Charvel Pro Mod San Dimas HH FR Pickups

addedc

Experienced
I recently bought one these MIM because of the great reviews, a great price, and because in over 40 years of playing I have never had a guitar with a Floyd Rose. I really like it. The neck is great (though the fret ends are a bit sloppy), one of my favorites. It just feels good and plays fast.

It has an SD 59 in the neck and JB in bridge, alder body, maple neck. I mostly play classic, rock and blues with occasional metal and was hoping to use this as an all purpose gigging guitar. I like the neck pick up and the split tones are close enough to what I need, but I don't really like JB in the bridge at full volume. It just gets overly compressed and is way too bright without rolling off treble. It also doesn't seem to have as much clarity or sustain as the SD JB Jr I have in the strat that's my current number one.

Would appreciate any suggestions on adjustments or modifications to get a little more classic rock vibe, clarity and sustain. My first inclination is to change the JB to something less trebly, like a custom, but there is probably a smarter first step than that.
 
I have a Charvel with a 59/JB also. I hated the neck. It literally destroys my hands. I loved the sound so much I bought a Fender Player with the intention of modding it to sound like the Charvel. For me the Charvel is the most uncomfortable best sounding sexy looking guitar available.
I have a Tremonti PRS pickup in the bridge and a Dimarzio Crusier in the neck on my Fender player right now.
I really like the JB. It’s 80% there for me. It doesn’t do metal as well as I would want though, prefer a more scoop sound for that.
I think for more classic rock you have loads of options.
Maybe even Andy Timmons DP humbucker. Have a look at some other manufacturers like dimarzio.
You could also look into wiring in a resister or capacitor to help tone the brightness down. Would need a little research.
I just like to turn down presence and treble on the amp though...
 
I'd probably adjust your pickups down, change the cap value to a larger one like some 47's to darken the tone or change the pots - 250k or 300k might work...you can also wire them in parallel for a more subtle tone.....all these cost are a couple minutes of time or a couple dollars, as opposed to expensive pups....

JBs are not particularly bright so I'm guessing the height alone should give you some good results
 
Thanks Jon. I had some time to mess with it today and put the bridge pick up down one and half turns. Made a big difference already. You aren't the guy who posted the picture of the lime green Charvel in the number one axe thread, are you? That was an attention getter. Appreciate the help!
 
That JB/59 combination is a very common combo. But the JB is a pretty hot pickup. Most of the time these guitars are intended to be used in the bridge positions first and the secondary tones come from the different pickup configurations like the split coils and the neck position. Have you tried EQ'ing the amp to a point that the JB sounds good and then seeing how the neck and the split coil options sound? Also, I've heard that the JB actually cleans up pretty well with the volume knob, so maybe when playing in the bridge position try knocking down the volume to 7 or 8 and juicing it for leads?

I have a Charvel but it doesn't have the JB. It's got a Dimarzio Super Distortion. I have a Duncan Distortion in another guitar that makes it my best sounding guitar. But I love playing the Charvel. It's a HSS configuration and when rolling the volume knob back it kinda got muddy. So I emailed Charvel and asked if it's common to put in a treble bleed circuit for that guitar model. They replied back with a yes, it's very common and they recommended a $50 fender treble bleed that is now out. The guys on in this forum straightened me out and I bought a $5 treble bleed circuit from StewMac and had it installed. Totally made the guitar WAY more usable. So if you're getting mud when rolling back the volume on the JB, this could be something to consider.
 
You can buy a treble bleed circuit for about $1. All you need is a capacitor. I prefer 330 picofarad. Every guitar I own has one. I dont not even consider a guitar playable without one.
 
Thanks for the tips. I am liking this guitar a lot with just dropping the pick up. I own a couple of expensive guitars and for a little over $500, this things rocks. It's such a fast neck. I can't put it down.
 
Thanks for the tips. I am liking this guitar a lot with just dropping the pick up. I own a couple of expensive guitars and for a little over $500, this things rocks. It's such a fast neck. I can't put it down.

Don't play thing in the car..... you might get a speeding ticket. :D
 
If you have a soldering iron, it is very easy to switch the wiring from series to parallel-it gives you a similar sound, but less output, so it feels a lot better....almost like a single coil - most of my hubucker guitars I have an ON-ON-ON switch for each humbucker to switch from series to parallel to split, and whilst I'm a single coil guy, I usually hate the sound of split humbuckers....whilst the full on humbuckers don't feel very dynamic to me...so the parallel option is the best of both worlds and you retain the hum-cancelling feature.

You can always just switch it back if you like the series wiring....or get a switch like I described for all 3 sounds :)

No that green charvel was not mine :( wish it was!! Haha!!!
 
If you have a soldering iron, it is very easy to switch the wiring from series to parallel-it gives you a similar sound, but less output, so it feels a lot better....almost like a single coil - most of my hubucker guitars I have an ON-ON-ON switch for each humbucker to switch from series to parallel to split, and whilst I'm a single coil guy, I usually hate the sound of split humbuckers....whilst the full on humbuckers don't feel very dynamic to me...so the parallel option is the best of both worlds and you retain the hum-cancelling feature.

You can always just switch it back if you like the series wiring....or get a switch like I described for all 3 sounds :)

No that green charvel was not mine :( wish it was!! Haha!!!
I agree. I like the parallel option way better than split. Much more usable, IMO.
 
