goldsparkletop
New member
OK, long story short, I recently acquired a couple BC Rich Gunslingers:
I like the colors. My girlfriend likes the colors, too. In fact, she gets hot & bothered watching me play 'em on stage. I'd like to continue this phenomena.
The guitars feel good and play great. All is good, right? No, not really. I don't like the tone of either. Both are really bassy/mushy on the low strings, no doubt a result of the forward slant of the pickup under those strings. The tone of the high strings is fine. (The tone of all the strings when unamplified is fine.)
The yellow one has a Dimarzio Super Distortion (SD). The green has a Rockfield Mafia, which sounds pretty similar, so I'm guessing it was modeled after a SD. Knowing the SD is a bass heavy pickup in the first place, putting it into a slanted pickup slot was not a great choice, IMO. FYI, I have a SD in another similar guitar (non-slanted bridge position), and I think it sounds fine there, so I'm sure it's the slant that's causing my problem.
So, I need a pickup with considerablely more clarity on the low strings. It's not quite as simple as throwing a really bright pickup in there, because I don't want to put the high strings into ice pick territory...the high strings sound fine now, it's just the bass strings that need to be cleaned up.
What pickup(s) do you recommend that might give me the clarity on the low end I am seeking? Are there any pickups that are known for working particularily well in a slanted position?
Some I have been contemplating:
1. JB - they were put in a million Barettas, and folks seemed to like them, BUT I seem to recall them being a little loose in the low end, too
2. Distortion and Custom Custom - neither have too much low end, according to Duncan's tone chart
3. FRED - Lighter on the bass than SD according to Dimarzio's chart
4. Super 2 - much brighter than SD...perhaps too bright?
Output wise, I'm fine with anything from a 59 up tp JB/SD levels. I don't want actives. Some other potential considerations:
1. I play through
Randall RM4 pre-amp
VHT 2/50/2 power amp
412 cab with V30's
2. I play with moderate amounts of gain, mostly Marshall type tones, not Mesa types.
3. Both guitars are tuned a whole step down, which I know is not helping.
4. I play a number of other guitars live through my rig, so I would prefer not to make wholesale changes to my EQ settings to accomodate these two guitars.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Believe it or not, I'm usually a lot more long winded than this.
-Gary
I like the colors. My girlfriend likes the colors, too. In fact, she gets hot & bothered watching me play 'em on stage. I'd like to continue this phenomena.
The guitars feel good and play great. All is good, right? No, not really. I don't like the tone of either. Both are really bassy/mushy on the low strings, no doubt a result of the forward slant of the pickup under those strings. The tone of the high strings is fine. (The tone of all the strings when unamplified is fine.)
The yellow one has a Dimarzio Super Distortion (SD). The green has a Rockfield Mafia, which sounds pretty similar, so I'm guessing it was modeled after a SD. Knowing the SD is a bass heavy pickup in the first place, putting it into a slanted pickup slot was not a great choice, IMO. FYI, I have a SD in another similar guitar (non-slanted bridge position), and I think it sounds fine there, so I'm sure it's the slant that's causing my problem.
So, I need a pickup with considerablely more clarity on the low strings. It's not quite as simple as throwing a really bright pickup in there, because I don't want to put the high strings into ice pick territory...the high strings sound fine now, it's just the bass strings that need to be cleaned up.
What pickup(s) do you recommend that might give me the clarity on the low end I am seeking? Are there any pickups that are known for working particularily well in a slanted position?
Some I have been contemplating:
1. JB - they were put in a million Barettas, and folks seemed to like them, BUT I seem to recall them being a little loose in the low end, too
2. Distortion and Custom Custom - neither have too much low end, according to Duncan's tone chart
3. FRED - Lighter on the bass than SD according to Dimarzio's chart
4. Super 2 - much brighter than SD...perhaps too bright?
Output wise, I'm fine with anything from a 59 up tp JB/SD levels. I don't want actives. Some other potential considerations:
1. I play through
Randall RM4 pre-amp
VHT 2/50/2 power amp
412 cab with V30's
2. I play with moderate amounts of gain, mostly Marshall type tones, not Mesa types.
3. Both guitars are tuned a whole step down, which I know is not helping.
4. I play a number of other guitars live through my rig, so I would prefer not to make wholesale changes to my EQ settings to accomodate these two guitars.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Believe it or not, I'm usually a lot more long winded than this.
-Gary
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