The white guitar phase 2
- Thread starter Elias Graves
- Start date
Elias Graves
Common misfit
:hmm:
Elias Graves
Common misfit
One beveled wood spacer thingy with flange to cover humbucker hole. The extra flap there will sit up under the end of the fingerboard. Shouldn't be too visible. I dyed it black and sprayed it with some clear Defthane. It'll need about two more coats.
Guitar Heel
Demented Trick
I think that'll look great.
Elias Graves
Common misfit
From the front side, it looks normal.
Even with the tall bridge cover, the shim is 3/16" thick on the short side. 1/4" on the tall side.
Elias Graves
Common misfit
Next up, replacing the pickup lead. Way too short. Wrapped the new one in heat shrink to prevent ground shorts. I've had that happen before and they're aggravating to hunt down.
Elias Graves
Common misfit
Not too shabby.
I think I'm gonna go with this wiring more or less.
Located a 1,000pf capacitor.
Not exactly as common as bottled water.
Elias Graves
Common misfit
It works! The bass cut works, too. It doesn't exactly turn the neck pickup into a bridge pickup but it'll darn sure thin it out. Mine's working in reverse, though. Up is bass cut, down is no cut. ???
The Antiquity sounds good. Is it the best P90 ever? I don't know. It sounds pretty good, though. Most P90s sound pretty good to me. I think they're an easy pickup to get right.
This one is quiet, however, and has that real nice thunk on the bass strings the Phat Cats lacked. I like that. You can hear that it's not wax potted. I dig that, too. Gets a little natural reverb going.
Right now, I just have the bridge pickup hole covered til I decide if I'm going to put in a bridge pickup. Looks a little ghetto but it's temporary.
The Antiquity sounds good. Is it the best P90 ever? I don't know. It sounds pretty good, though. Most P90s sound pretty good to me. I think they're an easy pickup to get right.
This one is quiet, however, and has that real nice thunk on the bass strings the Phat Cats lacked. I like that. You can hear that it's not wax potted. I dig that, too. Gets a little natural reverb going.
Right now, I just have the bridge pickup hole covered til I decide if I'm going to put in a bridge pickup. Looks a little ghetto but it's temporary.
Flatspotter
What?
Mirror the connections on the pot.
Elias Graves
Common misfit
Yeah. Should be just a simple reversal.
Elias Graves
Common misfit
The bridge dogear turns out to be too boomy for the neck position. It reads 8.54k resistance, so it's fairly high output. Too much for the neck.
I think I've hit upon the solution.
The mini humbucker has tighter bass than the P90 and I think I prefer it in the neck position. I moved the dogear to the bridge.
This works.
Now I need to get a nickel cover for the dogear and patch a couple of holes.
The bass cut is quite useful. Not sure why more people don't use it.
I think I've hit upon the solution.
The mini humbucker has tighter bass than the P90 and I think I prefer it in the neck position. I moved the dogear to the bridge.
This works.
Now I need to get a nickel cover for the dogear and patch a couple of holes.
The bass cut is quite useful. Not sure why more people don't use it.
Elias Graves
Common misfit
I have pics from every stage. Could put em all together. Lol.
I think I'm finally getting this guitar figured out, what it likes and doesn't.
The SM3 firebird pickup is definitely the best neck pickup I've had in here.
The antiquity is the best bridge pickup I've had here but I'm also becoming more and more convinced that the bridge pickup only offers me one sound I find useful. I'm just a neck pickup guy.
Now one thing I've noticed about this wiring scheme is that, with the bass pot all the way up, the neck pickup is way bassier than it was before. This could be due to several things, including the pots (there's a third one in the chain now instead of two) and the pots' values (250/500 before vs 500/500/500.) Or it could be a result of having the bass control pot. I don't know for sure.
It's not that big a deal, however, as I now have the ability to cut the excess bass.
Still tinkering with resistors a bit. Remember, this guitar transmits EVERY harmonic through the speaker, including the ones that cause ear bleeds. They're tough to control on this guitar. My first setup on this configuration was a 2.2k ohm resistor on the bridge pickup and a 1.5k ohm on the neck.
The neck was a little muffled but cleared up with the bass pot cut to 7-8. The bridge was good. I'll leave it.
So I pulled the resistor out of the neck pickup chain completely. The muffled went away but now my ear bleeds are back with the treble turned up. I'll go back to the 1.5k and just use the bass cut, I guess.
One last thing I noticed is that my neck and middle positions on the switch sound exactly the same. I'll have to look and see what's up there.
I think I'm finally getting this guitar figured out, what it likes and doesn't.
The SM3 firebird pickup is definitely the best neck pickup I've had in here.
The antiquity is the best bridge pickup I've had here but I'm also becoming more and more convinced that the bridge pickup only offers me one sound I find useful. I'm just a neck pickup guy.
Now one thing I've noticed about this wiring scheme is that, with the bass pot all the way up, the neck pickup is way bassier than it was before. This could be due to several things, including the pots (there's a third one in the chain now instead of two) and the pots' values (250/500 before vs 500/500/500.) Or it could be a result of having the bass control pot. I don't know for sure.
It's not that big a deal, however, as I now have the ability to cut the excess bass.
Still tinkering with resistors a bit. Remember, this guitar transmits EVERY harmonic through the speaker, including the ones that cause ear bleeds. They're tough to control on this guitar. My first setup on this configuration was a 2.2k ohm resistor on the bridge pickup and a 1.5k ohm on the neck.
The neck was a little muffled but cleared up with the bass pot cut to 7-8. The bridge was good. I'll leave it.
So I pulled the resistor out of the neck pickup chain completely. The muffled went away but now my ear bleeds are back with the treble turned up. I'll go back to the 1.5k and just use the bass cut, I guess.
One last thing I noticed is that my neck and middle positions on the switch sound exactly the same. I'll have to look and see what's up there.
Elias Graves
Common misfit
Couple of more tweaks.
Switched volume pot for 250k. Much better. Also wired up the split option for the mini.
I'm very happy with this now. It sounds terrific.
I found one very unique tone already. Switch to the neck pickup, single coil with treble @10 and bass @0. With reverb, you get this really spacey phase kinda vibe. Very hollowed out sounding. It's cool.
The antiquity sounds like it should now. This pickup couldn't be more vintage Gibson P90 if it was in a 56 gold top. Duncan nailed it with this one. With my spikeyness gone, it really shines now. A nice woody thump clean and pure midrange grind with drive. Stays quiet, too. Even on the boost channel with a drive pedal going, no more noise than with the humbucker really. Very well behaved in that regard.
Switched volume pot for 250k. Much better. Also wired up the split option for the mini.
I'm very happy with this now. It sounds terrific.
I found one very unique tone already. Switch to the neck pickup, single coil with treble @10 and bass @0. With reverb, you get this really spacey phase kinda vibe. Very hollowed out sounding. It's cool.
The antiquity sounds like it should now. This pickup couldn't be more vintage Gibson P90 if it was in a 56 gold top. Duncan nailed it with this one. With my spikeyness gone, it really shines now. A nice woody thump clean and pure midrange grind with drive. Stays quiet, too. Even on the boost channel with a drive pedal going, no more noise than with the humbucker really. Very well behaved in that regard.
Guitar Heel
Demented Trick
Elias Graves
Common misfit
Lol
You're a wiser man than I.
You're a wiser man than I.
Guitar Heel
Demented Trick
The sick part is that he enjoys it so much.
Elias Graves
Common misfit
Yeah. So?