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Will sanding too much clear off help my tone?


darren0203

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A month or so ago I got a Raven West RG650SP, I changed the pickups to the KFK81/85 because the stock ones were way too bassy/muddy. It helped alot but it still sounds very brittle and hollow (like theres no mids maybe)compared to how these pickups sound in every other guitar iv'e heard them in.


I would just get rid of the guitar but it plays really good and looks sweet too. It also probably has no resale value. So I was wondering if I sand this super thick clear coat off and put a thin satin coat on, it would help?


Any Ideas, anybody have this problem? Or anything to know before I start?

 

 

No. Someone told Mick Ronson sanding off the top coat would "make the guitar resonate" so he sanded to the bare wood of his Les Paul and he said it didn't change the sound a damn bit.

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From the looks of it,you've got a a maple neck-through with a spalted maple top,and probably either basswood or some cheap variant of mahogany.Neck throughs are inherently bright.You need some pickups with more low mids.
I'd recommend an SD Custom or maybe a GFS Fat Pat if you're on a budget.I'd ditch the EMG's though

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It's got bass and treble, the brittle sound is like somebody eq'd all the middle frequencys out. All my guitars have EMG's and I love them, they sound great through my amps, so its not the amps. From what i'm gathering the finish probably wont do anything.

I dont know about the pots the, owner/tech told me he eliminated the tone pot. He didn't say anything about upgrading the volume pot so I dought it's different than the one EMG gives you.

The body is spalted maplt top, maple neck through, mahogany body. It might be missing some lows, but before I changed the pickups to EMG's it was all lows and not bright at all. Now it has some lows and high and sounds like i'm running an Ibanez lo fi filter pedal through it.

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The "no middle sound" sounds like the same problem I had. The pickup switch on First Act guitars are crazy. It's not a dead short to ground, but so many ohms between ground, and the switch points. Replaced the switch, end of problem. Weird thing is, the guitar sounded good clean, it just sounded terrible with high gain.

When you bring it back, to get it rewired, you could have a tone knob put in. You wouldn't need to mount it, and put another hole in your guitar. Just stuff it in the control cavity, set it, and close up it up.

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So do they need a special volume pot or something to work with no tone knob?

Maybe try a better switch also?

I thought about the jb/59 combo, but iv'e always liked EMG's and how sensitive and powerful they sound. Maybe i'll try Duncans if I can't get the EMG's to work but iv'e already paid for the EMG's so i'd like for them to work.

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