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Anyone know how to make my strat brighter?


ffud

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Hey so I'm trying to find some things I can do to my strat to make it brighter. I'm not concerned with electronics, I am quite happy with what I have in there, However, if I were to play my strat and say a Gibson SG 61 RI both unplugged, the gibson is naturally much brighter. Does anyone know if I can get closer to this sound by doing some mods, or is that brightness coming from the mahogany vs whatever it is my strat is made of (I think alder.)

 

I have read about sanding off any finnsh not exposed (under pickguard, neck cavity etc) and I have thought about blocking the trem (or maybe trying to install a gibson style hard tail)

 

would any of these things brighten it up, or am I just screwed based on the type of wood its made of?

 

thanks.

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Hey so I'm trying to find some things I can do to my strat to make it brighter. I'm not concerned with electronics, I am quite happy with what I have in there, However, if I were to play my strat and say a Gibson SG 61 RI both unplugged, the gibson is naturally much brighter. Does anyone know if I can get closer to this sound by doing some mods, or is that brightness coming from the mahogany vs whatever it is my strat is made of (I think alder.)


I have read about sanding off any finnsh not exposed (under pickguard, neck cavity etc) and I have thought about blocking the trem (or maybe trying to install a gibson style hard tail)


would any of these things brighten it up, or am I just screwed based on the type of wood its made of?


thanks.

 

 

Try playing with the height of your pickups, raise the trebble side higher than the bass.

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You could try the nut and saddles. I have played strats with brass saddles and they sound a bit brighter. Same with the nuts. You may be able to find some cheap, as they're not really in vouge right now, but there are tons of them out there.

 

Also, what kind of strings do you use? Stainless tend to sound brighter then nickel - that would be the first thing I would try.

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Try playing with the height of your pickups, raise the trebble side higher than the bass.

 

again, I'm talking about tone when it's unplugged, completely taking pickup height, caps and pots completely out of the equation.

 

thanks for the input all. :thu:

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I'm not sure who still makes brass saddles. Mighty Mite and Schecter made them back in the day. Check ebay for a used set.

 

Stainless strings would be your first thing to check - it's a cheap fix and they will be more bright. I would start there. Don't start unsoldering things and spending money until you do the simple things.

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250k and 500k pots attenuate some of the highs to ground. You could change to a 1meg ohm pot. This will give you back the highs that were attenuated.

 

There you go. Try changing one or all f the pots to 1 meg ohm.

 

And I wouldn't remove any of the finish. It probably wouldn't do anything but harm the guitar.

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This may be a stupid question, but if you're satisfied with the tone of the guitar while plugged in, unless you plan on playing as an acoustic, why would you want to alter the unplugged tone which would undoubtedly have an affect on the amplified tone?

 

I mean . . . if you like the way it sounds plugged in now, why alter the unplugged wound which will likewise alter the amplified sound?

 

Just curious.

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how do they compare plugged in? are you planning on miking the strat body?

 

 

Plugged in, the strat is less bright than the SG. This sounds nice clean, but when it's distorted the SG's brightness really makes it more crunchy (which I am all about) and I am more concerned with the distorted sound since thats what I normally use.

 

No. I'm not miking the body.

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If your strat had a single coil in the bridge did you change out the pot and bleed caps when you put in the new PUP? If not then the that may be reducing your higher frequency. Other then that try blocking the trem.

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What I want from the strat is the feel of the neck and body which I love, however I want to get closer to the sound of a Gibson 61 RI SG whose feel and look I don't really like.




Well like I said above, I'm trying to get closer to that SG sound because I played a vintage '72 SG at a show about a month ago and many people said the tone was much better than I normally have. After that show I went to GC and found that the 61 RI SG is super close to that sound. Since I don't really like anything on that guitar other than the sound (and I don't feel like dropping 2 grand on another axe right now) I'm trying to get that sound from the strat.


So what I have dont since is I put in the same P'up the SG uses (gibson '57 classic plus) and that was a big step in the right direction, but I took it into GC this afternoon and compared the two and the SG was noticeably brighter unplugged and that translated into more bite when plugged in. Since the electronics are the same I figure the way to get closer to the sound must be by working on the natural sound of the guitar.





Plugged in, the strat is less bright than the SG. This sounds nice clean, but when it's distorted the SG's brightness really makes it more crunchy (which I am all about) and I am more concerned with the distorted sound since thats what I normally use.

 

 

I know what you're talking about, and there's not too much you can do about it. Just because a strat is alder, doesn't mean it will always sound brighter than another guitar made of mahogany. I have a strat with a mahogany body w/ rosewood board, and it is brighter and plinkier sounding than both my alder body strat w/maple board and my basswood/maple body G&L w/maple board. I'm talking about unplugged, but this is also the case with my guitars when plugged in as well,..even when I swap the same pickup between them all.

 

There are some general tonal qualities that certain wood species have,...but they can certainly be overlapping, and vary quite a bit from piece to piece. The bridge/saddles can make a difference. I noticed you mentioned graph-tech. One of my strats that I bought used, had graph-tech saddles on it. When I swapped them out for regular fender block saddles, it brightened up the tone. I'm not familiar with all of the graph-tech saddles, but the ones I tried definitely did the opposite of what you're looking for.

 

Another thing;

 

This might sound odd to some people, but I've actually found that the neck of a guitar makes a bigger difference than the body. I've swapped necks and bodies around on a bunch of my strats that I've owned, and it sure seamed to me that the majority of the tone of the guitar followed the neck around.

 

The only thing you can really do, is to go guitar shopping. Play and compare every strat you can get your hands on until you find one that sounds how you want. They'll all sound different to varying degrees. This is why I'll never buy a guitar online.

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If your strat had a single coil in the bridge did you change out the pot and bleed caps when you put in the new PUP? If not then the that may be reducing your higher frequency. Other then that try blocking the trem.

 

 

yah, I put a 500K in there.

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