gregory
New member
The guitar is an Ibanez SZ520 (22-fret, set neck, mahogany body, maple cap, 25.1" scale). The acoustic tone is bright and snappy. It currently has 9s which I will defitely not be using, so I don't know how much bottom end the guitar really has acoustically.
I'm wondering what kinds of options you guys are going with besides the APHn. I'd rather go with a PGn if I were going to do the A2 thing.
Here are some ideas I'm kicking around:
59N/JazzN A5 Hybrid
Sentient
59N/JazzB A5 Hybrid
59N
A4 59N
The 3-way has 12 pins in order to split to the inner coils in the middle position, hence the 59/JazzB idea with the JazzB being the inner coil. The controls are currently stock: two B500 volumes and one A500/22n master tone, '50s wired. I'm kicking around ideas of having one master volume and a master tone, freeing up the other knob to be a spin-a-split on the neck, a bridge blend or both using a dual-concentric pot, only active in the middle position; with the bridge being split to the inner Custom slug coil in all middle position scenarios. I do like the sound of two full humbuckers combined, too, however.
I like being able to have single notes sing with the neck under gain without any significant drop in saturation than they are with the bridge. For this reason I don't see the JazzN as being a viable option. I'm also reluctant to go with an A4 59N for fear that it will be too weak and would also prefer a deeper clean tone. Regarding the 59N, I didn't like the HB-101N (59N) in my SZ320 because it was too boomy relative to the other positions clean; and it simply didn't work all that well in the inner-coil configuration with the D/I HB-103B (double screw JB+) for obvious reasons. I've decided to entertain the 59N this time around because the 59/Custom is clearly a better match with stock wiring.
I threw the 59N/JazzN hybrid out there because it was a long-time forum favorite. Hopefully the Sentient is the same or better as I would rather save time and money by not having to make the hybrid (though I will make the 59N/JazzB if it has the potential to be the most promising).
I'm wondering what kinds of options you guys are going with besides the APHn. I'd rather go with a PGn if I were going to do the A2 thing.
Here are some ideas I'm kicking around:
59N/JazzN A5 Hybrid
Sentient
59N/JazzB A5 Hybrid
59N
A4 59N
The 3-way has 12 pins in order to split to the inner coils in the middle position, hence the 59/JazzB idea with the JazzB being the inner coil. The controls are currently stock: two B500 volumes and one A500/22n master tone, '50s wired. I'm kicking around ideas of having one master volume and a master tone, freeing up the other knob to be a spin-a-split on the neck, a bridge blend or both using a dual-concentric pot, only active in the middle position; with the bridge being split to the inner Custom slug coil in all middle position scenarios. I do like the sound of two full humbuckers combined, too, however.
I like being able to have single notes sing with the neck under gain without any significant drop in saturation than they are with the bridge. For this reason I don't see the JazzN as being a viable option. I'm also reluctant to go with an A4 59N for fear that it will be too weak and would also prefer a deeper clean tone. Regarding the 59N, I didn't like the HB-101N (59N) in my SZ320 because it was too boomy relative to the other positions clean; and it simply didn't work all that well in the inner-coil configuration with the D/I HB-103B (double screw JB+) for obvious reasons. I've decided to entertain the 59N this time around because the 59/Custom is clearly a better match with stock wiring.
I threw the 59N/JazzN hybrid out there because it was a long-time forum favorite. Hopefully the Sentient is the same or better as I would rather save time and money by not having to make the hybrid (though I will make the 59N/JazzB if it has the potential to be the most promising).
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