Bringing the chug to Full Shred

[weepingminotaur]

If you play metal, do you have experience shaping your tone to get chugs out of a guitar with a Full Shred in the bridge? I like the chugs I can get from my other metal guitars (Nazgul and Black Winter), but I'd like a little more oomph from the FS. Any tips, EQ settings, tricks? It's a direct mount FS so I can't really play with pickup height apart from individual pole piece adjustments.

 

[Hiwatts and Gibsons]

EQ would be your best bet.

 

[weepingminotaur]

EQ would be your best bet.

No offence, but that goes without saying. I'm asking if anyone has any specific EQ tips that work for this particular pickup.

 

[Hiwatts and Gibsons]

No offence, but that goes without saying. I'm asking if anyone has any specific EQ tips that work for this particular pickup.

Move the sliders.until.you get the tone you are looking for. No tricks.

 

[Mincer]

Well, it doesn't really have the chuggy lows that a lot of modern metal pickups have. It does the 80s glam thing very well, but not so good with chuggy stuff simply because of the EQ. My thoughts are that you are really gonna have to make the amp or distortion pedal do most of the lifting here.

 

[Juanhanglo]

I was very impressed with my full shred set when I bumped up the bass at my amp. That's all I needed. It takes the edge off of the brightness too.

Chug away!

 

[weepingminotaur]

Well, it doesn't really have the chuggy lows that a lot of modern metal pickups have. It does the 80s glam thing very well, but not so good with chuggy stuff simply because of the EQ. My thoughts are that you are really gonna have to make the amp or distortion pedal do most of the lifting here.

That's what I thought. I've been fiddling around with amp EQ a fair bit. I suspect I'll have to dial in a tone specifically for this guitar, rather than using the one that works for my other metal guitars. I've tried playing with the low cut frequencies and bumping the bass a bit. More trial and error awaits.

 

[IMENATOR]

My two cents. Dont use a tube screamer, it will cut lows and that pickup is already tight, if you really want to push the amp further I would rather use a clean boost or an overdrive that wont cut the low freq. But I like the FS pickups more for its clarity and attack, nice cleans too.

 

[devastone]

At this point I would say try another pickup, if time = $, you've already spent a lot. I'm sure you could sell the FS and get some back. It's a great pup, but no really for what you are tying to get it to do.

 

[weepingminotaur]

At this point I would say try another pickup, if time = $, you've already spent a lot. I'm sure you could sell the FS and get some back. It's a great pup, but no really for what you are tying to get it to do.

That is definitely an option, though one I'd want to avoid, since that's more cash spent and also I like the FS a lot for non-chugging applications. It cleans up real nice.

But we'll see. If I can't dial in a good metal rhythm, I may swap it out.

 

[Chistopher]

What's the rest of your rig? How am I supposed to know to tell you to turn the bass up on your metal zone if you haven't told me you have a metal zone?

 

[Seashore]

^ That is a good question.

My favorite way of tone shaping a pickup that needs more oomph is with an always-on EQ pedal first in the chain. You can make it sound and feel like a different pickup. Hard to know what exactly I would do if I had your ears and your setup, but if it needs more bite, start with a high mid boost somewhere between 1.6-2.5kHz, maybe a few dB overall boost underneath that, and if you're missing some girth, dial it in on the low end. It's worth fine tuning. I use a Wampler EQuator but I also really like the parametric EQ on the HX Effects.

 

[weepingminotaur]

What's the rest of your rig? How am I supposed to know to tell you to turn the bass up on your metal zone if you haven't told me you have a metal zone?

Plugging straight into a Boss Katana 50. I tend to like and use the TS tone studio boost. Brown channel obviously.

 

[Seashore]

I only got to play around with a Katana for a couple hours, but it seems like you should have no problem dialing in a high gain patch specifically for your Full Shred guitar on that platform.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Even if it's direct-mounted, you should be able to play with the pickup height. How is it mounted? NOrmally, direct-mounted pickups have a block of foam so that if you losen the screws that mounts it, it pushes it closer towards the strings.

 

[Mincer]

I only got to play around with a Katana for a couple hours, but it seems like you should have no problem dialing in a high gain patch specifically for your Full Shred guitar on that platform.

I agree with this. It won't sound like modern metal pickups through an ENGL, but it should be fine- the Katana has a ton of ways to EQ the sound once you connect it to a computer.

 

[weepingminotaur]

Even if it's direct-mounted, you should be able to play with the pickup height. How is it mounted? NOrmally, direct-mounted pickups have a block of foam so that if you losen the screws that mounts it, it pushes it closer towards the strings.

It's direct-mounted.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

It's direct-mounted.

My point is you can still set the height on direct mounted pickups to get them closer to the strings.

 

[weepingminotaur]

I agree with this. It won't sound like modern metal pickups through an ENGL, but it should be fine- the Katana has a ton of ways to EQ the sound once you connect it to a computer.

Yeah, I mean, I'm aware. I originally posted to see if anyone had any specific EQ tips. Not because I was unaware of what the Katana can do.

 

[Juanhanglo]

Just pick your favorite gain structure, then go to the amp and bump up the bass until you hear what you like.

its that easy.