Pickup for Dead sounding ash guitar?

[Hot Octopus]

I’ve got an Ash Charvel and it sounds dead. I’ve tried a few pickups and it sounds bad no matter what. Currently, it has a Tone Zone b/ PAF Pro n. WAY TOO MUCH MIDS, treble thats hidden behind all the mids and not enough low end.

The guitar came stock with a Super distortion. It sounded like poop in series, a little better in parallel, but was just too much output and too bassy. Next, I tried the Dean Baker Act (which is my go-to pickup) and it sounded VERY BRIGHT with little low end and mids that were all over the place and undefined. Currently I have a TZ in there (a pickup that sounds great in my 2 Ibanez AZ’s), yet in this ash charvel, it sounds like poop.

Is there a pickup that can tame the mids and bring this piece of dead sounding ash back to life?

 

[Securb]

I would suggest a Dimebucker, it is not mid heavy. It has tight bass and great highs. However if the SD was too hot you will have the same issue with the Dimebucker.

What kind of music do you play and what kind of tone are you chasing?

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Is it a very mid-forward guitar? What style of music you're playing? I'm assuming not Metal because you're using a Tone Zone?

I would look into the Custom 5 if the guitar is too mid-forward. Or maybe a '59B.

I'm surprised you're getting not enough treble from the PAF Pro, though. That has got to be one of the brightest neck humbuckers I've ever tried.

Maybe try the PAF Pro in the bridge. It makes for a very good bridge pickup, IME.

 

[Hot Octopus]

I would suggest a Dimebucker, it is not mid heavy. It has tight bass and great highs. However if the SD was too hot you will have the same issue with the Dimebucker.

What kind of music do you play and what kind of tone are you chasing?

I play hard rock and some metal. Early Van Halen, The Scorpions, Judas Priest

 

[trevorus]

Does it sound dead unplugged?

 

[Hot Octopus]

Is it a very mid-forward guitar? What style of music you're playing? I'm assuming not Metal because you're using a Tone Zone?

I would look into the Custom 5 if the guitar is too mid-forward. Or maybe a '59B.

I'm surprised you're getting not enough treble from the PAF Pro, though. That has got to be one of the brightest neck humbuckers I've ever tried.

Maybe try the PAF Pro in the bridge. It makes for a very good bridge pickup, IME.

yea, the guitar is super-heavy in the mids.

I like the Tone Zone quite a bit in my other guitars. I play metal, but not today’s tight sounding metal. I agree that the TZ is much too loose for that.

 

[Mincer]

My poplar Music Man is full of mids, and I get around that by using a Jazz and a Custom 5.

 

[Securb]

I play hard rock and some metal. Early Van Halen, The Scorpions, Judas Priest

I would point you back to the Dimebucker then.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Yeah, I would consider the Custom for sure. It worked for Eddie on his Ash Frankenstrat. It's kinda scoopy with a very active top-end and a chunky bottom-end.

 

[ehdwuld]

I have a JB/JAZZ set in my Ash LP
it's a great sounding guitar

 

[Hot Octopus]

Talk to me-

how do the custom, custom 5, full shred and dimebucker compare? (Fwiw, I had the CC on an old guitar and really liked it. I don’t remember how an a5 or ceramic sounded in it? I also tried an A8 and found it to be a boomier/ louder version of the CC. In the end I went back to the A2).

I think I’m going to replace all the electronics, the pots, the wires, everything. I’ve got a 500k SD liberator volume pot sitting on my shelf and might as well give it a shot. It should make PU swaps a breeze.

 

[Mincer]

The C5 is the most scooped, followed by the Custom. The Full Shred has more highs than anything, with little bass.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I personally think they're all scooped, just in different ways. The Custom has a solid bottom-end cutting ceramic highs with a hint of high mid snarl, but really scooped core mids. The Custom 5 has a looser bottom end than the Custom, warmer but still present Alnico highs, and a slight sponginess in the low mids (compared to the Ceramic Custom). It's also lower output. The Full Shred is scooped and the high-end is way more present than the low end is compared to how the balance is on the Customs.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

Custom 5 fixed a midheavy PRS I used to have.
Still, there's no fix for dead wood.

With bolt-ons, sometimes a neck swap can wake a guitar up.
There's no guarantees, though.

 

[nienturi]

Swap the neck. Seriously! I have tried that scenario many times. Swap the neck with something different. You may start to achieve something.

 

[Mincer]

I've also seen cases where it is just simply the combination of everything on a guitar makes it not sustain, or feel lifeless. In those cases, I don't know if I'd start swapping parts out one-by-one unlike I really really liked the guitar...I'd probably sell it to someone who'd enjoy it and get something else.

 

[donaldr]

Have you tried different strings? That's where I usually start, cheaper and easier than swapping pickups.

 

[beaubrummels]

Pickups I've used that have some top end, tighter bottom and easy on the mids are:
Bridges: Screamin' Demon, Full Shred, Custom 5, Jazz, and 59/Custom Hybrid
Neck: Jazz
(For necks, there are some I haven't used but there are also Full Shred neck and some 'modern' neck types, like Sentient that might solve the problem?)

But I haven't heard of an Ash body guitar that is dead sounding or mid-heavy before. Makes me wonder if there are other factors contributing to the problem.

 

[Mincer]

Pickups I've used that have some top end, tighter bottom and easy on the mids are:
Bridges: Screamin' Demon, Full Shred, Custom 5, Jazz, and 59/Custom Hybrid
Neck: Jazz
(For necks, there are some I haven't used but there are also Full Shred neck and some 'modern' neck types, like Sentient that might solve the problem?)

But I haven't heard of an Ash body guitar that is dead sounding or mid-heavy before. Makes me wonder if there are other factors contributing to the problem.

Any of these mentioned can compensate for the overbearing mids. But you are right, there might be something else going on here, as ash doesn't usually sound like this.

 

[Bowtomecha]

It’s one of those charvel San Dimas models with an ebony fretboard, a sandblasted ash body, and a Floyd rose? It shouldn’t be all that middy. Does it sound this way when unplugged? Is it particularly heavy and dense in weight? There’s probably not too much to fix that situation except a pickup meant to dial out the midrange. The Custom 5 and the Steve’s Special are good at doing that. The SS has a good amount of low end so I can see that being a good fix.