How can I brighten up the sound of my guitar?

quoricsant

quoricsant

New member
Hello everyone

About a year ago I bought a BC Rich Beast NT guitar. I immediately noticed the sound was kinda dark, but didn't pay much attention at the time, as I was decided to make the bridge pickup into a SD AHB2 Blackouts (for metal playing). I decided to leave the stock neck on (passive), because the dark sound makes it good for playing some blues and jazz.

But nowadays (with the Blackouts active bridge) I'm still getting a terribly dark sound (almost muddy) and that really gets in the way when trying to setup a nice dist. I cannot play this guitar going into the same amp with another one because it will either sound as if all the highs were cut off by the tone knob, or else (if I turn up the highs or mid in the amp a bit) the other guitar will become unbearably bright!!

So it's not a matter of eq'ing I'd like to know if there's any way to make the sound brighter. The guitar is made from nato (BC Rich being the only brand that makes electrics with that wood), so I don't know if the wood would be to blame. I replaced the original strings with D'addarios Heavy Gauge (.12 -.54) so I guess that could also give me fat tone for jazzy sound, but mud for metal :(

Any advice, much appreciated
 
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Re: How can I brighten up the sound of my guitar?

First, lighter strings usually=brighter tone. You might need new pickups if most of your dark tone is in the pickups. However if you're trying to do Jazz, on a BC RIch, you're gonna get rejected from any jazz group. If you want a Jazz and lighter music sound, you'll probably have to get a new guitar specifically for less heavy sounds.
 
Re: How can I brighten up the sound of my guitar?

But the AHB2s are dark :confused:

What kind of bridge and neck mount does this thing have?
 
Re: How can I brighten up the sound of my guitar?

The easiest thing would be to change the magnets...
Do you like the bridge pickup sound?
 
Re: How can I brighten up the sound of my guitar?

Andrew Lamprecht said:
The easiest thing would be to change the magnets...
Do you like the bridge pickup sound?
Click to expand...

actually, the easiest thing to do would be lower neck pickup and raise the adjustable screws;)

lowering it will give you less output, but also more clarity. raising out the screws will also give you more clarity, and thin out the sound.
 
Re: How can I brighten up the sound of my guitar?

Regardless of the wood and pickups used in that guitar, changing out the Pots and caps and doing some internal wiring mods would brighten it up as well. LP's and other Humbucker equipped guitars with modern wiring often sound dark and compressed, LP's with the 50's scheme usually sound a bit brighter and have a little more edge to them. Does your Beast have 2 volumes and 1 tone control? What brand of pots are in in it, not CTS I'd bet?
 
Re: How can I brighten up the sound of my guitar?

Ordinarily I'd say to rewire the humbucker with a parallel or coil cut switch but since that is an active humbucker thats not an option.
Considering it is an active pickup wouldn't that make it easier to change the tone?
 
Re: How can I brighten up the sound of my guitar?

Turn the treble on the amp up when you use the BC Rich, turn the treble back down again when you switch to your other guitar.
 
How can i beef up the sound of my guitar?

How can i beef up the sound of my guitar?

I Want to make my guitar sound darker and beefier. My guitar is very thin/trebly sounding. Any advice?
 
Re: How can i beef up the sound of my guitar?

Re: How can i beef up the sound of my guitar?

vejiita said:
I Want to make my guitar sound darker and beefier. My guitar is very thin/trebly sounding. Any advice?
Click to expand...

Have you tried rolling off your Tone control just a bit, that should add some warmth and thicken it up?
 
Re: How can I brighten up the sound of my guitar?

Split the coils and add a 10band EQ pedal :D

Try 1meg pots too.



James
 
Re: How can I brighten up the sound of my guitar?

The Blackouts2 are the direct replacement of the now extinct Seymour Duncan LW-HMET Livewire Metal pickup.
That pickup was extremely bright and fizzy, so the blackouts should be as well.
Here's a pic:

beast_nt.jpg


The only difference with mine is I have replaced the stock passive bridge pup with the aforementioned SD Blackouts Metal.
As you can see the guitar has one volume one tone and 3-position switch. Because of the fact that the guitar has a passive pickup and an active one, the wiring is set so that the tone pot only gates the passive neck pup. With the current wiring only the upper switch position engages the neck pup (and the tone knob), besides the volume. The other two are for the Blackouts bridge and the volume.
The bridge is an original Floyd Ross.
Yes I like the clean tones that the stock passive neck gives very much, that's why I took the trouble of leaving it along with an active bridge.

The only idea I have come up with is changing the strings to a lighter gauge. But that's weird anyway because I have a Jackson with a .70 low E string and I have no problems there.
About the brand of pots I couldn't tell, because they are either the ones that came with the guitar by default, and the one that came with the Blackouts.
 
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Re: How can I brighten up the sound of my guitar?

Andrew Lamprecht said:
The easiest thing would be to change the magnets...
Do you like the bridge pickup sound?
Click to expand...

BWAHAHAHA :chairfall:laugh2:

If you can swap the magnet on an epoxy encased active pickup without damaging the coils or circuit board you my dear sir are god ;)

Unfortunately almost all the suggestions here arenot particularly helpful, Pot values make effectively no difference on the low-z signal of an active Pickup, magnet swaps are obviously a no go as well..

If the only options availabe all require keeping both the guitar and the pickup, then changing to a brigter set of strings (i.e. ones with a higher steel and lower nickel content such as for example Dean Markley Blue Steels or GHS boomers as opposed to "Standard" D´Addario nickel roundwounds) is really your only solution.

Nato is generally speaking a dark and somewhat "anemic" wood anyway, other than mid to lower range Imports from Yamaha (100-200$ acoustics) and BC Rich nobody uses it because it´s too expensive in comparison to more traditional tone woods such as alder or mahogany, both tonally and frpom a marketability standpoint. Tonally it´s another wannabe mahogany like agathis, just lacking a hint less...
 
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Re: How can I brighten up the sound of my guitar?

vejiita
I Want to make my guitar sound darker and beefier. My guitar is very thin/trebly sounding. Any advice?
Click to expand...

If you have a guitar with 2 or 3 single coils, put in a switching option to put 2 of those coils in series.
 
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