Often there are threads that ask things like, “My pickups are too bright, what pickups can I buy that will give me a more mellow tone?” Or, “I’m missing the bite I got with XYZ guitar with ABC pickups in it, what do you recommend?”
“Get these DEF pickups I have, they’re the bomb,” says someone.
“Adjust the pickup height, it’s trial and error but you’ll get there,” is someone else’s suggestion.
Well, sometimes new pickups are a good idea. Often a height adjustment will customize the tone to your liking. But there may be other, very simple things that we sometimes forget about, solutions that might be far easier or cheaper.
Like...strings.
I love the vintage tones I grew up with in the 60s, especially on blues records, but also guys like Hendrix, Page, etc. That’s a ‘tone in my head’ kinda thing.
My 2015 McCarty, with 58/15 pickups, is the guitar I most often pick up to try ideas out. When I got it, I loved everything about it, but wished the pickups were even more vintage-sounding, and were a little thicker on top. See, I still had that ‘tone in my head’ thing going.
Along the way it occurred to me that my favorite sounds were made by folks playing pure nickel wrapped strings, not nickel-plated steel wraps. Nickel plated steel wrapped strings weren’t invented or on the market until1970. Pure nickels sound a bit different, of course! Well, for under ten bucks a pack, why not experiment a little? I’m going to change strings every so often anyway.
So I changed from the PRS/D’Addario nickel plated strings that came with the guitar to D’Addario pure nickels. I liked what happened, especially with my vintage style HXDA amp, the tone was a little thicker and more balanced, but I missed the bite I was getting with the plated ones.
Long story short, I tried a few brands and landed on a pure nickel string that had a little more top end bite, but still had the nice tone balance and upper midrange thickness of the D’Addario pure nickel wraps. The guitar sounded great from the factory, and now sounds even more personalized, “more me.” I was pretty happy about this, and use them on several of my PRSes now. On others, I still like the stock strings.
The cost of this experiment? A few packs of strings that I would have spent the same money on in the normal course of string changes anyway. A lot cheaper than different pickups. A lot less trial-and-error than screwing around adjusting my pickup height (though that’s something to do also if you’re in the mood).
In other words, the most basic, least expensive, least time-consuming change you can make to a guitar, putting new strings on it.
Or...cables.
“These pickups are too bright.” Well, if you’re using, say, George L’s sure, they’re bright cables. Try something else, perhaps. You might not need that pickup swap. And the reverse also applies. “My pickups are too dark” can also be a cable thing, maybe you’re using something like Monster cables that tend to roll off some high frequencies.
The cable from guitar to amp or pedalboard matters. Some take away high end, some take away low end, but because of the effect of capacitance, they all take away something. It’s a matter of “pick your poison.”
The first experiment is to try shorter lengths of whatever you’re using, and see what happens. Bypass the pedalboard (if you use one), plug straight into the amp. You’ll probably find that a shorter cable - ten feet or so - has more treble and takes less away than a longer cable of the same type and brand due to the rolloff of higher frequencies from the increased capacitance of more feet of cable. Shorter is brighter.
Don’t believe it’s true? Try plugging into your amp with a 2 foot length of the same cable and see what happens. I bet you’ll hear more of whatever the guitar is putting out, especially the higher frequencies.
Since all the cables on the market have different capacitance specs, and do slightly different things to your tone, it’s worth trying out a few and seeing what happens. We can always use spare cables, anyway, right? And of course, the preferences can change from guitar to guitar, and amp to amp. I’ve tried quite a few different cables, from hideously expensive to downright cheap, and I’ve got my preferences (they’re somewhere in the middle).
But the bottom line is that the tone is right for my gear and what I like to play. Experiment! It’s fun and educational.
“Get these DEF pickups I have, they’re the bomb,” says someone.
“Adjust the pickup height, it’s trial and error but you’ll get there,” is someone else’s suggestion.
Well, sometimes new pickups are a good idea. Often a height adjustment will customize the tone to your liking. But there may be other, very simple things that we sometimes forget about, solutions that might be far easier or cheaper.
Like...strings.
I love the vintage tones I grew up with in the 60s, especially on blues records, but also guys like Hendrix, Page, etc. That’s a ‘tone in my head’ kinda thing.
My 2015 McCarty, with 58/15 pickups, is the guitar I most often pick up to try ideas out. When I got it, I loved everything about it, but wished the pickups were even more vintage-sounding, and were a little thicker on top. See, I still had that ‘tone in my head’ thing going.
Along the way it occurred to me that my favorite sounds were made by folks playing pure nickel wrapped strings, not nickel-plated steel wraps. Nickel plated steel wrapped strings weren’t invented or on the market until1970. Pure nickels sound a bit different, of course! Well, for under ten bucks a pack, why not experiment a little? I’m going to change strings every so often anyway.
So I changed from the PRS/D’Addario nickel plated strings that came with the guitar to D’Addario pure nickels. I liked what happened, especially with my vintage style HXDA amp, the tone was a little thicker and more balanced, but I missed the bite I was getting with the plated ones.
Long story short, I tried a few brands and landed on a pure nickel string that had a little more top end bite, but still had the nice tone balance and upper midrange thickness of the D’Addario pure nickel wraps. The guitar sounded great from the factory, and now sounds even more personalized, “more me.” I was pretty happy about this, and use them on several of my PRSes now. On others, I still like the stock strings.
The cost of this experiment? A few packs of strings that I would have spent the same money on in the normal course of string changes anyway. A lot cheaper than different pickups. A lot less trial-and-error than screwing around adjusting my pickup height (though that’s something to do also if you’re in the mood).
In other words, the most basic, least expensive, least time-consuming change you can make to a guitar, putting new strings on it.
Or...cables.
“These pickups are too bright.” Well, if you’re using, say, George L’s sure, they’re bright cables. Try something else, perhaps. You might not need that pickup swap. And the reverse also applies. “My pickups are too dark” can also be a cable thing, maybe you’re using something like Monster cables that tend to roll off some high frequencies.
The cable from guitar to amp or pedalboard matters. Some take away high end, some take away low end, but because of the effect of capacitance, they all take away something. It’s a matter of “pick your poison.”
The first experiment is to try shorter lengths of whatever you’re using, and see what happens. Bypass the pedalboard (if you use one), plug straight into the amp. You’ll probably find that a shorter cable - ten feet or so - has more treble and takes less away than a longer cable of the same type and brand due to the rolloff of higher frequencies from the increased capacitance of more feet of cable. Shorter is brighter.
Don’t believe it’s true? Try plugging into your amp with a 2 foot length of the same cable and see what happens. I bet you’ll hear more of whatever the guitar is putting out, especially the higher frequencies.
Since all the cables on the market have different capacitance specs, and do slightly different things to your tone, it’s worth trying out a few and seeing what happens. We can always use spare cables, anyway, right? And of course, the preferences can change from guitar to guitar, and amp to amp. I’ve tried quite a few different cables, from hideously expensive to downright cheap, and I’ve got my preferences (they’re somewhere in the middle).
But the bottom line is that the tone is right for my gear and what I like to play. Experiment! It’s fun and educational.
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