How to fix your overly bright bridge humbucker on your maple-neck strat!

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StratMatt77

New member
This is meant to be something that people can find when they search "strat humbucker too bright".

I'm pasting in a reply that I just posted on another thread that will help people with maple neck strats that are too bright with a Pearly Gates or Custom in the bridge:

SHORT VERSION: Buy the Custom Custom. Done.

LONG VERSION: In 1998 I bought my first guitar- a MIM strat. As a newbie who could hardly play, I went to the music store and asked them how to get the solo sound in the Queensryche song "Della Brown" (at 4:44). They said "You need a humbucker", so I bought the Pearly Gates they sold me, went home and routed out my new strat's pickguard perfectly (thanks to the perfect diameter of the Dremel sanding drum) and installed it.
My first amp was a SS Fender Princeton Chorus with a distortion channel that was not good, but that Pearly Gates was ice-pick bright.
I think I may have put a 500K volume pot in with the humbucker at their suggestion, but I really can't remember for sure.
Anyway, the brightness/ice-pick treble was simply intolerable (maybe its better with a tube amp?).

So I exchanged it for a Custom which was much better, and then years later with my soldano astroverb and a 2x12 with a Vintage 30 and a G12H30 speaker I was still having harshness problems, so, after Duncan remade their website (this was over a decade ago) to indicate that the Custom Custom was best in "bright guitars" and the Custom was best in darker sounding guitars, I bought the Custom and it's been fantastic (it's alnico II while the Custom is ceramic).

Michael Wilton of Queensryche was using/endorsing it for a while but he may or may not have switched to something more high output...

And since I mentioned the Custom, that is the pickup Queensryche was using in the their ESPs in 1988 on the Operation Mindcrime album... an album which is very bright, Chris Degarmo even said they were going for a "cutting, almost irritating tone" on Mindcrime.
Chris and Michael both had bolt-on ESP M-IIs... Chris had ebony fretboards and Michael had maple.
 
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Re: How to fix your overly bright bridge humbucker on your maple-neck strat!

For those that find this post from a google search, the Pearly Gates neck pickup is not ice pick bright in most guitars, warm and creamy is actually how it sounds. It is one of the best PAF voiced pickups the SD makes. In a Les Paul it is amazing.
 
Re: How to fix your overly bright bridge humbucker on your maple-neck strat!

Is there no tone control on the guitar?
 
Re: How to fix your overly bright bridge humbucker on your maple-neck strat!

Depends somewhat on how you prefer your lows to respond.
The standard tb-5 can be as bright or as dark as you set the guitar, boost, amp's tone-knobs, and always have meaner lows than the CC.
If the lows on the CC work with/for your stuff then it's hard to beat for tone.
 
Re: How to fix your overly bright bridge humbucker on your maple-neck strat!

I approve of this. The Custom Custom is my bridge pickup of choice in any Strat.
 
Re: How to fix your overly bright bridge humbucker on your maple-neck strat!

Well, back then the tone controls on my stock MIM strat controlled the neck and middle, so, no, at that time I couldn't turn down the tone. ;)

Hmm... Quite a bit of push-back on this post!
I think I hit a nerve I didn't anticipate hitting!
Perhaps my 20 year-old memory of how the Pearly Gates was with my Solid State amp when I was a newbie is not a memory valid enough to be deposited into this site in order to be searchable. ;)

Unlike in 2005, The current state of the Duncan site does recommend the Custom Custom for bright guitars, so maybe this post should be deleted because it is not needed. ;)

Or maybe it is sufficient to point out that this is just one of many opinions that can be found out in the world?
 
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Re: How to fix your overly bright bridge humbucker on your maple-neck strat!

Thundermtn said:
For those that find this post from a google search, the Pearly Gates neck pickup is not ice pick bright in most guitars, warm and creamy is actually how it sounds. It is one of the best PAF voiced pickups the SD makes. In a Les Paul it is amazing.
Click to expand...

I'm talking about the Pearly Gates in the bridge position of a strat with a maple fretyboard.

Or perhaps I am mistaken because the Solid State amp I had at the time was too crappy or (this just occurred to me) maybe I had the pickup height set wrong since I put it in myself and knew basically nothing.
Have you heard this pickup in a strat bridge?
 
Re: How to fix your overly bright bridge humbucker on your maple-neck strat!

dave74 said:
Depends somewhat on how you prefer your lows to respond.
The standard tb-5 can be as bright or as dark as you set the guitar, boost, amp's tone-knobs, and always have meaner lows than the CC.
If the lows on the CC work with/for your stuff then it's hard to beat for tone.
Click to expand...

I remember that the ceramic Custom was pretty epic (crunchy, grindy, defined and present) for metal, but when I played lead up high on the neck it was just too much treble.

How would you describe the difference in bass? Is the Custom's bass deeper or at a lower frequency than the Custom Custom's or is it just louder bass?

