, or 3 in the bridge and a Lil59 in the neck, then set your EQ properly.
Grover Jackson once stated he chose basswood for the import Charvels because, in his years of experience, he found that heavier guitars sounded thinner, while lighter guitars had more warmth. You can always add treble via EQ or pickups or hardware choices, but it's harder to take it out of an axe that is so dense and heavy that it has nothing but treble and high-mids.
The brass block is adding weight to the guitar, which will add treble, but along a specific EQ curve, and may result in the cancellation of certain frequencies, while doubling others.
As well, the pot-metal JT-6 is not exactly a tone monster. What a great many people fail to understand about most Jackson imports, even though they note it frequently, is that they put more time, effort, and money into the things that cannot be changed: body, neck, fretwork - than the hardware and pickups. "Restoring" an old import Charvel/Jackson to "factory specs" is a considerable downgrade. The in-house pickups sucked, the bridges sucked (there's a distinct difference between the Schaller-made JT-590 with a Jackson logo and the actual Schaller-branded version of that bridge), and the electronics were the most basic you could get, and were intended merely to get you amplified and playing. You are supposed to upgrade the hardware and electronics. This is how they were able to compete with mass-producers like Hondo, Ibanez, Cort, and Yamaha at the time, and still put out a better chunk of wood.
While they were cutting corners on the wood and overall craftsmanship to upgrade the hardware and electronics, C/J was doing the opposite, and that is what made them rise above the rest, moreso than the Randy Rhoads or other "hot shots" affiliations.
Ditch the Jackson bridge, get a genuine Germany-made OFR or Schaller-logoed model with the stock steel block, put in a quality post and a Switchcraft toggle (the stock toggles are the worst ever, even today) and put the PATB 1, 2, or 3 in the bridge and a Lil59 in the neck, then set your EQ properly.
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