How do i remove bass/low end from my neck pickup only?

[mcdes]

i have a deusy, Both pickups are the Grande Vintage humbuckers, the bridge is great, and i dont want to change it at all, but the neck has too much low end for my liking. the treble is fine, but how do i remove low end only, from the neck pickup.

I dont want to use an EQ pedal etc, i would just like to remove it from the guitar/neck pickup itself.

Any ideas?

Thanks guys........

[mike shaw]

Try lowering the bass side of the neck pup.

[mcdes]

Originally Posted by mike shaw

Try lowering the bass side of the neck pup.

sorry, i shouldve mentioned, i have lowered the neck pickup, to as low as it will go, to reduce the output etc.....

[nrandall85]

What's the control setup look like on that guitar? If it has an independent volume control on the neck pickup, swapping the stock volume pot for one of a higher value ought to cure what ails ya. If the volume knob controls both pickups, then maybe you could rig something up with a switch or push/pull pot.

[mcdes]

Originally Posted by nrandall85

What's the control setup look like on that guitar? If it has an independent volume control on the neck pickup, swapping the stock volume pot for one of a higher value ought to cure what ails ya. If the volume knob controls both pickups, then maybe you could rig something up with a switch or push/pull pot.

it has just the one vol and tone pots to control both. there is a cap on the bridge pickup.

would adding a cap to the neck remove low end? or only treble?

[nrandall85]

Originally Posted by mcdes

it has just the one vol and tone pots to control both. there is a cap on the bridge pickup.

would adding a cap to the neck remove low end? or only treble?

The cap will bleed high frequencies to ground. I know that G&L and some Fender guitars use a wiring scheme that allows you to cut bass with one knob and treble with the other. Not sure if that's something you could do with your setup.

When I'm faced with this challenge, I do one or more of the following (some of these are quick and dirty solutions.)

-Swap volume pot for higher value (I found that I actually prefer 500k for volume in two of my strats- it brightened up the neck pickup a touch, and then I wired the bridge pickups to the tone control as well if I needed to roll off any extra highs.

-Completely removed the tone control from the circuit. Kind of an old school solution, but it certainly will add some openness to what you're hearing. I've only done this with guitars that I don't like to use the tone control. Even still, using just a volume control rolled off slightly will darken your tone for you without a capacitor.

-Just disconnect your neck pickup from the tone control. For me, most neck pickups are plenty warm on their own, and unless I'm playing straight ahead jazz I can live without it (even then, 90% of my EQ would be done at the amp.)

-It's a drag, but some pickups get darker as they're lowered. In an ideal situation I prefer balanced output, but sometimes I'll live with a slightly louder neck pickup if it means I get the sound I want. I went through this with a Rickenbacker 330- just couldn't balance the outputs and get the right sound. I literally sat there for a few hours one day and figured out how to use the knobs to make it work.

Hopefully some of this is helpful and I'm not just rambling. There are many helpful wiring diagrams out there, and after you figure out how the switches and pots work together you can start to get creative on your own.

[Rockledge]

Originally Posted by mike shaw

Try lowering the bass side of the neck pup.

This is my solution.
Most of my guitars are set up so that the bridge pickup is angled so that the low end is closer to the strings, and the neck pickup angled the opposite, so that when I am on stage and switch sounds for different types of music I don't lose presence.
I also do it so that I can set some beefy low end for the bridge pickup and not have it grunge out when I go to the neck.

[walterw]

ultimately, you're looking at getting different pickups, either a beefier bridge or a brighter and thinner neck.

you can fake it by running the neck pickup in series with a cap to cut its low end, and/or running the bridge pickup in parallel with a cap to kill its high end, but the definition of a good balanced pickup set is two (or three) pickups that all sound good at a given amp setting.

[mcdes]

Thanks for the answers guys.

I will have a look at a few of them.

I already have a 500k vol pot, do I need to change that to a 1m?

As it stands, I play mostly on the bridge, so I set the amp to that, and even then, the tone/treble is cranked. Don't get me wrong, the amp is fine, if not on the ever so slightly darker side than I'm used too, but would also like to bring the treble back on the amp to give me some room to play. My tele is sweet, but I think I need to brighten the deusy up.

If I change from 500k to 1m, will it lose a little bass, or will it just add treble?

[Sweetfinger]

Originally Posted by mcdes

If I change from 500k to 1m, will it lose a little bass, or will it just add treble?

Adds mostly treble. The sound that you are describing as your goal can be easily had by placing a cap in series with the neck pickup. The larger the cap value, the closer to the normal sound you get. The smaller the value, more low end will be cut. Depending on the pickup and other factors, somewhere between .003 and .0068 usually does it for me.

[splatt]

Originally Posted by walterw

ultimately, you're looking at getting different pickups, either a beefier bridge or a brighter and thinner neck.

you can fake it by running the neck pickup in series with a cap to cut its low end, and/or running the bridge pickup in parallel with a cap to kill its high end, but the definition of a good balanced pickup set is two (or three) pickups that all sound good at a given amp setting.

i agree with this approach, completely.

[Lolaviola]

You could try moving the tone pot lead to the bridge /switch connection. This way your tone is only working on the bridge p/up and the neck should get brighter.

[Sensible Musician]

going on just the subject line, HPF instead of LPF for your neck "tone control"

very common

hard-wire it if you don't have a dedicated neck control. use a trimpot inside the guitar - set and forget

[9fingers]

Check out the Seymour Duncan forum pickup section for magnet swapping info. An amazing amount can be changed with a simple to execute $3 or $4 magnet change in a humbucker. Mag swapping is hardly discussed on TGP for some reason but is easy, cheap & can be dramatic.
I am not the expert some of the SD guys are but an A4 or an unoriented A5 magnet might help you out (I'm assuming it has an A5 in it, which is most likely).
In fact, you could join over there & ask.

[mcdes]

i changed my neck pickup back to the original P90 from the humbucker, and half the low end is now gone, so i may have it sorted!