Back to the drawing board..

[BloodRose]

Soooo. My Explorer has a 59/4 b in the neck and a C8 in the bridge. (Im embarrassed to say, but Im thinking it may be a distortion.. Been so long, Ive forgotten whats currently in it..) Thought I was happy with it.. Life was good...
Haven't Played it much as of late as the case is so cumbersome, plus since I'm limited to having one axe at the house at a time, I've been playing the Charvels the most as those are my fav necks.. Well, Red Label scoring his explorer gave me the fever again, so dusted off the Gibby. Plugged it up today and UGH!!!
Was so overly bright thru the Splawn.. Thought I had it dialed in, but... So, spent some time cranking down the treble side of the pickup and its better now, but still work to do..

Dang it! Thought it was set...

Anyone else go thru this?? Think you have one dialed in, only to find it isnt??

Signed,
Frustrated in FL

Sooo.. For out of curiousity, for you explorer players out there.. What pups do you run? I normally love the c8 in all Ive used it in. I need a string change so when I do, I'm going to pull the pup to see if I still have the C8 in it, or if I changed to a distortion and cant remember... lol

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Back to the drawing board..

I like bright guitars. My Parker P-38 with one of the humbuckers I wound almost sounds like a Tele! Really screams with distortion and cuts through the mix.


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[Ayrton]

Re: Back to the drawing board..

Don't hate on me, but I am pretty much set on most of my guitars. I am completely happy with my amps as well.

 

[Gtrjunior]

Re: Back to the drawing board..

I find that my Splawn can be picky about what sounds good through it.
I like pickups that aren’t overly bright with that amp as the amp’s midrange is very present.
That’s why I use 250k pots in my main players too.

 

[BloodRose]

Re: Back to the drawing board..

Don't hate on me, but I am pretty much set on most of my guitars. I am completely happy with my amps as well.

no hate, just envy

 

[BloodRose]

Re: Back to the drawing board..

I find that my Splawn can be picky about what sounds good through it.
I like pickups that aren’t overly bright with that amp as the amp’s midrange is very present.
That’s why I use 250k pots in my main players too.

most all of mine have 500k pots..

 

[Gtrjunior]

Re: Back to the drawing board.. Explorer pup

Re: Back to the drawing board.. Explorer pup

All of mine started out with 500k, but many got switched out tone chasing. Lol

 

[DonP]

Re: Back to the drawing board..

If I dig out a guitar I haven't used for a while it usually sounds as I remember it. Are you using the same amp (cab, speakers, pedals, etc)?

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Back to the drawing board..

We all go through changes in what we like and even what we actually hear over the years. Tastes change. And so what you describe is very common.
I can't imagine an Explorer sounding overly bright with a C8 but "a little bright" is actually my preference. Not necessarily because I like a bright tone all the time, but because it is easy to tame down brightness with the guitar's or amp's tone controls. It doesn't work the other way around however.
In fact, I wire all my guitar builds with a tone bypass switch so it is easy to do just that.

 

[BloodRose]

Re: Back to the drawing board..

If I dig out a guitar I haven't used for a while it usually sounds as I remember it. Are you using the same amp (cab, speakers, pedals, etc)?

yeah, only thing different is the guitar strap... I have a sneaky feeling, that has NOTHING to do with it. hahahaha