Back to my favorite humbucker set

orpheo

Well-known member
Years ago I made the JB/Fullshred hybrid and the 59B/JazzB hybrid regularly, but I stopped doing that years ago. I don't know why, but I tried other pickups and perhaps got a bit lazy.

Recently, I was asked to refret a guitar with stainless steel frets, and I haven't done any real work since 2021, so I felt I had to get into this by relearning my skills on a different guitar, so I refretted my first Warmoth LP. It's got a lovely flamed maple top, black korina back, nitro finish that aged naturally, a solid rosewood neck and rosewood fretboard. The tremolo and tuners are Hipshot, but the guitar had no pickups.

I refretted it, and installed a JB/FS and 59/Jazz hybrid set, with a Fullshred/Custom5 hybrid in the middle that is hooked up as 2 single coils to a push pull pot (pulled, it engages just 1 coil of the humbucker: north coil is hooked to the bridge pickup volume pot, south coil is hooked to neck volume pot; both humbuckers get split simultaneously via the other tone push pull pot).

I forgot how insanely good that set is. There is nothing like it in the SD lineup I feel. The bridge humbucker is bright, but not harsh or shrill. Rhythm crunches, leads flow and sing. The neck pickup is warm but open and clear, and works very well with the tonepot. I hear again what I've been saying about these pickups for a decade now. As far as hotter pickups go, this is it. The
Pegasus/Sentient set comes very close, but lacks the openness of this set. Back to square one, I guess. Could be worse.

That strat has a roasted flamed maple neck, ebony board, also stainless steel frets, and a roasted ash body with an OFR and Gotoh tuners. And... same pickups. My mistake here was to install 10-46 strings on that guitar, but I actually seem to prefer 9-46 on that guitar! Help, I'm getting old!

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Is that the same set you put in this one? Actually, both have a hex coil, so not sure?

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This one:


I love that guitar but she plays so difficult. The action is low, neck is straight, but I can't get her to play smoothly. Other guitars with similar specs are way easier for me. Don't know why. Perhaps because this is a partsocaster (musikraft?) with a Fender-style headstock, where my own strats always use an angled headstock? But the tones: so much sustain!

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this strat, for example (Dimarzio EVO: I LOVE THIS!!!) has the same scale, but a slightly different headstock style. Same strings, but plays so much easier.

That tele, by the way, is a monster. Not Dimarzio pickups, but a custom set designed by me, made by Johan Lundgren. If any tele in this world had to take over for the LP, it would be this. 24.75" scale, ebony board, maple binding, ash body, fake F-hole (yes, there's a hole, but it's not deep!), direct-mount pickups, Floyd Rose, and weighs 3.8kg. Reversed headstock, easy upper fret access, glued in neck. Perhaps... SuperTele? Superstrat and supertele twins.
 
That sucks. Send it to me. I can probably get it sorted out. (In a year or two.) :dunno:

haha I tried to sell her for 450 EUR ex shipping but no biters. Fine. I'll keep her then. It's ironic. I can build my own guitars just fine, but this one stumps me.
 
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