I definitely hear the tele thing out of my DGT’s bridge.
But i’m disappointed in the neck pickup. Grissom says he rarely plays the neck pickup and it shows on my DGT. It’s too dark. When split it reminds of a Strat that is too dark.
Any suggestions on a neck pickup that is a little brighter and a little hotter that will still split well?
This probably won't work for you, my advice rarely works for others.
On the other hand, it's always interesting to see how other players work with their guitars, amps and effects, so there's nothing to lose sharing my techniques. For whatever reason, I don't find the DGT neck pickup dark. That may be taste, or it may be the stuff I do setting up the gear, or some combination of the two.
Here's how I use my DGT (and other guitars):
My TV ad guitar work is done in my studio, where everything's set up, miked and ready to go when I have a session.
I switch between four amps with a Swiss-made KHE amp and cab switcher. It'll handle 8 amps and 4 cabs. The I/O and grounding are completely isolated for each amp, there aren't any ground loops.
I set all of the amps up to work with whatever guitar I'm playing. If I switch to a different guitar, the amps get re-set to work with that guitar.
I always have a high quality buffer on my pedalboard, either a Pettyjohn Lift, or a Suhr buffer, both of which keep the high frequencies alive once the signal hits the pedalboard. I find this especially helpful with neck pickups, and these buffers don't screw up the audio like the buffers on a Boss or other typical pedal.
I use very low capacitance cables, either the PRS/VanDamme (26pF per foot) or the Sommer LLX (16pF per foot) to preserve high frequencies. I use 15 foot cables from guitar to the buffer input to keep high frequency loss from capacitance very low.
Most cables, even the Mogami or Canare stuff, check in at around 45 pF per foot or higher, and you lose high frequencies even with shorter cable runs with that kind of capacitance. I can do 36 foot runs with the cables I use without audible high frequency loss, when combined with the buffers I mentioned. It matters!
Though the Mogami is what I've wired all of my studio line-level gear with and used since the early '90s, I can't live with its capacitance for a guitar-to-pedalboard cable. So there's that.
I set the amps up for my clean sound with the guitar volumes on around '5' or so for each pickup, and the guitar tone control around 6. When I want more gain, I roll the guitar volume up, on either or both pickups. So if I want more or less treble I usually dial it in at the guitar. And of course, increasing the volume also tends to brighten the signal. So this way I have good flexibility.
This usually does the trick.
But:
If I want
still more volume and treble, I use a Pettyjohn Filter EQ pedal to tilt the high frequencies up a little, and increase the output volume on the pedal. Pettyjohn's stuff is truly studio grade - the internal components are like what's on studio rack gear - and it sounds wonderful.
To me, this means if I like the pickups that came with my guitars (I'm sure I wouldn't buy the guitar if I didn't), all I need to do to reach the desired brightness is a few knob turns, and I'm in business.
Fortunately, my rig is dead quiet, even with all the amps on, so I can goose the tone or volume without straining the amp or experiencing hums or buzzes.
I realize none of this helps if you have your heart set on a pickup swap. But this is what works for me, and has for years.
I also realize most people would prefer to set the amp's tone controls at noon, and turn the guitars up all the way, and not have to think about this stuff, and I get it. Whatever anyone does that works for them is great!
I simply do it this way. There isn't a 'best' solution, of course. Any solution that works for the individual is great. So this isn't a criticism of the way other folks do things!
