Can I make slightly muddy sound brighter easily?

[Bownze]

Just received an Agile Chiral Parallax 72527 today. It has Cepheus passive 7 string humbucker bar pickups installed. They are slightly muddy in the low/low-mid range. Is there an easy fix to gain some brightness? I looked in the control cavity and see a 2A 473J capacitor installed on the tone pot. Probably not a genuine "Orange drop" but a standard cap for the installation. I really don't want to change pups. Would going to a genuine Orange Drop cap make the tone brighter? Or maybe a cap with values that will let more high frequencies through? I posted a NGD thread mentioning the muddiness and another user suggested eliminating the tone pot altogether and lowering the pups. Any suggestions or links are appreciated. Thanks!

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Just received an Agile Chiral Parallax 72527 today. It has Cepheus passive 7 string humbucker bar pickups installed. They are slightly muddy in the low/low-mid range. Is there an easy fix to gain some brightness? I looked in the control cavity and see a 2A 473J capacitor installed on the tone pot. Probably not a genuine "Orange drop" but a standard cap for the installation. I really don't want to change pups. Would going to a genuine Orange Drop cap make the tone brighter? Or maybe a cap with values that will let more high frequencies through? I posted a NGD thread mentioning the muddiness and another user suggested eliminating the tone pot altogether and lowering the pups. Any suggestions or links are appreciated. Thanks!

changing capacitors will alter the frequency range affected by the tone pot.
General rule is that the bigger the number, the darker the tone e.g., .01 uf is very bright, while .1 uf is super dark, etc.
https://www.electricherald.com/guitar-capacitors-tonecaps-guide/

If you want to keep the current capacitor values, you could also swap everything over to 1megOhm pots. That also tends to open up the sound a fair bit, but tbh, eliminating parts from the signal chain is the easiest and most straightforward method.

 

[Bownze]

Thanks for the input and the link, which is very informative.

 

[lewis]

Add an emg rpc knob to replace the tone knob.

 

[TheWarAgainstTime]

Try lowering the pickups a bit on the bass side. If they're too close to the strings, you'll get a lot more of the bottom end being fed through them.

Next easiest thing to try is clipping or de-soldering the tone pot, which should clear up a bit of extra top end. If the guitar is TOO bright after removing the tone control, then you might try out a few different tone pot and/or capacitor values to find the sweet spot in the middle. If the pickups are still too dark without the tone control, you probably won't be able to get it the rest of the way "there" without changing something else like pickups, pedals, amp settings, etc. Maybe try an eq pedal first in your chain to target and remove some specific muddy frequencies, too.

 

[aesthyrian]

Try a lighter string gauge. Easy and cheap.

 

[Hollowway]

Add an emg rpc knob to replace the tone knob.

Holy beans, how did I not know this existed? This would be WAY more useful than a regular tone knob in an 8 string. Any idea if there’s one that gives a mid hump and low cut like a boost pedal? That would be super cool.

edit: I just looked it up. There’s this Fender Eric Clapton mid boost kit, which is essentially a tone knob that boosts the 500 Hz area between 0 and 25 dB. So it’s like a little TS9 or DS1 in there. That seems like a super cool option, but I can’t find any evidence of anyone using it with a humbucker for metal.

 

[lewis]

Holy beans, how did I not know this existed? This would be WAY more useful than a regular tone knob in an 8 string. Any idea if there’s one that gives a mid hump and low cut like a boost pedal? That would be super cool.

edit: I just looked it up. There’s this Fender Eric Clapton mid boost kit, which is essentially a tone knob that boosts the 500 Hz area between 0 and 25 dB. So it’s like a little TS9 or DS1 in there. That seems like a super cool option, but I can’t find any evidence of anyone using it with a humbucker for metal.

You would be in luck. Check the VMC (VARIABLE MID CONTROL) under the bass Acessories option.
It works perfectly for guitar

 

[ArtDecade]

Adjust the pickup height.

 

[Drew]

Adjust the pickup height.

I'd start here too. Not just the bass side, the whole pickup - generally I've found pickups get a little brighter and airier the further away from the strings, but you lose nothing by trying it higher as well too to see if there's just something specific to that pickup's response. I'd try this before I'd try swapping out pots or caps.

 

[BabUShka]

Whats your signal line? A treble boost or a mid heavy boost pedal could help a lot bright en up your tone too.

 

[Hollowway]

You would be in luck. Check the VMC (VARIABLE MID CONTROL) under the bass Acessories option.
It works perfectly for guitar

Ha! That’s awesome. I can’t believe I’ve never known about these. This would be a super cool standard feature (or at least option) in ERGs. I know we can always plug ERGs into a boost pedal, but it’s almost a given that we’d want it for an ERG.

