Re: Brian May's wiring
Hey nepalnt21:
I'm doing a similar project to yours.
I'm using a Burns Bison as the starting point. The pickups in the Bison are the same as May uses in the Red Special, Burns Trisonics. I will be using the diagram that you talk about to rewire the Bison so that it has a modified Brian May pickup setup. It will have all the May settings -- plus the parallel settings that are not on the Red Special. Except when using single pickups, his PUPs are all wired in series, which creates some neat tones but does not have any Strat-like sounds, which all come from parallel wiring.
With the wiring scheme from the treble booster site, which is the best scheme I have found, I will end up with three mini-sliders for each pickup for a total of 12 switches. On-off, series-parallel and phase for each PUP. That's why I'm having a custom pickguard made. Depending on your timeframe, I can tell you how it works out.
Here's something else you may be interested in. Burns USA has just gone out of business in the last couple of weeks. Too bad, but that's another story.
Bisons, with three Trisonics, are going for half price from Burns dealers on ebay. Also going for cheep are the Burns Trisonic pickups themselves. There is a NEW set of three now availalble on ebay for $90-$95, at least half what they usually go for (sorry SD). Cobra guitars, also made by Burns, also with three Trisonics, are also going for cheep on ebay, sometimes for under $200, which is less than a set of Trisonics usually cost.
Using either a Bison or a Cobra, you could end up -- after some rewiring -- with a Brian May clone for a fraction of the cost of a Red Special. The Bison quality is just awesome. Yes, they're made in Korea, but don't let that fool you. They're great guitars.
Be aware that the Trisonics are not for everyone. They sound like a very chimey P90 without the hum, but then again they have their very own distinct sound. (For one thing, they're single coils but almost as quiet as a humbucker.) You have to be careful about too much overdrive, or they just sound like toneless radio static blasting from a Marshall. This is a case of less is more.
Supposedly, the pickups have six separate coils, one for each string. The coils are wound around a bobbin and then the magnet is placed inside the coil, with a bit of air space between coil and magnet. They are very acoustic. You can actually hear it if you tap the pickups with a pick or finger. What they do, they do well. But they can't do everything. I don't see them being used for heavy metal, for example.
Supposedly you can achieve similar Brian May sound results by just wiring regular Strat pickups like the various Brian May wiring diagrams, but I personally have not heard them. I can say that the single pickup sounds of a Bison is very very close to the single pickup sound of May's guitar. Mine isn't wired in series yet, but I assume the series settings will capture May's horn-like sounds too -- at a fraction of the cost of a red special and in a guitar that looks like no other, a look that you eithet love or hate.
Hope this info helps you,
Ubehebe
