Neck pickup sounds too dark - solutions?

I replaced the Seth Lover neck pickup in my USA Bluesboy with a Bare Knuckle P90 (in a humbucker chassis). I don't play jazz, and the Seth seemed much too dark for my taste. The Bare Knuckle was a nice improvement, but I'm still finding it a little on the bassy dark side. Wondering if there are any wiring or pickup height tweaks that might move the needle. What I am after is a middle position that tilts a little closer to the bridge sound than to the neck sound, if that makes any sense. Right now, the tonal balance is just a bit too much towards boomy and dark when p/u selector is in middle position. Thanks.

People might make some suggestion about pot values but further wiring trickery would be needed to maintain your bridge tone balance if you simply swapped volume or tone for 1k or so. Plus I don't feel like pot values make things that much brighter.

I'd recommend a humbucker-sized Jazzmaster pickup at vintage output for a brighter sound; look into Rose Pickups for a reasonably priced example.

(I also feel like humbuckers/p90s are too dark for the neck. Jazzmaster pickups have an aptitude for that position though.)

They made a model for a while that I think would achieve the sound you are looking for- the ASAT Classic Custom, had an over wound SoapBar MFD in the neck, different than the standard MFD- it would give you the meat and brighter potatoes you are looking for, different pick-guard would be needed, but you'd like it.

Check it out at the 2 minute mark..



~JagInTheBag

They made a model for a while that I think would achieve the sound you are looking for- the ASAT Classic Custom, had an over wound SoapBar MFD in the neck, different than the standard MFD- it would give you the meat and brighter potatoes you are looking for, different pick-guard would be needed, but you'd like it.

Check it out at the 2 minute mark..



~JagInTheBag

Good call, but converting the ASAT Classic Bluesboy to an ASAT Classic Custom will require changing the bridge pickup AND adding the neck pickup AFTER routing out the pickup pocket to fit the
MFD Jumbo single coil. Both pickups are available from the G&L On-Line Store:
Neck MFD Classic Custom pickup
ASAT Classic MFD Bridge

An alternative is to modify the ASAT Classic Bluesboy bridge pickup to the stock ASAT Classic bridge pickup, see: Bluesboy Bridge Pickup Detail
and reverse the connection to the ground plate (to stock pickup setting).

Since the ASAT Classic Custom was discontinued in 2014, it might be a challenge to find one for sale. Perhaps you could offer your ASAT Classic Bluesboy as a trade for an ASAT Classic Custom.

Hope this helps.

Thanks to all for the helpful suggestions. Craig, apologies but I did not entirely follow your alternative suggestion, which was to replace the Bluesboy bridge pickup with the stock ASAT Classic bridge pickup, and then reverse the connection to the ground plate. How would that affect the tone of the neck pickup?

Thanks again.

Thanks to all for the helpful suggestions. Craig, apologies but I did not entirely follow your alternative suggestion, which was to replace the Bluesboy bridge pickup with the stock ASAT Classic bridge pickup, and then reverse the connection to the ground plate. How would that affect the tone of the neck pickup?

Thanks again.

Sorry, I was not very clear. Hopefully, this will correct that:

An alternative to replacing the bridge pickup is to modify the existing bridge pickup back to the way a stock ASAT Classic bridge pickup is wired;
by reversing the connection to the ground plate (to the stock pickup setting). See: Bluesboy Bridge Pickup Detail.

If you used the ASAT Classic Bluesboy bridge pickup with an MFD pickup in the neck position, they would be out of phase with one another.
It's my understanding that Leo intentionally wired all MFD pickup grounds the opposite of how a standard Alnico pickup ground is wired,
so that they would not sound good combined together. See the History section of the ASAT Blues Boy in the Rarebirds section of the G&L Registry for details.

I would try using an eq pedal. I know it can be a pain to have to use one, but the Danelectro Fish n Chips graphic EQ pedal is like $30 new and does the trick. It can really transform pickups because pickups are, the way my simple brain sees it, just differences volume, output, and eq (with a touch of character). you can achieve many different tones with an eq pedal. or another route is to go with a boost pedal with EQs built in. I have a mesa boogie tone burst that has controls for treble and bass. the tone job from earthquaker devices is also said to be a simple eq solution.

I've been having this same issue with my American ASAT Classic Bluesboy as well: the neck pickup (Seth Lover Humbucker) sounds too dark.

I'm researching the Suhr Thornbucker--a PAF-style pickup with more high end and clarity. Any thoughts on this in the neck position with the stock neck pickup? Someone had some reservations about this on another forum, but you guys are the experts, so I wanted to get your takes on this.

Thanks!

One thing not mentioned is EQ. I play a lot with the neck pickup. I always EQ my amp with the neck pickup and subsequently have to roll off treble when I switch to the bridge pickup. If I didn't do it this way the neck pickup would always sound muddy to me.