Skinnerburst A3 set too bright
- Thread starter Orville
- Start date
freefrog
Well-known member
It's definitively due to the acoustic spectrum of the guitar involved IMHO.
Passive pickups can't promote or boost frequencies selectively. They reproduce what the strings of a guitar give them to translate, according to a "curve" always looking like a wide triangle.
IOW, the only frequency really promoted by a passive magnetic transducer is its "resonant peak", defined by LRC specs (inductance of the pickup, Resistance of the pots, Capacitance of the whole harness).
"Scooped mids" are an aural artefact basically due to the magnetic strenght involved: stronger magnets make pickups more sensitive to "big" thick strings containing more magnetizable material. In the same time they make resonant peaks higher. It sounds like more bass and treble with relatively less mids but it's relative and "global"...
There's thousands of topics about such questions on the Net but if an explication is needed, here is one of the simplest possible: http://www.buildyourguitar.com/resources/lemme/
And here is a useful calculator if you want to toy virtually with values: https://guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/3627/guitarfreak-guitar-frequency-response-calculator
Enough theory.
Some humbuckers with a more "assertive" resonance (a higher resonant peak) and a stronger magnetic alloy than A3 might solve or at least diminish your issue. I"d begin with AlNiCo5 which is the strongest in the "vintage correct" range (albeit all A5's are not created equal at all).
If you want to scoop selectively the 800hz range, order a Bill Lawrence Q filter. Put it in series with a 22nF cap. Put the whole from hot and ground. But be aware that it will make your guitar sound like a fake acoustic, unless a series resistor is used (resistor> inductor> capacitor from hot to ground. Bill Lawrence did recommend between 4.7k and 24k).
It's possible to build more "efficient" notch filters but they require high inductance chokes like those used in vintage Gibson VariTone and it's not easy to find.
FWIW. HTH.
freefrog
Well-known member
Footnotes...
Below is the spectrum of a (vintage) Duncan SH1 played direct to the board in single notes. In chords it would look different.
The peaks and dips on the red part of the screen are due to the guitar, strings, and way to play them. NOT to the pickup, whose electrical response is shown by the light yellow line. All pickups produce such "curves", with minor differences.
Below is what the yellow curve above would become with a "notched filter" based on a Bill Lawrence Q filter:
And below is a same P.A.F. clone played in single notes with an A3 mag then a A5 mag. The guitar was not a LP but it's a Gibson scale instrument so "you'll get the picture".
Should make perceptible what is due to the guitar and how the higher magnetic strenght of A5 promotes bass + harmonics, comparatively to A3 which is the weakest alloy...
Again, FWIW and HTH.
Below is the spectrum of a (vintage) Duncan SH1 played direct to the board in single notes. In chords it would look different.
The peaks and dips on the red part of the screen are due to the guitar, strings, and way to play them. NOT to the pickup, whose electrical response is shown by the light yellow line. All pickups produce such "curves", with minor differences.
Below is what the yellow curve above would become with a "notched filter" based on a Bill Lawrence Q filter:
And below is a same P.A.F. clone played in single notes with an A3 mag then a A5 mag. The guitar was not a LP but it's a Gibson scale instrument so "you'll get the picture".
Should make perceptible what is due to the guitar and how the higher magnetic strenght of A5 promotes bass + harmonics, comparatively to A3 which is the weakest alloy...
Again, FWIW and HTH.
eclecticsynergy
New member
Two points:
First, individual guitars can vary a lot even in the exact same design. When people talk about the 'Les Paul sound,' they're talking about the sound of a typical average Les Paul, not the sound of every Les Paul. Although most tend to be fairly rich and woody, the outliers can range from dark and boomy to bright and harsh. Some of those really aren't at their best with PAF types, especially those that fall in in the lower output / brighter tone side of the PAF range. I like Burstbuckers in some guitars but I also have one LP Trad Plus that's quite hard & bright, and in that guitar they were just intolerable. Not that they're bad pickups, just that they were terrible for that guitar.
Secondly, switching guitars complicates things. If you're using the same axe all the time, you can dial your amp & pedals to get a tone you like from that guitar, regardless of its pickups and character. But if you're going back and forth between one with a FRED and one with low output PAFs it's going to be mighty hard to find settings that work well for both - even when the PAF-loaded guitar isn't an unusually bright example like it seems yours may be.
I used to switch guitars a lot and back in the day I devoted a fair amount of time and attention to pickup swaps that allowed me to switch guitars without needing to redial my rig. Bright guitars got fuller pickups, fatter sounding guitars got pickups that were slightly more scooped. I was able to get many of them close enough in both output and tone to use the same settings. And they still sounded like individuals, each with its own personality. But it took some doing.
First, individual guitars can vary a lot even in the exact same design. When people talk about the 'Les Paul sound,' they're talking about the sound of a typical average Les Paul, not the sound of every Les Paul. Although most tend to be fairly rich and woody, the outliers can range from dark and boomy to bright and harsh. Some of those really aren't at their best with PAF types, especially those that fall in in the lower output / brighter tone side of the PAF range. I like Burstbuckers in some guitars but I also have one LP Trad Plus that's quite hard & bright, and in that guitar they were just intolerable. Not that they're bad pickups, just that they were terrible for that guitar.
Secondly, switching guitars complicates things. If you're using the same axe all the time, you can dial your amp & pedals to get a tone you like from that guitar, regardless of its pickups and character. But if you're going back and forth between one with a FRED and one with low output PAFs it's going to be mighty hard to find settings that work well for both - even when the PAF-loaded guitar isn't an unusually bright example like it seems yours may be.
I used to switch guitars a lot and back in the day I devoted a fair amount of time and attention to pickup swaps that allowed me to switch guitars without needing to redial my rig. Bright guitars got fuller pickups, fatter sounding guitars got pickups that were slightly more scooped. I was able to get many of them close enough in both output and tone to use the same settings. And they still sounded like individuals, each with its own personality. But it took some doing.
