Tone it down

[DirtyLuck]

Hey everybody. Ive been absent for awhile with work and life. But i have a question and looking for some opinions.

I have a se custom 24 that my my wife got me for Christmas and allowed me to do whatever I wanted with (i love that woman). So over the past few months, it has received prs locking brass post tuners, new tusq nut, brass bridge block and a set of SD hot rod humbuckers. Guitar plays beautifully and i really like the push/pull coil splitting on it. But the issue i am having is it seems a little too much on the treble end. When it is coil tapped, it sounds amazing, when in full humbucker mode the highs are just so....bright. like too bright and thin. I have tried various different strings, pickup heights, amp settings.
The guitar still has the factory cap in it if that matters.
Any ideas? No, there are no guitar techs in my area, its a very small town so i have to do my own work. But i am not scared to do anything and am somewhat proficient with my tech skills as this isnt my first rodeo rebuilding a guitar. I just havent had this issue before.

 

[Lewguitar]

If it has a small capacitor across two terminals of the volume control that's a treble bleed cap to retain treble when you turn down the guitar's volume control. You could remove that, or just unsolder one leg of it. That way you can reconnect it easily if you change your mind.

Don't confuse that with the tone cap which is connected to the tone control. Leave that alone.

 

[JasonE]

If you unhook or remove the treble bleed cap you would notice a darkening of the tone when you roll the volume back. That could possibly work for you. I would try adjusting the pickups first. If they are bright, lower them a little bit. With some pickups a little goes a long way. You can also lower the pickup more on the higher strings to tame those a bit. Another easy thing is just roll the tone knob back a bit when you are in full humbucker mode. I have a couple of guitars I have to do that with because they are just a little too bright for me.

 

[DirtyLuck]

I will add this, maybe its just me and nothing at all wrong with the guitar. After a proper set up and everything adjusted to my liking, she plays beautifully. Its just so vastly different from my others. Ive never had one that would absolutely ice pick on tap like this one will. Its well balanced, but the highs when the tone pot is on 10 and on bridge pickup will pierce. Almost sounds like a telecaster its so twangy and treble focused.

 

[Lewguitar]

I will add this, maybe its just me and nothing at all wrong with the guitar. After a proper set up and everything adjusted to my liking, she plays beautifully. Its just so vastly different from my others. Ive never had one that would absolutely ice pick on tap like this one will. Its well balanced, but the highs when the tone pot is on 10 and on bridge pickup will pierce. Almost sounds like a telecaster its so twangy and treble focused.

If it has a treble bleed cap it's not helping with that. Although theoretically when the volume pot is turned UP all the way the treble bleed cap has no effect.

 

[Prs Mods too]

If it didn't come with a hardshell case it's a rip off! Lol jk.

I keep the tone rolled back a bit on most guitars but more so with my PRSi. I adjust the amp to suit. I like the wide variety of sounds I get like that. As you said, you can get into tele territory with the tone full on. Rolled back you can get into LP type of sounds. I also usually keep the volume rolled back and use it to regulate my gain/tone. So that's something to consider. I keep the treble bleed cap on them too.

Hope this helps.

 

[Greywolf]

Agreed on the treble roll off , in HB mode I run mine at no more than 5 . The 58/15LT's and 57/09's . If it really bothers you , swap out the tone cap , keep the standard in the case .

 

[László]

I roll my treble down to around 8 on the guitar, unless I really want it to sound bright. It's good to have options.

That's why there are tone controls on the guitars and amps, right?

 

[Longneck Tenon]

Just curious what kind of amp you are running through? Also, have you tried adjusting pickup height? Had to do that on both of my SE models.

 

[Veetwin]

This worked for me.
Pure nickel guitar strings Classic Ernie Ball Rock N Roll super slinky 2253 custom gauge

 

[Rider1260]

interesting I've never run into a case where the hum buckers were brighter and thinner than the single coils ( or a tapped humbucker )
Can you measure the pickup output ? sounds like a wiring issue to me.
You could also go to 250k pots , that would darken things up also.
I would be interested in seeing a few measurement from the guitar.

 

[DirtyLuck]

I dusted off one of my old amps and ran it through. Sounded much better to my ears through my old peavey deuce vt with 4 groove tubes in it. Plug it back into my line 6 catalyst and back to the piercing highs. Wonder if it just doesnt like the line 6 lol.

 

[DirtyLuck]

interesting I've never run into a case where the hum buckers were brighter and thinner than the single coils ( or a tapped humbucker )
Can you measure the pickup output ? sounds like a wiring issue to me.
You could also go to 250k pots , that would darken things up also.
I would be interested in seeing a few measurement from the guitar.

