Help, my 325v59 sounds too muddy!

[grgb]

I have been playing my 1995 325v59 in the worship band at church, I play rhythm, and I simply can’t get the kind of sound out of it that I want. It’s too bassy and muddy, and was particularly bad today. I know some of that might be the hot toasters, and I am not opposed to a pickup change to scatterwounds, but I wanted to toss out my setup and see if anyone has any suggestions for anything I might could do differently to help the situation before going to a pickup change.

The guitar has Glen’s Loom in it, and I use bridge only for the foot stomping songs and the neck and bridge mixed with neck volume at about 80% for the more melodic songs. Tone controls are wide open. The guitar has a Sorkin bridge but I don’t use flatwounds, I use pure nickel roundwounds.

From the output, the guitar goes to:

1. Peterson StroboStomp HD tuner;

2. Digitech Mosaic 12-string sim pedal, level set at 11 o’clock and tone at 1 o’clock;

3. Janglebox JB2 compressor, gain at 11 o’clock, attack at 1 o’clock, bass at 3 o’clock and treble at 1 o’clock. (Is this the problem and also should I be using the Jangle Boost?)

4. Donner Tutti Love chorus, everything at 9 o’clock, just looking for a subtle effect (the lead guitarist is into U2-type atmospherics so I try to stay fairly conventional to set a “floor” under him so to speak);

5. Caline Blue Ocean delay, everything again at 9 o’clock just for a subtle effect;

6. Xotic EP Booster, again at 9 o’clock just for a subtle “goose” of the signal;

7. Tech 21 Liverpool character pedal which mimics AC-30 with Alnico Blues, with clean settings as per the manual,

8. DI box to soundboard.

Again, would appreciate any suggestions of what I might could do differently here … and it will probably have to be done next time I play at church, don’t know if I can recreate all the variables at home … before jumping to a pickup change.

[jps]

How's it sound without all the "toys" in between the guitar and the DI? Also, is this used only in church through their FOH system? Have you ever played the guitar into a guitar amp?

[grgb]

How's it sound without all the "toys" in between the guitar and the DI? Also, is this used only in church through their FOH system? Have you ever played the guitar into a guitar amp?

I’ve not tried it without the toys. I may do that at practice.

I have used it with a Fender Super Champ XD amp, with the BF sound chosen, and it’s acceptable because I have the tone controls on the amp to tweak. But unfortunately sound folks don’t want real amps they want people going DI. The only real tone controls in my current setup are on the JB2. Again I’m wondering if I should spike the treble there and maybe engage the Jangle Boost, I’ve shied away from that out of fear of going too far the other way and getting too trebly.

On edit: No amps are permitted, must have something that goes to the board. I have a POD Go that I’m still learning but I like the Tech 21’s Vox model better than the POD Go’s, I can’t get an acceptable clean sound from the POD Go and I don’t want to be Brian May, I want to be George or John.

On edit again: EQ pedal maybe?

On edit again: I am thinking this may be a FOH issue. I’m reluctant to push it hard at present because we just put in a massive new board and they are still trying to figure it out. I just wanted input on whether anything might be off with my setup.

[jps]

My only playing experience with a 325 was through a "real" (no built-in effects) tube amp. it sounds like what I would expect from a Rick guitar . My only issue was the shorter scale of it as I am used to "standard" scale guitars.

[Uffingdon]

Hmmm, I have a 350v63 fitted with one of Aceonbass’s wiring looms and run it through a Janglebox Nano with a hint of my Digitech Mosaic to a Positive Grid Spark 40 amp with an AC30 simulation and have enough treble for days just using the neck pickup at 80% (to add some meat) with the bridge pickup full on with the vintage cap engaged.
The only time I use the JB treble boost is when I blend in the middle pickup again around 80% and get a very convincing “Nowhere Man” tone, could not be happier.
I think Janglebox suggest the compressor should be the first pedal in your chain, it might be worth starting backwards turning off each pedal one by one or different combinations and see if you loose any muddiness.