Help... setting up a miracle man in my Charvel

[Spat]

Ive recently put a Miracle Man in the bridge of my old Charvel and just cant figure out how to get a ballacned tone out of it. The pickup sounds very bright probably down to the flamed maple body and the floyd.
 I can get the lead tone I want very easily but the low E string always sounds very muddy and overwelming when playing rhythm no matter how much I thumble about with the height could playing arround with the pole pieces help? any sugestions.

[ericsabbath]

I think you picked the wrong pup for that guitar
did tried to low down the height ?

but the one I had never got muddy for rhytms
not even on 0.54 and really low tunings + big piece of mahogany
not even through my ex-mesa recto

or maybe your string tension is a bit loose?

[sjwebb90]

What woods are your Charvel made from?

I have a Charvel 475 (HSS) made from Basswood with Rosewood Neck fitted with a Nailbomb and two Irish Tours. This is how mine is set up.

First, set all three pickups to initial heights.
A) Humbucker: Fret bass E at last fret.  Adjust so that the distance from the top of the screw polepiece to the underside of the string is 3/32". Do the same on the top E string.

B)Single Coils: Fret bass E at last fret.  Adjust so that the distance from the top of the polepiece to the underside of the string is 4/32". Do the same on the top E string.

C) Adjust Bridge pickup first. I have found the trick here, is to only lower one of the screws to balance pickup. Don't go trying to tweak both screws at the same time. I.e If it sounds too bassy drop the Bass side slightly, or vice versa. Also, its small tweaks on the screw of about an 1/8 of a turn, if that.

D) Fine tune Middle.

E) Fine tune Neck.

F) Check that output of all three pickups are balanced.

The above worked for the aforementioned guitar but I suspect there maybe other twists on the theme for other makes of guitar.

[Spat]

I'm inclined to agree with Eric, I'm going to do my damdest to make this combination work but there's a little voice at the back of my head saying mabe a Holy Diver would have been a better option.

[Lazy_McDoesnothing]

If you bought it direct I've heard Tim has a great return/exchange policy if you want to try out a HD.  Might be worth contacting him.

[Spat]

 After meny hours of fiddling arround with height adjustments and totally rethinking my approach to using gain on my amp for this particular combination (I was using way too much!) my opinion of this combination has been turned arround. I admit it i'm blown away lol allthough my neiboughers are probably less impressed.
 Now all I have to do is figure out which single coils will cope with being paired with this beastie!

[Johnny Mac]

They shouldn't sound muddy at all even with the gain on 11. Try lowering them a bit at a time. I have one in my model 6 Charvel and it kills.

[CJ]

They shouldn't sound muddy at all even with the gain on 11. Try lowering them a bit at a time. I have one in my model 6 Charvel and it kills.

could it also be not close enough? or no...?

[Jonny]

Did you consult with Tim on this choice? If you did you would have been well pleased with his vast knowledge. I would do so with the single coils.

[Johnny Mac]

They shouldn't sound muddy at all even with the gain on 11. Try lowering them a bit at a time. I have one in my model 6 Charvel and it kills.

could it also be not close enough? or no...?

I just checked the height of the pickup to the top E String  for you. It's 4.5 mm measuring from the coil nearest the neck on the bridge pickup. I hope this helps. They should have loads of string separation and clarity even with a ton of gain on. If it still sounds wrong then consult with Tim, Jonathon (Feline Guitars), Wez, Phil King  as you may have wired them incorrectly and they know all the technical stuff.

[Johnny Mac]

What amp are you using? Is your lead ok?

[Roobubba]

Yeah, if there's one thing the Miracle Man is not, it's Muddy! The bass on that thing is huge, yes, but incredibly well defined when it's set up properly.

Roo