The hums are definitely fatter sounding, the highs just get out of hand, not thinner.

 

[DirtyLuck]

Just curious what kind of amp you are running through? Also, have you tried adjusting pickup height? Had to do that on both of my SE models.

Mainly a line 6 catalyst 2 12 cab, plugged into one of my old amps and sounded much better. (Old 80s model peavey deuce vt 2 12 with 4 groove tubes)

 

[gush]

I've been experiencing this as well.

Been using aittle less gain and my guitars all seem way too bright.

Beginning to wonder if it's my hearing?????

 

[GADonis]

I don't have any experience with a Line 6 Catalyst, but I have used a PodXT and a Vetta in the past. I noticed that the Vetta especially was very particular about pickups. Patches that sounded great for one guitar/pickup combination would sound bad with a different guitar/pickup combination. Especially when going from single coil to humbucker.

 

[DirtyLuck]

I don't have any experience with a Line 6 Catalyst, but I have used a PodXT and a Vetta in the past. I noticed that the Vetta especially was very particular about pickups. Patches that sounded great for one guitar/pickup combination would sound bad with a different guitar/pickup combination. Especially when going from single coil to humbucker.

Hmm. That is interesting. I wonder if that may be what is going on here. The amp is a great amp for noodling around the house and built well. But it sounds....sterile....in comparison side by side to my old amps. Like there is no character of its own, no soul if that makes sense.
It sounds great for modern day rock and metal stuff in my opinion as it is so...dry and takes extreme levels of dirt and pedals well. But for my main stuff i like to play, its just...dead sounding. Maybe over processed and everything (especially the highs) are just too crystal clear to the point of being obnoxious.

Maybe all the adjusting and tone chasing ive been doing is just the amp and not the guitars fault at this point.

 

[Longneck Tenon]

Hmm. That is interesting. I wonder if that may be what is going on here. The amp is a great amp for noodling around the house and built well. But it sounds....sterile....in comparison side by side to my old amps. Like there is no character of its own, no soul if that makes sense.
It sounds great for modern day rock and metal stuff in my opinion as it is so...dry and takes extreme levels of dirt and pedals well. But for my main stuff i like to play, its just...dead sounding. Maybe over processed and everything (especially the highs) are just too crystal clear to the point of being obnoxious.

Maybe all the adjusting and tone chasing ive been doing is just the amp and not the guitars fault at this point.

Sounds like a great opportunity to explore the right amp for your guitar!

 

[Rod/]

I will add this, maybe its just me and nothing at all wrong with the guitar. After a proper set up and everything adjusted to my liking, she plays beautifully. Its just so vastly different from my others. Ive never had one that would absolutely ice pick on tap like this one will. Its well balanced, but the highs when the tone pot is on 10 and on bridge pickup will pierce. Almost sounds like a telecaster its so twangy and treble focused.

I don’t think removing the treble bleed cap will help…. I think it’s the pickup. It’s a Duncan JB!….I’d get a PRS 57/08 or Dragon 2 for the bridge. The Dragon 2 will be darker sounding than the 57/08 but will have a balanced high end.., Alnico 4, 12k ……… I use them in my 2 Les Pauls (which are very bright) and they work wonderfully .
The Hot Rod Humbucker set from Duncan is a Jazz in the neck… (great neck pickup).. and a JB in the bridge… there lies the problem. Ceramic magnet, high winding, lots of brittle high end…I hate that pickup…

 

[Lewguitar]

I don’t think removing the treble bleed cap will help…. I think it’s the pickup. It’s a Duncan JB!….I’d get a PRS 57/08 or Dragon 2 for the bridge. The Dragon 2 will be darker sounding than the 57/08 but will have a balanced high end.., Alnico 4, 12k ……… I use them in my 2 Les Pauls (which are very bright) and they work wonderfully .
The Hot Rod Humbucker set from Duncan is a Jazz in the neck… (great neck pickup).. and a JB in the bridge… there lies the problem. Ceramic magnet, high winding, lots of brittle high end…I hate that pickup…

JB's are trebley. Seymour Duncan uses a JB in a Tele, But he uses it with a 250K volume pot not 500K. This results in some loss of treble.

When I use a JB for soloing I always turn the tone on my guitar down about 1/2 way.

There are other tricks. A roughcast A5 magnet in the JB will soften the treble a bit too. Some people use A4 or A2 to round and soften that sharp edge a little more.