I just purchased a very nice, vintage Guild B301. I love the design and feel of the bass. This one is set - up beautifully, with a very straight neck and low playing action. Now I have heard others praise the tone of the Dimarzio special designed pickup for this bass. But I am finding that it has almost no top end or upper midrange when played through three different amps, even with DR Hi - Beams (steel roundwounds). Sounds decent plugging direct into my interface for recording, but still is a rather subdued tone, even with the tone control maxed out and new strings on it. And, yes, the tone pot IS working, just rolls the tone from murky to total mud. (Sounds VERY bright acoustically, just no highs or high mids from the pickups.) In fact, I have to roll off the bass almost completely on my Sansamp Bass Driver (going through my Genz Benz Contour combo amp) to get the tone un - muddied, compared to the settings I usually use to get great tone through my Fender Jazz and Precision basses, my Spector Euro, and EVEN my Rick! It just seems odd that this bass's amplified tone could be THIS dark. Could there be something electronically amiss with the pickup or electronics, or do these basses all have that dark of a tone? I am wondering if the other issue I was having originally (sound cutting out when bass was tilted upward) could be related. I love the bass otherwise! Maybe a new pickup is in order? I don't want to get into active tone circuits and pickups on this bass, just something that will fit the same route in the pickguard, so I don't make any permanent changes in it's vintage looks. (Even if it has to be custom.) I would love to be able to use it on gigs, but unless I can get it's tone a bit more in - line with other basses, it may end up being a "play it at home for something different" kind of thing.
