Help! Tone tips for Axis

[Neil J Ricaud]

Hi everyone,
Just wondering if anyone has any tips for reducing the high end harshness on an Axis.

I run through a 5150 III half stack and I have noticed that when I use my amp at hi volumes at a rehearsal studio the high's are just too ear piercing and shrilling. Ive played with the presence and the high eq settings but it just wont seem to clean up.

I was thinking of swapping out the pickups on the Axis to a ToneZone or getting a guitar tech to install a 250 or 500k tone knob? Is that a good idea?

Ive also heard the Tonezones are less brittle and a bit more chunkier than the axis stock pick ups? I play mostly heavy hardcore metal in dropped d flat tuning...might also try changing to heavier gauge strings since the lighter gauge strings seem to sound twangier and brittle. Any ideas?

 

[Jack FFR1846]

If you don't want another hole drilled into the guitar, you could put a cap and 300k resistor across the volume pot. Or....replace the pot with a push pull and make it so that on each setting you have a different resistor feeding the cap, for a couple different tone choices.

 

[Neil J Ricaud]

If you don't want another hole drilled into the guitar, you could put a cap and 300k resistor across the volume pot. Or....replace the pot with a push pull and make it so that on each setting you have a different resistor feeding the cap, for a couple different tone choices.

Whats a cap? Is that like 'single coil tapping' or 'out of phase' or ......... ?
I don't mind an extra hole drilled in it if it helps with cutting hi's

 

[TNT]

Neil,

You shouldn't have the "high end" stuff on the Axis! It's NOT the pickups. However, swapping out pickups is the easiest and best way to get YOUR sound.

No need to change the pots!! Try a DiMarzio Norton or a PAF pro, the guitar wil RIP!!!! The Tone Zone will be incredibly loud, however it's not that musical.

 

[AnotherNoob]

Whats a cap? Is that like 'single coil tapping' or 'out of phase' or ......... ?
I don't mind an extra hole drilled in it if it helps with cutting hi's

If you don't know what a cap is, I don't recommend you change pickups dude. Seriously, look into that kind of stuff first and you might save yourself some money.

I'm going to assume the Axis has 500k pots like most humbucker guitars do; 250k pots will soften up the tone a bit and make it less bright, 500k is brighter and often used for humbuckers, as humbuckers are usually darker sounding. Caps, or capacitors essentially chop off a certain amount of the high end, you would want to increase your cap value(s) to reduce high end in this case. This would all cost maybe a few bucks and a few minutes with a soldering iron, as opposed to 80 bucks for a pup swap that may get you nowhere.