Wet Blanket effect...

925SS

925SS

New member
OK. A clip is worth a thousand words, so I thought i'd post one.
This is what i'm dealing with on the neck pup for my prs style, all maple, hollowed out body, 24 3/4 scale with hog/rswd neck.
every set i've tried is coming out pretty close to this.
This is the DM 36th paf set. As with the others, I like the bridge, but the neck........:crazy:
I've had some pretty good feedback, but before making a decision, & shelling out the green on a pup that MIGHT solve the problem, I thought i'd post a clip to give everyone a good idea what i'm dealing with.
All comments are welcome, the good, & the bad, but let's leave the ugly out please.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDYwS6BZB-A
 
Re: Wet Blanket effect...

That's a ton of gain. When you put together a neck pickup, hollow-body, and that much gain, that is exactly what you get. Not a bad tone per se, but if you want clarity, your first step is to reduce the gain (by a lot in this case). If that still doesn't work out for you, then a brighter pickup would improve clarity. The PAF 36th isn't the darkest pickup and it isn't the brightest, so there are brighter neck pickups out there. A5 tends to be a bit bassy even in bright neck pickups, so try A3 or A4 (maybe even A2). I still think gain is your main problem.
 
Re: Wet Blanket effect...

CountFunkula said:
try A3 or A4 (maybe even A2). I still think gain is your main problem.
Click to expand...
I have a few mags around, but I've read what you're saying about the gain/hollow/neck pup in other articles & sites on the web.
I don't understand why it works this way, but if enough different people tell you something, it's probably a good idea to listen.
I don't think I'll abandon the idea of a brighter neck pup just yet, but I appriciate the food for thought.
Thanks for takin the time.
 
Re: Wet Blanket effect...

Yeah,.super gainy. Going to have an issue with most full size buckers and that kind of gain in the neck.

I will say that usually something bright and not very middy or bassy will help, but generally for extreme articulation, or clear chords with some gain I would be looking at some of the lower output scoopy strat singles e.g. custom shop 69. I had a.set of fralin blues specials that handled alot of gain very articulately too. Not much help in your sitch, but..

All that said, Hamer used to put the SH5 Custom in the neck of their Monaco Elite. Generally unheard of as a neck pup. It was totally not my thing, and I swapped it out as soon as I could. But it actually made for a very articulate shredding neck pup under high gain. You would not hear every note in a full barre chord, but it was pretty wild for single note runs.
 
Re: Wet Blanket effect...

Yes that is entirely too much gain to run with a Hollow body. 1. turn down gain 2. readjust EQ. I would say turn the gain down to it resembles as clean a channel you can get then adjust the EQ till you get it sounding as clear as you can then proceed to add gain until it isn't clear anymore and that will let you know how much gain you can use with out the sound getting too muddy.
 
Re: Wet Blanket effect...

Thanks JeffB & Rockstar
I now have some things to consider before moving forward.
While i'm not opposed to a single coil in there ( they make conversion plates, & I tried an old ceramic pos I had yesterday, while it sounded fairly decent on clean, it was mud under the gain I was dumping on it lol). I'm kinda leaning toward the HB from Hell. Is there a Duncan that is in the "ballpark" with th HFH.

Rockstar, I'll try dialing it back tomarrow, my brain is fried tonight (probably too much gain)!!
 
Re: Wet Blanket effect...

925SS said:
Thanks JeffB & Rockstar
I now have some things to consider before moving forward.
While i'm not opposed to a single coil in there ( they make conversion plates, & I tried an old ceramic pos I had yesterday, while it sounded fairly decent on clean, it was mud under the gain I was dumping on it lol). I'm kinda leaning toward the HB from Hell. Is there a Duncan that is in the "ballpark" with th HFH.

Rockstar, I'll try dialing it back tomarrow, my brain is fried tonight (probably too much gain)!!
Click to expand...

I was having a some what similar problem until I dialed in my EQ with the Gain real low and now it stays articulate and clear with the gain pushed even a lil more but I still can't dime it at least the PGn I have. The C8 in the bridge though can probably be dimed and still stay some what articulate even with a lil more bass in the EQ from the amp.
 
Re: Wet Blanket effect...

Well, if you go back to the early days, and note how Gibson's switch washer says "Rhythm" for the neck and "Treble" for the bridge, the original idea was to set your amp's eq so that the neck was chunky but not muddy, and the bridge was much brighter for soloing. Listen to CCR, and how bright the leads were, but how chunky the rhythms were.

To me, the PAF set would harken back to that setup, so you might want to follow that method.
 
Re: Wet Blanket effect...

To me, that sound is just solid state or digital modelling set to "insane" Gain.

Somebody - almost certainly Aspen Pittman of Groove Tubes - once said, if you want to know what your guitar really sounds like, put it through a Fender amplifier. (He meant a valve amp, set for clean.)

Even with a solid state amp, it should be possible to get some idea. Dial up a crunchy sound in which rhythmic parts have dynamic variation and sustain can be achieved through finger vibrato.
 
Re: Wet Blanket effect...

Funkfingers said:
To me, that sound is just solid state or digital modelling set to "insane" Gain.
Click to expand...
This. Turn down the gain.

Also, there's a chance you can get a little more clarity by adjusting the pole pieces on the neck pickup, provided they are adjustable.
 
Re: Wet Blanket effect...

OK, Just to let you know, I'm running thru a line 6 pod xt (the only recording method I have at this time) into Audacity>export mp3>windows movie maker>Utube
The pod is set on bank 1D=Recto Dual>drive=3>bass=0>mid=8>treble=8>presence=8
I have 2 tube amps, a heavily modded 5w epi vjr with a 212 loaded with 70/80 celestions, & a 1975 Traynor YGM3 mark 3 80w 212 combo, (& some very *****y neighbors) but no way to record them except a sony digi camera (we all know what that sounds like)
Here it is thru the pod, with the above settings.
I'll admit that turning down the gain helped a lot, but someone is going to say it's still too much, which is ok.
There are quite the number of selections on the pod, this just happens to be my fav.
The wife got it for me for christmas off Clist for $75, & I still haven't learned all the ins & outs yet.
As always, all comments are appreciated
Thanks to all who have helped me in this endeavor, your opinions & knowledge are getting me closer to where I want to be with my project

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWaO7CAR1SY&feature=youtube_gdata
 
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