musicman axis supersport rosewood pickups

[bandmaster188]

hi all i've got a musicman axis supersport rosewood hardtail which is a lovely versatile guitar. i've been using it for slide recently but have now started using it as my go to geetar. problem is when i roll off the volume it all goes very muddy very quickly on all positions.
i don't know much about the stock pups in it except they are special design dimarzio's which i've just tested at 7.9 ohm neck and bridge. 500k pots.
i'm thinking about changing pickups to either blackdogs or abraxas.
do you think the muddiness is down to the stock pickups?
and what do think about pickup choice?
are there any other musicman axis users experiencing the same mud as me?
the guitar is basswood body with rosewood cap, rosewood neck and fret board.
cheers!
p.s. want to keep thing fairly vintage as i'm playing mostly blues and southern rock.

[darkbluemurder]

The Abraxas set is great and would certainly do what you want - good but not over the top output on the bridge and clarity on the neck.

The muddiness could come from the pickups but also from the guitar's primary tone. One thing however for sure: if it is still muddy with the Abraxas neck, chances are the guitar contributes more mud to it. I have/had the Abraxas in "problem" guitars with muddy neck tones and it was a lot less muddy compared to other pickups.

Never had Black Dogs unfortunately.

Cheers Stephan

[bandmaster188]

cheers stephan.
i wouldn't say the guitar has a naturally muddy tone, its definately more to do with the volume roll off when the mud kicks in. a great big puddle of mud when the volume knob hits 8.

[FELINEGUITARS]

Try rewiring to 50s wiring spec first- may help stop the muddiness when volume rolled down

[Telerocker]

cheers stephan.
i wouldn't say the guitar has a naturally muddy tone, its definately more to do with the volume roll off when the mud kicks in. a great big puddle of mud when the volume knob hits 8.

A treblebleed would help too.

[bandmaster188]

just had a look at the b.k. schematics and my axis is wired as to the drawing; 2 humbuckers 1 volume 1 tone 5 way superswitch. just need to work out what goes where for the 50's wiring. any clues please.

[darkbluemurder]

The 50s wiring relates to how the tone capacitor is wired. Normally the cap is connected to the volume input lug (the same where the output wire from the switch goes to) and from there to the tone pot. Simply desolder the cap at the input lug of the volume pot and move it to the center lug of the volume pot. You're done.

What it does is twofold:

1) the tone pot and cap load the signal less when you turn down the volume pot, thus retaining more highs in your tone and
2) the tone control functions differently than before. When you turn down both the volume and the tone control you get a slight dip in the midrange which makes the tone actually brighter, again assisting in combatting mud.

Please keep in mind that 2) is a reason why some guitar players don't like 50s wiring. Try and see whether you like it.

As regards a treble bleed: this is either a cap and resistor in parallel or in series soldered between the input lug and center lug of the volume pot. For a 500kA pot I would suggest a 470k to 1M 1/4W resistor and a 150pf to 330pf cap (voltage rating is highly irrelevant here - the lower voltage caps are smaller in size).

Cheers Stephan

[bandmaster188]

can i just clarify something as i'm not sure my volume and tone pot are wired up the same as in the 50's schematic.
at the moment looking in from the back of the guitar;
bottom lug on volume pot links to bottom lug on tone pot and then onto the switch.
middle lug on v pot goes to the jack socket (white)
top lug on v pot is where everything is grounded and also where the cap is soldered coming from the middle lug of tone pot.
top lug on tone pot is empty.
does that sound correct and if so do i still solder the cap to middle lug of v pot?

[darkbluemurder]

Your wiring sounds correct for the modern version. For the 50s wiring, just move the cap from the bottom lug of the volume pot to the center lug.

Cheers Stephan