Taming soloist brightness

[potatohead]

Well, now the question becomes, is changing pickups into an entry level solid state amp even worth the time?

I know I need to just bite the bullet and buy an amp, but I don't find them nearly as fun and cool as guitars

[Grim]

My only problem with amps is the price tag.

Christ, I dropped 3 grand on an Invader.

I love the thing to death, but to me is it REALLY justifying that price tag?

It's is so versatile that I could PROBABLY safely drop one of my other amps, but which one to drop?

They CAN be really fun when you have about 10 and are allowed to take them to 11 all day and be pinned the the back wall with 100w of awesome through a 4x12, but being realistic, no neighbour is going to let you do that.

My advice is pick a good amp that suits your style and stick with it. Describe your style and MAYBE we can help you select a good quality amp for a decent price, although if I were you'd I'd bite a goddamn 50 cal and buy a really good amp that you will love.

[spider murphy]

Have you tried lowering the pickups a bit? Sometimes you can eliminate some of the harsh/brightness this way.

[jdr94]

i say swap the pot, put a capacitor inline with the bridge pickup, or swap out the pickup to somethin bassy like the breed or tonezone. i guess its actually more like treble cut pickup and not bass heavy, but you know what i mean.

edit- maybe cut the gain back a lil?

[potatohead]

I am so back and forth with this thing it's becoming kind of comical. Tonight I messed with it some more for a couple hours and I have a few tones I can use... It's not fantastically awesome, but it works. I think part of the problem is I am hoping for the sound you get when you are really moving air, and this little thing just can't do it. The Diesel, Rec and Krankenstein models sound pretty ok overall.

Have you tried lowering the pickups a bit? Sometimes you can eliminate some of the harsh/brightness this way.

I will try that, it's easy enough and can't hurt to give it a whirl.

i say swap the pot, put a capacitor inline with the bridge pickup, or swap out the pickup to somethin bassy like the breed or tonezone. i guess its actually more like treble cut pickup and not bass heavy, but you know what i mean.

edit- maybe cut the gain back a lil?

I am running the gain at 2/3 - 3/4 on most channels (both pre and post) which is where it seems best. More than that and it just sounds stupid, I don't know how anyone would ever need that much gain.

[VitaminG]

Well, now the question becomes, is changing pickups into an entry level solid state amp even worth the time?

I know I need to just bite the bullet and buy an amp, but I don't find them nearly as fun and cool as guitars

a nice amp will increase the fun you have with your guitars

There are some really cool relatively cheap low wattage tube amps on the market. And of course, they are cheaper again when you pick them up secondhand. I was fooling around with the new Jet City 20W head on the weekend. Great fun, quite versatile considering it is a single channel head with no loop, useable gain across the board and cleans up quite nicely with the volume knob on your guitar. I don't know if you guys have Ashton amps over there but they make some decent EL34 powered amps that don't cost a lot. There are plenty of cheap tube options available on the market right now