Gibson SG Humbuckers sound thin

[Finnish82]

Hi,

I have a Gibson SG Silverburst 2007.  The problem  is that the solo sound (and sustain) are really weak. When you are playing rhythm kinda things.. lets say Hendrix's Purple Haze or Rainbow's Man on a silver mountain it sounds great. A really thick rockn roll sound...but when it comes time to play solo, the sound is really thin and sustain is bad.

I googled that this one has "Gibson Humbuckers", that means the original pickups. 

Is that just a feature with SG's? Or have I understood something wrong?

I have a Gibson Les Paul Standard (2010) and it sounds much thicker/louder when soloing.

With Firebird VII (2007) there is a bit of a same problem as with SG that solo sounds weak. Also in Firebird the bridge pickup sounds much weaker than the neck pickup... with Stratocasters I'm used to that it's just the opposite. 

Nothing has been modified nor any parts have been changed with these guitars.

Any comments/ideas/hints? 🙂

[Black Dog]

Maybe the pickup and/or pole screws are low on the treble side?   Do they all have the same type and gauge strings?

Edited June 24, 2019 by Black Dog

[MADCLAPPER]

Raise the Pickup's

[Finnish82]

Pickup are as close to the strings as possible (or almost). Maybe its just the pickup itself that is not hot as in eg. Les Paul. 

[Eracer_Team]

If the magnetic pull of the pickup is interfering with string movements might sound weaker.

Try lowering it.

Also you don't say if it was ever loud.

Could be as suggested not hot pickups

[rct]

2 hours ago, Finnish82 said:

Pickup are as close to the strings as possible (or almost). Maybe its just the pickup itself that is not hot as in eg. Les Paul. 

 

Get your pickups down.  Too close is worse than too far away.

"Hot" does not mean "loud", it means the pickup pushes your amp harder and has done some of the overdrive part of your sound before the amp gets it.  Lots of players, especially us older fellers, much much much prefer less "hot" pickups.  Too harsh, too fizzy and scritchy, that's how "hot" pickups sound to me.  The amp and I have less to say about the sound if the pickups are too hot.

You don't say what kind of sounds you are looking for, amp, settings, how you use it, all that stuff.  It all matters.  I don't know how hot those pickups are but I'm pretty sure they are hot enough.  Lower the pickups for a rounder, clearer sound and get your drive, volume, and sustain from your playing and the amp.  It's three things, not just the pickups.

rct

[pauloqs]

4 hours ago, rct said:

 

Get your pickups down.  Too close is worse than too far away.

"Hot" does not mean "loud", it means the pickup pushes your amp harder and has done some of the overdrive part of your sound before the amp gets it.  Lots of players, especially us older fellers, much much much prefer less "hot" pickups.  Too harsh, too fizzy and scritchy, that's how "hot" pickups sound to me.  The amp and I have less to say about the sound if the pickups are too hot.

 

+1! I did the relatively hot pickups and setting them as high as possible thing in my 20s, but now I can't stand it. I remember a Pirreli commercial, I think in the 90s that had a slogan that said along the lines "power is nothing without controll." That's the approach I take with guitars. I don't need that much gain or a super hot pickups to play my dad rock and blues stuff. Even when playing hard rock or "older" metal, I don't feel I need that much gain or hot pickups. For me a vintage low output pickup is where it's at. 

[mihcmac]

Comparing the sound from 3 very different Gibson's like a LP Standard, a Firebird and an SG doesn't work very well. These are extremely different guitars that each have unique construction and resonation. Even if they had exactly the same pickup's they would still sound different.  In addition to add a Strat into the mix would create even more diversity in how they are used to get the sound you want..

If you lower the SG's bridge pickup and get close to the sound you want, like mentioned above, you still need balance the neck pickup volume by lowering or razing the height, or visa versa.

Note that the neck pickup position pickup is inherently louder, which is why they are wound weaker than the hot bridge pickup that this is in a weaker position..

Edited June 27, 2019 by mihcmac