new Albert Lee HH and some sadness :(

[markd]

Hi everyone!! First post here. Last week I bought a new EBMM Albert Lee HH. It played great and sounded wonderful in the store (I used a new peavey valve king mini-head to test it). I got it home and hung it on the wall in the studio. I didn't play it for 2 days because I was busy.

Fast-forward to Sunday - band practice!! I was all pumped packing my AL. I have been playing PRS lately - and I really like them, but I always change the pickups (I buy the older Customs with the rotary switch - my preference). What I liked about the EBMM was the idea of NOT having to change the pickups....I digress....

So I jack into my rig (detailed below)

pedal board: poly-tune > mxr dyna comp > mxr classic dist (boost) > mxr phase 90 > mxr CBA OD > mxr prime distortion > mxr smart gate > mxr carbon copy >

Marshall 3203 (set clean - EVERYTHING except reverb set at 12 o'clock) >
Marshall 1936 cab w/ G1275T

We start hammering through some tunes, and the guitar sounds great on single note riffs. Once I started getting into the chords, that is when I noticed the tone was nasally and had a sizzle that was driving me nuts.



It is something that I have tried working around over the last several days. I have even tried some of my other amps:

Rivera S120
Egnater Tweaker 40
Fender Tremolux

No avail. In some case - like with the Rivera - the problem is even MORE noticeable.

Usually I load my guitars with the Seymour Duncan JB and 59 or Jazz. My tone is more hard rock/southern rock/fusion. I REALLY don't want to change the pickups - my wife thinks it is crazy to spend the money on these guitars and change the electronics. She gets it with the PRS guitars - she thinks they sound crappy with their stock electronics, but the Albert Lee sounded SO good with the little peavey....why does it SUCK with my Marshall????

So, it brings me to this question....those of you using the Albert Lee HH, what amp/pedal combos are you using?

Thanks! And here are some pics of my new guitar!!!!

 

[mikeller]

You might try tweaking the amp EQ, turn down the mid's and back off the low's a bit and see if that helps

 

[xjbebop]

That's the same exact model I have.

It was my first AL which I bought a couple of years ago. I absolutely adore it, and I have quite a few quality guitars. With the coil splits, it's incredibly versatile, and always sounds tip-top.

Sounds like you have a particular sound in your head that you're chasing... good luck!

 

[fsmith]

Did you try going direct to the amp, eliminating the pedals to see if the problem was still there? I know most people rave about those pickups, but I didn't care for them in my AL and ended up swapping them with DiMarzio 36th Anniversary PAF's. It made that guitar much more useable to me.

fred

 

[markd]

Hey all. Thanks for the responses. As far as EQ, I am gonna try that tonight at practice. I have had everything at 12 o'clock for so long that I forgot I had EQ!! Seriously though, I am hoping that solves the issue.

Regarding chasing a particular tone - the biggest problem is that I have a tone that I like already, and that my other guitars help me keep. The AL seems almost "hi-fi" in its natural tone. My tone is a bit more mid-heavy. I am not giving up on it yet because I am looking for a new "signature" instrument and the AL fits where I am at as player these days - vintage/modern.

When I was suing the Rivera last night, I by-passed the pedals and it sounded great clean. In fact, the guitar sounds great through ALL my amps clean. It is when I go for the OD sound that I am unhappy. I scaled back my rig from the Rivera TBR-SL and a full rack to a Marshall with a small pedal board a couple years back so it would be easier loading and unloading the stage. These days the pedals are a BIG part of what makes my sound.

I am going to mess with EQ tonight, and I may look at different distortion pedals over the next few days as well. I have bonded with the guitar's playability and feel. Now I just want to bond with it's tone.

BTW - do these things come with 500K pots? I usually use 250K with my humbuckers....

