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Basswood Charvels-cant get a decent tone

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  • #31
    Re: Basswood Charvels-cant get a decent tone

    To my knowledge the whitey Jem (7VWH) has always been alder. And it's never made in Indonesia..WTF?! The MII ones I know is the seafoam green 70P and the gaudy natural with very unique gear patterned Dimarzios.

    By the way the original white Jem 7VWH is actually a 77FP painted white right before embarking on a tour that was supposed to also promote the new white Jem, cause he liked the sound of that floral so much. A bit sneaky eh...lol.

    The green one is his natural strat he got from his mom painted green no?

    Dafuq are we doing talking about Vai I thuoght this was supposed to be about basswood Charvel...lol.

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    • #32
      Re: Basswood Charvels-cant get a decent tone

      Originally posted by ErikH View Post
      Yeah, that album is killer. I lean a little more towards Skyscraper when it comes to fav DLR era albums for him but my fav of his is still Passion and Warfare. I can still listen to that from start to finish and over again.

      I've been playing over 30 years and mostly a Strat guy (with humbuckers) but I like a good Gibson too, and Deans. Love my ML.
      I bought Skyscraper LP couple years back from local librarys music album removal bin for 1€.

      Pretty sad really...
      "So understand/Don't waste your time always searching for those wasted years/Face up, make your stand/And realize you're living in the golden years"
      Iron Maiden - Wasted Years

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      • #33
        Re: Basswood Charvels-cant get a decent tone

        Originally posted by ErikH View Post
        Yeah, that album is killer. I lean a little more towards Skyscraper when it comes to fav DLR era albums for him but my fav of his is still Passion and Warfare. I can still listen to that from start to finish and over again.

        I've been playing over 30 years and mostly a Strat guy (with humbuckers) but I like a good Gibson too, and Deans. Love my ML.
        FWIW, all of those were mostly done on basswood body guitars, Evo wasn't born until the 90s.

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        • #34
          Re: Basswood Charvels-cant get a decent tone

          Originally posted by NegativeEase View Post
          Basswood has "ass" included in the name.

          It's science people.


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          Sanford: "The hardest part about tone chasing is losing the expectations associated with the hardware."

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          • #35
            Re: Basswood Charvels-cant get a decent tone

            Originally posted by Obsessive Compulsive View Post
            To my knowledge the whitey Jem (7VWH) has always been alder. And it's never made in Indonesia..WTF?! The MII ones I know is the seafoam green 70P and the gaudy natural with very unique gear patterned Dimarzios.

            By the way the original white Jem 7VWH is actually a 77FP painted white right before embarking on a tour that was supposed to also promote the new white Jem, cause he liked the sound of that floral so much. A bit sneaky eh...lol.

            The green one is his natural strat he got from his mom painted green no?

            Dafuq are we doing talking about Vai I thuoght this was supposed to be about basswood Charvel...lol.
            The new white ones are alder and MII. The original and one and only Evo is alder and was one of the protos for that line. The painted floral that you are referring to is Evo II which came after Evo and has a sustainer in it, but yes the florals were basswood and FWIW, he also thought the cloth added to the tone.

            He sounds like Vai no matter what wood the guitar is made of or what pickups are in it, having owned mulitple JEMs I personally like the basswood ones myself, I prefer the rootbeers and PBKs because I like my guitars a little more subtle. I have owned the white and blue alder ones and they sound good, although the Evo pickups aren't my favorite. Of course, I really dislike almost all/especially white guitars with gold hardware (IMHO if it ain't a LPC, don't put gold on it, notable exception being a Richie Kotzen tele because when you are that good...).

            And, to tie it back to the original post, basswood is a good tone wood, just need to find the right pickups, and I would not have chosen either of the Duncans you tried. The PATB distortion has too much midrange and a chopped treble, works much better in a brighter wood like ash.
            Last edited by devastone; 01-09-2020, 11:57 AM.

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            • #36
              Re: Basswood Charvels-cant get a decent tone

              Originally posted by devastone View Post
              The new white ones are alder and MII. The original and one and only Evo is alder and was one of the protos for that line. The painted floral that you are referring to is Evo II which came after Evo and has a sustainer in it, but yes the florals were basswood and FWIW, he also thought the cloth added to the tone.

              He sounds like Vai no matter what wood the guitar is made of or what pickups are in it, having owned mulitple JEMs I personally like the basswood ones myself, I prefer the rootbeers and PBKs because I like my guitars a little more subtle. I have owned the white and blue alder ones and they sound good, although the Evo pickups aren't my favorite. Of course, I really dislike almost all/especially white guitars with gold hardware (IMHO if it ain't a LPC, don't put gold on it, notable exception being a Richie Kotzen tele because when you are that good...).

              And, to tie it back to the original post, basswood is a good tone wood, just need to find the right pickups, and I would not have chosen either of the Duncans you tried. The PATB distortion has too much midrange and a chopped treble, works much better in a brighter wood like ash.
              Just found out it's a Premium. I hope he isn't being gracefully phased out, as Jem sales according to the folks at Jemsite has declined for the past years.

