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Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

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  • #16
    Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

    When I saw the name of the thread, I thought "I bet he's using a Strat without a tone knob."



    Originally posted by Willy25 View Post
    I’m using the fender models on the Helix. All settings are at 12 o’clock but don’t like it. There’s no tone knob for the bridge pickup. It’s a strat
    ---------------------------
    The most popular thread I've ever made was 1) a joke and 2) based around literally the most inane/mundane question I could think of. That says something about me, or all of you, or both.

    https://forum.seymourduncan.com/show...or-for-a-Strat

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    • #17
      Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

      Originally posted by Willy25 View Post
      So on songs and YouTube videos they all using any of those options?
      Yep.


      Any or all. I've never heard a standard wound strat bridge that sounded usable with traditional strat wiring (no tone on bridge) without radically re-EQing the amp.
      Join me in the fight against muscular atrophy!

      Originally posted by Douglas Adams
      This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

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      • #18
        Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

        And if anything, most split HBs sound like even more anemic versions of a traditional Strat pickup. A reasonable way to get quack on 2 and 4, but terrible on their own. I've heard exceptions, of course, but...


        Any or all. I've never heard a standard wound strat bridge that sounded usable with traditional strat wiring (no tone on bridge) without radically re-EQing the amp.[/QUOTE]
        ---------------------------
        The most popular thread I've ever made was 1) a joke and 2) based around literally the most inane/mundane question I could think of. That says something about me, or all of you, or both.

        https://forum.seymourduncan.com/show...or-for-a-Strat

        Comment


        • #19
          Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

          Man, I wish new all this before buying this guitar :/ don’t feel like paying to get new things install.
          Maybe I’ll sell it. Ok so the G&L guitars can control the tone on the bridge? What about the Mx single coil strats?
          How is the wiring?

          Comment


          • #20
            Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

            if you have a soldering iron, its very simple to get the tone control on the bridge pup

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            • #21
              Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

              Originally posted by jeremy View Post
              if you have a soldering iron, its very simple to get the tone control on the bridge pup
              just add this jumper:
              Join me in the fight against muscular atrophy!

              Originally posted by Douglas Adams
              This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

              Comment


              • #22
                Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

                Regular Fender Strat wiring has had a tone control on the bridge pickup for quite some time now. MIM models used vintage+5-way wiring up till the ‘00s, and I’m not sure if they still do; they might have started putting the bridge pickup on a tone control now (standard U.S. wiring). Even the reissue oriented American models have come that way since 2012.

                I still say just don’t use the split alone. A split standard output humbucker is too thin and weak to tonally balance with two Texas Specials, and using the tone knob is only going to tamp it down even weaker. It mainly exists to be split when you are: 1) in position 2 on the switch (bridge/middle “notch” position), and/or 2) using heavy distortion and need lots of clarity from your pickup (weak output and minimal low end).
                Last edited by ItsaBass; 04-13-2020, 12:27 PM.
                Originally posted by LesStrat
                Yogi Berra was correct.
                Originally posted by JOLLY
                I do a few chord things, some crappy lead stuff, and then some rhythm stuff.

                Comment


                • #23
                  Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

                  Pump the brakes, chief. You've got, what, seven settings on that guitar and one of them too bright. Hardly cause for dumping it and starting over. I think every instrument I own has at least one setting I almost never touch.

                  Originally posted by Willy25 View Post
                  Man, I wish new all this before buying this guitar :/ don’t feel like paying to get new things install.
                  Maybe I’ll sell it. Ok so the G&L guitars can control the tone on the bridge? What about the Mx single coil strats?
                  How is the wiring?
                  ---------------------------
                  The most popular thread I've ever made was 1) a joke and 2) based around literally the most inane/mundane question I could think of. That says something about me, or all of you, or both.

                  https://forum.seymourduncan.com/show...or-for-a-Strat

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

                    yeah I set my RG2 up with out of Phase position that I never use

                    its there if I want it
                    I just never have
                    EHD
                    Just here surfing Guitar Pron
                    RG2EX1 w/ SD hot-rodded pickups / RG4EXFM1 w/ Carvin S22j/b + FVN middle
                    SR500 / Martin 000CE-1/Epiphone Hummingbird
                    Epiphone Florentine with OEM Probuckers
                    Ehdwuld branded Blue semi hollow custom with JB/Jazz
                    Reptile Green Gibson Custom Studio / Aqua Dean Shire semi hollow with piezo
                    Carvin Belair / Laney GC80A Acoustic Amp (a gift from Guitar Player Mag)
                    GNX3000 (yea I'm a modeler)

