S-500 Middle pickup

[johnnyqb]

I just bought my first S-500. It is a gorgeous guitar, and I am convinced G&L is making some of its finest guitars ever these days. My question is about the middle pickup. It is noticeably ‘muddy’ compared to the neck and bridge pups. It’s not that it sounds bad, just very different from the other two. I should note that the 2 and 4 positions sound great. Is this relative ‘muddiness’ typical of the S-500 middle position?

[Craig]

I just bought my first S-500. It is a gorgeous guitar, and I am convinced G&L is making some of its finest guitars ever these days. My question is about the middle pickup. It is noticeably ‘muddy’ compared to the neck and bridge pups. It’s not that it sounds bad, just very different from the other two. I should note that the 2 and 4 positions sound great. Is this relative ‘muddiness’ typical of the S-500 middle position?

Since you posted this in the CLF Research sub-forum is your S-500 one of the new CLF™ Research S-500 guitars?
If so, the pickups are different from the standard S-500 pickups.

From the glguitars.com website page for the CLF Research S-500:

John R. McLaren has substantially modified the pickups from the current production S•500 spec, including the coil bobbin aperture, length of pole pieces, wire turns and more.
John sought to create a softer, sparklier sound without losing the sense of smoothness and strength expected from an S•500.

There are a couple of videos demoing this guitar on the glguitars.com website which you might check out.
Here's the link to that model's pages: CLF_Research_S500 .

Please post photos of your S-500 (front and back).

Did you buy this guitar new from a G&L dealer? If so, you might contact that dealer and tell them about the issue with the middle pickup. They will contact G&L see if it needs to be sent back to the factory for repair under warranty.

[johnnyqb]

Thank you. I did not mean to post this in CLF Research. It is a ‘normal’ S-500. I did find an answer on the forums that has already helped. That is, lower the bridge pup close to the body and adjust the other pickups based on the bridge pup. There is nothing wrong with my middle pup; I am just not used to that tone. I am, however, finding that working with the pickup height and tone controls is bringing a lot of usable tones out of that position.

[Craig]

Thank you. I did not mean to post this in CLF Research. It is a ‘normal’ S-500. I did find an answer on the forums that has already helped. That is, lower the bridge pup close to the body and adjust the other pickups based on the bridge pup. There is nothing wrong with my middle pup; I am just not used to that tone. I am, however, finding that working with the pickup height and tone controls is bringing a lot of usable tones out of that position.

Glad to hear you have resolved this problem of muddiness with the middle pickup.

I am going to move this post to the G&L Technical Questions & Tips sub-forum of the G&L Knowledgebase forum, so that others might be able to benefit from your findings.

Please do post a NGD post in the G&L US products (1992 to present) sub-forum, so that we can see your new S-500 and don't forget to add your guitar to the G&L Registry.