software

I know this is prob. a dumb question, but what does everyone mean when they say a pickup sounds muddy?

I take it to mean unclear, like it sounds like the guitar is mumbling.

one man's muddy is another man's warm. but, yeah, what JB said.

Nah, a pup can be warm (ie. bassy, without being very trebly and brittle) without being muddy. Muddy means no clarity, and mushy-sounding distortion usually.

Turn your tone knob to 1, Turn your treble all the way down, and bass all the way up. Use lots of ditortion. Now hit a power chord. LOL

Muddy is a pickup when you can't get sound out of it and you just hear a noise of low frequences

When I say muddy, I'm usually referring to a rythym tone that's not articulate and clear enough for me. Maybe I just took a solo and then I switched to the neck pickup and turned down the guitar's volume control to clear up the tone and get a nice tone for chords but the tone is a Little muddy...like it has to much bass or the mids are a little blurry or it lack highs. That's muddy to me.


Originally Posted by LewguitarWhen I say muddy, I'm usually referring to a rythym tone that's not articulate and clear enough for me. Maybe I just took a solo and then I switched to the neck pickup and turned down the guitar's volume control to clear up the tone and get a nice tone for chords but the tone is a Little muddy...like it has to much bass or the mids are a little blurry or it lack highs. That's muddy to me.

I agree with Lew.

Yep, it's hard to argue with Lew when it comes to pickups.

To summarize what has been said so far: muddy = lacking in clarity (e.g., mumbling)

I think of muddy as dead sounding.
Another word for it is Blah.