Thornbucker pickups - odd high end?

I literally have Thornbuckers in 5 of my guitars....so I know them WELL! Also I am a guitar tech. I do not find the Thornbuckers to be harsh on the high end at all. I do think because they are lower output that they have more of a single coil sound percussive sound though. At least to my ears. They are my favorite pickups. I have tried other Suhr's before and DID NOT like them. These however were glorious. Prior to these I used Bareknuckle Cold Sweats in all my guitars.
 
I literally have Thornbuckers in 5 of my guitars....so I know them WELL! Also I am a guitar tech. I do not find the Thornbuckers to be harsh on the high end at all. I do think because they are lower output that they have more of a single coil sound percussive sound though. At least to my ears. They are my favorite pickups. I have tried other Suhr's before and DID NOT like them. These however were glorious. Prior to these I used Bareknuckle Cold Sweats in all my guitars.
What types of guitars are they?

I've yet to open the cavity to see what the actual pots, caps, etc are.

I did find that rolling the the tone knob to about 5 helps with the top end but the lower strings suffer.
 
Actually, I researched it for a bit. It has some quite interesting things to it.

The standard GOTOH 510 Trem comes with zinc/stainless steel blocks and saddles. These materials has a very high tendency to have a majority of high end and treble frequencies.

And add the trebley Suhr pickups (Specially the ML series) which pretty much have the result of that high end.

However, when I swapped to a brass block and saddles. It rolled it a bit. And made everything much more warmer.
It still had that seperation and had high end, but not those itching one.
 
I think that the thornbuckers are awesome, definitely my favorite suhr pickups (+1 to Tremonti). I do notice them having a bit of an exaggerated top end in my mahogany guitars fwiw . Those guitars also happen to have the Gotoh 510 trem, so maybe that combination contributes to it. In my other guitars with thornbuckers, e.g. basswood, swamp ash and/or with different bridges, I don't notice it.
 
My Suhr Modern has a mahogany body with a 510 tremelo. It currently has Aldrich pickups that replaced an SSH/SSH+ set that I thought was really bright. The guitar is bright with both sets. I considered switching to Thornbuckers but I doubt that will help much. I still suspect the circuit but maybe a new block and saddles will help.
 
Curious to hear what @Andy Eagle thinks regarding how the 510 might be affecting this. I think mine came with a brass block already but I'll double check.
 
@unix-guy Is your TB+ uncovered? I've considered taking off the gold covers on my Thornbuckers but hearing this has changed my mind. My Warmoth is a chambered mahogany guitar and I haven't noticed any additional high end. I get a nice chirp that I like and I agree with the statement above that they seem to be an evenly EQ'd pickup. I also have a Floyd and the neck is roasted maple with Pau Ferro fretboard. The fretboard may soak some of the brittleness.
 
@unix-guy Is your TB+ uncovered? I've considered taking off the gold covers on my Thornbuckers but hearing this has changed my mind. My Warmoth is a chambered mahogany guitar and I haven't noticed any additional high end. I get a nice chirp that I like and I agree with the statement above that they seem to be an evenly EQ'd pickup. I also have a Floyd and the neck is roasted maple with Pau Ferro fretboard. The fretboard may soak some of the brittleness.
They are both covered, yes. Also have the roasted Maple + Pau Ferro neck.
 
Does anyone here with Thornbucker pickups find them to have an unusual high end response?

I've been spending a lot of time with my new Charvel DK-24 USA HSS guitar and when I started playing my Suhr Modern HSH I found the top end to be very unpleasant to my ears.

I tend to be sensitive to high end and find it can be really annoying to my ears but I also suck with EQs...

In any case, the Suhr has a Thornbucker in the neck, a V63 in the middle and a Thornbucker+ in the bridge. The Charvel has Duncan Flat Strat SSL-6 in neck and middle (RWRP) and Duncan Full Shred in the bridge.

I feel like any pickup combo on the Suhr has more high end than the brightest setting on the Charvel... Seems odd that HBs would out-bright a single coil.

This is particularly noticable when using IEMs.

There is another thread here where someone mentioned having a guitar that had an annoying high end even thru pickup changes and finally resolved the problem after replacing a "bad" tone pot capacitor. I've done some googling and from what I can tell the type of also used in that application can't really go bad...

I don't recall hearing this before I sent the guitar back to Suhr to work on fixing some dead notes as well as rewiring it to change the pickup switching. It now has push pots on volume and tone for switching the HBs from series to parallel, and the middle position is neck+bridge.

Overall I like the Thornbucker pickups in series aside from this. The parallel mode or any setting that splits with the middle pickup is way too thin for my tastes.

Anyway, I'm not really sure how to tackle this. I've tried using the Input EQ in the Amp block and also the tone knob on the guitar to tame it but I don't like the results.

Appreciate any input.

The Thornbuckers are great pickups, they are in the PAF territory. I have 2 sets, one I bought and one that came in one of my Suhr.

When I got the set I install them in a Strat style guitar, in my C24 PRS, in a Les Paul and in a Telecaster made with pine wood. The pickups sounded different in every single guitar, as expected right. But I don't find them in any case with odd high end (treble). They are a tad higher in output compared to my best PAF repro pickups, Wizz with vintage 50's wire. I remember that the neck TB sounded best in the bridge position in the PRS.

The Suhr they come stock with is a T style classic tele body shape, but all modern feel and setup, they sound fantastic in this guitar, in all 5 tone positions, the split coils sound really single coil tone.

If I didn't have too many HB PAF styles pickups I would by them again and put them in another guitar.

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I put thornbuckers in my Les Paul awhile ago. They sounded great and really "cut" through the mix, especially using Marshall Style amps. Sounds very close to Pete Thorn's usual rock guitar tone.

However, I just found that upper midrange cut was a little too abrasive for everything I was doing and ultimately swapped back my Suhr DSV+. They do sound great for that PAF thing and will definitely fit for players looking for that style but I tend to go for darker tones.
 
What types of guitars are they?

I've yet to open the cavity to see what the actual pots, caps, etc are.

I did find that rolling the the tone knob to about 5 helps with the top end but the lower strings suffer.
I have them in a USA PRS Tremonti, and 5 strat type guitars. All different woods and trem systems. All stellar!
 
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