If you have a soldering iron, it is very easy to switch the wiring from series to parallel-it gives you a similar sound, but less output, so it feels a lot better....almost like a single coil - most of my hubucker guitars I have an ON-ON-ON switch for each humbucker to switch from series to parallel to split, and whilst I'm a single coil guy, I usually hate the sound of split humbuckers....whilst the full on humbuckers don't feel very dynamic to me...so the parallel option is the best of both worlds and you retain the hum-cancelling feature.

You can always just switch it back if you like the series wiring....or get a switch like I described for all 3 sounds :)

No that green charvel was not mine :( wish it was!! Haha!!!

Thanks for all the great advice. Will the push-pull coil tap still work if I switch the wiring to parallel? What you are describing is pretty much what I don't like about the bridge humbucker. It's not very dynamic and sort of goes from semi-loud to fuzzy distorted instead of semi-loud to scream when you turn it up.
 
I agree. I like the parallel option way better than split. Much more usable, IMO.
I prefer parallel for hum-canceling but some pickups don't sound that much different in parallel like the Dimarzio 36th PAFs which I use in almost all my electrics so make the volume pot split both pickups.
 
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Well if it already has a coil tap, I'd use that :)

Do you like the sound when tapped? The parallel wiring will give you a sound similar to that but with a little darker tone. I didn't find a diagram on the next but I can draw one to get a parallel/split....but are you familiar and comfortable with diagrams and wiring and soldering? If not, I'd leave it to a tech to do, if you are, I can draw one.

If you still DON'T like the sound when split, well it may not make as much sense to wire it up, and you.my be better looking for a low output humbucker, or might have to lower that pickup pretty low
 
Also, for what it's worth, most of my pickups are set relatively low too....I lower them just to the point where it starts to sound weird and then keep raising it slightly to taste. I usually find the sound the sweetest somewhere there......

Most prefer the pickups high to increase output and give the most powerful sound, but I play pretty hard and dynamic and that powerful output is just too much for me, so lower is usually better in my taste and style.
 
I prefer parallel for hum-canceling but some pickups don't sound that much different in parallel like the Dimarzio 36th PAFs which I use in almost all my electrics so make the volume pot split both pickups.

Curious about the Dimarzio 36th PAFs. What do you find different than any of the other PAF p/u out there?
 
Curious about the Dimarzio 36th PAFs. What do you find different than any of the other PAF p/u out there?
To be blunt, be never owned any other PAFs. I bought my first set for my Les Paul and really liked them in that guitar so I bought a set for one of my Charvel and it just snowballed from there. Now I've gone them (or just the bridge pickup) in 12 guitars,

They just work really well for me. Not too hot, not too weak. The tone is relatively balanced. They're bright and defined in the high end but not too squishy in the low end. With the Axe FX and AX8 you did not need high output or exaggerated EQ on the pickups since you can do so much in them.
 
To be blunt, be never owned any other PAFs. I bought my first set for my Les Paul and really liked them in that guitar so I bought a set for one of my Charvel and it just snowballed from there. Now I've gone them (or just the bridge pickup) in 12 guitars,

They just work really well for me. Not too hot, not too weak. The tone is relatively balanced. They're bright and defined in the high end but not too squishy in the low end. With the Axe FX and AX8 you did not need high output or exaggerated EQ on the pickups since you can do so much in them.

I've been thinking about ditching the Super Distortions in my Charvel. Something about them is just......bland. I don't know how else to describe them. I may try a JB since they can be had used and cheap. But that's a hot rod pickup too. A lower output PAF style might balance out the guitar better because it's a HSS configuration.
 
I have 1 guitar with a 36th and Area 67s but the output difference is still off. I just deal with it on that guitar because I want the nice Strat tones. Might help if I lowered the PAF but I like it close to the strings.

FWIW, I've read lots of folks that hate Dimarzio pickups in general do like the 36th.

I like the Satch Track as a good compromise between output and a more single coil type tone.
 
Well if it already has a coil tap, I'd use that :)

Do you like the sound when tapped? The parallel wiring will give you a sound similar to that but with a little darker tone. I didn't find a diagram on the next but I can draw one to get a parallel/split....but are you familiar and comfortable with diagrams and wiring and soldering? If not, I'd leave it to a tech to do, if you are, I can draw one.

If you still DON'T like the sound when split, well it may not make as much sense to wire it up, and you.my be better looking for a low output humbucker, or might have to lower that pickup pretty low

Thanks again for all the info, Jon, and others for the pick up suggestions above. I think I do like the sound better when tapped. It's a bit too shrill on cleaner patches, but just right on higher gain, which I can adjust either way. Untapped, the volume knob just gets muddy, even with pickup all the way down. I am totally inept at electronics, so I would pay someone to make any mod. In parallel, would I still get a split with my push pull volume knob? (Only thing I understand about guitar electronics is what sound the controls make ;-) )

I really appreciate your help. If you are ever coming to Hawaii and want travel recommendations, would be happy to provide.
 
If you’re getting an unusable tone when the guitar volume is being turned down then definitely try a treble bleed. Look at Stew Mac’s site. https://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and...esistors/Golden_Age_Treble_Bleed_Circuit.html
The coil tapped tones will also sound better when you back off the volume a tad. It’ll clean the sound up and stay bright.

There’s an instructional video on how to install on their site (I think) if you have a soldering iron. I found one on amazon for $30 last year. I paid a local guitar store to install it though. I didn’t want to deal with taking off the pick guard etc.
 
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