Charvel1975

So I've been researching passive pickups for my Charvel Model 5fx and from what I'm reading on the model series in general, it's hard to pick passive pickups for them, right now mine has EMG's in it. It's a poplar bodied guitar and someone said that Poplar tends to have a somewhat harsh/shrill tone having little in the way of bass/lower mids so do I need to find pickups with attenuated highs and boosted lows to compensate? I want to improve the sound and I'm looking for a bridge humbucker and neck single coil that can cover hard rock/ classic rock/glam/heavy metal tones to current and be defined and clear, yet having plenty of beef. I also want good split coil tones. Me & the other guitarist both do rhythm/leads and trade off leads. As far as lead guitar styles, I like Jake E. Lee/Warren DeMartini style and classic rock/hard rock leads so I do like those types of lead guitar attacks but also like a mellow and fat sound when the song calls for it.

The sound I'm trying to achieve is to be able to cover the the sounds of the songs our band covers Classic rock/Hard rock/80's metal & hair metal like Grand Funk, AC/DC, Ratt, Cinderella, Poison, Judas Priest, Candlebox, etc. What I like about the guitar is the looks and playability, what I dislike (tonewise) is the Charvel is extremely bright sounding and doesn't have any punch, clarity or definition to it and when I plug it in the gain loss is significant.

So update on my old Charvel Model 5FX the shop I took it to over a month ago to have the output checked on the older EMG-81 (Non-Quick Disconnect) in the Bridge position and to check the wiring never did anything for over a month!? So I went there yesterday and got it back from the shop! So I just emailed EMG Pickups to see if it is possible to buy just the EMG Kirk Hammett Bonebreaker bridge pickup only or the F-Spaced James Hetfield bridge pickup only, either with Black color caps and with short shaft potentiometers and do they still come with EMG'S EXCLUSIVE SOLDERLESS INSTALL SYSTEM: 2 25K VOLUME POT 2 25K TONE POT 1 BATTERY BUS 1 STEREO OUTPUT JACK 1 TWO PICKUP IN/OUT BUS 2 PAIR MOUNTING SCREWS AND SPRINGS 2 PICKUP CABLES 4 CONNECT CABLES 1 OUTPUT CABLE 1 BATTERY CABLE

Will an EMG-57TW, EMG-81TW or EMG-89R fit the bridge position of my Charvel Model 5FX? EMG'S site says their Standard EMG humbuckers are 0.9” thick. The 81TW thickness is 1.1”. Difference of 0.22”.

So I have guitars right now that are not getting used due to issues they have and want to try and figure out what they need to get them sounding great and get inspired to play them more! I took 3 of them below yesterday to local guitar repair shop: 1998 Gibson Les Paul Special - Factory P100 Neck & Dimarzio P90 Super Distortion Bridge pickups with .010 - .046 nickel wounds strings - needs wiring looked at as the Dimarzio P90, its thin/low output and possibly needs setup and from what I've been reading the P-90 P90 Super Distortion needs wired in Series to give the full output and a fatter sound. 1988 Charvel Model 5FX - EMG 81 Bridge & SA neck pickups, Original Floyd Rose - Was setup before the end of last year by same guitar repair shop with .009 - .042 nickel wounds strings with the .042 replaced with a .040, very sentimental as my parents got me this guitar for Christmas and was my 2nd guitar ever. The guitar sounds the same as the Gibson right now, thin and low output and uninspiring! New 9V battery was installed and EMG-81 raised closer to string but to no avail?! Partscaster with .009 - .042 nickel wounds strings and a bridge Seymour Duncan TB-4 JB Trembucker wired to an Alpha push/pull volume pot, 500K I'm pretty sure, no tone pot. I haven't been playing it right now because it's really bright and ice picky and I think the pot is bad because the sound cuts in and out when rolling the volume knob up or down whether it's pushed in or pulled out. I read that the JB was designed for 250k pots and found a Mojo Tone CTS Push-pull Potentiometer - Short Shaft - 250k online and got that to be installed and instead of going to single coil mode when pulled, they suggested Series/Parallel but I just hope I don't lose too much high end. I don't think there is anything wrong with the wiring but then again, I'm no guitar tech. Current home guitar: Epiphone Les Paul Custom Korean SD Hot Rod Set - JB/Jazz with .010 - .046 nickel wounds strings (Retired from live shows & rehearsals - Was my main live guitar for years trying to keep the miles off it) Current rehearsal spot guitar: Custom Made Ernie Ball Musicman/Wolfgang Copy with .009 - .042 nickel wounds strings - Another one that needs setup, don't know what pickups but they look like Dimarzio Super Distortion's, Original Floyd Rose, and this was one of my best friend's guitars whom he passed some years ago, very sentimental. Noisy and buzzy but sounds good if that makes sense? Wondering if any way to get rid of the noise and not lose the tone? I'm trying to figure out what guitars to use at where we practice at as well as here at home? My 2 Live guitars right now are the Ibanez Blue Floral and PRS SE Custom 24. Anyone have any suggestions or input?