 

[lewis]

Ha! That’s awesome. I can’t believe I’ve never known about these. This would be a super cool standard feature (or at least option) in ERGs. I know we can always plug ERGs into a boost pedal, but it’s almost a given that we’d want it for an ERG.

It's actually perfect because instead of getting lumbered with a pickup that doesn't quite have the eq you like, you can use these 2 knobs to dial them in exactly how you want before you hit pedals/amp

The RPC on an 8 string is honestly a damn game changer. It makes a crazy difference. I've been trying to raise awareness on these for years. Especially for modern extended range instruments.
Happy I've succeeded again here haha.

 

[Hollowway]

It's actually perfect because instead of getting lumbered with a pickup that doesn't quite have the eq you like, you can use these 2 knobs to dial them in exactly how you want before you hit pedals/amp

The RPC on an 8 string is honestly a damn game changer. It makes a crazy difference. I've been trying to raise awareness on these for years. Especially for modern extended range instruments.
Happy I've succeeded again here haha.

Yeah, basses have these sorts of controls as standard. But with guitars in the same tonal range, we just get the standard shitty tone knob. This makes so much sense I’m wondering how come you (and now I) are the only people who think it’s a good idea. It’s a little pricey at $99 for a single individual to do, but a guitar making company could get them in bulk, or even make their own.

 

[Bownze]

Wow, so many options, I never knew lol. My original post was immediately following delivery and plugging the guitar into my bedroom amp, a Blackstar HT metal1, which is a 1w all tube practice amp. I have since plugged into a "real", "big boy" amp and, WOW! This guitar actually checks all the boxes. I actually had to dial out treble due to too much feedback. But thanks all, I will consider some of the other options, like the EMG RPC, although I watched a few YT vids on that and I could barely tell the difference it made. Anyway, thanks everybody!

 

[gclef]

Holy beans, how did I not know this existed? This would be WAY more useful than a regular tone knob in an 8 string. Any idea if there’s one that gives a mid hump and low cut like a boost pedal? That would be super cool.

edit: I just looked it up. There’s this Fender Eric Clapton mid boost kit, which is essentially a tone knob that boosts the 500 Hz area between 0 and 25 dB. So it’s like a little TS9 or DS1 in there. That seems like a super cool option, but I can’t find any evidence of anyone using it with a humbucker for metal.

I am super well versed in the clapton circuit. I've never seen it used for humbuckers though.

It is a cool system and may very well work for you. You need 3 pots and a 9volt battery.

So, what it really does.

Add 12db of full spectrum boost at the volume knob. 7 is parity with normal guitars 7 to 10 adds in the boost. This makes single coils as loud as vintage buckers by itself.

The midboost adds in the other 12db at 500hz. This is not tubescreamer territory. Its like mid bass, really.

The volume pot (the circuit actually) does not lose treble as you lower the volume down.

The tbx tone pot is a 250k pot from 0 to 5 on the knob. It is like a normal pot 1 to 10, just shortened throw. From 5 to 10 it becomes a 1 meg bot, which adds some brightness in.

Tweaking the controls gets you a ton of variety, with single coils.
I am not sure if the system will work well will humbuckers. It was designed to fattwn up single coils to humbucker land. Do that to humbuckers sounds interesting.

 

[Bg999]

There's also a mod where you wire a 0.0022uf (222) capacitor in series with the hot wire of the pickup to cut off some lows. It worked great to brighten up dimarzio tone zone I had in my mahogany RG. I think seymour duncan included this mod with the wiring of their SH-8 invader pickups.

 

[Marked Man]

Just received an Agile Chiral Parallax 72527 today. It has Cepheus passive 7 string humbucker bar pickups installed. They are slightly muddy in the low/low-mid range. Is there an easy fix to gain some brightness? I looked in the control cavity and see a 2A 473J capacitor installed on the tone pot. Probably not a genuine "Orange drop" but a standard cap for the installation. I really don't want to change pups. Would going to a genuine Orange Drop cap make the tone brighter? Or maybe a cap with values that will let more high frequencies through? I posted a NGD thread mentioning the muddiness and another user suggested eliminating the tone pot altogether and lowering the pups. Any suggestions or links are appreciated. Thanks!

I'm a Bright Freek, I suppose more now than ever since some of my upper frequency hearing has gone.....

These work:

D'Addario Pro Steel strings.
No load Tone Control or bypass it altogether.

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