Fatten up an unusually bright SG

[jonnymangia]

Re: Fatten up an unusually bright SG

SG's are by and large bright guitars. I would stay away from anything Alnico II...A2 tends to have less bass than Alnico 5 and could cause the guitar to sound even brighter...what pickups are in the guitar right now?

LewGuitar pointed this out as well. That's why I went with Alnico V '59's in the SG.

 

[WICKED LESTER]

Re: Fatten up an unusually bright SG

Hi, this is my first post in this forum. I have taken some time to read through old posts, but couldn't seem to find this question. I have a gibson SG standard, that is unusually bright for a mahogany guitar. I'm looking for a set of pickups that will really fatten the sound up.
For the bridge I need something that can do a wide range of sounds (slightly overdriven to metal) without getting harsh in the treble range like the stock pickup but at the same time sounding articulate for chords. I have a high gain amp, that I have no problem overdriving the preamp so I don't need high output pickups.
For the neck I want it to have a thick vocal-like quality to it, for a blues sound, with sustain as a concern, and I don't really mind a muddy sounding neck pickup.
After reading through some other threads I'm thinking about a custom custom in the bridge, and a alnico II pro in the neck, but I wanted to ask because my SG is much brighter than any other one I've tried and I really hate harsh treble from the bridge.

dimarzio air zone fits this to a tee for the bridge it loves gain never is harsh and is very VOCAL mnoreso than the CC and a air norton in the neck is perfect or even a breed neck model is great as well :beerchug:
the CC will not really be all that fat and warm like a air zone
my bud has a SG with this combo and damn it is the best sounding SG i ever heard

 

[cementwave]

Re: Fatten up an unusually bright SG

I just had an idea. Tune your strings flat. Isnt that what Toni Iommi did? His SG sounds pretty dark. Just an idea.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Fatten up an unusually bright SG

If by fatter you mean more mids, then go for the A2 Pro HB neck and Custom Custom bridge. If by fatter you mean more bass, then you might like alnico 5 like a pair of 59N and 59B pickups. The 59's would be similar to what Clapton, Duane Allman, Tommy Iommi and all those guys who played early 60's SG's had in thier guitars but much better and more balanced tone from the 59N and 59B. If you want a hotter than vintage bridge pickup you might like the alnico 2 Custom Custom or the ceramic Custom or alnico 5 Custom 5 or JB for the bridge pickup. Lew

 

[jonnymangia]

Re: Fatten up an unusually bright SG

Good to see a tone master like Lew hangin' on this thread...as I'm writng this I am listening to the Cream bootleg from the Grande Ballroom in Detroit - 1967. IbanezRocks - you have to hear Clapton's SG. The man is shredding and it is a FAT TONE. If my SG only sounded anything like that...I went the '59 route with my SG and thinking that the continued thiness was due to playing through a small amp (Peavey Classic 30) I took the SG to GC today and cranked it through some Marshall stacks. It still sounded twin, especially after playing a LesPaul Studio after it.

Bottom line - I'm seriously considering selling the SG and picking up the Epi Les Paul ELitist. They are on sale for $799 at american music supply.

 

[XSSIVE]

Re: Fatten up an unusually bright SG

for your "problem" with a thin SG i have to be honest and tell you that you should be looking into dimarzio pickups. now, i love duncans and have them in lots of guitars but there are no duncans (i've tried TONS) that compete with the bass and lower mids you can get from some dimarzio pickups. i'd put either a tone zone, air zone or breed in the bridge and as for the neck, an air norton should work with either of those 3 bridge pickups well. i went through a similar problem with a bright strat and tried an invader, a distortion, a JB, a custom custom, a custom, an original trembucker, a dimebucker and then i got fed up and put in a dimarzio super 3 and FAT city, this thing has as much chunk as the fattest les paul but no flub or mud like it had when i tried the invader. i'm not sure the super 3 would be right for your guitar but it sure is a fat sounding pickup in my strat that still can scream for leads and pinch harmonics...so maybe it could be an option for you.

-Mike

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Fatten up an unusually bright SG

Good to see a tone master like Lew hangin' on this thread...as I'm writng this I am listening to the Cream bootleg from the Grande Ballroom in Detroit - 1967. IbanezRocks - you have to hear Clapton's SG. The man is shredding and it is a FAT TONE.

I was at that show! I even have an original Grande postcard from that night...they're like a mini version of the poster from that show and they used to give them away at the Grande. Thanks! Lew

 

[ibanezrocks]

Re: Fatten up an unusually bright SG

SG's are by and large bright guitars. I would stay away from anything Alnico II...A2 tends to have less bass than Alnico 5 and could cause the guitar to sound even brighter...what pickups are in the guitar right now?

It has the original pickups in it still.

thanks for all the responses, I didn't want to have to consider the dimarzios because then its twice as complicated, but I guess I'll look in to those as well.

 

[jonnymangia]

Re: Fatten up an unusually bright SG

I was at that show! I even have an original Grande postcard from that night...they're like a mini version of the poster from that show and they used to give them away at the Grande. Thanks! Lew

Lew - was Clapton playing the SG the entire show? Wow!!

IbanezRocks - Get rid of the stock Gibby bridge pickup. Even though I still haven't found a suitable bridge pup for my taste, both the CC and '59 were head and shoulders better than the stock pup.

 

[jonnymangia]

Re: Fatten up an unusually bright SG

For what it's worth I started diming the mids on my Classic 30 amp this morning and rolled the treble and bass back to about halfway. With the PRE set at about 1 o'clock I'm actually in ZZ Top territory. I never bothered with the mids before b/c I thought the SG was very "middy" by nature, so I always kept them at 0 or 1. Go figure.

 

[Johtosotku]

Re: Fatten up an unusually bright SG

I bought a brand new Gibson SG Standard last year, and I found the bridge hum to be horribly thin and shrill. I changed the pups to a DMZ Tone Zone/Paf Pro set, and it quite well cured the problem.

I've still started to think about going low-output with it, but with this thread I'm afraid I'll start sounding thin and shrill again. Is that really the case? You have to use high-output pups to have an even sound with it?

If it is not the case, how'd you compare the usually recommended Duncan 59s to pups of other makers? Like Fralin hums?

 

[JeffB]

Re: Fatten up an unusually bright SG

For what it's worth I started diming the mids on my Classic 30 amp this morning and rolled the treble and bass back to about halfway. With the PRE set at about 1 o'clock I'm actually in ZZ Top territory. I never bothered with the mids before b/c I thought the SG was very "middy" by nature, so I always kept them at 0 or 1. Go figure.

:smack: rolling off mids makes any guitar sound thin and bright IME. The Guitar is a midrange instrument tonally as is, rolling off mids makes them sound like crap...sorry death metal/metallica fans

SG's are "middy" (as are V's), but I don't think that should ever be compensated for at the amp...pickups are where to compensate, IMO..and ya got the right set in there for an SG, IMO...

Have ya tried diming all the controls, like ya would on a Marshall and then giving it some volume?

 

[superpete]

Re: Fatten up an unusually bright SG

Try a Rio Grande BBQ. That should fatten it right up

 

[jonnymangia]

Re: Fatten up an unusually bright SG

:

Have ya tried diming all the controls, like ya would on a Marshall and then giving it some volume?

I'd love to try it but I'll get evicted!! The BBQ sounds interesting. Too bad there are no tone clips for it on RioGrande's site.