Charvel Model 5fx Sounds Thin

[Charvel1975]

Recently had my Charvel setup and gone over and it's tuned to standard E tuning with .009 to .040 guage strings and had the gold Floyd Rose Original that was taken out of it years ago put back in and the EMG-85 that was in the bridge position swapped out for the old EMG-81 that came in the guitar when I got it for a Christmas gift from my parents years ago. In the neck is a slant EMG single coil in the neck (don't know if it's an SA or S?) and it's been in the guitar since I got it, LSR roller nut and the behind the nut Kahler locking nut.

Well last Saturday, me and my other guitarist and the drummer got together at our practice spot and was running through some songs and the Charvel is extremely bright sounding and doesn't have any punch, clarity or definition to it and when I plug it in the gain loss is significant... I also hooked u to other guitars as well: Ibanez JEM Blue Floral, my single hum partscaster with Seymour Duncan JB and my Gibson les paul special with Dimarzio P9 Super Distortion in the bridge.

I was using a Blackstar HT40 Club 40 watt 1x12 combo with the matching Blackstar HTV112 Cab and both the combo and cab have the Celestion 70/80 speakers in them, Gigitec RP360XP through the effects loop for effects only and volume pedal on it set for solo boos and also and my Maxon OD808 through the front of the amp. My other guitarist is using a Marshall DSL40CR combo through a vintage Marshall vertical 2x12 cab.


I have no idea what's wrong with my Charvel??!!

[metalhobo]

did you try new 9 volt battery?

[ed]

were the other guitars ok sounding? Was the charvel better before the changes? Are the emgs the solderless kind? is it better with the emg-85? How is the battery? Maybe cold solder somewhere? or the jack is dirty? could be many things really.

[toejam]

Is your cable pushed all the way into your output jack on your guitar? I ask, because the first time I had a guitar with EMGs, I pushed the cable in until it clicked and got a thin sound. I realized EMG jacks are pretty tight and that the cable needed to be pushed some more until I heard a second click, and then all was right again with the sound.

[Charvel1975]

did you try new 9 volt battery?

Yes, replaced with new 9 volt battery, not the one that EMG sells on their website though.

[Charvel1975]

were the other guitars ok sounding? Was the charvel better before the changes? Are the emgs the solderless kind? is it better with the emg-85? How is the battery? Maybe cold solder somewhere? or the jack is dirty? could be many things really.

Yes the other guitars were ok sounding. The Charvel definitely needed setup and as far as the Charvel being better before the changes the only thing I can say is that in the bridge with the EMG-85 that it sounded more full and beefy but lacked the high end cut for solos. The EMG-85 was the newer solderless kind, but the old EMG-81 was the non-quick connect kind. At that time, I also hooked up 2 other guitars as well: Ibanez JEM77PBFP Blue Foral, my single humbucker bridge Partscaster with Seymour Duncan JB and 500K push/pull volume pot and my 1998 Gibson Les Paul Special with a Dimarzio P90 Super Distortion in the bridge and factory P100 neck pickup and all 500K Gibson volume & tone pots.

[Charvel1975]

Is your cable pushed all the way into your output jack on your guitar? I ask, because the first time I had a guitar with EMGs, I pushed the cable in until it clicked and got a thin sound. I realized EMG jacks are pretty tight and that the cable needed to be pushed some more until I heard a second click, and then all was right again with the sound.

I'm glad you brought that up, yes the cable was pushed all the way into output jack on guitar and after thinking about it, I don't think I ever had the output jack replaced with a new EMG output jack?

[Charvel1975]

I play in a 5 piece cover band that plays Classic/Hard rock/80's Hair Metal/Heavy Metal & some 90's music. From what I've researched online the guitar has a Poplar body with Maple neck-thru neck, rosewood fingerboard. I was trying to attach a pic of the gold Original Floyd Rose that was put back in along with some pictures of the Charvel before the changes were done but keep getting Error Message:
You are not authorized to create or remove attachments.

