Not happy with Nazgul or Full Shred 7's...

[Despised]

I just acquired a '19 Ibanez RG752M Desert Sun Yellow and it came with a single Duncan Nazgul 7 in it. But before I tried the Nazgul in it, I put a set of Full Shred 7's in it and I wasn't impressed with it. It has a bit more low end to it than I care for, especially since it's tuned down a whole step. I swapped the FS7 bridge with the Nazgul 7, and it doesn't seem to have that much of a difference tonally... so now I'm curious of a few things...

*has anyone magnet swapped a Full Shred - moreso a 7-string version? If so, what magnet did you swapnit with?

*I know from various demos I've listened to, the order of tonality in terms of brightness would be the Full Shred 7, followed by the Distortion 7, and the Nazgul 7 being the brightest... but since I'm not finding Nazgul to be brighter in comparison as it should be, would swapping the Nazgul 7 for a Distortion 7 be a better idea? (And I know that the Black Winter is supposed to be even brighter than tbe Nazgul, but I found the BW7 to be almost as dark and muddy like an Invader 7...)...

*or should I go an even easier route and just swap the 500K volume pot with a 1 Meg to open it up a bit more???

On a side note: should I swap the Full Shred 7 neck out for the Sentient 7 neck??

Thanks!

 

[Mincer]

The Full Shred and Nazgul are already super bright (the Full Shred being the brightest SD pickup to me). In order of brightness from high to low, I'd say Full Shred, Jazz, & Sentient.

 

[ToneFiddler]

yeah, start with pots and new strings. THose PUs should be pretty bright. What cable are you using?

 

[El Dunco]

Is it fair to say you’re looking for an articulate, vowel like lead tone from the neck pickup?

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I would go for actives. I don't think the problem with the FS or the Nazgul is that they're dark, but rather, that they have more low-end than EMG's of Fishman Fluences.

I'd experiment with those, personally.

 

[Mincer]

The Full Shred has very little low end, actually.

 

[Despised]

Is it fair to say you’re looking for an articulate, vowel like lead tone from the neck pickup?

No no no, the bridge pickup is the one I'm having the issue with...

 

[Despised]

I would go for actives. I don't think the problem with the FS or the Nazgul is that they're dark, but rather, that they have more low-end than EMG's of Fishman Fluences.

I'd experiment with those, personally.

I've just started making the switch back to passives after more than 20 years of running actives/EMG's in everything I've owned, and I rather nit have to do any modding to an extremely rare piece if I can help it...

That, and I'm not a fan of the Fishman Fluence series stuff. They always seem to have this thin single coil-ish quality to them no matter what set I've tried. I have an EMG 57-7H/66-7H set I was thinki g of putting in it, but I really don't want to mess with this one too much... if it were an OG 7620 or the 7420 that'd be a different story...

 

[Despised]

yeah, start with pots and new strings. THose PUs should be pretty bright. What cable are you using?

It's already got new strings, it's the very first thing I did to it when I got it. I am gon a source another B1Meg pot to replace the 500k volume it originally came with and see if that helps...

 

[El Dunco]

What about a passive bass-cut control?

 

[Despised]

The Full Shred and Nazgul are already super bright (the Full Shred being the brightest SD pickup to me). In order of brightness from high to low, I'd say Full Shred, Jazz, & Sentient.

Hmmm, that's good to know about those for neck positions. But my issue is the bridge position, not the neck... hence why I was asking about either a different model or swapping the 500k volume pot with a 1Meg...

 

[Despised]

What about a passive bass-cut control?

That might work, but I'm limited as to what else I can put in the guitar itself... the previous owner bored the volume.pot hole for a Tesi Killswitch, so the tone pot was removed and that is now my volume pot. However: between the very responsive treble, bass, presence & resonance controls on the amp (a Peavey 6505MH...), & with running a Boss EQ-200 10-Band EQ in the effects loop (running both EQ channels back-to-back), I'm sure I can tweak something somewhere to get it dialed in better...

But I would have thought that between the Basswood body, bolt-on maple neck & maple fingerboard, it would be a fairly bright sounding piece on its own... and in the demos I've heard, the FS7 was a bit warmer than the Nazgul & I would have thought that the brighter Nazgul would have helped tame some of the low end better with the low A tuning, but somehow it's not...