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

                      Adding a tone control to the bridge is almost a necessity on any Strat for me. I like having one for the neck & middle, and one for the bridge. A small wiring change in your guitar will almost certainly solve this.
                      Administrator of the SDUGF

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                      • #26
                        Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

                        Linking the bridge tone to another pickup is highly undesirable for me. There are no two pickups on a Strat that I ever want being at the same tone setting, so doubling up pickups on the same tone control necessitates constant tone knob fiddling with the way I play. I absolute hate G&L's PTB system for this reason. Makes everything a master control...and I never want a bass cut on a Strat anyhow.

                        Even if I did want or need a tone control on the bridge pickup, I would rather pull it from one of the others in order to get it...or wire the Strat for T/T/T, and give up the volume knob (which I almost never use on a Strat). I'd pull it off the middle pickup if I thought I needed it on the bridge. I rarely tamp down my middle pickup, so I could live without a tone knob there.

                        I set my Strats/amps up so that the middle pickup is the "home base" tone. Then the neck is one darker, and the bridge is one brighter, and you're good. There's no situation in which I would want the bridge pickup, but with the tone rolled back; I'd use the middle pickup if I wanted that. I only use the bridge pickup when I want a ton of brightness...e.g. when deliberately using extreme "twang," or driving the amp into breakup – to help retain clarity. Same reason (but less extreme) that you'd use the strangle switch on a Jaguar: to remove low end for a cleaner output from the guitar, which then retains more clarity when it heavily breaks up in the amp.

                        The other key is lowering your other pickups so everything is more balanced in terms of output.

                        FWIW, I wire my Strats without notch positions (3-way switch). I never use those tones (I don't like the frequency notching), and they just get in the way of me quickly returning the switch to the middle poisition while playing.

                        The Strat and the Jazzmaster are the two things that Fender got totally right within the first few months of production, IMO. For the things I play, vintage Strat and Jazzmaster wiring cannot be improved upon.
                        Last edited by ItsaBass; 04-13-2020, 08:51 PM.
                        Originally posted by LesStrat
                        Yogi Berra was correct.
                        Originally posted by JOLLY
                        I do a few chord things, some crappy lead stuff, and then some rhythm stuff.

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

                          Me too. Without it, Bridge Only on a Strat ranks below even Neck Only on a Tele for me.

                          Originally posted by Mincer View Post
                          Adding a tone control to the bridge is almost a necessity on any Strat for me.
                          ---------------------------
                          The most popular thread I've ever made was 1) a joke and 2) based around literally the most inane/mundane question I could think of. That says something about me, or all of you, or both.

                          https://forum.seymourduncan.com/show...or-for-a-Strat

                          Comment


                          • #28
                            Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

                            Originally posted by St_Genesius View Post
                            Me too. Without it, Bridge Only on a Strat ranks below even Neck Only on a Tele for me.
                            This I can agree with. I did grow up playing a 1982 Strat that had a master tone control. So I got really used to using one on all 3 pickups.
                            Administrator of the SDUGF

                            Comment


                            • #29
                              Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

                              thank you guys I’ll check all the options.
                              One more thing, months ago I was getting this noise tremolo effect on the middle and neck pickup when playing certain notes on the neck. Specially the g string. I was told to just push the pull pieces down. So I did and the noise went away like 80% but now that I wanna cover some Steve and Hendrix stuff and can get a good tone. I have to raise all the presence and treble up.

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                              • #30
                                Re: Why my bridge single coil sounds harsh and lots of treble?

                                That noise is what happens when you put a single coil pickup too close to the strings. Usually people lower the whole pickup to fix this problem. It can be dangerous to push the magnet pole pieces up or down in a single coil because it can break the wire and leave you with a dead pickup.
                                Join me in the fight against muscular atrophy!

                                Originally posted by Douglas Adams
                                This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

                                Comment

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