84 SG standard stock 330k volume 100k tone pots to muddy...500k too bright.Sugestions?

[TSB]

I have a 1984 Gibson SG standard that came with tarback pickups 330k volume pot and 100K tone pot... This combination is just too muddy... I replaced them with 500K volume and tone pots and it's too bright.. Currently have a .27 Sprague Black Beauty as capacitor.. Any suggestions?

 

[cerebral gasket]

It's only natural for it to sound brighter with the changes you made.

If the Tarback is a bright or shrill pup by design, then a 300K volume pot, 500K tone pot with 0.022 uf cap would be a good starting point.

Do you have other guitars to compare it with?

You could also turn the treble and presence down on the amp or if using an EQ attenuate the higher frequencies in the 3-4 kHz range.

It's easier to remove brightness than to add what is not there to begin with.

 

[TSB]

Yes I have many Gibson's and other SGs..
This guitar was my very first Gibson and I got it brand new in 1984 when I was 14... I've tried about 10 different Gibson pickups... eventually settling back on the original Tarbacks... I really don't use the neck pickup so that's not really a concern . Just trying to dial in this bridge pickup... I will try your suggestion see how that works

 

[Decadent Dan]

Drop your tone pots to 250K with the 500K Volume and hear that.

 

[Col Mustard]

I believe that if you've got 500k volume and tone pots in that guitar now
you should be good to go.

Just use your tone controls. Also, if you haven't been using your neck pickup and you think your bridge p'up is too bright, just use your guitar's controls to mix in some of the neck pickup and round out the tone.

Another simple idea is to get an EQ pedal and put that in your f/x loop, or put it before
the amp. Cheaper than many other fixes, including replacing p'ups.

 

[Huntroll]

https://www.eio.com/products/elenco...MI_KHGzvy39AIVR0KGCh3eQQFUEAQYBSABEgJci_D_BwE

https://www.parts-express.com/Elenc...MI_KHGzvy39AIVR0KGCh3eQQFUEAQYBCABEgK_q_D_BwE

Buy 2 each of these things and temporarily wire them up to your guitar instead of the tone pots and caps.

Then mess around with all the different possible combinations of values until you stumble upon perfection.

An adventurous inventor could build everything into one box then have a detachable connector and jumper plug that gets hard wired into the guitar for the guitar player that has everything.

The "Guitar Tone-Master " kit could go for a few hundred bucks with an easily doubling profit margin.

 

[DrBGood]

I have to ask ... did you try adjusting your pickups height ? Any bridge pickup to close to strings, whatever the mods you do around it, will sound shrill.

 

[donepearce]

Go for the bright 500k option and use the tone controls on your amp to bring it back to where you like it. Starting with more and cutting back is always better than starting with not enough and trying to recover it.

 

[TSB]

Upon conclusion I ended up trying many Gibson pickups.. all the burst bucker's 1 2 and 3 Pro 1n2 57 Classics custombuckers.. 1981 Tim Shaw and now I'm currently trying a t-top 8 lb.. it's just never sounded the same since I had a bone nut put on it I'm wondering what was the original type of nut material Gibson used in 1984?

 

[Go Nigel Go]

The effect of nut material on tone by itself should be negligible. My guess is that most likely when the nut slots were cut it was different than the previous one (hopefully an improvement) and changed the string geometry to allow a lower or require a higher action changing the pickup height spacing slightly which absolutely CAN affect the sound.

Test this by raising and lowering the pickups a little at a time and see if you can get the sound back. It is easily done, easily reversible, and costs you nothing.

If that isn't it, the next thing I would look for is any potential string deadening caused by the change. That will also be repairable, but will require figuring out exactly what is wrong before deciding how to fix it.

 

[Bad Penguin]

I LOVE my bone nuts! I think they need to be on every guitar. HOWEVER... once you fret, the nut does nothing to the sound.

 

[Go Nigel Go]

Can't really go wrong with a well fitted bone nut...
Do it right and it will last a century or more without needing any further attention.

 

[Derald]

Your tone isn’t coming from the nut. You changed out muddy pots for brand new bright ones. You’ve gone from one extreme to the other. Logic says you’ll find your tone in the happy middle. 300k volume and 500k tone pots, or turn the tone knobs down to 3, 4 or 5 and keep the volume pot on 8.
As someone prior eluded to; the Tar Backs might just be super bright which is why Gibson hobbled them with 100k pots.
You also mentioned trying lots of other pickups - they haven’t been the solution for you. Maybe it’s not the guitar but the amp that you need to dial in.

 

[Oli]

Your tone isn’t coming from the nut. You changed out muddy pots for brand new bright ones. You’ve gone from one extreme to the other. Logic says you’ll find your tone in the happy middle. 300k volume and 500k tone pots, or turn the tone knobs down to 3, 4 or 5 and keep the volume pot on 8.
As someone prior eluded to; the Tar Backs might just be super bright which is why Gibson hobbled them with 100k pots.
You also mentioned trying lots of other pickups - they haven’t been the solution for you. Maybe it’s not the guitar but the amp that you need to dial in.

Hi, My Norlin era SG with tarbacks has 500k volume and pots and at 10 it sounds warm and well rounded in both pick ups, maybe even a little dark in the neck pick up.

 

[PermissionToLand]

I played an SG with tarbacks for the first time recently and they were muddy as hell. Granted, they were set too low and needed adjusting.

IMO, they're just not the right kind of pickups for an SG. Ceramic magnets just don't sound good for blues/rock. They're metal pickups and that's about it. But you've gotten some good advice in here.

 

[MR D]

I have a 1984 Gibson SG standard that came with tarback pickups 330k volume pot and 100K tone pot... This combination is just too muddy... I replaced them with 500K volume and tone pots and it's too bright.. Currently have a .27 Sprague Black Beauty as capacitor.. Any suggestions?

BUY A STANDARD W/57 CLASSICS , THEY RULE...PUT A '57+ IN THE BRIDGE, SORRY ABOUT THE CAPS....I am lazy amd dont feel like typing it twice !There is a reason a set of 57 Classic's cost $300, they sre GIBSON's best pickups ! IMO......BurstBucker Pro's aren't too shabby either, u gotta adjust them to get rid of the mud.

If you havent done this already: may I suggestt you have to put the neck pickup all the way down to the pickup ring, the MUD will disappear, and adjust the pole pieces to the fretboard radius and those TARBACKS will sound excellent, they will screem ! and then put the bridge Pickup reasonabley close to the strings and adjust the pole pieces, you will see a big improvement in the way the guitar sounds...... !then, if u still dont like them, get some seymour Duncans and put them in.....BUT,(Good move gettin rid of 330 Caps, I like the 500's just dont put the pickup's too close to the strings.)..you gotta find the height where they sound best.
I have never had a properly functioning GIBSON stock pickup that I could not make SCREEM !!! No MUD either !

****if u want to sell the TARBACKS, i've been looking for a set !

 

[Huntroll]

You could use a TONE POT that has a push/pull switch wired so the filter capacitor gets disconnected when up, (or down).

For absolute minimum tone coloration.

 

[Bad Penguin]

Add a .001 cap from pickup in to ground on the volume pot. Will cut out the tiniest bit of high end.