INVADER & MOD ******** CURE FOR THE "DARK" TONE

gearhead63

gearhead63

New member
So I've had an Invader installed in one of my guitars for about a year. Great pickup. But compared to my SG with a 498T in the bridge position,
it's kind of "dark" sounding. Wasn't cutting through on solos real well, and didn't want to have to readjust my amp settings when using that guitar.
So I decided I would try a 1 Meg potentiometer on the volume. I've never tried that on any of my axes.
WOW! Really a huge difference! Open sound, lots of highs. Cuts through the mix well now.
Rolling the tone back to 3-4 will take it back to the sound it had with a 500K pot.
If you have one that's a bit dark, this is a cheap fix. Cost about $8.00 for a USA :unitedsta pot from Sweetwater, and about 10 minutes work.
 
Re: INVADER & MOD ******** CURE FOR THE "DARK" TONE

I've been thinking about trying 1 megs in a PRS 245. It mudifies anything I put in it. I've tested the pots and they are within 500k tolerances. I may try to track some of the right size down.
 
Re: INVADER & MOD ******** CURE FOR THE "DARK" TONE

You should try the invader with some super distortion style poles instead of the cap head ones, really tightens up the sound and DiMarzio sells them for $5 separately.
 
Re: INVADER & MOD ******** CURE FOR THE "DARK" TONE

Welcome to the forum!

The Invader also sounds good and not as muffle-y in parallel, too. But the 1 meg pot idea is great, especially if it has its own dedicated volume and tone control.
 
Re: INVADER & MOD ******** CURE FOR THE "DARK" TONE

It's also a good model to remove the tone-pot completely, or even wire raw to the output, provided you have an amp-mute or an extra true-bypass pedal to use out front at level 0.

I do like to have a single volume (un-bled) myself, so I sometimes go no tone and move the volume knob to the standard tone slot, especially with darker and/or more compressed models.
 
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