Advice regarding my Charvel 375DLX

[BetaCAM]

Hi folks!

I've decided that I want to replace the stock pickups with something else.

I've come to realize what I'm missing with these and the answer is size.

The basic sound is nice but it sounds small and not enough output, I have to connect it to Hi gain inputs to get nice distortion out of it which still doesn't have enough low end.

If you search the Forum you'll find a picture of my guitar.
it's got 22 frets and it's a maple neck and fretboard.


Here's what I thought:

I'd put a Chopper in the Neck Position, a Cruiser in the Middle, and Dual Sound as my humbucker.
I also want to make a push pull split to the Humbucker to get more Clean sound options, which is why I chose the Dual Sound as my HB.

A question that comes to my mind is do I lose my single coil sound by putting these Mini HB's?

What If I want that strat Single sound on the 2nd position where the two singles are combined?
I want the Hum cancelling the Dimarzios offer.

My sound is lots of Distortion Leads, Kinda Vai thing, Satriani, but something with more warmth,
and something that sounds bellish and Clear on Clean, Kinda John Petrucci sound on the Awake album.

Keep in mind that it's a pain for me to get non flanged Pickups, I found non flanged Dimarzio Mini HB's by incident.

I can get EMG HZ series single coils.
I also can get SC Cool Rails, and Duckbuckers.

What's your advice?

Thanks!

[Newc]

Re: Advice regarding my Charvel 375DLX

I know nothing of DiMarzio singles, but I don't really like their Hummers - the SD didn't sound good to me, and neither did the Evos.

That said, if the guitar has the Jackson Special 5-way switch, you have 5 totally independent switching options, which means you can wire the split wires to tabs 2 and 4 to get the Stratty sounds, and put in a push/pull Tone knob to split them individually (or both at once).

Newc

[Kisonen]

Re: Advice regarding my Charvel 375DLX

What other equipment do you have? Amps, pedals etc?
Personally I would only change bridge pickup first.

[BetaCAM]

Re: Advice regarding my Charvel 375DLX

Hi Again,

I have no Amp or Pedals, just Line6 POD that I might be selling to get an second hand Combo or alike but connecting the guitar to a combo amp like Bandit 112 shows the same results.

I tried the guitar on several amps, I like the basic tone of the guitar very much, it's got character but the pickups lack size.

The pickups don't have much output and the sound is little lacking low end bottom and the noise from the stock single coils is more than the usual single coil noise you hear,
There's actually some buzzing going on from them.

The Neck sounds so strage that there are times
I can't even tell it's being played.
I also feel the single coils have too much treble, I don't think Neck should sound bright like the middle coil, but it should have less Treble than the Middle one.


Thanks again!

[fett]

Re: Advice regarding my Charvel 375DLX

Originally posted by BetaCAM:


I tried the guitar on several amps, I like the basic tone of the guitar very much, it's got character but the pickups lack size.


Thanks again! [/QB]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">My 375 sounds the same. I guess, it is the nature of the beast. Based on the 375's electronics, it wasn't designed to be a "Blaster".

[Enigma]

Re: Advice regarding my Charvel 375DLX

The 375 was my first Charvel. Do you have the J90C/J100/J100 pickups? I thought the J90C sounded great, although the J100s were awful and made more hum than guitar sound. [img]/images/graemlins/eyes.gif[/img] They reinforced my hatred of single coils (back then before I had played good singles).

It's hard to believe you would say the J90C sounds thin, it may be your amplification. Try it through a nice 2x12 or more and it is a beast. At any rate, if you need a bigger sound, try the Tone Zone bridge HB. The single coil replacements you listed should go nicely with it too.

[etaeniura]

Re: Advice regarding my Charvel 375DLX

THe only DImarzios I have experience with are the SUper 3 and the SUper Distortion. THe Super 3 is a KILLER-high output, plenty of bottom, great tone overall. The Super D I tried in my Epi LP didn't do much for me-sounded kinda plain.