'89 Cali LE a "bright" guitar?

[diablo175]

Just curious but would the experts here consider an ebony finger boarded, maple necked, mahogany

(?) bodied Cali to be a "bright" guitar?

I've come to regard it as such and I've had a devil of a time trying to find the right bridge pup that has the right amount of beefy crunch without sounding too treble-y. The PATB2 and a Tone Zone are just too shrill. Want to try a Custom or a Custom 5.

Possibly could move to a 250 K pot and see if that tones down the treble-y shrillness. Have tried tweaking the EQ settings on the amp and on the 10 band- no good. Moreover, it screws up the tone of my other guitars. What to do. Thoughts?

[murkat]

More gain, less pickup ohm/rz.

Something in the 8.5 / 9.2 rz,

alnico II mag for a warmer tone

As far as a pot, 300k, .001 cap.

I use a lot of gain on tap, and over the years

I have found a lower output pickup gives me

note definition, clarity, and punch

while the Amp does what it is suppose to do.

Very fond of Seth's, but modified by me

to edit.... this is good too. I like as well, and is on my standard with ebony board, korina (bright)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Seymour-Duncan-Cus...=item43a939bc3c

[atquinn]

If a Tone Zone is too shrill, you need to sell your Cali. Then buy a Suhr, because a mahogany-bodied guitar with a maple neck and ebony fretboard is not a good tonal combination in his opinion. So, you guys probably have the same ears. And Suhrs are great guitars.

-

Austin

P.S. But maybe try a Custom Custom first.

[diablo175]

If a Tone Zone is too shrill, you need to sell your Cali. Then buy a Suhr, because a mahogany-bodied guitar with a maple neck and ebony fretboard is not a good tonal combination in his opinion. So, you guys probably have the same ears. And Suhrs are great guitars.

-

Austin

P.S. But maybe try a Custom Custom first.

In my less-than-expert opinion, it IS possible to get a thicker, beefier (i.e. less shrill) tone from a "bright" guitar- my solid maple Cali w/ ebony board sounds freaking amazing but that's with active Blackouts. I wanted a more traditional passive tone ala a JB or Custom-equipped Jackson (with ebony board but an alder body) Sorry, but I refuse to sell the Cali. If I can't do it w/ passives, I'll try another set of actives.

[zenmindbeginner]

I agree with Murkat and Austin on the Alnico II.

Definitely agree with Austin that what you want is the Custom Custom SH-11.

The SH-11 is a total juicy and chewy festival of midrange. It's the pickup that Josh Homme uses on the Queens of the Stone Age (GREAT vintage and meaty guitar tone without being "bright").

On an interesting note, the EVH Frankenstein is the custom shop floor model version of the TB-11. They are expensive at $130 a pop, but used TB-11 and SH-11s can be found for $50 and under.

The Custom Custom is a SICK, sick pickup... Works great in hollowbodies and bright guitars.

I would say get the lower output buckers like Murkat mentioned, but the guitar is a shredder and needs high output pups to sound like it's supposed to. You can't pull off a lot of legato stuff with a low output pickup.

I suspect that EVH's early 1981 move to more Holdsworth style legato playing made him seek out higher output pickups so that he had more "juice" to work with.

P.S. What you could also do is get a JB but put a roughcast Alnico II mag in instead of the smooth Alnico V mag. The roughcast quality to the mag will sort of comb out the peaks of the JB and the Alnico II magnet will inject it with all of these fat low mid and midrange tones as opposed to the upper midrange peak of the the smooth A5. A JB with an Alnico II magnet is Seymour's favorite pickup and he has it in his tele. It's also the custom shop Warren DiMartini model as well as the custom shop Bugseybucker. George Lynch's Super V custom shop model is based on a JB2 design as well. All 4 pickups are JB2s with some slight (but important) differences.