pick up or guitar problem?

[case report]

Hi!
On my Charvel San Dimas Style 1 (HH) I have a Holy Diver bridge and Crawler neck. Playing through a Marshall JVM the sound is absolutely unbalanced towards highs! I mean the high ends are ice picky and very annoying; otherwise in a Jackson Fusion Pro the Holy Diver bridge is perfect with the same gear, so I can't believe the Charvel is a such a bright guitar; for this reason I changed a Cold Sweat neck for the Crawler because I thought it could be fault of the pick up; now, with the Crawler, that we all know is a very warm and fat neck pick up, the situation is almost worst 
I think something is wrong... maybe in the wiring?
The Charvel is a HH with just the volume pot (Bare Knuckle 550k pot), no tone... is it necessary a kind of capacitors?
Any suggestion will be very appreciated 
thank you

[littleredguitars2]

you definitely dont need a capacitor. thats only if you have a tone pot. maybe its not wired correctly? or maybe theres just a bad connection somewhere?

[case report]

you definitely dont need a capacitor. thats only if you have a tone pot. maybe its not wired correctly? or maybe theres just a bad connection somewhere?

thank you, it's important to know about the cap...
wiring was made by 2 different professional tech, I'm pretty sure it's all right but here it is a picture, maybe you can find something wrong...

[FELINEGUITARS]

Sounds like it could be wired wrong or the earth connection isn't good.

Has it been wired following Duncan colour options - if so you are hearing the pickup out of phase with itself  which can be a bit ugly.
If an earth wire is missing or detached (or the series link between the green and white wires isn't made properly as a soldered connection) things can sound weird and bright (and gutless sounding)

If all the wiring is correct - have BKP check the pickup - I have in the past had a couple of pickups where the colour coded wires were connected to the wrong wires coming off the coil ends and this caused confusion.
It worked ok if I figured out which wire should been which colour and rewired it based on that.

In the end I had the internal wiring fixed so that the pickup';s colour coding was all ok in case the pickup ever got swapped out of the guitar and sold on (that way a future owner wouldn't have the same  issues and not be able to make sense of it)

[case report]

Sounds like it could be wired wrong or the earth connection isn't good.

Has it been wired following Duncan colour options - if so you are hearing the pickup out of phase with itself  which can be a bit ugly.
If an earth wire is missing or detached (or the series link between the green and white wires isn't made properly as a soldered connection) things can sound weird and bright (and gutless sounding)

If all the wiring is correct - have BKP check the pickup - I have in the past had a couple of pickups where the colour coded wires were connected to the wrong wires coming off the coil ends and this caused confusion.
It worked ok if I figured out which wire should been which colour and rewired it based on that.

In the end I had the internal wiring fixed so that the pickup';s colour coding was all ok in case the pickup ever got swapped out of the guitar and sold on (that way a future owner wouldn't have the same  issues and not be able to make sense of it)

taking a look inside the wiring I see that it's a cable that isn't soldered good (earth wire?)... many of their electric wires are free (excuse my english, don't know how to say it); anyway maybe it's possible to watch it in the photo below




do you think it could be the cause of the problem?
thank you!

[darrenw5094]

I have a Jap Charvel San Dimas with a Holy Diver in the bridge and a Seymour SH-1 in the neck.

I have noticed piercing highs alright. The Holy Diver has smoother highs, so i put it down to maple board and alder body.

[case report]

I have a Jap Charvel San Dimas with a Holy Diver in the bridge and a Seymour SH-1 in the neck.

I have noticed piercing highs alright. The Holy Diver has smoother highs, so i put it down to maple board and alder body.

I'm bad surprised that it's piercing highs in Crawler neck too!!! so I thought it could be some wiring problem...

[darrenw5094]

Nope, i think it's the axe. Alder and 100% maple neck. I also replaced the original Korean Floyd with a German made Schaller with a 42mm block.

Possibly replacing the vol pot for a 250k pot will smooth off the highs more. Funnny thing is, the Charvel being a simple Super Strat, has no tone control, which would be a big help here.

[case report]

Nope, i think it's the axe. Alder and 100% maple neck. I also replaced the original Korean Floyd with a German made Schaller with a 42mm block.

Possibly replacing the vol pot for a 250k pot will smooth off the highs more. Funnny thing is, the Charvel being a simple Super Strat, has no tone control, which would be a big help here.

does a 250k pot could altering the integrity of the guitar/pickup sound?
and what if I put a tone knob? (of course if I wanna drill the body  )

[darrenw5094]

80's rockers used to swap for 250k pots, as it takes some of the highs off. It is worth a try because a pot would only be 5 bucks anywhere.
And that could save you drilling holes. 

[mantrasky]

I have a USA Charvel Maple Neck/Fret Board, Alder Body w/Pick Guard (German Floyd, Brass Block) BKP Holy Diver Calibrated Set, No capacitor and 500k pot and it sound wonderful! Playing through
a Soldano SLO & Celestions V30's. It's sounds aggressive to smooth voicing depending on how you pick. Very well balance, I'm not sure what it could be, I've had three sets of HD's, and all of them sounded a little different from each other. My current HD set in the Charvel sounds great through a Fender Twin or Deluxe (for clean Jazz/Blues/Classical) I hope you find your issue.

\../

[darrenw5094]

My Holy Diver in the Ibanez J Custom mahogany/maple bolt on, is smooth and sounds perfect.
The other HD in the alder/maple bolt on Charvel, sounds a bit toppy with the treble. I assume that is the natural nature of the Charvel.

[case report]

I have a USA Charvel Maple Neck/Fret Board, Alder Body w/Pick Guard (German Floyd, Brass Block) BKP Holy Diver Calibrated Set, No capacitor and 500k pot and it sound wonderful! Playing through
a Soldano SLO & Celestions V30's. It's sounds aggressive to smooth voicing depending on how you pick. Very well balance, I'm not sure what it could be, I've had three sets of HD's, and all of them sounded a little different from each other. My current HD set in the Charvel sounds great through a Fender Twin or Deluxe (for clean Jazz/Blues/Classical) I hope you find your issue.

\../

My Holy Diver in the Ibanez J Custom mahogany/maple bolt on, is smooth and sounds perfect.
The other HD in the alder/maple bolt on Charvel, sounds a bit toppy with the treble. I assume that is the natural nature of the Charvel.

as I said before the HD in Jackson works great, so now I am convinced that's a Charvel guitar property... maybe togheter with celestion g12-t75 speakers it's even more noticeable

I'll try 250k pot and we'll see...

[darrenw5094]

I'll try 250k pot and we'll see...

Report back on this please. It's a cheap mod anyway.