Hoolihan & Big Chuck - Certain Ethnic Six Dollar Man https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzXi-PxNWTA

Sorry to bump an old thread, life has got pretty hectic for me and pretty stressful 😟 I did want to give and a BIG THANK YOU to everyone for your input and suggestions so far!! So for an update, before the end of last year around July & August, I had my Charvel model 5fx taken to a guitar repair shop and setup and gone over and it's tuned to standard E tuning with .009 to .040 gauge strings and had the gold Floyd Rose Original that was taken out of it years ago put back in and the EMG-85 that was in the bridge position swapped out for the old EMG-81 that came in the guitar when I got it for a Christmas gift from my parents years ago. The Charvel is a neck-through construction with a maple neck and poplar body. When I got it back me and my other guitarist and the drummer got together at our practice spot and was running through some songs and the Charvel was extremely bright sounding and doesn't have any punch, clarity or definition to it and when I plug it in the gain loss is significant... I also hooked up to other guitars as well: Ibanez JEM Blue Floral, my single hum Partscaster with Seymour Duncan JB and my Gibson Les Paul Special with Dimarzio P9 Super Distortion in the bridge. I was using a Blackstar HT40 Club 40 watt 1x12 combo with the matching Blackstar HTV112 Cab and both the combo and cab have the Celestion 70/80 speakers in them, Digitech RP360XP through the effects loop for effects only and volume pedal on it set for solo boost and also and my Maxon OD808 through the front of the amp. My other guitarist is using a Marshall DSL40CR combo through a vintage Marshall vertical 2x12 cab. So I replaced the old 9 volt battery in it with a new one and even tried adjusting the EMG 81 closer to the strings and the guitar still just sounds all thin. I'm looking on eBay and someone has and I believe it's a trem spaced EMG F-57TW Short Shaft Pots & Wire Includes EMG's exclusive Solderless Install System: 1 TW P/P Switch w/ pot (25K) 1 25k tone control 1 stereo output jack 1 two pickup in/out buss 1 battery buss 1 pair mounting screws and springs 1 TW pickup cable 2 connect cables 1 output cable 1 battery cable

Thank you both for the suggestions, much appreciated!! Also, what nut would you recommend to replace the LSR roller nut?

Hello everyone, this is my first post on here sine February of 2010! I'm going to go with passive pickups on my Charvel model 5fx instead of the EMG's that are in it now and would be taking the guitar to a guitar repair shop to have work done as well as having setup done as I'm not good at working on guitars, I can string them up, tune etc. But that's about it. Our cover band plays Classic/Hard rock/80's Hair Metal & some 90's music. It had an EMG-81 (Non-Quick Disconnect) in the Bridge, a Slant EMG single coil in the neck (don't know if it's an SA, S or SV?), a Gold Original Floyd Rose and an ungrooved nut and the behind the nut Kahler Locking Piece. From what I've researched online the guitar has a Poplar body with Maple neck-thru neck, rosewood fingerboard. I also attached a pic of the gold Original Floyd Rose that was in it. Since then, all this was done some years ago: * The gold Floyd Rose Original was taken out and a black 80's Floyd Rose Original was put in - Still have the gold Floyd Rose * The ungrooved nut was replaced with a LSR roller nut * New Kahler locking nut installed * EMG-81 swapped out for an 85 (still have the 81) * Custom sleeves around the tremolo springs * Orange Drop cap installed (don't know what value?) * 3-way toggle switch put in - now it don't seem to be switching the pickups right I want to do some upgrades as it never has stayed in tune that well and is very bright sounding right now and not in a good way. Also, all my other guitars have passive pickups, I just don't gel with the actives now. It would be setup for standard E tuning and I'm thinking of going with .009 to .042 gauge nickel wound strings. Any suggestions to improve the sound/tone/playability? I don't know what single coil for the neck as I read on another forum some people were saying something about which way the wiring comes out of the neck single coil could be a problem when installing? I want versatility and the ability to be able to have push/pull pots to split to single coil for versatility.

Hey Jab9000!! Beautiful guitar! This is my first reply on here since February of 2010!! LOL!! I had to get another password to even log in LOL!!