 

[fbecir]

Hello and welcome aboard

I bought a month ago an AL HH and I am very happy with it.
Like you, my amps are set clean (more or less. With my band I play with a Fender Blues Deville, at home with a BlackStar 5W head or my Marshall DSL401) and the dirt comes from my pedals.
You seem to be quite fond of MXR pedals ...
I use a MXR Fullbore metal, but I use it with a small amount of gain (perhaps 20%), thus my sound is not metal but heavy rock.
I push the mid (a bit), the bass (a bit more) but I remove quite a lot of high. The signal coming from the AL is quite hot (hotter than my Morse for instance) thus it needs to be a bit tamed ! You have to play a bit with the EQ of your pedals (or amps) to find the sweet spot.
If your AL sounds good with a little Peavey it should sound good also on a Marshall !!

Good luck

 

[kimonostereo]

Maybe try some pure nickel strings? You'd be surprised at the difference it makes.

 

[Tollywood]

Hello Mark, and welcome to the forum. Your Albert has 500k pots and the same legendary pickups as the Axis.

...We start hammering through some tunes, and the guitar sounds great on single note riffs. Once I started getting into the chords, that is when I noticed the tone was nasally and had a sizzle that was driving me nuts...

This is the statement that had me scratching my head. Nasally and a sizzle sounds pretty bad. I think you should go through those pedals and the cables between them, since the cleans sounded fine. You should do an a/b comparison with another guitar, too. Maybe you have a loose wire? You should take a look inside the guitar. Good luck!

 

[markd]

Hello Mark, and welcome to the forum. Your Albert has 500k pots and the same legendary pickups as the Axis.

This is the statement that had me scratching my head. Nasally and a sizzle sounds pretty bad. I think you should go through those pedals and the cables between them, since the cleans sounded fine. You should do an a/b comparison with another guitar, too. Maybe you have a loose wire? You should take a look inside the guitar. Good luck!

My PRS, Brian Moore and Jackson guitars with the JB sound great (did a test last night) through everything. I think it is just me. At practice tonight I took the mids down a hair to 11 o'clock and things seemed fine. I added a touch more reverb too. I don't want to make too many changes because I play multiple guitars on stage. Gotta keep sound good all the way around!!

Another thing I noticed is that 5 way is very loose. No noticeable notches like a Fender switch, it almost seems to glide into position. It's weird making changes on the fly. Is that normal?

Thanks for everyone's suggestions!

 

[Amonrae]

Sorry to hear about the disappointing tone. I would also troubleshoot the pedal chain.
I love everything about mine and am keeping the factory pickups (and I've swapped a few).
Though it's a stretch to compare, I play mine through a 1 watt Marshall jmp1 driving a Celestion Blue cabinet with it and am very happy with the overdriven or clean sound. I like the little amp because I can drive it hard and enjoy the direct sound but I'm usually running through a Wampler Black or Euphoria (or both) and an AD999 delay (sometimes vibe too) = always with good results. I also like the AL through a Princeton Reverb Reissue and a Samamp vac 23. I've never thought nasal or sizzle could describe the tone I get from any of them. Good Luck

 

[Tollywood]

BTW - do these things come with 500K pots? I usually use 250K with my humbuckers....

The Al has 500k pots. Maybe you should swap in some 250's?

 

[mikeller]

My PRS, Brian Moore and Jackson guitars with the JB sound great (did a test last night) through everything. I think it is just me. At practice tonight I took the mids down a hair to 11 o'clock and things seemed fine. I added a touch more reverb too. I don't want to make too many changes because I play multiple guitars on stage. Gotta keep sound good all the way around!!

Another thing I noticed is that 5 way is very loose. No noticeable notches like a Fender switch, it almost seems to glide into position. It's weird making changes on the fly. Is that normal?

Thanks for everyone's suggestions!

The selector switch on my Luke III HH is loose like that also. Its the only one like that - Ive just gotten used to it and don't think about it too much.

 

[Spudmurphy]

I don't have a HH Al, but have 3 other model Als. I get what you say about the Hi fi aspect and the SSS pickups are so clean.
I Use Marshall,Mesa, Fender and MM amps and use the same effects in each set up, namely a Compressor (set very transparantly, an EP Booster, and a Flashback delay. For extra dirt I sometimes use an overdrive pedal.

On my Fender amp I use all mid, no treble no bass and it sounds great!! On other amps I use a tad more bass - you won't need too much treble I bleeb.

Just get to the rehearsal facility early and get the rig at gigging volume and experiment?

