Help/suggestions needed w/ Mark IV

[F1-Fanatic]

Hello everyone,

I am a relatively new Mark IV owner and have come to love the amp but need some advice. I have been playing the same guitar for years and recently bought a new guitar and am having problems finding the right sound with this new amp. The guitar is an early Fender custom shop Strat based on the 54' with a huge birdseye neck and vintage singles... Plays like a wet dream, but sounds so bright and thin in comparison to my older guitar which has very old EMG's (2 single SA's and an 81 humbucker in the bridge)

Question is, what would you suggest... I need to thicken the tone a bit and get the guitar's signal up to that of the EMG's.. Is this possible without changing the pickups or switching guitars? Will a boost pedal help or do I need to start looking at new pickups or worse another guitar entirely???

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Russ]

First off, the EMG 81's are pretty hot. It will be difficult to match their output without going to a pretty hot passive pickup or even another EMG. You could go get yourself a pedal to get there but you would then have to leave it off when you play the EMG loaded guitar if you want the same levels. Duncan has a large assortment of single coil sized pickups in a variety of flavors and output levels. You might want to check them out if you can. They even have rail style humbucking pickups in a single coil footprint. The SA's will be matchable easier but the 81 is pretty hot...

You might consider playing the EMG loaded guitar with its volume knob turned down a little while in the bridge position. This will allow you to have more flexability. It will even allow you to turn up the volume as a boost within the guitar (old school style).

That 54 sounds great. I would say just go get a fully loaded pickguard and do a drop in swap. This way your electronics are left as original as possible minus the jack solder joint.

 

[t0aj15]

Another solution is to put an EQ between the guitar and amp input. I often do this with my Strats.

 

[Restless Rocks]

I was eager to try the EMG SV's when they came out and had the same disappoinment. EMG now has a new drop in circuit which would replace one of your tone pots (or even your main volume pot) and has a variable 20db clean boost. Lot's of guys you probably listen to are using them to take their signal to the amp over the top. And of course you can back it down just like your regular vol control to a unity gain or just use the push pull switch to take it in or out altogether.

 

[welshboogie]

I use a Jeff Beck sig and used to get a similar problem. I found that by keeping the EQ in on all channels with lower trebles and presence and quite a drastic EQ - max on bass in a diagonal line to no treble (may need to bring a bit of the 2 treble sliders back up a bit) fattened up the tone big time.

As a comparison, I have just borrowed a friends Kramer with Quad Rails etc - a real hot Metal Axe, and the tone with the Strat is just as fat!!!!

Give it a try.

Wayne

 

[F1-Fanatic]

Awesome.... Thanks for the suggestions guys. I am going to play with the EQ settings on the amp first, then look back towards changing the pickguard. Thanks again!