Can't figure out why my guitar roars

[GaryR125]

Hello all. I'm new to this forum, new to trying to learn and play music, and new to guitars. I have been studying for 9 months now and may be hooked.

I've been experimenting with three similar guitars and one 'roars' quite significantly compared to the others. That is, the tone is very big and muddy in the top 4 of the five switch positions, and barely balanced (treble/bass) in the bridge only position.

It's a 20 y/o Ibanez SA160 (HSS), but it shows no sign of tinkering. The wiring appears stock and original. FWIW, the volume in positions 2-4 seems louder than on 1 &5. I dropped the pickups down, with the low E side even lower, but it still is big and overpowering when fed straight into my little amp, compared to the other two guitars, that seem more 'normal'.

I tried to record the sounds from the three guitars using Windows Recorder; the two normal ones recorded normally, whereas the roaring one overpowered the recorder, although all settings were the same. Paradoxically, the roaring guitar output volume through the amp speaker is lower than the other two. That is, I have to turn up the amp volume to obtain a similar listening volume for the weird guitar.

I'm not sure where to even start to try to sort out and improve this thing, but I'm interested to try. I've read much of what's been posted on this forum, but didn't find anything like this.

Any suggestions as to where to begin would be appreciated.

Thank you, Gary

[Steve Conner]

It's a metal axe. I guess the single-coil pickups are probably overwound to make it sound good with lots of distortion. This ruins the tone when played clean.

Short answer: Only use it for playing metal. If you don't like to play metal, sell the thing to someone who does.

Long answer: try changing the pickups, but don't spend too much on them in case it doesn't work. Sometimes these "axe" style guitars have weird body resonances, especially with a locking trem, and will never sound quite right no matter what you do to the pickups.

Wildcard: Check to see if the guitar has active circuitry with a battery that may need replacing.

[big_teee]

Like Steve Said It may have High output Pickups.
However I think you said it had low volume.
If it does have a battery, if no battery compartment, it will be in the Access hole at the rear of the guitar.
If it doesn't have active pickups, I would plug in a guitar cord and turn the volume pot on high.
One pickup selected at a time I would measure the DC Ohm Resistance to the end of the guitar Cord.
Record the results and post them here.
If you don't have a ohm multi meter, you can get them cheap at tool, hardware, and auto parts stores.
I have a metal type clone Guitar, and with the right pickups, it has wonderful tone.
So check it out, and let us know what you figure out!
Terry

[GaryR125]

Wow - you guys are great!

I think Steve is correct. The guitar sounds much more balanced on the distortion channel, and twiddling those controls smooths everything out. I couldn't find much in the way of specs for this model, but what I did said the AS2 pickups are designed to produce higher output.

Since I'm a beginner, I've been studying basics, theory, simple stuff, etc, and haven't been fooling around with all the effects better players would use. So I really haven't ventured too far off the clean channel. But I'll chalk this one up to cockpit error.

Thanks again guys, Gary