Taming soloist brightness

[potatohead]

I have a maple/alder Soloist which I find to be very bright. It is tuned to E std, my other guitar is a mahogany RG tuned to D, so of course it seems brighter than that. I can really get some nice, warm tones out of my RG, and I am finding it much harder with the Jackson. The pickups in the RG are the stock V7/V8 combo and the Jackson has a Jazz/JB set. Now, I am only running through a little Vypyr modeler here at home as a lot of the time I need to use headphones anyway. I seem to get a lot of "fizz" with the Jackson as well and I have tweaked the amp for hours on end.

The way I see it, I have a few options:

1. Ditch the Vypyr and go with a small tube amp, such as a Blackstar HT-5. This hopefully will get rid of most of the fizzyness which I am starting to think is just the sound of digital distortion.

2. Keep the Vypyr and throw a Tone Zone/Air Norton (or similar) combo in the Jackson, which from what I hear is a much warmer and thicker sounding pickup set than the JB/Jazz. Problem is, I don't know if doing this is a waste of time with the Vypyr.

3. Do both, but if I did this I would probably get the amp first.

4. Screw it all and buy another guitar

[horns666]

My Uberschall loves bright guitars because it's a dark amp. My Marshall prefers warmer sounding guitars.. One size does not fit all.

[Rich#6]

First I'm suprised the vyper doesn't sound fizzy with all your guitars.
It sounds like you like darker tone wood guitars, the RG is basswood maybe? and mahogany is dark too. the JB is hotter and a very bright pickup, swaping the pickup or changing the pot to a 250K might help. Your cheapest rought will be the pot swap, it will cut out the some of the highs of the JB.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

I don't find a stock Soloist to be very bright at all. :think:

Maybe your headphones suck?

[DonP]

#2. Get a decent amp before screwing up you guitars. I have all sorts of amps. A great amp can make a shitty guitar sound good. A shitty amp can make the best guitar sound like crap.

[potatohead]

First I'm suprised the vyper doesn't sound fizzy with all your guitars.
It sounds like you like darker tone wood guitars, the RG is basswood maybe? and mahogany is dark too. the JB is hotter and a very bright pickup, swaping the pickup or changing the pot to a 250K might help. Your cheapest rought will be the pot swap, it will cut out the some of the highs of the JB.

My RG is mahogany. It doesn't sound nearly as raspy as my Soloist does, I imagine that has more to do with the pickups and tuning than anything though.

I don't find a stock Soloist to be very bright at all. :think:

Maybe your headphones suck?

Probably, but it sounds fizzy even through the amp speaker. I think bright may have been the wrong word.

#2. Get a decent amp before screwing up you guitars. I have all sorts of amps. A great amp can make a shitty guitar sound good. A shitty amp can make the best guitar sound like crap.

This is the way I am leaning. I would like to have another guitar(s) for some other tunings but it can probably wait. I don't need anything crazy amp wise but I'm sure some of the smaller tube offerings out there will be better than what I have now. I just like the warmer distortion rather than the swarm of bees distortion which is what the current Soloist/Vypyr combo seems to be giving me.

[Riffmeister]

When I had my sl2, Every Duncan pickup I tried in it was too bright for ME. I ended up swithching to Dimarzios and it solved all that. I have used a Breed , a Super Distortion and a Tone Zone in it.

[Hellbat]

There are currently TONS of choices in the 10-25 tube amp head market. Throw in a quality 2x12 and you can play out with it in a lot of situations in a pinch. Depending on budget, try the Orange Tiny Terror, the new Mesa Transatlantic ( Or Electrodyne if you are made of money ), Egnater, or Vox ones. You are guaranteed to find a tone you like in at least one of them.

If you are feeling Saucy, try a Duncan P-Rails hot in it and throw in one of their little switching pickup rings so you can toggle the different configurations. In P-90 single coil mode it's super warm and in humbucker mode it keeps the warmth adds a lot of output and tacks on a nice clear top end from the rail pickup. In Rail single coil mode it can take you a little closer to Telecaster territory than Strat, but it's good for clean funk style playing.

[potatohead]

I just played it for about 90 minutes, and I got it dialed in a bit better (rolling down the guitar volume a tad helped) but it's still pretty fizzy. Problem I am having is I don't really want to buy an amp since at this point I just play at home, but I know I'll be happier with the sound in the end if I do, and that will make me want to play more. I would also assume I should at least try the guitar as is with a new amp before changing pickups.

I really like the look of the Mesa TA-15, but it's $1000 up here just for the head (ouch). I can get an HT-5 for less than half of that.

[Hellbat]

If you can get to the L&M on Terminal Ave, they have a nice amp room. Take your guitar in and try a bunch of stuff out. Traynor has some nice reasonably priced tube combos that give real nice classic rock and classic metal tones.

[potatohead]

Well, this is officially driving me crazy, but I'm retarded like that.

I can get it to sound acceptable (not great) with the headphones. With the amp at a decent volume, at about 4 which I guesstimate is 75 - 80 dB, the thing doesn't sound good. My Ibanez I have tuned to C# standard and the thing sounds awesome. I just can't get the Soloist quite right. I am not sure if it's because the RG is a bolt on, or if it's just the tuning at work, or the Duncans in the Soloist, or what.

I really want to buy another guitar for drop D but I think I might have to just suck it up and buy a Blackstar HT-5 or something. I'm getting to the point I want to sell the Soloist, but I really don't think the guitar is the issue.

[Kisonen]

Pull out that JB and try another pickup. Some good choices are already mentioned on previous posts. Dimarzio Tone Zone, Super Distortion or Duncan Custom is worth a try. Lot cheaper than buying new amp..

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Although it can sound great in a really warm guitar, the JB is not what you want for "nice warm tone."

I have a Custom in my SL1 and I think it sounds killer, even better without the tone pot to my ears, but I like a bright tone.

But the TB5 WITH the stock tone pot (or a 500K) might be what you're after.

[Hellbat]

The SH-5 Custom in my RR1T kills. I get a way better tone than I did with the stock JB. (Which wasn't 'bad')

[charvel750]

Well, this is officially driving me crazy, but I'm retarded like that.

but I really don't think the guitar is the issue.

It may actually be the guitar. Some Jacksons are just tone dogs. I did have a Soloist that no matter what pickups and amp combo I tried, it just didn't ring right in the tone dept.