middle position way too bright

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Fenderbassman...man
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middle position way too bright

Post by Fenderbassman...man » Sun Jul 15, 2018 2:18 pm

I'm more of a everything on 10 kinda player. I really don't wanna mess with shrugging other than the volume to achieve the tone I'm after. But i find on my jazzmaster and jaguar middle position its a bit ice pick on the high b and e strings. Whereas the neck and bridge sound great. I notice if i turn the terrible down to about 2 while in the middle position its not ear fatiguing but I'm looking for something where it isn't like that with the tone controls on 10. I also don't wanna get anyway from anything that isn't vintage correct by using 500k pots. So I'm looking for setup suggesting or possible pickup recommendations. Maybe jazzmaster middle positions are just overly bright i don't know haha.

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Re: middle position way too bright

Post by gusgorman » Mon Jul 16, 2018 2:46 am

Fenderbassman...man wrote:
Sun Jul 15, 2018 2:18 pm
I'm more of a everything on 10 kinda player. I really don't wanna mess with shrugging other than the volume to achieve the tone I'm after. But i find on my jazzmaster and jaguar middle position its a bit ice pick on the high b and e strings. Whereas the neck and bridge sound great. I notice if i turn the terrible down to about 2 while in the middle position its not ear fatiguing but I'm looking for something where it isn't like that with the tone controls on 10. I also don't wanna get anyway from anything that isn't vintage correct by using 500k pots. So I'm looking for setup suggesting or possible pickup recommendations. Maybe jazzmaster middle positions are just overly bright i don't know haha.
2 things:

1) I used to be an everything on 10 kinda player, then I realised this was a bit silly and infact just a mental block.. The tone controls are there for a reason, they give you a whole range of sounds you can get out of your guitar. If it sounds good on 2, set it on 2!

2) I only used the neck pickup on my JM until I switched to tapewound/flatwound strings. Now I use the middle + bridge positions a bit more - with roundwounds those 2 positions were too harsh for me.

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Re: middle position way too bright

Post by ludobag1 » Mon Jul 16, 2018 6:37 am

whose jazzmaster you have ?
AV65
Av 62
Tvl
Classic player
ect ......
if the pups are Av65 the B is notorious for be too much present and not only in the middle position
the high of pups also if the pups are too near the strings ,the ice picks beguin , i find jazzmaster pups need to be set up not to high ;)

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Re: middle position way too bright

Post by Fenderbassman...man » Mon Jul 16, 2018 8:44 am

ludobag1 wrote:
Mon Jul 16, 2018 6:37 am
whose jazzmaster you have ?
AV65
Av 62
Tvl
Classic player
ect ......
if the pups are Av65 the B is notorious for be too much present and not only in the middle position
the high of pups also if the pups are too near the strings ,the ice picks beguin , i find jazzmaster pups need to be set up not to high ;)

I got a vintage modified. I got some pork roll og Waverley pickups in it that are vintage spec but is still ice pick on the b ands e strings. When i played a original 61 and 65 jazzmaster there was no ice pick whatsoever.

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Re: middle position way too bright

Post by Futuron » Mon Jul 16, 2018 7:15 pm

Fenderbassman...man wrote:
Sun Jul 15, 2018 2:18 pm
if i turn the terrible down to about 2
I would turn the "terrible" down to 0 ;)

Image

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Re: middle position way too bright

Post by Igorilla » Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:47 am

Fenderbassman...man wrote:
Mon Jul 16, 2018 8:44 am
I got a vintage modified. I got some pork roll og Waverley pickups in it that are vintage spec but is still ice pick on the b ands e strings. When i played a original 61 and 65 jazzmaster there was no ice pick whatsoever.
You installed replacement pickups and
in your opening post you wrote that the bridge as well as neck PU alone sound great.
There is a chance that the new PUs are wired out of phase, this would explain thin and shrill sound in the middle position.
Try swaping the PU leads of one of the PUs.

And yes, turn the "terrible" down to 0 :P

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Re: middle position way too bright

Post by Futuron » Tue Jul 17, 2018 1:06 am

Igorilla wrote:
Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:47 am
There is a chance that the new PUs are wired out of phase, this would explain thin and shrill sound in the middle position.
Try swaping the PU leads of one of the PUs.
Ah! Sorry OP, I thought that too but forgot to say, was too busy making jokes :fp:

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Re: middle position way too bright

Post by Fenderbassman...man » Wed Jul 18, 2018 3:27 am

No it isn't wired out of phase i could tell by listening to it if it was or not. I like the out of phase tone i got 2 guitars with that feature my firebird and es-5

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Re: middle position way too bright

Post by jorri » Sun Jul 22, 2018 5:04 pm

One trick you could try is just adjusting the balance between the pickups.
When they sum there's some cancellation going on (yes, IN phase).
But if you have them set equidistant from strings that would create the most, but having one set a touch higher or lower may throw off the balance enough for a warmer sound. When I played more slap bass i used to carefully adjust the pickups on my Jazz bass to be the most bright and scooped, but having them off by a significant amount killed that and that might be a good thing.

Sure, it will be brighter, I have a Jazzmaster (at least, a custom parts one) because i wanted an ice-picky guitar, so I don't share the feeling. But it doesn't mean you have to use every position all the time, in fact I have a middle pickup and i rarely use it that much except in series with the neck. I probably use the standard N+B position the least out of standard positions, but when I do, its got that very specific plucky sound that I want.
but I'm looking for something where it isn't like that with the tone controls on 10.
So also, why? why not stop looking for that and not be an 'everything on ten' player.

But failing that there might be some more complicated ways of wiring to sort it out. Like if you had volume/tone controls on each pickup they'd be in parallel so thus you would have 500k when middle was selected. But its not vintage correct either even if you want it...

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