Reduce brightness in guitar for JB

sifukev

sifukev

New member
I have a very light weight Les Paul Copy guitar (about 5 - 6 lbs.). It is naturally Extremely bright (especially with my JB in). It is made out of Alder wood but with a maple top and maple set in neck. I like the tone of the JB, but it sounds too bright and icepicky.... is there something I can do to "darken" the sound of th guitar.

My guitar has 500K pots in it. I heard that putting in a lower POT would help, but how does that work???? is it like just leaving the volume on five instead of ten?

Please leave suggestions if you have any...... :smack:

Thanks,
Kevin
 
Re: Reduce brightness in guitar for JB

sifukev said:
I have a very light weight Les Paul Copy guitar (about 5 - 6 lbs.). It is naturally Extremely bright (especially with my JB in). It is made out of Alder wood but with a maple top and maple set in neck. I like the tone of the JB, but it sounds too bright and icepicky.... is there something I can do to "darken" the sound of th guitar.

My guitar has 500K pots in it. I heard that putting in a lower POT would help, but how does that work???? is it like just leaving the volume on five instead of ten?

Please leave suggestions if you have any...... :smack:

Thanks,
Kevin
Click to expand...
duncan had a 250K or 300K pot in mind when he made the JB
it will tame some of the high end(presence) and give a warmer tone
 
Re: Reduce brightness in guitar for JB

sifukev said:
I have a very light weight Les Paul Copy guitar (about 5 - 6 lbs.). It is naturally Extremely bright (especially with my JB in). It is made out of Alder wood but with a maple top and maple set in neck. I like the tone of the JB, but it sounds too bright and icepicky.... is there something I can do to "darken" the sound of th guitar.

My guitar has 500K pots in it. I heard that putting in a lower POT would help, but how does that work???? is it like just leaving the volume on five instead of ten?

Please leave suggestions if you have any...... :smack:

Thanks,
Kevin
Click to expand...

The 250k pot was also intended for Seymour's Tele which had the JB. For a larger or heavier guitar.....darker....I'd say 500k. since your LP copy is light, go the 250k route.
 
Re: Reduce brightness in guitar for JB

papersoul said:
The 250k pot was also intended for Seymour's Tele which had the JB. For a larger or heavier guitar.....darker....I'd say 500k. since your LP copy is light, go the 250k route.
Click to expand...

a guy i know was going to sell his JB until he tried the 300K pot and now he loves the JB!
you can also attach a 470K resistor to the hot lug of the 500K pot to ground for the same effect.
 
Re: Reduce brightness in guitar for JB

The .47 resistor will only effect roll off and will have little to no effect with the controls on 10.

I will say that I had the JB in two guitars with 500k pots and found it actually a rather thick and dark pickup. But, it lacked the bass I enjoy.
 
Re: Reduce brightness in guitar for JB

Will reducing the POT K's even out the tone and add more depth (and/ or bass). I am just looking to get more "thickness", and "punch" to my leads, and less "icepicks" and "shrills".

I really appreciate the suggestions, I am new to the forum and found you all to be most helpful....

Thanks,
Kevin
 
Re: Reduce brightness in guitar for JB

sifukev said:
Will reducing the POT K's even out the tone and add more depth (and/ or bass). I am just looking to get more "thickness", and "punch" to my leads, and less "icepicks" and "shrills".

I really appreciate the suggestions, I am new to the forum and found you all to be most helpful....

Thanks,
Kevin
Click to expand...

If you change both the volume and tone pot of the pickup from 500k to 250k, there will be more treble bled off to ground, even with the knobs turned up fully. It is a great way to do exactly what you are describing; round off the top end a bit.

It will not result in any more thickness, more bass, or anything else. Since the treble is shaved off a bit, you will hear the other frequencies as more prominant.

This is not a dramatic thing mind you. It is not like changing guitars. But it does work to tame the shrillness in the top end. If that is what you are looking to do, it is a great, easy, non-intrusive and inexpensive way to go about it.
 
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Re: Reduce brightness in guitar for JB

You could also try using a different pickup. The JB is a good pickup for some applications, but it is very bright to my ears. If your guitar is already very bright, it's probably better to bite the bullet and get a darker sounding pickup. You can go low output and clear with the APII or you can go searing high output with the parallel axis or the invader. I had the exact same problem as you did and I went with the invader. Much better pickup to tame the shrillness of my guitar. Now the guitar sounds very balanced and it has a vicious distorted sound when gain is applied. It isn't much on clarity, so it doesn't make a great lead pickup. If you crave clarity or low output, go with an alnico II pickup.
 
Re: Reduce brightness in guitar for JB

I posted a very same issue some time back after I installed a JB/Jazz combo into my guitar. I found it overly bright in all pickup combinations, and my guitar got completely lost in the mix. I also have 500k pots, and a naturally bright guitar. Thanks to the many helpful people in this forum, I was given some advice to try 250k pots instead. But what if I went through all the trouble and still didn't like it?....

