SOT: Rio Grande BBQ sounding different in my LPs

[blackba]

I have a '73 LP custom and a '95 LP studio. I have an uncovered BBQ in the bridge of my Custom and a Gold Covered BBQ on my studio.

The LP custom is sounding great, thick, full, meaty, good balance. The BBQ in the Studio is sounding thin, nasely, trebley.

Do you guys think the difference is due to the cover, pickup height, guitar differences, etc? The 498T that went microphonic in my studio has always been a bit thin and had too much treble too....

 

[StevieRaveOn]

I'm not a pickup-change expert... but, first off, I hate covers, I've learned that much. Usually, I find they muffle the sound I'm looking for a bit and what high end is there, I don't like.

If I had to guess off the hip... with a thin, nasally, bright sound out of a humbucker that's suppose to be fat... I'd say it's wired wrong and that the tone/vol controls between the two guitars might not be the same.

With the happenings with the 498T also, I'd definitely look into how the tone controls and volume pot are setup... Check the values of the pots and the tone cap. Wass the Studio used by any chance?

 

[blackba]

I'm not a pickup-change expert... but, first off, I hate covers, I've learned that much. Usually, I find they muffle the sound I'm looking for a bit and what high end is there, I don't like.

If I had to guess off the hip... with a thin, nasally, bright sound out of a humbucker that's suppose to be fat... I'd say it's wired wrong and that the tone/vol controls between the two guitars might not be the same.

With the happenings with the 498T also, I'd definitely look into how the tone controls and volume pot are setup... Check the values of the pots and the tone cap. Wass the Studio used by any chance?

I bought both guitars used. When I changed out the pickups in my Studio to the BBQ/texas, I put new Alpha 500k pots and orange drop 0.022uF caps. That was the stock value I took out. I was planning to change out the pots/caps on my Custom at some point, I have the parts. I do have a 0.047 cap I could put in, but I thought that would be brighter.

I will double check the wiring again. In between the 498T and BBQ I had a Dimarzio Super distortion and that sounded more full by itself, even though I wired it out of phase with the Neck pickup by mistake.

I am likely going to put the 490R back in for the rio Grande texas p/u...

 

[Rufus Leaking]

I'm not a pickup-change expert... but, first off, I hate covers, I've learned that much. Usually, I find they muffle the sound I'm looking for a bit and what high end is there, I don't like.

If I had to guess off the hip... with a thin, nasally, bright sound out of a humbucker that's suppose to be fat... I'd say it's wired wrong and that the tone/vol controls between the two guitars might not be the same.

With the happenings with the 498T also, I'd definitely look into how the tone controls and volume pot are setup... Check the values of the pots and the tone cap. Wass the Studio used by any chance?

I bought both guitars used. When I changed out the pickups in my Studio to the BBQ/texas, I put new Alpha 500k pots and orange drop 0.022uF caps. That was the stock value I took out. I was planning to change out the pots/caps on my Custom at some point, I have the parts. I do have a 0.047 cap I could put in, but I thought that would be brighter.

I will double check the wiring again. In between the 498T and BBQ I had a Dimarzio Super distortion and that sounded more full by itself, even though I wired it out of phase with the Neck pickup by mistake.

I am likely going to put the 490R back in for the rio Grande texas p/u...

I understand that covers might subdue the highs somewhat, but it shouldn't make it sound any thinner...

What values are the pots in the custom? If the pickup in the studio is not wired out of phase, it might be that the custom has a 350k or 250k pot.

Let us know! I'm a big Rio BBQ fan and want to know what to look out for.

 

[J.B.]

This is very interesting because I was planing on putting a BBQ in my Custom. I'm glad that it sounds good to you. I'm leaning towards the BBQ because my Custom is brighter that my 57RI, and wanted to balance the tone a bit. But I'm guessing the BBQ would prolly kill in the 57 too.

I don't know what my point is here. Carry on.

 

[Rufus Leaking]

This is very interesting because I was planing on putting a BBQ in my Custom. I'm glad that it sounds good to you. I'm leaning towards the BBQ because my Custom is brighter that my 57RI, and wanted to balance the tone a bit. But I'm guessing the BBQ would prolly kill in the 57 too.

I don't know what my point is here. Carry on.

The point is that BBQ's kill in any guitar period.

So do SLO's for that matter, but that's a subject for another thread...

 

[OUTLAW1969]

This is very interesting because I was planing on putting a BBQ in my Custom. I'm glad that it sounds good to you. I'm leaning towards the BBQ because my Custom is brighter that my 57RI, and wanted to balance the tone a bit. But I'm guessing the BBQ would prolly kill in the 57 too.

I don't know what my point is here. Carry on.

The point is that BBQ's kill in any guitar period.

I could not agree more. I have always liked them in my LP Customs. And I just put another one in one of my mahogany Charvel San Dimas strats, and it KILLS!

 

[J.B.]

Well.....well......I guess a BBQ it is then! Or two.....

 

[J.B.]

This is very interesting because I was planing on putting a BBQ in my Custom. I'm glad that it sounds good to you. I'm leaning towards the BBQ because my Custom is brighter that my 57RI, and wanted to balance the tone a bit. But I'm guessing the BBQ would prolly kill in the 57 too.

I don't know what my point is here. Carry on.

The point is that BBQ's kill in any guitar period.

So do SLO's for that matter, but that's a subject for another thread...

I heard you got another SLO. Enjoy man. I can see a lead man like yourself really liking that amp.

