I'm confused..steer me straight

[MetalManiac]

I bought a budget Bc Rch. The tone is passable, but the action is insane. So low its anbout only good for Shred metal ( which I like, casue I do a ,ot of), but on the ther hand, the Gibson has amazing tone, way better than the BC Rich, and you can dig in for traditional metal licks, but by the same token, the kind of blazing action riffs the Rich allows arent possible with the Gibson. Then the APEAVY, ITS ABOUT THE SAME AS THE gibson, and has really good sound, but not the blazing action of the Rich.
So, I suppose I should set my sighst on a high end Rich, which ofers both the tone of the Gibson, and the insane low action of the cheap Korean one I got here in the picture.Its about the flat radius, 9 gauge strings, big( but not huge) ftrets.

 

[Myaccount876]

Re: I'm confused..steer me straight

Have you tried messing with the pickups of the BC Rich to try and get a better sound?

 

[CTN]

Re: I'm confused..steer me straight

Jer, maybe you should just get the guitars setup by someone knowledgeable. Any guitar can be set up for low action.

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: I'm confused..steer me straight

Thats the thing, you would be astonished, I really never knew just how low/fast action could be. You cant get any guitar to paly like the Rich, casue my Gibson is set up to paly low as it goes.
My Account, good to see ya dude. Ive got nothing against actives pre-se, and this Rich guitar, has given up all the good tis going to tone-wise ; no real use to change pups.
Like I said, you cannot get much of the play-action off the Rich board, ya can't dig in like on the Gibson or Peavy, its pretty mcuh only for sweep picking, extra lighht gauge strings and very fast scale runs

 

[CTN]

Re: I'm confused..steer me straight

now by action are you referring to string height above the fretboard or string height above the frets?

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: I'm confused..steer me straight

Good question CTN. Im not certina. Action is flat agianst the ftret, and low as I ever seen on the fretboad, which is a very slick ebony ( cheop baiord , lots of filelr and polish) . Its not TOO cheap, its a 1000.00 guitar.

 

[CTN]

Re: I'm confused..steer me straight

I asked cuz action actually is string height above the frets. With lower frets, low action means the strings are closer to the fretboard. low action with high frets means they're further away from the fretboard. I find that lower frets tend to feel more slick and faster than higher frets, but that's just me. Many other people find high frets faster because they enable a feel that gets closer to the feel of a scalloped neck. Low action is low action, regardless, and is attainable regardless of the guitar or the frets.

Gibby's usually have smaller frets than shred or metal oriented guitars, so the difference you're feeling is probably the difference in frets.

 

[Myaccount876]

Re: I'm confused..steer me straight

I still think a pickup change could still improve it; "Does a Guitar have a soul? Yes, it does. The pickups are the living soul of the guitar!"

I think this because we both don't have anything against actives, but I've found that no so good actives really make a guitar suffer. Just like of their passive brethren. You're really already halfway to finding better pups, you're on the SD forum afterall.

If that actually does not work so well, there is also the possibility of a refinish or other mods such as a new and different sustain block for the floyd.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: I'm confused..steer me straight

Any guitar can be set up for low action.

Well, maybe not any guitar. I once saw a new LTD explorer-type hanging in a store. It was set neck with a TOM bridge and tailpiece, but the neck angle was straight like you'd see on a Strat or something else with a low bridge. No matter what you did with the bridge, there was no getting a low action on that thing -- not with the factory equipment.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: I'm confused..steer me straight

You have been steered. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Hereford_bull_large.jpg

 

[CTN]

Re: I'm confused..steer me straight

Well, maybe not any guitar. I once saw a new LTD explorer-type hanging in a store. It was set neck with a TOM bridge and tailpiece, but the neck angle was straight like you'd see on a Strat or something else with a low bridge. No matter what you did with the bridge, there was no getting a low action on that thing -- not with the factory equipment.

interesting. wonder if it was a factory defect or something, cuz that sorta design makes no sense whatsoever...unless the TOM is has a recessed route.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: I'm confused..steer me straight

interesting. wonder if it was a factory defect or something, cuz that sorta design makes no sense whatsoever...unless the TOM is has a recessed route.

It didn't. I've seen many Epiphone and LTD explorers with TOM bridges; all had angled necks and no recess below the bridge.

 

[CTN]

Re: I'm confused..steer me straight

some of the 70s Gibby SGs (if memory serves) had no neck angle, but the fretboard/playing surface was raised up quite high above the top of the body to compensate.