Atomic Chameleon
New member
What's up everyone, I'm told there are tons of guitar addicts on these boards so I come looking and whaddya know, there are tons of guitar addicts on these boards 
Anyway I'm in a dilemma and I'm gonna ask to draw upon some of your knowledge.
So I just completed this guitar a couple weeks ago. It's my first parts guitar, Warmoth alder body/Musikraft maple neck all finished with Tru Oil. I did the finish myself. The pickup is a Custom Custom.
It's Floyded with a bolt-on 1/4 sawn maple neck with a dual acting truss. From what I've read this should be a recipe for bright tone.
Here's my problem: I was going for bright tone. If any of you've heard of Akira Takasaki, that's my ultimate tone., along with any other 80s fare: VH, Lynch, Warren. That's the stuff I play and the tones I was going for. But this guitar is not bright at all. It has plenty of lows and lower mids but almost the entire high freq spectrum is missing. When I'm playing in the upper register, it almost feels like it's set on the neck humbucker position! yeah.. this is a 1H guitar. It's that dark. There's no bite or attack, coming from the body or the neck.
here's a pic of the bod before I mangled it:
Here's what the guitar looks like now:
yes it's lacking inlays.. I though it looked cooler blank for a while, but now I'm kicking myself in the ass for not getting them.
As you can see, it looks like it soaked up a good amount of oil! Now all I used was Birchwood Casey Tru Oil.... but I used about half the bottle, and applied with my fingers. On another forum I was told that the dark/dull tonality could be because I applied too much oil to the body. Well, that's probably true. It was my first guitar, and I took a chance by doing everything myself. But my big question is: is this guitar's tone salvagable? I want my highs!
Things I'm considering:
-Sand off oil from the body and apply super light coat
-Change pickup. Something more trebly with clarity in the highs.
-Different neck. Stainless steel frets maybe?
-Floyd titanium block. Would this thing do anything? It's freakin $250 but my curiosity often gets the best of me.
http://floydupgrades.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=66&products_id=182
if worse comes to worst, new body. Maple. I'd be sure not to oil the hell out of it! I want to try a maple bodied guitar anyway.
Anyway I appreciate anyone taking the time to read through this and any advice
Anyway I'm in a dilemma and I'm gonna ask to draw upon some of your knowledge.So I just completed this guitar a couple weeks ago. It's my first parts guitar, Warmoth alder body/Musikraft maple neck all finished with Tru Oil. I did the finish myself. The pickup is a Custom Custom.
It's Floyded with a bolt-on 1/4 sawn maple neck with a dual acting truss. From what I've read this should be a recipe for bright tone.
Here's my problem: I was going for bright tone. If any of you've heard of Akira Takasaki, that's my ultimate tone., along with any other 80s fare: VH, Lynch, Warren. That's the stuff I play and the tones I was going for. But this guitar is not bright at all. It has plenty of lows and lower mids but almost the entire high freq spectrum is missing. When I'm playing in the upper register, it almost feels like it's set on the neck humbucker position! yeah.. this is a 1H guitar. It's that dark. There's no bite or attack, coming from the body or the neck.
here's a pic of the bod before I mangled it:
Here's what the guitar looks like now:
yes it's lacking inlays.. I though it looked cooler blank for a while, but now I'm kicking myself in the ass for not getting them.
As you can see, it looks like it soaked up a good amount of oil! Now all I used was Birchwood Casey Tru Oil.... but I used about half the bottle, and applied with my fingers. On another forum I was told that the dark/dull tonality could be because I applied too much oil to the body. Well, that's probably true. It was my first guitar, and I took a chance by doing everything myself. But my big question is: is this guitar's tone salvagable? I want my highs!
Things I'm considering:
-Sand off oil from the body and apply super light coat
-Change pickup. Something more trebly with clarity in the highs.
-Different neck. Stainless steel frets maybe?
-Floyd titanium block. Would this thing do anything? It's freakin $250 but my curiosity often gets the best of me.
http://floydupgrades.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=66&products_id=182
if worse comes to worst, new body. Maple. I'd be sure not to oil the hell out of it! I want to try a maple bodied guitar anyway.
Anyway I appreciate anyone taking the time to read through this and any advice
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