There is a quick way to simulates how this 500k to 250k change would sound. Get a resistor between 500k and 800k (or solder two together- Radio Shack didn't have the exact value I was looking for so I had to improvise), then unscrew the end of the plug of your cord that goes into your guitar. Take this resistor and electrical tape it across the two connections and play! This is how your guitar will sound if you replace the volume pot. You don't even have to take your guitar apart!

If you like this sound, you can simulate the replacement of your volume contol by bridging your volume pot with a resistor (it will alter the taper of your volume, but if you're on 10 all the time who cares?). Here is an excellent tutorial that I followed: http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/potm.htm Just note that if you have two volumes you're definitely going to want to do this to both of them, otherwise when you use both pickups you'll have funky (undesirable) stuff going on.

I tried this and I liked the sound a TON better- less ice pick highs, much more warmth, yet it still had the responsiveness and tight bass end I was looking for. I am right now in the processs of soldering a resistor across my volume pots (I got the neck done last night, now working on the bridge). I will report back here and let you know what I think.

There is also a nice little summary also on SD's site: http://www.seymourduncan.com/website/support/techtips.shtml At the very bottom of this page there's a discussion on pot values. But I think another poster already pointed this out...

Hope this helps!
 
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Re: Reduce brightness in guitar for JB

Man, there seems to be an awful lot of discussion regarding JBs and volume pots- I just read three new posts on this very topic today. I did manage to solder the resistors in last night, and so far so good. The real test will be tonight at band practice.
 
Re: Reduce brightness in guitar for JB

I tried it at band practice, and I appear to be having some issues with the wiring;the neck pickup seemed to be at a considerably lower volume (about half) than the bridge pickup. I pulled the resistor away to try and prevent any shorting out that might be happening, but does anyone know of a reason why this might be occurring?
 
Re: Reduce brightness in guitar for JB

sifukev said:
Will reducing the POT K's even out the tone and add more depth (and/ or bass). I am just looking to get more "thickness", and "punch" to my leads, and less "icepicks" and "shrills".
Click to expand...
Kevin
Here is another suggestion.

Turn the pickup around, where the adjustable poles are not on the bridge side of the pickup, but on the neck side.

Lower the pickup and raise the poles to your liking. I have done this to thicken bridge pickup tone and I have had success. I have also done the opposite with neck pickups, for less boomy-ness.
 
Re: Reduce brightness in guitar for JB

Is that the equivelant of lowering the pot k's? Or how does that work? Does the bass side (E,A, and D strings) have less emphasis or something(in the pickup) and when you switch it over on a naturally bright guitar it gives the emphasis (that is supposed to be high in the pickup) on the bass and thus equall the overall tone of the guitar????? OR (more than likely) AM I WAY OFF BASE???

Sorry just want to know if that would be an alternative to lowering the pot K's..... or a suggestion to help in addition to lowering the pot K's..

Thanks man.... mucho apreciato'
Kevin
 
Re: Reduce brightness in guitar for JB

There is more vibration on strings in their center area. That is why a neck pickup sounds thicker than a bridge pickup.
When you raise the poles, the pickup is more sensitive the the vibration where the poles are. When you move the poles closer to the neck, you will pick up an area of the strings where there is more vibration.
I did this to thicken up my DD. I also did the opposite to make my 59n a little more trebly. I raised the center poles on my C5 to give it more midrange snap. Tweaking can make a difference.
It is different than using a 250k pot. I personally like the 500k with a JB and I use my tone control if it sounds too bright.
 
Re: Reduce brightness in guitar for JB

Hey stevo that sounds very interesting, thanks for sharing. Going to try it and see if it works for me too. Tweaking can definately make a difference.
 
Re: Reduce brightness in guitar for JB

i aslo find the JB in my epiphone les paul to be overly bright....would anyone have any clips of the JB in a les paul with 250k pots?
 
Re: Reduce brightness in guitar for JB

i don't think the JB is extremely bright(at least with 250k pots).I find that the main problem of the JB as a design is the fact that the bass and the low mids are not as prominent as to give an overall balanced warm sound.
 
Re: Reduce brightness in guitar for JB

I Just Changed The Pots For My Jb And ................wow.....

I Went From 500k To 250k And It Warmed Up The Tone...... Now I Really Do Have Tone.

All I Did Was Changed The 1 Volume For The Bridge (jb). I Left Everything Else. The '59 Sounds Crisp And The Jb Sounds Scorching Without The Shrills. It Is Still On Harmonic Overload Too :-d

Amazingly The Combination Sounds Sweet Too (a 500k With The 250k) The Only Thing Is That It Is Just A Little Lower In Volume (about Like Going From 10 To 8 On The Volume Knob).

You Guys Are Awesome.... Thanks For All Your Help And Input

Thanks,
Kevin
 
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