I'm debating on just getting all new EMG pickups as well as new EMG volume pot, EMG push/pull tone pot and EMG output jack; I've been researching the EMG-57TW, EMG-89, 89R and 89X and the James Hetfield bridge pickups or I was thinking of just going with all Passive pickups on the Charvel instead of the EMG's?

On another forum someone had replied to my post and said on those single coil routes, the pickup leads came out of the underside of the pickup and down a channel on the treble side. The channel was not drilled from the center of the single route and then into the humbucker route as on some makers' models.

[metalhobo]

two other things you can check:

- make sure the height of the pickups are good. emgs should be relatively close to the strings, like around 1/8"
- check for wiring issues. you'll probably want to use a multimeter. you said the emg-85 is the quick connect kind. did you replace the pots and everything with the solderless, or are they soldered in?

IME the emg 85 does have a noticeable change in character vs the emg 81 but it's not like a drastic night and day thing. it's more subtle.

[Charvel1975]

two other things you can check:

- make sure the height of the pickups are good. emgs should be relatively close to the strings, like around 1/8"
- check for wiring issues. you'll probably want to use a multimeter. you said the emg-85 is the quick connect kind. did you replace the pots and everything with the solderless, or are they soldered in?

IME the emg 85 does have a noticeable change in character vs the emg 81 but it's not like a drastic night and day thing. it's more subtle.

I have a multimeter just never figured out how to use it? I did raise the EMG-81 closer to the strings as thr place I took it to for setup had it low, the neck single coil seems fine though. As far as I know everything is soldered in. I'm going to have to take the cavity plate off again and take some pictures ? The volume and tone pots I believe are the same ones that were in the guitar when I got it years ago and same with the output jack and I believe the 3 way toggle switch

[john.w.lawson]

I've always swapped 81's to 85's in my stuff. I can hear a thicker, well balanced tone from the 85 where as the 81 tend to produce a treble-mid tone. I don't know if you're taking weak as thin or spectrum of tone ( full body ) could be anything. I never buy battery's from OEM, Wal-marts pricey enough and never given me any problems.
I'd switch back and see if it's the pickup, but if you're not comfortable working on your guitar! We probably can't help much.

[toejam]

I'm glad you brought that up, yes the cable was pushed all the way into output jack on guitar and after thinking about it, I don't think I ever had the output jack replaced with a new EMG output jack?

Well, you would need a stereo jack. Not sure the regular jack would affect the sound so much, but it would definitely kill batteries quick if it's a standard jack and not stereo.

You'll also want to make sure you're using 25k pots, as those are designed for EMGs and not standard 250k or 500k used for passives.

And in order to post pics here, you need to host them on a site such as imgur.com or similar, then link to here.

[metalhobo]

I was gonna mention the stereo jack but he said the guitar came with emg 81 when he got it so I was assuming the guitar has one. but it's good to double check

[Charvel1975]

Hello ? Sorry it's been a while as I've been busy with work. I'm still waiting to hear back from Lay's Guitar Shop where I had all the work done on my Charvel before the end of last year, they must be really busy.

I've still been researching all the different EMG pickups and last night I played my other guitarist new ESP LTD KH-602 Purple Sparkle guitar with EMG KH Bone Breaker pickups and it rocked! There is someone that has a used bridge position EMG Bone Breaker pickup with what looked like all the EMG volume & tone pots, Output jack and wiring, I wonder if that would improve the sound of my Charvel?

[Razor]

Kind of stumped on this one. The EMG 81 in my Model 2 is pretty damn punchy, and I'm only running 9volt. Sure it's on the dry brighter side, but mine has always been punchy to me. I'll echo what others have said. Pickup height, check the jack, check your wiring connections, and honestly try another battery. I was prepared for disappointment when I put the EMG 81 in my Model 2 years ago, but to this day it's still my favorite guitar. I know for a while all the rage years ago was going to an 18volt setup.