              Gesendet von meinem ASUS_X00RD mit Tapatalk

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              • #37
                Re: Basswood Charvels-cant get a decent tone

                I'd try some active pickups
                “For me, when everything goes wrong – that’s when adventure starts.” Yvonne Chouinard

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                • #38
                  Re: Basswood Charvels-cant get a decent tone

                  Saw something the other day that looks like a new Vai model is coming out, looks very similar to the Jem but the hand grip is done differently and named after his wife, Pia. So if thats the case, not sure they are phasing out the Jem and replacing it with that model, rumor or keeping the Jem and adding a new line.
                  1994 Ibanez IC500 Iceman reissue
                  Jackson Soloist 7 string
                  ESP LTD M-400
                  Original Marshall Silver Jubilee 2553

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                  • #39
                    Re: Basswood Charvels-cant get a decent tone

                    Originally posted by Obsessive Compulsive View Post
                    Just found out it's a Premium. I hope he isn't being gracefully phased out, as Jem sales according to the folks at Jemsite has declined for the past years.

                    Gesendet von meinem ASUS_X00RD mit Tapatalk
                    Originally posted by Hsb View Post
                    Saw something the other day that looks like a new Vai model is coming out, looks very similar to the Jem but the hand grip is done differently and named after his wife, Pia. So if thats the case, not sure they are phasing out the Jem and replacing it with that model, rumor or keeping the Jem and adding a new line.

                    Yes, gawd awful colors and all gold hardware, I love Steve's playing but would not let him decorate my house (although the pics I've seen of his studio and house are nice). Guess I'm still on the search for an old RB or PBK at a decent price to replace my old faithful RB.

                    Images have surfaced on Facebook of a never-before-seen Ibanez Steve Vai PIA model, based on the JEM but with different frets, pickups and finishes. If genuine, will they be launched at NAMM?


                    But, I wouldn't worry about Steve, even if Ibz did phase him out (which would be stupid since he's probably responsible for selling more Ibzs that all their other artists combined, the RG is basically the same design as the JEM), he is quite business savvy and is doing fine. He actually made most of his initial $ in real estate as well as self distributing his early albums and not giving up any rights, so he got the lion's share of sales. Smart business says it's better to make $5 per album on 100,000 sales vs $0.10 per album on 1,000,000.

                    And back to the OP, try DiMarzios, they work very well in basswood, the Evo II is awesome, as is the Air Zone, regular Norton, and about a dozen others.
                    Last edited by devastone; 01-09-2020, 03:37 PM.

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                    • #40
                      Re: Basswood Charvels-cant get a decent tone



                      Beware the Basswood ...

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                      • #41
                        Re: Basswood Charvels-cant get a decent tone

                        Its all about the basswood
                        1994 Ibanez IC500 Iceman reissue
                        Jackson Soloist 7 string
                        ESP LTD M-400
                        Original Marshall Silver Jubilee 2553

                        Comment


                        • #42
                          Re: Basswood Charvels-cant get a decent tone

                          Originally posted by JMP/HBE View Post
                          Beware the Basswood ...
                          Cool Rails / Custom Custom


                          SSL-2 / SSL-2 / SSL-6T
                          Originally posted by crusty philtrum
                          And that's probably because most people with electric guitars seem more interested in their own performance rather than the effect on the listener ... in fact i don't think many people who own electric guitars even give a poop about the effect on a listener. Which is why many people play electric guitars but very very few of them are actually musicians.

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                          • #43
                            Re: Basswood Charvels-cant get a decent tone

                            Originally posted by Obsessive Compulsive View Post
                            ^That's nonsense. The real reason was basswood was and is abundant in Japan. That's why even today Fender Japans are generally basswood, teles and strats.
                            Except my MIJ Jackson WRMGs are alder, not basswood. In fact, all of the MIJ Jacksons I've owned over the last 20 years have been alder or poplar, including the Mustaine Pro, Warrior Pros and MGs, Soloist Pro, Concert V bass, and the Hot Rod and Hot Wheels Dinkys, just off the top of my head. Only the Charvels were basswood, except the 650XLs. The Killer KG-Pirate was basswood, and had the aluminumium Lo-TRS bridge, same as my Ibenhad EX350, and they had nearly identical tones. The basswood Charvel Model 2s (one black, one white), upon which I mounted genuine Made In Germany steel OFRs and Duncan Distortions, were tone monsters.

                            Crappy guitar companies like Cort, Hondo and Electra/Westone and People's Guitar Factory #3 in China during the 70s and 80s gave basswood a bad rep, because they were flooding the market with poorly made "affordable" guitars made of it. Period. That's the only reason basswood gets a bad rep these days. It's tradition by now. Not everyone who builds a guitar actually knows how to do it correctly, and CNC routing and automated assembly can only do so much. Machines are not kept in tolerance to meet those quotas, and who cares about a few hundred dogs getting out when you're turning out thousands a day and shipping them all over the world?

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                            • #44
                              Re: Basswood Charvels-cant get a decent tone

                              What kind of bridge do you have in there?

                              If it is anything floyd like try a random other floyd. And see what the block is made of and try something different.

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                              • #45
                                Re: Basswood Charvels-cant get a decent tone

                                Originally posted by devastone View Post
                                And back to the OP, try DiMarzios, they work very well in basswood, the Evo II is awesome, as is the Air Zone, regular Norton, and about a dozen others.
                                This. DMZ’s do very well in Basswood guitars. I recommend the Liquifire

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