ES-339: normal to be bassy on neck pickup?

[Tritone]

Thanks for all the insight and suggestions so far. Just to clarify, this ES-339 has MHS II humbuckers. It also seems to capture the high frequencies, but they are overpowered by the bass in the bottom strings. Turning down the bass on the amp evens it out and sounds decent.

I will definitely try raising the pole pieces and see if that makes a difference.

[RuffiansFC]

alnico IIs in the neck are supposed to have that full and warm sound. if mhs pickup is overwound, it's going to exaggerate those characteristics. an alnico 5 type pickup in the neck my help tighten up the lows without losing too much warmth.

to be antithetical, I have used an alnico II bridge pickup in the neck position and it was perfectly balanced.

[Tritone]

The MHS II pickups are Alnico 5 I believe.

[Tritone]

OK guys, just an update.

I now totally love this guitar. It turns out the amp I was playing through at the time had WAY too much bass for my tastes on the clean channel. I think it was emulating a JC120. I kind of suspected that might be the case but after playing through a few other amps I've not had the issue on anything else. It's now one of my favorite guitars. Through my Swart AST or direct into Scuffham S Gear, it sounds great. It was just that one amp (all I had for a few months while I was TDY) it sounded awful.

Sorry for leading everyone on a wild goose chase! At least it has a happy ending.

[Larry Mal]

Glad it worked out! They are fun guitars, I auditioned one for a while.

[Maggieo]

OK guys, just an update.

I now totally love this guitar. It turns out the amp I was playing through at the time had WAY too much bass for my tastes on the clean channel. I think it was emulating a JC120. I kind of suspected that might be the case but after playing through a few other amps I've not had the issue on anything else. It's now one of my favorite guitars. Through my Swart AST or direct into Scuffham S Gear, it sounds great. It was just that one amp (all I had for a few months while I was TDY) it sounded awful.

Sorry for leading everyone on a wild goose chase! At least it has a happy ending.

Hooray!!!!!

[Tritone]

Here it is with its best friend, my Swart AST.

[Embenny]

What a gorgeous guitar. I've been a fan of the 339 ever since I first saw it. It keeps the vibe of the 335 but is sleeker and looks more balanced on the average sized person.