Gibson sg- very dark.

[big_teee]

45 posts and still not a offer to try anything.
Must be lonesome, and want to see how many techs he can tie up!
I guess the thought is, that no one here is capable of working on a SG.
Most of the guys offering here, work on this stuff all the time.
Basics of trouble shooting, is to isolate things to see where the problem is coming from.
The old Napoleon method is to divide and conquer.
Thus the request, to solder the pickup directly to the output jack.
Like everyone has said that removes everything but the pickup and amp.
That will make it sound as bright as possible.
The guitar body should have minimal effect.
One more time, the reason everyone is getting snarky, is because they are losing their patience with your lack of taking advice, and doing what is requested of you.
Instead of blaming others, you need to look at Yourself!
If you're not up to following some easy instructions, you need to call it a day!
No disrespect, and no picking on you, it is what it is!
T

[J M Fahey]

Lonely guy.
No wife.
No girlfriend.
No Friends.
No Family.
Despised.
What do you want him to do?
Now he has some 20/30 "friends" very busy around him, trying to please him.
He must feel like Richard Burton here

[Enzo]

I tried to help him with his amp, but even after relating two storied from the shop about how perfectly good parts did not work TOGETHER, all he got out of that was that I was adamant his guitars were at fault. I was trying to get across that things that work well elsewhere are not free of suspicion here. But that made me recall an earlier comment he made: the gist of it was that he wanted to ask questions and learn about all this until he could state with certainly JUST what the problem was and what he needed to do. He wanted to have the answer before lifting a solder iron. something about nor wasting time poking around with meters and stuff. So when we ask that he wire something or test something, if he didn;t see it as helpful, he'd not bother to do it.

The Socratic method of amp repair?


When he has married Liz Taylor for the second time, come back and talk to me.

[Steve A.]

I think the old axiom, "You can lead a horse to...." Is appropriate here. Wiring the pickup directly to the amp eliminates anything but the pickup and will tell you the output and frequency response of the pickup without any other loading. The pickup will have the same output and frequency response whether it is mounted in mahogany or plywood. Body resonance is a different thing altogether. If you can't spend 5 minutes with a soldering iron, I would suggest you take the guitar to a reputable shop for a setup. It should cost you $45-$75. If there is a problem the tech will identify it and advise you. There is only so much we can do without seeing the instrument. If you refuse to do simple diagnostic tests, then we are all just pissing in the wind.

A shielded cable with a 1/4" plug on one end and two tiny alligator clips is very handy for testing a pickup mounted in guitar. Clip the cable to the two pickup leads and plug it into an amp. But yes one does need a soldering iron to desolder and reconnect the leads. You kinda miss the whole point of MEF if you don't own and use a soldering iron. (It is very easy to remove the tone control from the circuit by desoldering just one or two wires.)

Steve

P.S. I think that the saying is pissing into the wind which blows it right back at you. Pissing with the wind to your back can be very invigorating (or I've heard.)

P.P.S You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him shit...?

[DrGonz78]

Example: You get into a cab to go home for the night. Cab driver asks for your help as he is new and does not know this part of town that well. You tell him to make a right turn on Thompson Peak and he turns left. At that point you assume he just misunderstood what you said, so you say "hey buddy you need to make a u-turn now." He turns right instead... This goes on and on until you tell him to stop, and at that point he speeds up slamming straight into a wall.

My head hurts from reading this whole thread! The whole idea of using a solder iron to isolate components is the essence of troubleshooting at this point in the game. We have too many unknowns and too much speculation. The speculation is obviously from the driver of the thread and a reluctance to take his passengers home. So what is wrong with busting out the soldering iron and testing a pickup straight into the amp? I understand from one of your posts that you sound weary about putting a solder iron near your guitar, but you might just go for it.

I did not understand the idea (I still dont) of 'wiring the pickup direct to the amp.

Well lets say you go about changing all sorts of other components and end up still not liking the dark tone, all in all it was a dark pickup. Then instead you hear exactly what the pickup sounds like and decide it is the pickup. If you decide it is not the pickup then at least you know. At that point the speculation will have ended. If you don't try to diagnose the problem then the group here ends up frustrated and heads a hurting. You obviously trust the experience level of help on this forum, so now start applying their suggestions with action.

I must say that I think some of the frustration here was carried over from 5F1 Not Breaking Up thread. At some point you are going to have to take some advice and show more physical participation. I mean all what I say in the best positive manner and just hope there will a positive outcome. Good luck.

[J M Fahey]

"Replacing the bad part" , by itself, is the least of your problems.
The big problem is finding which one is.
That is called "troubleshooting".

Your problem involves dozens of parts

Let's see:
Guitar: wood - pickup1 - pickup2 - 4 pots - 2 caps - jack - switch - 6 strings (with the subvariants: age - rust - brand - thickness - etc.) - pickup height (by itself with lots of possibilities) - string height - neck straightness - fret type - fret wear - plus a dozen wires, a couple dozen soldered connections, etc.

And their combinations !!!!!
A perfectly good pickup may not mate well with a perfectly good pot (just the wrong value) and so on.

Do I need to analyze the amp ?
The famous 5F1 which will not distort?

Even more possibilities!!!!!!!

The point is that mathematical possibilities (specially by combination) are THOUSANDS .

Months to test them all.

Yet any of us here can solve your problem , or at least pinpoint it and then wait for some part to arrive, but "with the cat already in the bag" in less than an hour.

And that involves both the guitar and the Champ clone.

How come?

Because parts won't be replaced all of them one by one, and all combinations tested by "trained monkeys" but following a certain "system".

To put a name to it (although most use it, by training or practical experience without bothering about a name) , some call it a "decision tree" .

One example is this: a kid visits the Zoo, he finds a dry wrinkled "twig" and phones the Biology Teacher to ask him whether it's actually a twig, a dead insect, a dry dead frog, or what.

The Teacher is not there, the kid can't send him a picture, but the Teacher sends him a "decision tree" to help the kid find it by himself.



Note: the example tree is longer, but this part is enough to understand the process.

The kid starts answering the first, most basic question, which has more than an answer, then proceeds to the next, repeats the procedure (that is: checking/testing something, getting a result and proceeding on) and in a few minutes he proudly finds the answer.

See that at every branch he needs to test and get a result.

Otherwise he's stuck there for good.

If he just asks the Teacher (without testing anything) :
- "is it possible that it's just a twig?
- "yes, it's possible"
- "is it possible that it's an insect?"
- "yes, it's possible"
- "is it possible that it's a dry frog's leg?
- "yes, it's possible
- "but you just said it might be a twig"

Fact is, ALL are possibilities, dozens of them, that's why they are included in the tree, but to find which is the right one, YOU must do a series of tests, and properly answer questions, there's no other way.

Otherwise, you are wasting our time ... and yours.

[Enzo]

You can lead a horse to drink, but you can't make him water...

[dmartn149]

Again, those sg's I played in the 80's were lighter gtrs with a brighter sound- but similar (if not better) sustain.

Are you sure that your ears are the same as they were in the 80's? I'm not being a smart ass. My own hearing is WAY different than it was then. Most of the loss in in the high frequencies. I keep the treble all the way up on my surround system and it still sounds dull.
Did you try adjusting the pole pieces? On my HB guitars I adjust the pickups away from the strings and screw the pole pieces out quite a bit

[rjb]

My own hearing is WAY different than it was then. Most of the loss in in the high frequencies.

I have a "4kHz Notch". Apparently, this is quite common for noise-induced hearing loss.