Neck Pickup Is Too Dark And Muffled - Changing Pot or Changing Pickup

[zanshin777]

Hello,

I have Gibson LP Traditional 2013, Slash Set installed. The guitar has default pots.

Even Bridge pickup is played tone knob at 6 the neck pickup is unusably dark and muffled. Is it normal? What to do?

Thanks

 

[Mincer]

Re: Neck Pickup Is Too Dark And Muffled - Changing Pot or Changing Pickup

Changing the pots to 500 (if there is a 300k pot) or to 1meg (if there is a 500k pot) will brighten the tone. Switching out the magnet to A5 will also solve the problem but also scoop out the mids of the pickup (which might be a good thing, in your case). Some tried and true pickup favorites of mine don't work in particular guitars because the wood is EQ'd so severely.

 

[zanshin777]

Re: Neck Pickup Is Too Dark And Muffled - Changing Pot or Changing Pickup

Which pot? Volume or Tone?

 

[Diego]

Re: Neck Pickup Is Too Dark And Muffled - Changing Pot or Changing Pickup

In my very modest experience with Les Pauls, I've found the neck humbucker to be EXTREMELY PICKY about it's height and the polepieces adjustment.
Too high and it's a mudfest, too low and it chirps.

Try some radically low settings, raise the polepieces a bit and see if it improves. It saved me from changing pickups.

 

[hamerfan]

Re: Neck Pickup Is Too Dark And Muffled - Changing Pot or Changing Pickup

First: check the resistance of all pots and report back. In most cases changing both volume pots to 500 or 550k is enough, when the height adjustment, pole piece and (!) the amp setting is spot on. But one of my Pauls needed a 1 Meg pot and a steel bridge to get out of Neckmudland.

 

[tabeck5]

Re: Neck Pickup Is Too Dark And Muffled - Changing Pot or Changing Pickup

2nd what Diego said, mess around with the height, which is a good exercise anyway. Raise it up as close as you can get to the strings then put it down as low as it can go to give yourself an idea as to what changing the height does to tone/output etc. You can also go this route if that does not work:

https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/the-tone-garage/mod-squad-muddy-sounding-neck-pickup

I have done this mod to a few Humbuckers and it works like a champ.

Check out tonefiend's article on this for some really good information on cap values and tone. Glad he does this kind of research so I don't have to:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/tonefiend/guitar/customize-your-caps/

 

[Mincer]

Re: Neck Pickup Is Too Dark And Muffled - Changing Pot or Changing Pickup

Which pot? Volume or Tone?

I'd do both. Pots are cheap.

 

[zanshin777]

Re: Neck Pickup Is Too Dark And Muffled - Changing Pot or Changing Pickup

I'd do both. Pots are cheap.

what brand do you recommend?

 

[zanshin777]

Re: Neck Pickup Is Too Dark And Muffled - Changing Pot or Changing Pickup

http://www.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/Les-Paul/Gibson-USA/Les-Paul-Traditional/Specs.aspx

It says my guitar has 300k Linear Volume, 500k Non-Linear Tone

What to buy to make the neck pickup brighter?

 

[blueman335]

Re: Neck Pickup Is Too Dark And Muffled - Changing Pot or Changing Pickup

That 300K pot is taking off some high end, replace it with a 500K. The Slash set has A2 magnets, which have a lot of mids and not much high end. That's fine in the bridge slot, but it's part of the issue you're having with the neck. A brighter magnet would definitely help, like an A4 or A5, or you may just want to sell that and get a brighter neck PU, like a JazzN.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Neck Pickup Is Too Dark And Muffled - Changing Pot or Changing Pickup

Any CTS or Bourns pots will work: I use the slightly more expensive YJM Speed Pots, because I like the ease of turning and the taper. But experiment to find your sweet spot.

 

[SJ318]

Re: Neck Pickup Is Too Dark And Muffled - Changing Pot or Changing Pickup

bluman335-
Every thing he said is correct for me, I have done everything he mentioned and they are all good. I have a set of Jazz pickups. The neck and bridge are quite bright, good PAF like output, and they don't sound as scooped to me as others say. They are on my favorite top 5 pickups of all time, I have been trying pickups since 1969. Not many at that time, but by 2016, my favorite humbuckers have been settled, and they are all Duncans.
Mincer-
He is spot on, I love my YJM Speed Pots for volume. I also like the S.Duncan "Smooth" turn pots also for the tone. Volume pots for me don't get knocked, so they are safe. But Tone pots can be hit on the way to the volume pots, so they do move nicely, but are less likely to get turned when hit accidentally. All my pots in everything are 500K.
Steve Buffington

 

[Teleplayer]

Re: Neck Pickup Is Too Dark And Muffled - Changing Pot or Changing Pickup

If you are going for Slash tone, you will probably want an APH-1 Neck. It is the same coil winding as a Jazz, except it has A2 magnet (jazz is A5).

APH-1 neck will be a bit brighter than APH-2, although you will still need to change the volume pots to 500k.

Other alternative if you want to keep your existing pickups is to add a Treble bleed capacitor to your volume controls, such as the PRS 180pF capacitor.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Neck Pickup Is Too Dark And Muffled - Changing Pot or Changing Pickup

2nd what Diego said, mess around with the height, which is a good exercise anyway. Raise it up as close as you can get to the strings then put it down as low as it can go to give yourself an idea as to what changing the height does to tone/output etc. You can also go this route if that does not work:

https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/the-tone-garage/mod-squad-muddy-sounding-neck-pickup

I have done this mod to a few Humbuckers and it works like a champ.

Check out tonefiend's article on this for some really good information on cap values and tone. Glad he does this kind of research so I don't have to:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/tonefiend/guitar/customize-your-caps/

Good find on those articles about caps. Changing their value is a great way to make some minor tone changes.

 

[Gtrjunior]

Re: Neck Pickup Is Too Dark And Muffled - Changing Pot or Changing Pickup

Why don't you just open the tone pot all the way instead of leaving it on 6?

 

[zanshin777]

Re: Neck Pickup Is Too Dark And Muffled - Changing Pot or Changing Pickup

Why don't you just open the tone pot all the way instead of leaving it on 6?

The pickup of which tone pot is at 6 is the bridge pickup.

The pickup which is muffled and dark is the neck pickup.

 

[zanshin777]

Re: Neck Pickup Is Too Dark And Muffled - Changing Pot or Changing Pickup

Current Specs are;

http://www.gibson.com/Products/Elect...nal/Specs.aspx

It says my guitar has 300k Linear Volume, 500k Non-Linear Tone



Then I change

Neck Volume Pot to 500k Linear Volume Am I right?

Should 500k Non-Linear Tone be intact?

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Neck Pickup Is Too Dark And Muffled - Changing Pot or Changing Pickup

Yes, replace the neck pot with a 500k linear and leave the tone as is.

 

[Mr. B]

Re: Neck Pickup Is Too Dark And Muffled - Changing Pot or Changing Pickup

If the Slash bridge seems too bright already, I would not mess with its volume pot. I would change the neck's volume pot to 500k for sure. The neck humbucker in that set is pretty hot for a PAF style pickup, so it is probably not going to be the clearest, brightest pickup you could use. Make sure the neck humbucker is not too close to the strings. I usually have the bass side of it a little lower than the treble side.

 

[Mr. B]

Re: Neck Pickup Is Too Dark And Muffled - Changing Pot or Changing Pickup

I would also check in the guitar itself to see the pot values. I didn't think they were still using 300k volumes on most Les Pauls.