Making A Dark Sounding Guitar Sound Brighter

[tripwirecartel]

hi, i'm making a new guitar from scratch. Its my third attempt so i generally know what i'm doing. I have 2 inch thick mahagony for the body, and also a quilted maple top. and i made a maple set neck for it. the shape i'm using is kinda a twisted firebird style. it'll be a 2 piece body too. so i know with all that wood, and the set neck, and the big body, its gonna have loads of sustain and sound really dark ! but i really want a punchy, punky sound.

so now i'm looking for some hardware and pickups that'll make it sound brighter. i want a non-trem bridge. i've been looking at floating archtop bridges and tailpieces too. and with the pickups either single coil (p-90) or humbuckers are fine, with a medium or high output. i just dont want to end up with it sounding muddy!

and i'm also thinking about maybe hollowing out some sections of the mahogony. if anyone knows what a difference that will make let me know please! i like the way gretsch hollowbody guitars sound distorted, i want that kind of punky sound.

oh, and i havent installed a nut yet, so if there's any suggestions on that!

if anyone has any info on anything here please let me know! thanks a lot!

Edited April 6, 2007 by tripwirecartel

[bear222]

Hi Trip, P-90s or a coil tap on a humbucker should give you a "brighter" sound or alittle more clarity. good luck sounds like a cool guitar.

[Mattia]

Heavy guitars don't necessarily sound 'dark', and sustain (useful sustain) is not absolutely reliant on mass, IMO. Make a guitar out of maple, and it'll weigh a ton, but it'll be fairly bright.

With a maple neck and a maple top in the mix, select some slightly treble-biased pickups, and you'll be fine. That's not a recipe for a muddy, dark sounding guitar you have up there.

[tripwirecartel]

Heavy guitars don't necessarily sound 'dark', and sustain (useful sustain) is not absolutely reliant on mass, IMO. Make a guitar out of maple, and it'll weigh a ton, but it'll be fairly bright.

With a maple neck and a maple top in the mix, select some slightly treble-biased pickups, and you'll be fine. That's not a recipe for a muddy, dark sounding guitar you have up there.

thanks a lot! i just didnt want to work on it and have it end up sounding dissapointing.

[prs man]

I built a guitar with a alder back and ash top with a string through bridge

I used duncan jb in the bridge and a 59 in the neck.

this has a nice bright sound with the jb and deep rich with the 59 in the neck.