Black Dogs in my ESP Eclipse II Crazy bright and thin?

[kmanick]

I have holydivers in 2 other guitars, I may have him switch out the Black Dogs if all of the components
check out to be OK.

[darkandrew]

As far as I can see the only thing that might 'break in' over time is the finish.  If you are not worried about the guitars appearance or like the 'hot rodded' and/or 'worn in' look you could sand the finish off the back of the neck and see if that makes a difference.  Even flattening the finish with a scourer might make enough of a difference to simulate the effect that darkandrew describes.  I have used scourers on the back of the necks of several of my guitars and while I didn't notice any tonal difference I did notice that the necks became faster to play, and if the paint is poly the most that will happen appearance wise (using a green scourer) is that the back of the neck will take on a satin appearance.

It's not so much the finish (although it is fairly thick polyurethane which I am sure can't help) but the wood itself (ie. The tensions in the fibres). When I first noticed this in my Eclipses I posted my thoughts on here and Feline Guitars agreed that it is a phenomenon that exists and not only explained the reasons for it but also the lengths they go to to break their guitars in. I suppose that's why antique violins are so sought after.

[kmanick]

just dropped it off at the Axe Palace, they confirmed what I heard ...something is wrong. they are going to test the pots etc.
I personally think the bridge pickup is hosed, the neck sounds fine, I would think if the capacitor going to the tone pot
was bad, both pickups would be effected.
I'll know soon enough.
He's got a set of Zebra holyDivers he can throw in there if the pick up is indeed shot 

[darkbluemurder]

, I would think if the capacitor going to the tone pot
was bad, both pickups would be effected.

Correct, if it's wired as a "master" tone control (which it probably is).
Almost the only ways for a capacitor to go bad is either to short (in that case the tone pot value would load down both pickups) or to leak voltage (which does not matter in a guitar since there is no high voltage coming from the pickups).

Good luck,
Stephan

[AndyR]

My money's on the bridge pickup is fine but has been wired wrongly to the pots.

Hope you get it sorted soon 

[gwEm]

perhaps its been wired in parallel or split by mistake.

[kmanick]

he actually wired it  "full" no split before I left and it still sounded the same.   

[Chris Rowberry]

When changing over from active pickups to passive pickups you will need to change all the pots, capacitors and jack socket because active pickups use different values that will not work with passive pickups.
For use with passive humbuckers you will need 550K volume and tone pots, 0.022mfd capacitor for the tone, a mono jack socket (all available from our shop) and also get a ground wire installed from the bridge through to the wiring cavity.

I would make sure he has followed all these procedures properly as the Black Dog just isn't a thin sounding pickup, see example - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaqEET376-I

If your tech confirms he has followed all of those steps correctly, the next step would be to send them into us to have a look at for you. If you do decide to send them in for us to check over, be sure to contact us on sales@bareknucklepickups.co.uk so we can give you all the details on sending pickups back to us for repair.

[kmanick]

When changing over from active pickups to passive pickups you will need to change all the pots, capacitors and jack socket because active pickups use different values that will not work with passive pickups.
For use with passive humbuckers you will need 550K volume and tone pots, 0.022mfd capacitor for the tone, a mono jack socket (all available from our shop) and also get a ground wire installed from the bridge through to the wiring cavity.

I would make sure he has followed all these procedures properly as the Black Dog just isn't a thin sounding pickup, see example - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaqEET376-I

If your tech confirms he has followed all of those steps correctly, the next step would be to send them into us to have a look at for you. If you do decide to send them in for us to check over, be sure to contact us on sales@bareknucklepickups.co.uk so we can give you all the details on sending pickups back to us for repair.

the tech did do all of this. Last night he was checking the pots, but I think they are going to swap them for a set of Holy Divers.
The guitar is at the store, he is checking out all possible causes.
 I'm sure the Axe Palace will contact Tim and send them back if they are indeed "faulty"

[Chris Rowberry]

That sounds good Kmanick.
Keep us updated with how your tech gets on! We will get it working one way or another! 

[kmanick]

Just Picked it up, the Black Dog was bad, I'm sure Nick at the Axe Palace will be in touch with whoever handles that stuff
Now I have a set of Zebra Hoy Divers in it will try it out at Rehearsal on Sunday but from what I heard in the shop when
I picked it up, it sounds "right" now.
I'll get to try it out with some volume later on tonight or tomorrow morning.
I may need cream pickup rings

[darrenw5094]

Intersting to hear what a Holy Diver will sound in a LP type guitar.

[kmanick]

Intersting to hear what a Holy Diver will sound in a LP type guitar.

Sounds pretty good but believe it or not I may still need a 250K pot for the bridge pickup.
It sounds much better than the black dog did but this guitar apparently is very bright.
(doesn't say much to me about the quality of mahogany ESP uses)
I can roll down the tone pot a bit and it sounds great but I like the tone pot
wide open for the neck pickup, so instead of jumping the tone pot up and down everytime I switch pickups
I think I need to just handle the bridge pick on it's own

[Dave Sloven]

Maybe wire up a blower switch for your neck pickup so that when you kick it in it cuts out the bridge and wires the neck pickup directly to the jack, bypassing all the pots?  You could probably even do this from the selector switch somehow.  Not sure if it might cause issues with the middle position though.

[Alex]

Intersting to hear what a Holy Diver will sound in a LP type guitar.

Sounds pretty good but believe it or not I may still need a 250K pot for the bridge pickup.
It sounds much better than the black dog did but this guitar apparently is very bright.
(doesn't say much to me about the quality of mahogany ESP uses)
I can roll down the tone pot a bit and it sounds great but I like the tone pot
wide open for the neck pickup, so instead of jumping the tone pot up and down everytime I switch pickups
I think I need to just handle the bridge pick on it's own

I have the same guitar (with the 4-knob layout), it should darken tonally over time.