My neck position doesn't seem to agree with me.

xfabianromerox

xfabianromerox

New member
Currently trying to brighten up with Les Paul Custom's neck position and I don't know what to do.

I switched out the 490r that comes stock because of how muffled it sounds. I tried to play with the height, the individual poles, and the tone and volume of course, but I just couldn't get it to work for me.

I eventually switched the neck for a 59n because it sounds killer on my other LP and my HSH strat. It sounded better, but not exactly great. It sounds muffled and squished, sort of like it's being over compressed.

I figured it might be the wiring or material as my other LP is a tribute that is all mahogany, super light with the modern chambering and has 50s wiring. I doubt it's the pots because I read that customs have 500k pots and I heard gibson just brands CTS pots, which are what I have in my other LP.

I'm open to any ideas.

And before anyone asks, I love the way the guitar looks and feels, and the bridge is KILLLLLLERRRR. That's why i won't get rid of it.

Thanks in advance for the help :)
 
Re: My neck position doesn't seem to agree with me.

Put an A4 in the 59n to reign in some of the bass, removing squishyness and emphasising more treebles. It is a common mod here on the forum.
 
Re: My neck position doesn't seem to agree with me.

Also you can turn the pickup around so the screws face in. You can no load your tone pot, or for more effect you can go to a 1 meg volume pot.
 
Re: My neck position doesn't seem to agree with me.

What value pots are there for the neck volume and tone?
 
Re: My neck position doesn't seem to agree with me.

Yea, the 498t was much better than I thought. With my Vox, it sounds very hard 90s like early Foo Fighters and Oasis. With the gain all the way up, it has good AC/DC hard rock sound.
 
Re: My neck position doesn't seem to agree with me.

xfabianromerox said:
I read that they're all 500k.
Click to expand...

If you have a multimeter I'd check them. Most Gibsons ship with 300K pots, and swapping to 500K should accomplish what you're after. Modding it for 50s wiring also wouldn't hurt, though that won't make a difference with the volume on 10.
 
Re: My neck position doesn't seem to agree with me.

The 59n as stock is practically the same muddiness as a 490r.

Turning the pickup might not really do much......in fact you might go the other way as the stronger signal often comes from the slug coil. So you're moving the slug coil to the more bassy location. The one thing you can do then is to raise the screws of course, which might make some difference especially if the pickup is lowered a bit more than normal.

You can see what no tone circuit can do easier than a no-load pot, simply by removing the tone pot connection to the vol pot. Personally I find neck humbuckers never get moved away from tone at 10 - they are a horrible mess with no definition otherwise. I often go for .01, .001 or sometimes ever smaller value caps to try and brighten the 10 tone. And no neck tone circuit is also a good one - have that on the V and its great.
 
Re: My neck position doesn't seem to agree with me.

I have a Les Paul Studio Deluxe and it has a stock coil tapped 490R in the neck and the stock BB Pro as the bridge. I have 500k volume and tone pots. The 490R can get a bit muddy at times if I'm not watching where it's volume is set. Below say +- 8, it can sound muddy in this particular guitar. To alleviate this I adjusted its height about even with the pickup ring. I keep it's volume pot about 8.5 to nearly full on and it's tone pot on 10. Then, I e.q. my amp(s) to the 490R (not the BB Pro) for a bright and somewhat thinner tone with lots of amp highs, yet enough mids and bass so that the BB Pro doesn't get thin or shrill (I keep the BB just a tad more than 1/16" from the e strings when they are depressed at the last fret.

By doing the aforementioned, I satisfied my tone quest without buying new pickups.


Studioplayer
 
Re: My neck position doesn't seem to agree with me.

A good way to reduce the fat sound of a neck humbucker is to make it "aired"
by removing the metal pieces between the screws and the magnet , and putting wood pieces in place .
Then the neck coil is less prevalent than the bridge coil , it sounds more treebly with a bit of single coil vibe .
Also the 490 has an alnico 2 I think , so lots of mids , soft treebles and loose bass . An alnico 5 would make it sharper .

So aired 490 with alnico 5 could do the job ,
and you also can change the fillister screws for short allen , or just make them shorter ,
this tames the bass as well .
 
Last edited:
Re: My neck position doesn't seem to agree with me.

fab.regnaut said:
A good way to reduce the fat sound of a neck humbucker is to make it "aired"
by removing the metal pieces between the screws and the magnet , and putting wood pieces in place .
Then the neck coil is less prevalent than the bridge coil , it sounds more treebly with a bit of single coil vibe .
Also the 490 has an alnico 2 I think , so lots of mids , soft treebles and loose bass . An alnico 5 would make it sharper .

So aired 490 with alnico 5 could do the job .
Click to expand...

I believe the air mod involves putting a nonferrous material between the magnet and the baseplate, increasing the distance from the strings. This has similar results to degaussing.
 
Re: My neck position doesn't seem to agree with me.

Removing the metal spacer into which the screws are going through ,
and then two pieces of wood of the same height than the spacers ,
to keep the heigh between the screw coil and the baseplate .

I don't think it is similar to degauss a magnet , it just increases the role of the slug coil , witch is brighter by location .
 
Re: My neck position doesn't seem to agree with me.

dystrust said:
If you have a multimeter I'd check them. Most Gibsons ship with 300K pots, and swapping to 500K should accomplish what you're after. Modding it for 50s wiring also wouldn't hurt, though that won't make a difference with the volume on 10.
Click to expand...

Yes, I read that most Gibbies ship with 300k pots, but custom ship with 500k. Regardless, I should probably check them. 50s wiring would make it warmer sound though, no?
 
Re: My neck position doesn't seem to agree with me.

Definitely the first thing I'll do. It requires the lest amount of effort :wink:
 
Re: My neck position doesn't seem to agree with me.

AlexR said:
The 59n as stock is practically the same muddiness as a 490r.

Turning the pickup might not really do much......in fact you might go the other way as the stronger signal often comes from the slug coil. So you're moving the slug coil to the more bassy location. The one thing you can do then is to raise the screws of course, which might make some difference especially if the pickup is lowered a bit more than normal.

You can see what no tone circuit can do easier than a no-load pot, simply by removing the tone pot connection to the vol pot. Personally I find neck humbuckers never get moved away from tone at 10 - they are a horrible mess with no definition otherwise. I often go for .01, .001 or sometimes ever smaller value caps to try and brighten the 10 tone. And no neck tone circuit is also a good one - have that on the V and its great.
Click to expand...

Didn't expect it to sound as muddy, since I have it on other guitar, but then again, I never tried the 490 with 500k pots. I'm pretty sure the Custom has 500k though. I'll definitely check that out. And I agree. I almost never touch the tone knob of the neck of any guitar. I'll probably try that after flipping the pickup. After that, I'll probably try the mag switch.
 
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