Brightening a neck pup on Epi Dot?

Hey gang!

I've got an Epi Dot which for the most part I love, but there's a bit of a problem with it-the neck pup sounds like mud, compared to my telly and strat. Now, I know 'buckers are going to be darker sounding, but this one is a little too brutal for my taste (besides, I don't feel like redoing the tone on my amp every time I change guitars!). The bridge pup is fine, though, so my focus is on the neck... I can certainly setup the Epi to sound decent on my amps, but then the Fenders suffer from bright-itis (imo) and I find myself fiddling with the tone controls again...

The Epi is bone-stock, and my thinking is leaning towards changing the tone cap to something brighter sounding. While I'm not broke, I'm in no mood to really spend a couple c-notes on really nice pups, and besides, these pups aren't bad anyways (and it's a real chore to redo pups in a semi-hollow, as many of you know). So, any ideas out there in TDPRI-land?

Thanx in advance,

Franc Robert

Drop the pickup, and raise the poles. Use your ears, and do a little at a time, til you get the results that please you.

T.

When your tone control is wide open it doesn't really effect the tone so changing the cap will only have an effect when you turn the knob.

You could put a 1 meg (1000 K Ω ) Volume pot on the neck, that would brighten it.


Not trying to chase you away but you could try these guys too:

http://forums.epiphone.com/default.aspx?g=topics&f=6

I don't know what your pickups are like, mine is a Dot Studio. I really like it, but I don't like the pickups. You can get some pretty nice pickups for cheap. I've tried the GFS Vintage '59 and The Dream 90s. I like both a lot. Thought I'd try a set of the Dream 180 in my Dot, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Your facing an age old problem...and one of the reasons my Dot sits in it's case day after day. I've even replaced the pups with some of gibsons best, and I still don't care for the dark thick tone of a humbucker neck pup.

I removed the covers, raised the poles, installed caps, switch and pots with the finest made and still not happy with the tone...unless I fiddle with the amp controls, and even then I still want to be playing my strat or my tele's.

It's tough to beat the tone of a single coil...and I used to be a hardcore humbucker guy, but my tastes have changed, my playing has improved and I now live with mostly single coil equipped guitars.

I sometimes use my Dot for studio sessions when I need to layer my guitar tracks, and even then I usually just go from my maple neck strat or tele to a rosewood neck and a different switch position.

My band is starting to do some heavier songs coming up, so I may pull out my single humbucker/ 1 volume knob equipped Kramer for those...maybe.

If lowering the pickup and switching out the pots doesn't do it, you could try switching to something like a P90 in the neck position.