did I made a mistake?

[guitar geek]

last week I did a PU and electronics change on my model 6: the midbooster and Jackson PU's out and a DiMarzio Steve's Special, SD lil' 59 and lil' screamin demon (HSS) in. so far so good;
everything worked as planned, the volume pots, the tone pot and the switches did exactly what I had in mind.

The problem is the Steve's Special. I have 2 guitars with a steve's special, a basswood bolt on Ibanez JPM and the Charvel (specs are known). I expected the JPM to sound "warmer" than the Charvel: a lot of maple and poplar should have more high frequencies response compared to the basswood Ibanez. at least, that is what I figured: wrong: the charvel has a way more bassy response than my ibanez. It sounds great, that is not the point, but I think I made some sort of mistake. I expected it to sound more similar to the Ibanez with more sustain and less attack, but it turns out to "sound" [img]graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img] really differt.

so, is this a wiring mistake, or did I judge the tonal specs of my charvel wrong? anyway: the difference is so obvious, that I have do some presence adjustments on the amp

btw, the other PU's sound more or less as expected.

harrald

[ October 27, 2003, 09:25 AM: Message edited by: guitar geek ]

[guitar geek]

Re: did I made a mistake?

wrong "edit"

[ October 27, 2003, 09:24 AM: Message edited by: guitar geek ]

[Ace]

Re: did I made a mistake?

Assuming you put new strings on the guitar when you changed pickups, and that since you bought them as a set, they should be phased properly to each other, I really don't think that you did anything wrong. As long as you are getting the proper amount of output from your pickup without any squeals/excassive hum/interference I would guess that the guitars simply sound different. My 650 has a very dark sound to it, and almost all Ibanezs sound bright to me. If you still think you did something wrong, switch the pickups from both guitars and see what happens.

[mm2002]

Re: did I made a mistake?

A common mistake is to wire a Dimarzio the same as a Jackson pickup but the pickups are color coded differently. On Jackson and SD pickups the black is hot and green is ground, on a Dimarzio the green is hot and black is ground. Usually this gives the Dimarzio a "thin" sound though because it will be out of phase. Just something to check.

[guitar geek]

Re: did I made a mistake?

well, I didn't bought em as a set, but since I don't use em together the phase problem is impossible and the wires were done correctly. the problem is not that it sounds thin, but "too fat". I was (positively) surprised

Harrald

[pro-fusion]

Re: did I made a mistake?

In my experience, the neckthru Model guitars are not especially bright-sounding compared to USA Soloists. My Model 5 has tons of bottom end and a fairly rolled-off top end even with EMG-81s in it.

[guitar geek]

Re: did I made a mistake?

Then that must be "the problem", because I cannot find any mistakes in my schematic.

I must say: the tone of my 6 compared to my ibanez makes me a very happy person [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Harrald

[2Loud2Old]

Re: did I made a mistake?

Originally posted by guitar geek:
...I must say: the tone of my 6 compared to my ibanez makes me a very happy person [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Harrald

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">And *THAT* surprises you?!? [img]graemlins/poke.gif[/img]

[guitar geek]

Re: did I made a mistake?

Originally posted by 2Loud2Old:
And *THAT* surprises you?!? [img]graemlins/poke.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">[img]graemlins/baby.gif[/img] believe it or not: I bought this guitar to be the backup for my ibanez... guess what backs what up? anyway, there is only 1 thing the ibanez beats the charvel: playability, but that is not a big issue, because it is only a marginal difference

Harrald

[mm2002]

Re: did I made a mistake?

Exactly what is it about the ibanez that plays better than the Model 6? I want details.
And......let me see if I understand your original question....the problem here is that your model 6 sounds better than than the ibanez so you figure you must have done something wrong???? Are you serious about this bro? [img]graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]
OK, I've thought about it and....... [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[ October 27, 2003, 08:26 PM: Message edited by: mm2002 ]

[guitar geek]

Re: did I made a mistake?

Originally posted by mm2002:
Exactly what is it about the ibanez that plays better than the Model 6? I want details.
And......let me see if I understand your original question....the problem here is that your model 6 sounds better than than the ibanez so you figure you must have done something wrong???? Are you serious about this bro? [img]graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]
OK, I've thought about it and....... [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">[img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

well, the problem was that I did expect it to sound differerent then it actually does. the best way to compare the differnce is this: listen to for example images and words (dream theater) and scenes from a memory: the diffence in guitarsound is obvious there: almost same pickup and the same kind of amp, only a better guitar. that is the difference in sound I experienced. so I guess I should have figured that out myself [img]graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]

anyway: I am sorry to say, but the shape of the neck of the ibanez feels more comfortable to me, that is just a matter of taste I guess and a matter of habit. alhough I haven't measured it yet, I think the neck of the Charvel is thinner, which was actually a surprise.

Harrald