The Als are FANTASTIC guitars and in my 45 years of playing are the best

 

[coldsummer]

I don't have a HH Al, but have 3 other model Als. I get what you say about the Hi fi aspect and the SSS pickups are so clean.
I Use Marshall,Mesa, Fender and MM amps and use the same effects in each set up, namely a Compressor (set very transparantly, an EP Booster, and a Flashback delay. For extra dirt I sometimes use an overdrive pedal.

On my Fender amp I use all mid, no treble no bass and it sounds great!! On other amps I use a tad more bass - you won't need too much treble I bleeb.

Just get to the rehearsal facility early and get the rig at gigging volume and experiment?

The Als are FANTASTIC guitars and in my 45 years of playing are the best

I have to agree with everything you said Spud. The AL is a revelation to me. My preferred model is the HH but I also love the MM90. Best guitars I've ever played.

 

[Magic Jason]

I'd hate to be rude but.... How can one complain about the tone of a guitar while leaving "everything at 12 o'clock". Sounds weird to me.
A bit like " My amp ain't loud enough... but I always set the volume knob on 1"
I bought an AL HH almost by accident and that's by far the best guitar I've ever owned. And I had quite a few.

 

[MajtasticVoyage]

I bought an AL HH almost by accident and that's by far the best guitar I've ever owned. And I had quite a few.

Haha i bought mine on a whim after being awake for over 40 hours straight - until yesterday, I hadn't touched ANY of my guitars in months (including a Majesty, JP13, JPXI, and several Carvins...)

TC - it sounds like you already had the tone you wanted before you got the AL - may I ask why you even got it? I mean, obviously it's the sexiest guitar ever - ESPECIALLY that trans-walnut one - but you seem to be trying to make it be something that it's not. You should set up your gear to suit the AL and then complain that your other guitars don't sound good on the gear with the AL's settings

Just give it some more time. Play more with the volume knob and play with the 'in-between' pup positions. I find I use position 2 more than anything else (the position right next to the neck HB position).

Cheers!

 

[markd]

I'd hate to be rude but.... How can one complain about the tone of a guitar while leaving "everything at 12 o'clock". Sounds weird to me.
A bit like " My amp ain't loud enough... but I always set the volume knob on 1"
I bought an AL HH almost by accident and that's by far the best guitar I've ever owned. And I had quite a few.

HAHAHA - I keep the EQ straight up because it allows the amplifier to AMPLIFY the sound of the guitar as it is. My tone actually got better when I stopped doing a whole lot to the amp.

As I said on the last page, I got it sorted. The guitar just sounds different than what I am used to. I dropped the mids a hair on the amp and that took care of it.

The tone is unique, and none of my other guitars come close to the way it sounds - so I ordered a 2nd one to use in dropped D. I spent a good chunk of the weekend going through my other stage guitars to find a comparable dropped D companion, and most were too "beefy" in comparison.

As to why I bought it in the first place if I was happy with the tone I have/had - well, it's simple. I wanted a rosewood neck and I liked the George Jetson body shape.

Anyway, thanks for all the suggestions - and I am excited to be a part of the EBMM player's family!!

 

[Tollywood]

...The tone is unique, and none of my other guitars come close to the way it sounds - so I ordered a 2nd one to use in dropped D. I spent a good chunk of the weekend go through my other stage guitars to find a comparable dropped D companion, and most were too "beefy" in comparison.

As to why I bought it in the first place if I was happy with the tone I have/had - well, it's simple. I wanted a rosewood neck and I liked the George Jetson body shape.

Anyway, thanks for all the suggestions - and I am excited to be a part of the EBMM player's family!!

...and, the addiction begins What color did you get for the second one?

 

[fbecir]

HAHAHA - I keep the EQ straight up because it allows the amplifier to AMPLIFY the sound of the guitar as it is. My tone actually got better when I stopped doing a whole lot to the amp.

A bit the same here. I want my amp to give me the best clean sound possible when I bypass all my pedals.

 

[markd]

...and, the addiction begins What color did you get for the second one?

White with a black pickguard and a fixed bridge - gotta have stability with the drop tuning!!