[Speeddemon]

So the Air Norton is one of my favourite neck pickups; it's in an Ibanez S540FM, in a Burny Les Paul Standard and in a 2010 MIJ Charvel So-Cal Pro Mod.

And while I love its split-tones, in the Charvel I've come to find it too 'plingy' and bright in the top end when playing distorted leads (in a Maiden tribute, where it's my "Adrian Smith" guitar).
The guitar has an alder body, maple neck, maple fretboard, Floyd Rose with an FU big brass block and a DiMarzio Norton in the bridge. 1x 500k push/pull volume, no tone pot.
Originally it came with an Evo neck and ToneZone bridge, but I went through numerous pickup changes to come to the Air Norton/Norton combo.

Is there a way to mellow out/thicken the Air Norton (even if it means slightly mellowing/thickening) without lowering the output? So I'm not looking to lower the pickup height.

Would a 300k pot help here?

[darkbluemurder]

The Air Norton is already very smooth in the neck. If it is not smooth enough, there are the following options:

- use a cap and resistor in series to simulate the non-existing tone pot. The downside is that this will affect the bridge pickup as well.
- put a 1 meg resistor from the switch terminal where the neck pickup is connected to ground. This will let the neck pickup and the both pickup selections "see" a 330k load but leave the bridge pickup at 500k.

Both easy to try and easy to reverse if you don't like it.

Good luck,
Stephan

[Speeddemon]

Thanks man, I'll try the 1 MOhm resistor, see how that flies. 

[darkbluemurder]

The standard resistor values would give the following loads (approx) with a 500k pot:

470k - 235k
1meg - 330k
1.5meg - 365k
1.65meg (i.e. 2 x 3.3meg in parallel) - 385k
2.2meg - 410k

Good luck,
Stephan

[frankencat]

Honestly, lowering the pickup should take away some of the top end and "mellow it out" a little bit. It's a cheap mod to try.

[greenlion]

You want to mellow-out the Air Norton in the neck because it is too bright???
You want to play bass guitar then. Put down the guitar and start playing bass.

I can't think of any neck pickup I have ever played that was less bright and less mellow than the Air Norton.
The only thing I can think that could do to round off a tiny bit of high end is to wire it in parallel That would shave off a tiny bit of output too, but not much.

[darkbluemurder]

Wiring the coils in parallel instead of series would make it brighter, not less bright.