Congested and nasally guitar

[Top-L]

For nasally and congested, I’d try Mucinex and if that doesn’t work, then Flonase...

But seriously, an all mahogany body can be tricky to match pickups for a good, full sound. Think about why Gibson elected to add a maple top the the mahogany Les Paul. I had a beautiful 1-piece mahogany single hum body from Warmoth back when I was running EMG 57s in all my guitars. That guitar sounded SO ‘round’ and ‘warm’ to my ears. I also had an Ash single hum body with a 57 which to me sounded a bit ‘hard.’ I had played a show with decent stage volume and a really good front mix and switched guitars several times throughout the set. It all sounded good on stage. But after the show, everyone from a former guitar student to my wife said ‘that white guitar sounded incredible tonight’ and ‘the brown one looks so pretty, but sounded really muddy compared to your white one.’ (My Mahogany Guitar had a simple oil finish and the Ash guitar was bright white with black hardware) Exact same rig - Splawn QR - exact same amp settings - exact same cab - Greenback 4x12 - same Sound man - same mix. And identical EMG 57 pickups in each guitar. The all mahogany body just did not hold together live. After swapping several passives through that guitar, I ended up selling it and bolting the neck onto an old-school Alder strat body and it sounds killer. The Gibson SG works - but I think Mahogany needs something on top to help firm it up and help it cut in a live mix. That said, Mahogany tends to be bottom-heavy and does not offer much definition. It’s easy for a pickup to accentuate the ‘tubbiness’ of the wood and its also easy for a bright pickup to sound ice-picky. I think fuller mids help firm up the low end and add articulation to the highs.

I think every piece of mahogany sounds different.
I have had seven mahogany guitars over the years, some with tops and I can't say I know what mahogany really sounds like .

​​​​The m400 has an aggressive sound. Lots of cut. Mahog body and bolt on maple is way different than mahog mahog glue on.

 

[freefrog]

Those pickups with 500K volume only is crazy bright. Been there, done that. You can't put a 470K resistor across the terminals of a 500K volume and get it to taper right like it would with a tone pot, and the volume pot is actually wired up as a voltage divider. Change the volume out for 250K. What that will do is help to even out the EQ of the C5 some giving it a fuller sound. I find that mid-scooped can be quite congested sounded to me. A 250K volume also tames the upper mids of the JB. I'm speaking from experience in both instances.

For the record: when I’ve evoked a 470k resistor in parallel with the 500k volume pot, I’ve never claimed that it would have the "right" taper...

Simply, some people use their volume control(s) a lot while some others play with all controls cranked up all the time. For the second kind of players, a resistor would do the job and would be cheaper / easier to install than a new pot.

A resistor +alligator clips is also a good way to check if a new pot would make sense. It's not even necessary to open the guitar: putting the resistor between the hot and ground lugs of the output jack gives a good idea of the result, as long as one doesn't fiddle with the pot(s).

All that being said, in some cases, it can be a good idea to correct the taper of a pot with a parallel resistor...

Related footnote, shared as a reminder possibly useful: http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/potsecrets/potscret.htm

 

[dave74]

Same pickup but with a ceramic magnet will relax the mids and sound wider and crisper in both the lows and highs,,,,,,,,or just get tb-5 if not into mag-swapping.
If you like the Distortion but want a different flavor with less mids then the Custom is it.

 

[Mr. B]

Since you have one of the Custom-based pickups, you have the perfect test-bed for magnet swapping to see what that guitar likes. Even if you do not find the "perfect" tone you are looking for with one of the half-dozen custom-based variants, it will at least narrow down things that do NOT work in that guitar.

 

[Hsb]

Thanks for all the info guys. If I attempt a mag swap on the pickup, what size would I need?

Ill also look at swapping the volume pot. Both options are much cheaper than a new pickup or guitar.

 

[Lewguitar]

Thanks for all the info guys. If I attempt a mag swap on the pickup, what size would I need?

Ill also look at swapping the volume pot. Both options are much cheaper than a new pickup or guitar.

1/2" x 2 1/2". I get mine from AddictionFX. Most of the guys here do too, I think.

Ceramic will turn that Custom 5 into a Duncan Custom.

A Roughcast A5 will give your pickup more texture and warmer, rounder treble than the polished A5 in it now. I find the C5 to be edgey, overly bright and a bit sharp sounding. I wonder if that's what you describe as nasally?

In any case, I MUCH prefer Roughcast A5 and Roughcast is what is used in current Duncan Antiquitys...my favorite Duncan humbuckers.

You may as well order a Roughcast A2 as well. That's what's in Antiquitys.

You'll be amazed at how experimenting with different magnet types dramatically changes the tone of your pickup.

Your pickup is identical to three different pickups, with the only diff being the magnet.

Custom = ceramic

Custom Custom = alnico 2

Custom 5 = alnico 5.

