Question re: tone from McCarty PUPS?

[ken2esq]

Does anyone find the McCarty pups sound a bit too muddy with the bass high on the amp? I never thought muddiness was necessarily a bad thing, but I was playing around with my new PRS McCarty and I was really loving the tonal options with treble turned up on amp (anywhere from 60-90%) and gain up (again 60-90%) and bass lower (under 30-40%) and those ranges, and playing with toggle and split coil, gave me a lot of tones from different classic rock tones, different modern / alt rock tones, some really surgical / tight distortion that could be used in modern alt rock or metal. But when I played with the bass up over 60%, things got muddier, whether or not I turned treble down, was not all that happy with tone regardless of split coil setting or toggle setting.

I've read some criticisms of McCarty pups, mostly vague statements by people that they prefer something else and are changing them out. Is this the issue that people have with them? A muddiness with the bass tones?

I have to admit I was using a 4 watt "bedroom" amp, but it's an all-tube amp that I really like with my other guitars (Vox ac4c1). But maybe a small amp like that will not generate good bass tones, so that could be the culprit (?)

Well, I'm a long way from wanting to trade out the pick ups because different tones I've found with more treble and less bass and high gain are really awesome and there's enough variety there (even before adding in pedals, fx) that I'm not sure I need any more. But, I was curious just what IS the main criticism of the McCarty pickups...is it what I've described, or is it something else?

Ken

 

[jbird]

I'd say it is what you've described! But this will depend on amps used, etc, etc! I had a '99 Goldtop that I loved through my then Dual Rectifier! That Goldtop was stolen, so I replaced it with your guitar, and it never sounded like my '99! There are a lot of variables though!

 

[swede71]

First check pickups not too close to strings.Press down on last fret and read between polepiece and bottom of string.1/8 on bassside and 3/32 on treblestrings are a good start.When it comes to guitar and frquencies,guitars lives in the midrange section.In a real situation outside bedroom you have bassguitar and cymbals eating up your bass and treble.Midrange is the key to a guitarsound.Bass you can turn off or use very little of in most cases.A good way is to start with knobs flat,12 oclock.From there you listen to amp and guitar together.In most cases better to take way instead of adding.So for example if guitar is very bright its better to take away treble and not adding bass and vice versa if guitar is muddy.Take for example Robin Trower and his amazing strat sound.A Marshall and strat is a very bright combo and i read in an interview in a swedish magazine he use mostly mid and presence knobs on his marshall.