Pickups for Strange ESP

[Dudeman7]

Sounds great so far, especially the P-Rails split to the P90 coil. That blends nicely with the QP neck pickup too.

A little dark in humbucker mode so I'll stick a smaller cap in there. Going to have to experiment to find the sweet spot.

Plays great though! I love these early 2000's Korean ESP guitars.

[jeremy]

looks great! hows it sound?

[Mincer]

Well, damn! That rocks!!

[Dudeman7]

First up: P Rails!

[Dudeman7]

So, parts started showing up and the guitar arrived last week.

The previous owner did a hack job with the wiring. I assume they had better pickups in there but pulled them out before listing the guitar for sale. The neck pickup, 3-way switch and Tone pot aren't connected to anything. The Duncan Designed humbucker is wired to the volume control and output jack.

The finish is also much worse than was described.

Going to do an amateur spray and seal for the finish and replace all of the guts. I have a Switchcraft 3-way and output jack, pickups and .047 Orange Drop caps.

Now, the pots. It has 500k, mismatched pots in there now but they are pretty rough. The diagram from SD for this wiring scheme specifies 250k pots. Given that the humbucker/P90 will get most of the playing time, should I stick with 500k?

[Dudeman7]

I hope so! He does really good work on guitars but I haven't heard any of his pickups. We'll see!

[jeremy]

bucker size p90 by the local guy i assume? betcha it sounds good

[Dudeman7]

Going to do some experiments. Ordered a P-Rail, have a Pearly Gates and a local guy is winding up a P90 for me.

I'll let you all know what wins!

[allbutromeo]

They did make a trembucker spaced P-rail. On Duncans website it says temporarily unavailable, but I'd you Google search it "Seymour Duncan TBPR-1b" you'll find places that still have them.

[Dave Locher]

No advice, i just want to say I dig that guitar!

[Dudeman7]

i think a prail is a great choice. good p90 tone and some other options if you want them. for the neck... i might leave it be but if you wanted to swap it and need to use a tele pup, id go quarter pound. i do love a pearly bridge though

Good call! I really like the QP in my other guitar. It's a good balance of warmth and detail but it has enough output to not be obnoxiously quiet compared to the JB in the bridge.

I'm having a hell of a hard time finding a trembucker P-Rails, though. I know, I know, regular spacing sounds fine. It's just that I'm an idiot and kind of anal about little details like that.

A lot more option for HB-sized P90s than I was expecting! Getting wide spacing looks like a custom order from most companies though. Not sure I want to drop a couple hundred dollars into a beat up guitar I paid $180.00 for.

Decisions, decisions....

[jeremy]

i think a prail is a great choice. good p90 tone and some other options if you want them. for the neck... i might leave it be but if you wanted to swap it and need to use a tele pup, id go quarter pound. i do love a pearly bridge though

[Dudeman7]

P-Rails might be cool. I had considered them for a guitar a while back but went in a different direction for that one.

I'll take another look at them now.

Thanks!

[Synapsys]

I'd also go with a P-Rails bridge, but would go with a Vintage Tele Stack.

[Despair]

I'd probably go with P-Rails in the bridge (rail towards bridge), and push/pull pots to control switching with a scheme similar to a Triple Shot pickup ring. Odds are I'd leave it in P-90 mode most of the time, but being able to flip to a more tele-like bridge would be fun.

I'd probably go with an STK-S4m in the neck, if I didn't like that tele neck pickup opposite the P-90.