Hello all! I've got a PRS SE Tremonti from 2014. It's a thin all-mahogany body, with a rosewood fretboard, 25" scale length and 10" fretboard radius. Think of a Les Paul Less Plus and you're most of the way there. I bought a set of Alnico II Pro humbuckers and had them installed. A covered humbucker in the neck, and uncovered zebra in the bridge because yeah, I'm a dork. Anyway. I picked it up again recently after playing other guitars for a year and a half and I'm not happy with the clean tone I'm getting from it.
I'm running through a Crate practice amp right now, but I had the same dissatisfaction with a Vox AC4C1-12 with a Celestian Blue speaker. Initially bass, mid, and treble knobs were at noon but I've been boosting treble to 1-2 pm, and dropping bass and mid down to 9-10 for more clarity. The bass is still boomy though, and there's a... quack (?) in there I don't care for as well as some shrillness on the top end.
I'm trying to get a clear warm tone from the neck, something like an A5-based vintage output Telecaster neck pickup with the tone rolled off a bit into an amp with bass/mid/treb at noon. If you've played a new Player series Telecaster recently, that'll give you an idea, just fatten it up a little. When I push the treble up though, or cut the bass/mids on my amp, the neck A2P sounds lifeless.
Should I try lowering the bass side of the humbucker and raising the pole pieces slightly?
When it comes to the bridge though, it sounds too thin without enough output. Twangier than the neck, thinner, much less bass. I'm expecting that flipping over to the bridge would give me a hotter tone, more muscle, but that's not what's happening here.
Did I goof by going for the Alnico 2 option? Should I have just gone with the Jazz neck and bridge? If I swap in an A5, will that boost clarity and output a little without getting muddy/flubby?
If it helps, take a listen to Lucille in this song and roll the treble down just a tad and that's what I'd love to be at.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y8QxOjuYHg
I'm running through a Crate practice amp right now, but I had the same dissatisfaction with a Vox AC4C1-12 with a Celestian Blue speaker. Initially bass, mid, and treble knobs were at noon but I've been boosting treble to 1-2 pm, and dropping bass and mid down to 9-10 for more clarity. The bass is still boomy though, and there's a... quack (?) in there I don't care for as well as some shrillness on the top end.
I'm trying to get a clear warm tone from the neck, something like an A5-based vintage output Telecaster neck pickup with the tone rolled off a bit into an amp with bass/mid/treb at noon. If you've played a new Player series Telecaster recently, that'll give you an idea, just fatten it up a little. When I push the treble up though, or cut the bass/mids on my amp, the neck A2P sounds lifeless.
Should I try lowering the bass side of the humbucker and raising the pole pieces slightly?
When it comes to the bridge though, it sounds too thin without enough output. Twangier than the neck, thinner, much less bass. I'm expecting that flipping over to the bridge would give me a hotter tone, more muscle, but that's not what's happening here.
Did I goof by going for the Alnico 2 option? Should I have just gone with the Jazz neck and bridge? If I swap in an A5, will that boost clarity and output a little without getting muddy/flubby?
If it helps, take a listen to Lucille in this song and roll the treble down just a tad and that's what I'd love to be at.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y8QxOjuYHg
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