Help with sound / tone

[Herzomud]

Hi All,

I have now owned my latest TAG for 3 months now and I am really struggling to get the sounds I expected out of this guitar based on my other 4 TAGs.

It is a hollow drop top T shorty with alder body, maple top and maple neck and board. It has a Nashville set up with a TF3 in the bridge, and SC1 in the middle and a PH1 in the neck.

The guitar has great twang in the bridge position and a reasonable strat middle pup sound. However the in between sounds of switch pos. 2 or 4 have extremely little quack / cluck and combining neck and bridge again results in nothing like the hollow tele sound I was hoping for.

Also the neck PH1 is quite frankly much duller sounding than I was hoping for. I was expecting a similar sound to my HC1- in my Atom only maybe a touch brighter, (using hum bucker mode and not even talking about HC split). Also the Atom does a better hollow tele impression with split neck and bridge combined than my T does.

Having played with the pickup heights and angles over this period I really would like to know if I am being unreasonable with my expectations? As the guitar is a shorty I do keep 10's on the guitar as with the Atom and my drop top and angel run 9's. But based on my comparison with the Atom I do not think this should be a major factor.

I love the feel and build of this guitar and I am wondering with a switch to a normal TV1 in neck and middle may help me get to where I want the guitar to be sound wise, (along with a new scratch plate for the neck single coil)

Any advice is greatly appreciated as selling the guitar for something else is currently a far distant consideration.

[brokenvail]

If you decided to change the neck pup you would prob do the TF1 since TV 1 would be noise. Have you thought of doing a humbucker in neck? Tom talks all the time about he he usually doesn't use a neck pickup alone because he set's up his rig to sound best with bridge pup so when he does use nexk pup it is always in combination with another pup. I have an HC1- and tm2 in my htc and I only use the neck pup alone when doing leads. I love the sound of both pups on at once though I live a lot between neck and bridge in series and neck and bridge in parallel. I do occupational think of switching the HC1- for an HF1- to see if I get a bit more top end

[Herzomud]

Hi, thanks for the input. I definitely want this to be a "single coil" guitar and thought that I would probably go for a complete vintage single coil set if replacing the neck pickup. The single coil noise is not a big problem for me as deal with this OK with my other guitars when using the coil split.

I think the PH1 dullness is one issue to sort out but just as important is getting the hollow phasey in between sounds.

I was thinking the shorter scale was perhaps not helping the issue here an maybe a full set of complete single coils may help.

Any other comments / ideas? What is the best height set up for a PH1? I have tried high and low and to be honest do not hear a lot of difference in the tonal range but more difference in volume from distance to the strings

[brokenvail]

Since you want it to be a single coil guitar and you said you liked the tf3 to me the tf1 is a no brainer

[Herzomud]

Agree that the TF1 seems a bit of a no brainer. However the sc1 in the middle position and the TF3 are not really giving me a strat bridge/middle combo quack.

Is there a better middle position or middle and bridge I need to change to? Therefore maybe a complete pick up swap together with the Neck?

My hollow drop top has 2 sc1's and a HC3 and in split mode it is one of the most quacky strats I have ever heard.

[tom]

the ph is a very different character from the other singles, so i'm not surprised that the quack sounds aren't great. if they are a priority, it should go. you also have the hotter of the ph neck pickups so that would seem to also contribute in a negative way. sometimes people do unusual combinations with particular needs in mind and this one doesn't seem to address your most important needs.
on your sc1 and hc3 guitar, in the combinations they are split and humcancel. that does make the quack better. you could rewire yours to do that, including the ph if you really like the full ph sound alone. if you don't then replacing it with a single coil size would be best.

if you make a priority list of what sounds are important i can give you some options. this is a great thing to do before any custom order.

[Herzomud]

Thanks for the advice Tom. I am a big lover of the in between positions and use these as much as neck alone.

The guitar was a pre-specced music store purchase and I really wanted to try the PH so I am glad I did.

My ultimate for this guitar would be to get a straight tele sound in neck, bridge and neck and bridge combo, but also getting the strat 2 & 4 sounds as close as possible.

Love to hear your suggestion for the best neck pick up and also would you recommend I also change the middle SC1 or bridge TF3? Currently the bridge and middle is not really even close to the combined.

As a side note changing all three to your true single coils is an option for me as the cycle hum is something I put up with if the guitar delivers the right tones I need.

As I final note I know I will also need to order a replacement scratch plate and wondered if you offered matte/satin black as a color option.

Thanks

[tom]

if you like the middle and bridge alone now, then a tf1 with splits in 2 and 4 would be great.

if you aren't loving them, then the true singles would make sense.

yes we have matte black pg material.

[Herzomud]

Hi Tom,

good news is I now have all three pickups sounding good separately.

I think I did not pick this up correctly in your comments before but are you suggesting that a splitting the pickups in position 2 and 4 would enhance the quack?

If so how do I check that this is not already configured in the switch? (Although current sounds would suggest it is not currently configured this way)

Is this a simple fix I could get done locally with a wiring diagram?

p.s. I would still like to purchase a satin black pick guard. Is this something I should do through a dealer or email TAG directly?

Thanks for your help and hope the drying out is going well.

[tom]

let me dig and see if we have that wiring documented. yes we can get you the pg.