should i make this trade?

**Rainer.** · 02-15-2010, 06:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chups01098

I do not get why ya'll are saying to quit "worrying" and just play. I'm just trying to get the best guitar I can. How does that mean i'm not playing enough. Yeah your right it does take time out of my potential playing time to type on this site, but how do you know how much I play? Who knows, I could've just done steve vai's thirty hour workout without sleep or something haha.

Because nothing's worse than drooling over gear with no money.

Put the idea of gear behind you, and then when you have an amount of money you are completely comfortable spending on gear, then think about it.

No sense in trading and selling this that and the other to get this other one thing... Just get save up money for a good while, buy something nice, and keep it around for a while, then sell off what you don't need.

**thesteve** · 02-15-2010, 06:38 PM

just to add one more thought on the whole "trading and selling"...at the end of the day you're still running a guitar (regardless of quality) through a POD into a set of headphones. Nobody but you is hearing this music.

On top of that, you just got the guitar. As someone else said, you probably just haven't found patches that are compatible with this guitar yet.

The guitar isn't going to lose value over the next few years, so you don't gain anything by selling now vs. later. If anything, the market for used Gibson Les Paul Studios will get bigger and those prices will drop, but your Epiphone won't change in market value.

Chups01098 · 02-15-2010, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thesteve

just to add one more thought on the whole "trading and selling"...at the end of the day you're still running a guitar (regardless of quality) through a POD into a set of headphones. Nobody but you is hearing this music.

On top of that, you just got the guitar. As someone else said, you probably just haven't found patches that are compatible with this guitar yet.

The guitar isn't going to lose value over the next few years, so you don't gain anything by selling now vs. later. If anything, the market for used Gibson Les Paul Studios will get bigger and those prices will drop, but your Epiphone won't change in market value.

actually itll be more than just me hearing myself. i play at church, and youth group. but i still see what your saying a little

**thesteve** · 02-15-2010, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chups01098

actually itll be more than just me hearing myself. i play at church, and youth group. but i still see what your saying a little

I had the impression that for the time being you were only playing at home through your POD, my mistake.

Still, I think that considering you just got this guitar it's too soon to just say, "oh the pickups are too muddy." Particularly when it seemed like you were quite content with the Epiphone LPs you had played in store recently.

Chups01098 · 02-15-2010, 07:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thesteve

I had the impression that for the time being you were only playing at home through your POD, my mistake.

Still, I think that considering you just got this guitar it's too soon to just say, "oh the pickups are too muddy." Particularly when it seemed like you were quite content with the Epiphone LPs you had played in store recently.

that was just my first impression. im just having to retweak everything. the bridge pup is sounding good. i still stand by saying the neck is muddy though. no matter where the tone is. probably just need to tweak more.

***BillSPrestonEsq*** · 02-15-2010, 08:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chups01098

that was just my first impression. im just having to retweak everything. the bridge pup is sounding good. i still stand by saying the neck is muddy though. no matter where the tone is. probably just need to tweak more.

Is the neck pickup muddy? Or do you not like the sound of neck pickups?

I ask because to be frank, I very rarely like a neck pickup. I like my bridge pickups, and several of my guitars are one pickup wonders.

Tweaking and playing is a good thing.

The best gear will sound like crap if you don't know it. And my rule of thumb is to think about a guitar swap for a good long while to make sure you really want to do it. Also, thinking about gear swaps, the first cure for mud is not a pickup swap...

Chups01098 · 02-15-2010, 08:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BillSPrestonEsq

Is the neck pickup muddy? Or do you not like the sound of neck pickups?

I ask because to be frank, I very rarely like a neck pickup. I like my bridge pickups, and several of my guitars are one pickup wonders.

Tweaking and playing is a good thing.

The best gear will sound like crap if you don't know it. And my rule of thumb is to think about a guitar swap for a good long while to make sure you really want to do it. Also, thinking about gear swaps, the first cure for mud is not a pickup swap...

no i love the sound of a nice neck pickup. its just, muddy. on many of my settings, i've been tweaking, but for anything mediam gain, it gets muddy

**thesteve** · 02-15-2010, 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BillSPrestonEsq

Is the neck pickup muddy? Or do you not like the sound of neck pickups?

This is a good point. From what I've always understood, neck humbuckers, just by their very nature (and especially in LP style guitars) tend to lose clarity because they are overly bass/mid heavy, especially if you'd EQ everything to make the bridge pickup sound good. Back when I had a Squier Telecaster Custom II (P90s on agathis) I found that when I set everything up to make my neck pickup sound good, the bridge pickup was unbearably bright. It was a lot easier to fix that (just rolled the tone off on the bridge pickup) than vice versa.

PerishtheDay · 02-15-2010, 08:42 PM

on my tele i only use the neck for clean stuff usually and the bridge for heavy stuff. its a blue moon when its vice versa.

Major Tom · 02-15-2010, 09:36 PM

Neck humbucker pickups on mahogany neck + body guitars like LPs to my ear are muddy, like TheSteve says especially when you set your amp eq for the bridge pickup. I would also agree that for distorted tones, you generally want to use the bridge pickup.

Pickups on many Korean guitars are extra muddy because: A. a lot of them have weak magnets, and B. they use chrome plated brass covers.

Now, this is speaking from personal experience, not some internet tone lore I read years ago

You can greatly improve the tone of those cheap korean pickups by removing the chrome cover. It will have more output and clarity - less muddy. It will be especially noticeable on the neck pickup. On at least some of the older koreans, the covers are very easy to remove, they are glued on instead of the traditional 2 spots of solder. Cut the glue bead between the cover and the baseplate, make sure to keep the knife parallel to the cover's sides - don't angle inward and hit the coils, don't go deep. Pull off the cover - you may have to pry it a bit, as the wax inside will have some adhesion to the cover, but they aren't that hard to get off. After the cover is off, you have to remove the excess red wax very carefully, so as not to bruise the coil windings, which are a wire that is thinner than a human hair, and no where near as strong. Do not use anything sharp to remove the wax and be gentle. If the cover has the 2 solder spots, cut the solder (which is a soft metal), using multiple passes, don't try to desolder it - the potting wax I think draws the heat away from the gun. I was unsuccessful in desoldering, even with a powerful gun, I could not get it hot enough to melt all the solder at once.

Also, the ones with the weak magnets can be adjusted closer to the strings, than better quality pickups with stronger magnets. The closer to the strings, the more output and more highs, which will = less mud.