Need help with reducing acoustics

**Joshaldana** · 05-21-2021, 06:22 PM

Hello everyone, I currently have a Zaletelj custom Catalina. It’s a 16inch, 2 inch thick semi hollow (x bracing, not block). The guitar is beautiful, and it plays amazingly.
I’m playing though a fender twin tone master with some reverb and delay and an eq pedal. The eq settings on the amp are: treble 1.5, middle 2.5, and bass 3.
I’m using thomastik bebop 12s and deandrea pro plecs picks. The neck pickup is a Kent Armstrong PAF.

The only thing is it has too much of a woody, acoustic tone for me. It’s too snappy. There’s also a lot of boom in the low end. And eq-ing the lower frequencies even more make the guitar sound too thin.

I really enjoy the tone of guys like Jonathan Kreisberg, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Mike Moreno. This guitar feels like it could get there, but it’s not quite there yet.

I’ve thought about replacing the neck pickup for either a Lollar Low Wind imperial or Gibson classic 57’. I’ve also thought about changing the strings from .12’s to 13’s.
The luthier will be sending me some sound hole covers shortly, not sure how much that will help. But I’m hoping it will.
Any suggestions/advice? Thanks!

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**Longways to Go** · 05-23-2021, 12:04 PM

Cool looking guitar. Sounds like you are fighting the tone.
Have you tried adjusting the knobs?

For example, neck pickup with the tone rolled down 1/2 way and volume set very low can give a really nice jazz tone.
Of course you need your amp volume louder for this approach, but you can make a great sound this way.

I went to jam with a friend last weekend who couldn't dial in his happy sound with his Epiphone Joe Pass and a small Vox tube amp. I did this exact approach (also with the treble rolled down on the Vox) and got an instant jazz sound.

I'll bet there is a decent jazz tone in that guitar -- amp is also a player in the tone equation.

**Cunamara** · 05-23-2021, 01:22 PM

I would try just changing the top two strings, first.

Adjustments of the existing equipment are free, so I always recommend starting there before replacing parts. Pickup height has a significant effect on tone, so I would suggest playing with that. Usually closer to the string sounds more electric, further away from the string sounds more acoustic.

The low wind Lollars are probably going to sound more acoustic than what you have now; the Gibson Classic 57's use an A2 magnet which to my ears results in a softer and less snappy attack; I happen to like that.

As mentioned above, with modern wiring (as opposed to 50s or 60s wiring) rolling off the volume knob will roll off some of the highs and thicken the tone. Bringing up the volume on the app to compensate will restore the volume. On my Ibanez GB10, which has a lot of output and pretty bright pickups, volume knob is at 4-5 to not only get the tone I'm looking for but also to avoid overdriving the front end of the amp.

The tones of the players that you mention are also modified in the signal chain before they hit the amps. They all use lots of pedals. That also accounts for some of what you're hearing with them. A judiciously used delay can "solidify" the attack of the note and I believe all three of those musicians use delays in their signal chain. There is probably some signal loss going through multiple pedals that knocks off some of the overtones, which I think contributes to what you are hearing. Also, the image you posted suggests that you're going through some sort of digital modeling system rather than a pedalboard and amplifier; is that correct?

**rpjazzguitar** · 05-23-2021, 01:32 PM

The plugs may help reduce the low end.

Tilting the pickup so it's further away on the bass side can help.

Maybe thinner strings on the bass side.

The only other thing I can think of is to try it with a different amp in a different room to make sure the problem is the guitar.

You might try putting the amp in a different room from the guitar - so there's no feedback path and see if the tone improves -- requires two players or a looper to accomplish.