 

[Rufus Leaking]

This is very interesting because I was planing on putting a BBQ in my Custom. I'm glad that it sounds good to you. I'm leaning towards the BBQ because my Custom is brighter that my 57RI, and wanted to balance the tone a bit. But I'm guessing the BBQ would prolly kill in the 57 too.

I don't know what my point is here. Carry on.

The point is that BBQ's kill in any guitar period.

So do SLO's for that matter, but that's a subject for another thread...

I heard you got another SLO. Enjoy man. I can see a lead man like yourself really liking that amp.

Thanks! This one just has the depth mod and so far I like it a lot more then the fully modded one I had a couple of years ago.

 

[danhops]

I like the Rios in bright guitars. Hated them in a darker sounding guitars. Sounded like mud.

 

[blackba]

I think my LP studio is on the bright side compared to my LP custom.

I did a little more investigation, the LP custom has 300k pots (I checked the tone pots, assuming the volume are the same). The studio has 500k pots. Both have 0.022uF caps and appear to be wired the same. For the long shaft pots of the studio I can get 250k, not 300k. I was going to replace the pots in my LP custom, but I bought 500k, now I am thinking I should use 300K...

http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/elec ... tspots.htm

I may try moving the BBQ back away from the strings....

 

[blackba]

The pickup in my Studio is 4 conductor gold pickup, I wonder if for some reason one of the coils is not working which would make it sound like a humbucker with a coil split. I am going to check it out tonight...

 

[kannibul]

I'm not a pickup-change expert... but, first off, I hate covers, I've learned that much. Usually, I find they muffle the sound I'm looking for a bit and what high end is there, I don't like.

If I had to guess off the hip... with a thin, nasally, bright sound out of a humbucker that's suppose to be fat... I'd say it's wired wrong and that the tone/vol controls between the two guitars might not be the same.

With the happenings with the 498T also, I'd definitely look into how the tone controls and volume pot are setup... Check the values of the pots and the tone cap. Wass the Studio used by any chance?

I bought both guitars used. When I changed out the pickups in my Studio to the BBQ/texas, I put new Alpha 500k pots and orange drop 0.022uF caps. That was the stock value I took out. I was planning to change out the pots/caps on my Custom at some point, I have the parts. I do have a 0.047 cap I could put in, but I thought that would be brighter.

I will double check the wiring again. In between the 498T and BBQ I had a Dimarzio Super distortion and that sounded more full by itself, even though I wired it out of phase with the Neck pickup by mistake.

I am likely going to put the 490R back in for the rio Grande texas p/u...

Gibson has used 300K volume pots since forever as far as I know.

Using a higher value pot will make it have more bite.

 

[kannibul]

I think my LP studio is on the bright side compared to my LP custom.

I did a little more investigation, the LP custom has 300k pots (I checked the tone pots, assuming the volume are the same). The studio has 500k pots. Both have 0.022uF caps and appear to be wired the same. For the long shaft pots of the studio I can get 250k, not 300k. I was going to replace the pots in my LP custom, but I bought 500k, now I am thinking I should use 300K...

http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/elec ... tspots.htm

I may try moving the BBQ back away from the strings....

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=306125

Gibson pots are CTS-brand (better than Alpha), for what I know...

 

[blackba]

I'm pretty sure that the Gibson pots that say "Gibson" on the back of them aren't CTS. I'm not 100% sure, but pretty sure. They do use CTS pots in the Custom Shop Reissues, though.

Does your '71 Custom have 300k or 500k pots?

'73 LP custom is playing well, high E is still off (buzzing), hopefully the saddles will fix that. They should be here Wednesday.

 

[OneArmedScissor]

The 498T that went microphonic in my studio has always been a bit thin and had too much treble too....

Well being a different guitar, the logical conclusion would be that it just sounds different in that manner, would it not?

 

[blackba]

The 498T that went microphonic in my studio has always been a bit thin and had too much treble too....

Well being a different guitar, the logical conclusion would be that it just sounds different in that manner, would it not?

The guitars are both Les Pauls, I expect the same pickup in each one to at least have similar characteristics. They sound completely different to me. It may be the nature of the LP studio, in which case my investigation is futile...

 

[blackba]

I honestly don't remember. Some of them were going bad and I think I replaced the worn 36 year old 300k pots with brand new 500k CTS pots. I think so, anyway. I did notice that the guitar got more "open" sounding and a little brighter, but in a good way. It was slightly muffled before the pot swap. I like it much better with the CTS pots. I kept the Sprague Black Beauty caps in there too.

I'm glad to hear the '73 is doing okay. Did you try just raising the treble side of the bridge a little bit? I'm sure you probably have... Yeah, that saddle may be cut too deep. I replaced all of the saddles on my '71 too. Mainly because some of them were nylon (some came that way), but also because they were worn and needed replacing.

Chris

Yea I tried raising that side a bit, the saddle is just cut very deep.

Still totally baffled by this pickup sound discrepancy between the 2 guitars. My LP studio had 300k volume and 500k tone pots. It has all 500k CTS pots now. I checked the wiring and it looks fine.

I adjusted the BBQ in the studio closer to the strings and that seems to have brought out the meat. It still sounds brighter than the LP custom, but is sounding alot better. I resoldered a joint too, but I think the pickup height made the difference. I also tried it through my fender Bandmaster reverb, maybe tomorrow I will go back to the Vox AC30CC and see if it sounds better there...

 

[danhops]

Different guitars (even the same model) will sound different with the same pickups. I had 2 guitars of the same model, and they both sounded very different. Of course when I played them unplugged I knew that one was darker than the other, but I thought that would be lessened plugged in. That wasnt the case at all. The acoustic properties of an electric guitar do matter. Thats not to say the rest of the electronics dont matter either.