 

[Gtrjunior]

I recently put a RC A8 in my Custom and I LOVE it.
I go for hard rock type tone (Jerry Cantrell etc), not sure what you’re after but it’s got more punch, nice present but not overwhelming mids and a rounded high end.
As long as you’re ordering mags it might be worth it to grab one of these as well.

 

[Hsb]

Thats exactly where I was just looking at and thought about getting an roughcast A2 and Ceramic to try, might through a roughcast A5 in the order too. Looks simple to do.

 

[playas]

Have you tried rubbing vaporub on the neck?

 

[Hsb]

Have you tried rubbing vaporub on the neck?

Can we add a Dislike button :nono::lol:

 

[Top-L]

Thats exactly where I was just looking at and thought about getting an roughcast A2 and Ceramic to try, might through a roughcast A5 in the order too. Looks simple to do.

The ceramic was the best in this pickup.

The original "Custom" which is ceramic is the best of the bunch. The A2 "Custom Custom" is soft and round with less output. The "Custom 5" was produced by the desires of the SD forum and seems almost to be a "why not" design. The Custom and Custom Custom existed for 30 some years, then people on the forum fell in love with the Custom 5, as if it was some well kept secret, even though Seymour obviously tried it and decided not to sell it.

If you have any old stock ibanez pickups, you can scavenge a ceramic from them.

 

[ICTGoober]

Has anyone mentioned trying a different brand of strings? I've found that sometimes can make a world of difference, and really wake up a guitar.

 

[Demanic]

I recently put a RC A8 in my Custom and I LOVE it.
I go for hard rock type tone (Jerry Cantrell etc), not sure what you�re after but it�s got more punch, nice present but not overwhelming mids and a rounded high end.
As long as you�re ordering mags it might be worth it to grab one of these as well.

Custom8, great pickup. There's also the Custom +, which is a Custom with a double thick ceramic.

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk

 

[dave74]

Custom8, great pickup. There's also the Custom +, which is a Custom with a double thick ceramic.

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk

Is the custom+ a custom shop offering,,,,or a do-it-yourself model?

 

[GuitarDoc]

Either. I's a simple procedure to replace a magnet, even a double thick one. But for a huge fee and a long time wait you could have the custom shop do it for you if you don't feel confident enough to try it.

 

[Top-L]

how do you put a double thick magnet in a pickup and put it back together? Will there be gaps on each side of the magnet? Are the screws long enough to hold things together? Will the pickup be too deep for some guitars?

And why not a 1.5x thick?

I thought the Custom was pretty hot, a double thick magnet would put it into X2N category, no?

 

[Demanic]

If you flip the existing spacer on its side it's usually enough to insure that there isn't a gap when you tighten it down.

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk

 

[beaubrummels]

Thats exactly where I was just looking at and thought about getting an roughcast A2 and Ceramic to try, might through a roughcast A5 in the order too. Looks simple to do.

Rough A2 Custom was kind of murky in my LP Studio. Polished A2 was like a nice loud A2P or a Slash with a bit more mids.

For the OP problem, I wonder if flipping the mid and treble settings on the jubilee would help some? (On my Marshalls, treble = high mids and mid = low mids). After that, the C8 idea, or back to original ceramic would be good. Other pickups that might work like Slash bridge, Brobucker bridge, Distortion bridge, or maybe Distortion neck in the bridge or 59/Custom. That’s what I would try, but my suggestions are kind of all over the map because I wouldn’t expect a mahogany guitar with a C5 into a Jubilee to be nasal in the first place. Makes me wonder what else is in the signal path.

 

[Lewguitar]

Rough A2 Custom was kind of murky in my LP Studio. Polished A2 was like a nice loud A2P or a Slash with a bit more mids.

I can see that being true although I've only had the Custom Custom with the stock polished A2, and not the rough A2, in my guitar.

I felt that it was a too smooth with the stock A2 so roughcast A2 might make the treble even smoother.

In that wind, I too think the Duncan Custom with a ceramic mag sounds best, and all the OP would need to do is swap the magnet to a ceramic.

The Custom 5 with a polished alnico 5 is too steely bright for me. Roughcast A5 might sound better.

But my experience with roughcast A5 is limited to paf based pickups like the Seth Lover, Antiquity and 59.

I have a feeling that since the OP liked the Duncan Disortion, which is like a JB but with a ceramic magnet, he might like the ceramic magnet Duncan Custom.

 

[Hsb]

Hey fellas, thanks for all the feedback and suggestions. Had a lil bit of time to mess with the guitar today, first thing I checked was the bridge pickup height, it was sitting at about 6 mm below the strings, so raised that up a little bit and that helped definitely brighten the guitar up a bit, played with the amp a little, threw in some eq pedal and getting happier with the sound. Not 100% loving it, but better. Still may try a mag swap just to test the waters

May also try a new trem block and swap out the FRS trem block for a brass one.

I have the old IBZ pickup that came out of my Iceman, not knowing exactly what was in it from the factory. Doing a little digging that to appears to be an A5 so.

Ill keep tinkering with it and hopefully get it to Im happy with it as I am the Iceman or at least close