Warming up a REALLY bright Cali

[diablo175]

I'm sure this issue has been beaten to death over the years but I have a solid maple Cali w/ the ebony board that is just too bright. Currently have some active SD Blackouts in it and am thinking of moving back to passives. I was never sold on the PATB's nor the OBL's but would like to get a fuller sounding EVH sound out of it. I do a lot of 80's era crapola in my playing, lots of whammy-ing, pinch/open harmonics, taps, legato, sweeps, skipping, blah blah blah. Need a p'up that has the definition for emphasizing but is warmer and thicker to offset the brightness of the maple and ebony. Suggestions?

Also, any thoughts on a single coil that has the fatness of an hb p'up? Love to throw the selector to rhythm or phased between for sweeps and fast alternate picked runs (okay, my runs are slower and sloppy as hell but you get the idea)

[zenmindbeginner]

The Sreamin' Demon is a medium output bright as hell pickup without an ounce of ass.

Every George Lynch track he cut with Dokken was played through other pickups.

Lynch's classic tone is the sound of a Duncan Distortion. He also had a crazy rig, running an Echoplex for preamp only and using some sort of reel to reel tape machine for it's preamp too.

He only used the SH-12 in the Lynch Mob and he doesn't use it anymore relying back on high powered pickups like he used back in the day. Under Lock and Key, Back From The Attack and Beast From The East is all Duncan Distortion.

[Hamer Bass Head]

How about a eq pedal?

[RCM78]

I had the same problem with a set neck Chappy that was very bright and alive. This guitar defies what everyone says about the woods it's made with. It's an '87 25.5" scale set neck Chappy. Mahogany body, maple neck, rosewood board, floyd, and slammer pickups. This guitar is very lightweight and acoustically loud. It has a fast attack, lots of harmonic content, and very bright on the top end.

The stock Slammer pickup measured 12k so it's a weird one. I hear most are in the 16k range, anyway in this guitar that pickup was very shrill. Great for metal through a high gain amp, not so good for rock through a mid gain amp like my Bogner XTC. Also, Hamer placed the bridge pickup closer to the bridge then any other guitar I've seen. I'm sure that contributes to the shril sound.

I installed a DiMarzio Super 3 (Took it out of my PC-1) and that did the trick. The super 3 took out the harsh highs, added some nice lower mids, and beefed up the bottom end. Now the guitar sounds nice and chewy through the Bogner... Not thin at all like before...

The Super3 might work for you in the Cali...

[Ting Ho Dung]

I found the answer. You don't have to change any hardware. Change your strings to Original Fender Bullets. These things suck the tone right out of a guitar.

[BCR Greg]

Duncan Custom 5.

[diablo175]

I appreciate all the suggestions but have already decided that maple Cali's just are not the guitar for me. Maple Cali is up on the block BUT.... the Cali LE project is alive and well.

I have Unca Greg to thank for the work he did on my other LE. Totally improved the sound & performance of that Cali. So much so that it inspired to take one culled from Lady Scary's herd and revamp that with new pups, a block,trem, toggle switch & pots.