Monte Blue

Thanks very much for your reply. Even with my minimal knowledge of these matters I did wonder if it was something like the wiring. Coincidentally I ran into a guitarist friend a couple of days ago and he too had bought a Sire L7, was unhappy with the pickups (P90s in this case) and put Bareknuckles in. He's very happy with the result. Also, I swear that a couple of times playing through stuff with the L7, I've noticed the sound changing suddenly as if something's faulty. Wasn't sure if it was the guitar or something else but now I'm wondering. But you've confirmed my gut feeling: a set of pickups that sound great in an Epiphone sound a bit cheap and nasty in a Sire and that can't be right.

Can anyone help me with this? I'm a keys player who occasionally plays a bit of rhythm guitar. My standard guitar has always been an Epiphone LP but I put Seymour Duncan pickups in it. Using a Fractal FM3. Each patch just sounds right. But I always felt it was a slightly cheap guitar. Never felt entirely right to play although it sounded great. Was very unforgiving considering my limited technique. On recommendation I bought a Sire L7. I much preferred the build quality, the feel of the neck etc. It felt more comfortable to play. But it sounded so harsh compared to the Epiphone. Bright, thin, slightly empty sounding and way way too much drive. So I swapped the Seymour Duncans into the L7 (got a guitar tech to do it of course) and... nothing - no change whatsoever. Still that same nasty, thin sound with too much drive. An example would be Fractal's Alex Lifeson 'Limelight' patch. On the Epi with the Seymours it sounds right. Easy to play, warm etc. On the L7 with the Seymours it's thin and so much drive that each and every slide of the fingers on the strings, every slight overtone is amplified. Very hard to play. Is there something wrong with the guitar? Should there not be a world of difference between the Sire pickups and the SDs? Very grateful for any advice!