JP 15 / Illuminators: Options for brightening them up

[EvsBall]

I recently grabbed a JP15 which I love! But I am finding the illuminators very warm and it seems like there may even be something going on with the mids. It almost sounds like a blanket over the amp. That said, I can see their versatility, especially when you roll back the volume on the guitar, as they do clean up pretty well. I don't want to swap pickups, and really haven't spent nearly enough time with these yet, but I was curious. Have any of you come up with any good options to achieve a more V shaped tone with some lift in the trebles? I assume an EQ pedal could work to a certain extent, but in playing with the knobs on my amp, I'm not sure that's really going to achieve the sound. Are there any other solutions that I might be overlooking in adjusting the bass/gain/mids or other pedals such as a treble booster?

 

[DrewH]

Common complaint about those pickups. JP prefers more mids in his pickups these days. If it's a new JP15, it will have the quick connect on the bottom. Best to just replace with something more scooped like the Steves Special. When something has a fundamental built in tonal quality, it's something you can never really fix with EQ.

 

[EvsBall]

Thanks Drew, it's a 2015/2016. I'm not sure what year they switched to quick connect, do you? I may have to email EB.

 

[edhalen]

Have you tried messing with the EQ on your amp or an EQ pedal? Might be less expensive and a quicker fix

 

[EvsBall]

I have....unfortunately the amp's adjustments don't fully cut it - it just sounds a bity wonky. I don't have an EQ pedal but feel like I may run into the same issue. The partial fix for me so far has been to roll the JP volume knob down to around like 20% of max, turn down the mids, crank the treble, leave it on a clean channel, lower the gain, and increase the volume on the amp. I'd just like more flexibility.

 

[Norrin Radd]

Also - what do you have in the signal path? Many pedals and cables can have an impact on higher frequencies.

 

[jodokus31]

The Mesa Boogie is also big part of the sound, which has an EQ section in the preamp and another in the poweramp. And I think, JP sets the power amp quite mid scooped.

 

[EvsBall]

The Mesa Boogie is also big part of the sound, which has an EQ section in the preamp and another in the poweramp. And I think, JP sets the power amp quite mid scooped.

I'm not actually after Petrucci's sound but that's interesting, I may have to try another EQ and see how it goes....I'll probably get roasted for this, but I've never even really listened to Dream Theatre. I just love the guitar for its comfort, build and versatility.

 

[Mace13]

That’s great to hear, actually. I’m a DT fanboi and love the JP guitars for what they are. I am sure I’m biased. So it is cool that folks who don’t even know DT like the JP guitars for what they are: awesome guitars!

Side note: I actually swapped out the Illuminators because I thought they had too much treble. So, seems to be a taste thing when it comes to pick-ups! But I think we all agree with that…

 

[Rbg]

 

[EvsBall]

Wow, great sound out of those! Those were some pickups I was just looking at for a potential replacement. Thanks for posting. I love the look of the covered pickups too, from everything I was reading, covered pickups wouldn't fit, so it's interesting to see them in a JP15.

On a side note, I played with some global EQ last night and was able to resolve 70% of the issue or so with the illuminators tone. It definitely cleared them up a LOT more than I thought.