I keep the bass setting on my amp at about 6 because the Custom Custom is too boomy with it any higher...


I actually have both the Custom Custom and a Custom on hand and am about to install the Custom Custom into the strat.

I'm going to drop the Custom into the bridge position of the 2008 ESP LTD MH-400 I bought off ebay (that had EMGs in it) which has a mahogany body and maple neck. I think the Custom is the best sounding pickup for metal in that Keith Merrow SD humbucker comparison clip. It's just perfection for metal/heavy stuff - though the Custom Custom works just fine for hard rock and even metal, but is better for metal with a little extra boost to get that Alice In Chains/Metallica level of saturation (I'm old... sorta).
 
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Re: How to fix your overly bright bridge humbucker on your maple-neck strat!

Wait whaaaat? Didn't you turn around and say that you thought it sounded super-bright for Queensryche...

and btw bolt-on ESP M's ain't exceptionally bright guitars to begin with

TRUE steps (try in that order, cumulatively, until desired effect achieved)
1) adjust the thing properly
2) slap a cover over it
3) get brass saddles
4) get a brass sustain block


Edit: step ZERO: learn how to EQ your fender amps (=/= point em north, marshall style)
 
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Re: How to fix your overly bright bridge humbucker on your maple-neck strat!

Adieu said:
Wait whaaaat? Didn't you turn around and say that you thought it sounded super-bright for Queensryche...

and btw bolt-on ESP M's ain't exceptionally bright guitars to begin with

TRUE steps (try in that order, cumulatively, until desired effect achieved)
1) adjust the thing properly
2) slap a cover over it
3) get brass saddles
4) get a brass sustain block

Edit: step ZERO: learn how to EQ your fender amps (=/= point em north, marshall style)
Click to expand...

I was going off on a tangent about the Custom and "Operation Mindcrime" after I had mentioned it in the context of my comment about the Custom Custom. I cited Chris Degarmo from Queensryche saying that they used Customs and were going for an almost irritating sound on that album.

The amp I was dealing with back in 1998 when I tried the Pearly Gates was a solid state Fender Princeton Chorus with a disgusting gain channel, so... not the best amp the be evaluating a pickup with... it was just what I had at the time. I've never tried the Pearly Gates with my soldano because I had exchanged it right away in 1998 (3 years before I got my astroverb).
 
Re: How to fix your overly bright bridge humbucker on your maple-neck strat!

Right then... so this is something you vaguely remember from 20 years ago, when you were very green, and aren't actually sure your conclusion was accurate?

Btw the brightness you're talking about is probably the zinginess of the MIM tremolo unit. Hmmm 90s Mexico, can't recall but here's a guess....Did it have the extremely shiny crap saddles too?
 
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Re: How to fix your overly bright bridge humbucker on your maple-neck strat!

I just don't want people to get the wrong impression of one of the best rock/PAF pickups out there, as a new poster you came off as a little trolly.
 
Re: How to fix your overly bright bridge humbucker on your maple-neck strat!

Simple answer: resolder one tone for neck/middle pickups and the other tone for bridge pickup. Takes 15 minutes and cost nothing.
 
Re: How to fix your overly bright bridge humbucker on your maple-neck strat!

D standard fixed everything for me. I built my new strat to be fairly bright with maple neck, 1 meg vol no tone, double screw angled A8 humbucker... and it's not even close to being too bright. Love it.
 
Re: How to fix your overly bright bridge humbucker on your maple-neck strat!

Adieu said:
Right then... so this is something you vaguely remember from 20 years ago, when you were very green, and aren't actually sure your conclusion was accurate?

Btw the brightness you're talking about is probably the zinginess of the MIM tremolo unit. Hmmm 90s Mexico, can't recall but here's a guess....Did it have the extremely shiny crap saddles too?
Click to expand...

Well said. Yes, in 1998 I hadn't done any upgrades to the guitar yet so it had the shiny crap saddles.
I'm going to delete this helpful post so that nobody can find it and be "helped" by it. :P

Do I know how to make an entrance or what?!!
 
Re: How to fix your overly bright bridge humbucker on your maple-neck strat!

StratMatt77 said:
Well said. Yes, in 1998 I hadn't done any upgrades to the guitar yet so it had the shiny crap saddles.
I'm going to delete this helpful post so that nobody can find it and be "helped" by it. :P

Do I know how to make an entrance or what?!!
Click to expand...

I'm not actually sure of this one though

some Mexicans seem to come with passable saddles...although some people have said they just made em LOOK right, but they can still be crap inside

Oh yeah forgot, there's also the bright guitar fix without taking anything apart - pure nickel round core strings
 
Re: How to fix your overly bright bridge humbucker on your maple-neck strat!

BTW, I use my tone control all the time. It solves the brightness issue. So does the tone controls on the amp.
 
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