[psychoshredder]

Guys, needs some advise.

I want to reduce some brightness / treble on the ash-body guitar that I have.
I love this guitar but for me the treble just killing my appetite.

the guitar is RG with see-through finish, maple + rosewood board, nothing special.

I know some options to be taken/ will be taken to reduce the treble :
1. changing the pickups with darker one.
2. put heavier gauge strings, right now I'm using 09, but considering to put 10s.

my question is :
if i remove the finish ( the paint and clear coat) on the body, and let the body natural with no finish or maybe satin oil finish only, will it help to reduce the brightness? or just make it worse?
the reason why I'm considering to remove the finish, because just playing this guitar unplugged , I can hear it's very bright already.


thanks in advanced !!

 

[satch_jr]

to me it won't change anything, I've an ash body Kawai Aquarius in natural finish, the guitar is bright.
The brightness is due to the wood, not the finish.
I recommand you to change the pickups

Switching from 009 to 010 strings gauge will not affect enough the brightness.

Check for pickups with a lot of mids and a lot of bass

 

[Jemanized]

Changing the strings can help a lot, too!!

Certainly a warmer tone can be achieved by using Elixir Nano Web strings.
And reducing the tone control down to max 1 - 2.

My RG 350 is pretty bright as well (stock pickups) but with the Nanos and tone at 2 it sounds nicely dirty/rocky.

Even easier, in case you don't have to change guitars between songs: adjust your amp setting

 

[6fingers]

Every gear we plug our guitars into have an eq.
And even if didn't have, for the love of god buy a 60 dollars eq pedal.
Or what?
Keep changing woods, pickups and strings till got the right equalization?!
Gear(pickups, strings, amp/effects) affects 99% of a solid guitar tone so wood have just a little participation and you can change that participation =
BUY A 60 DOLLARS EQ PEDAL!

 

[jono]

there are loads of different ways of doing this depending on a) how much you want to spend and b) how far you're prepared to go.

the easiest way is to turn down the tone control on the guitar, or the treble control on the amp. If you're looking for something a little more fun, replacing a maple neck with a specially made solid rosewood neck will warm things up a bit, but cost a small fortune.

The most cost effective answers that are still "fun" would be to treat yourself to a new set of pickups which will allow you to tailor the tone in each position on the guitar, or like 6fingers said, invest in an equalizer pedal which will give you a different tone curve at teh touch of a footswitch

 

[LostInRockFormations]

I am thinking just screwing a big block of wood to it would help.

Or maybe a G clamp like the fender fatfinger.

 

[psychoshredder]

I think playing with the eq won't help much...
the real problem is coming out from the guitar, let me explain :
the way I'm playing result somewhat buzz on some strings, even on an open string, is not a dead buzz, it's more like 'twang'.
adjusting the neck relief? done
adjusting the string action? done

so I'm comparing side by side : same guitar ( RGs), same set up, same string gauge.
one is ash , one is basswood.
acoustically ( unplugged), i can hear the ash is brighter.
plug it in to an amp : the twang on the ash get worse, like I said..even on an open string it twangs.. damn it, i just can't stand it.

I read somewhere that clear coat on guitars effected to the brightness also, that's why I asked, in Ibanez... does it have something to do with the tone?
If I remove the paint, will it be less bright or more bright?

 

[Petie]

Try a 250k volume pot instead of the 500k that I assume you have.

 

[RGTFanatic]

Try a 250k volume pot instead of the 500k that I assume you have.

First sensible answer yet.......

Switch both the tone and vol. to 250k pots. You can also use a higher value cap on the tone control, but that will only make a difference once you roll the pot back a bit.

It would also be wise to double check all of your wiring. A bad solder connection can leave a guitar sounding very thin.

Removing the clear will do nothing, other than making your guitar less shiny.

 

[LonePhantom]

A 250K is exactly what I was going to say too. That or a Tone Zone if you want to change pickups.