 

[Mincer]

Hmmm, that's good to know about those for neck positions. But my issue is the bridge position, not the neck... hence why I was asking about either a different model or swapping the 500k volume pot with a 1Meg...

Neck or bridge, both are super bright with little bass.

 

[Seashore]

Have you tried it straight into the amp without the EQ, and with the EQ in front instead of in the loop? Are you running through any other pedals that could be loading it down and killing your tone?

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I've just started making the switch back to passives after more than 20 years of running actives/EMG's in everything I've owned, and I rather nit have to do any modding to an extremely rare piece if I can help it...

That, and I'm not a fan of the Fishman Fluence series stuff. They always seem to have this thin single coil-ish quality to them no matter what set I've tried. I have an EMG 57-7H/66-7H set I was thinki g of putting in it, but I really don't want to mess with this one too much... if it were an OG 7620 or the 7420 that'd be a different story...

Alright, then. I would go with the 1M pot. If you have a tone control in the circuit, also get rid of that.

You could also try the ceramic magnet from the Nazgul in the FS.

 

[Despised]

Have you tried it straight into the amp without the EQ, and with the EQ in front instead of in the loop? Are you running through any other pedals that could be loading it down and killing your tone?

I don't use an EQ in the front of the amp, typically just through the loop to tighten everything up. And everything I use on my floorboard is used sporadically - like the FreqOut, Whammy DT, Petrucci Wah, Walrus SLÖ & MIMIQ doubler - so nothing is running on in between the guitar and the amp except for when I actually use those effects...

And I could try running a separate EQ in front for caca's and haha's just to try, but I would think between the amps treble, bass, resonance & presence controls and the dual 10-bands in the loop, I should be able to tweak them and save a preset on the EQ for that guitar to dial it in a tad better... But I'll try it with tbe EQ off and get a better idea from there before moving forward...

 

[Despised]

Alright, then. I would go with the 1M pot. If you have a tone control in the circuit, also get rid of that.

You could also try the ceramic magnet from the Nazgul in the FS.

The tone control was replaced with the volume pot because the previous owner replaced the volume pot with a Tesi LED killswitch... so I had to completely rewire the guitar for it to be fully functional again when I got it...

And I have a few extra Alnico V, Alnico VIII, and ceramic magnets that I could try swapping with, so that too has crossed my mind...

 

[RanchManSandy]

The tone control was replaced with the volume pot because the previous owner replaced the volume pot with a Tesi LED killswitch... so I had to completely rewire the guitar for it to be fully functional again when I got it...

And I have a few extra Alnico V, Alnico VIII, and ceramic magnets that I could try swapping with, so that too has crossed my mind...

So the hole for pot is now too big because of the killswitch? Easily solution: get a bigger washer to offset the difference and mount the pot using that instead of or in conjunction with the normal washer we use for guitar pots.
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[Seashore]

I don't use an EQ in the front of the amp, typically just through the loop to tighten everything up. And everything I use on my floorboard is used sporadically - like the FreqOut, Whammy DT, Petrucci Wah, Walrus SLÖ & MIMIQ doubler - so nothing is running on in between the guitar and the amp except for when I actually use those effects...

And I could try running a separate EQ in front for caca's and haha's just to try, but I would think between the amps treble, bass, resonance & presence controls and the dual 10-bands in the loop, I should be able to tweak them and save a preset on the EQ for that guitar to dial it in a tad better... But I'll try it with tbe EQ off and get a better idea from there before moving forward...

What I'm saying is, have you run the guitar straight into the amp with no pedals, and nothing in the loop, to hear how it sounds? Make sure it's not some kind of impedance thing with a pedal or cable darkening your tone?

 

[Despised]

So the hole for pot is now too big because of the killswitch? Easily solution: get a bigger washer to offset the difference and mount the pot using that instead of or in conjunction with the normal washer we use for guitar pots.
​​​

The hole size fir the pots is 10mm when I use an Alpha B500K stacked volume pot (slightly larger shaft diameter than a std pot...), and the hole for the killswitch is a 16mm... I'd have to find washers that are at least 17mm to cover the hole yet still fit the pot, and it would be bigger than the knob that sits on the pot and look hideous. So unfortunately, I'm stuck with having to keep the killswitch in it and the single volume in the tone pot location - or using a stacked pot for dual independent pickup volumes & replacing the 5-way with a 3-way, unless I upgrade the switch to a multi-pole 5-way... not sure I wanna go that route with this one yet or not...