Help me get the most out of my Fugly Buckers!

Shadow1psc

Shadow1psc

New member
Hello all,

I've just placed my very first order with SD ever, for our own user created "Fugly Buckers" :D I'm so very excited, and I want to get the most out of these that I possibly can, so I'm here to find out how I can do that. I'm no stranger to a soldering iron or tinkering with electronics, but the most work I've ever done internally on a guitar is replace some stock Ibanez pickups with a Crunchlab/Liquifire in the past.

The guitar I want to place these in is my ESP Horizon. It's a little swamp ash shred stick with a 3-way switch, a volume pot and a tone pot. Obviously, I want to get the very most out of my new investment, so I want to change in a 5-way switch, and possible push/pull pot? Maybe both is overkill and a simple 5-way would do it, but then I start to wonder, well which coil ends up being the 'single' coil when in position 2 or 4?

Am I able to wire this in such a way that I can get every combination possible? Bridge alone, bridge single blade coil alone, bridge single other coil alone, bridge blade + neck blade, bridge blade + neck other, etc etc etc? I'd like some advice on how I can accomplish this, or the most of this possible.

Thanks for any and all help!
 
Re: Help me get the most out of my Fugly Buckers!

I forgot that was a thing too. So my options are Triple Shot mounting ring, 5 way switch and/or push-pull pots. This guitar is more or less stock from the 90s, I've yet to open it and assume the hardware is nothing too special. The pickups are decent, nothing to write home about normally, but the swamp ash and the resonance of the guitar are just astounding, so I'm really hoping I've got a winning combo here.

-edit-

I do worry about the shape of my ESP, it's definitely not flat, and certainly not akin to the way a gibson is cut, so I don't know if a triple shot will work for me without altering my guitar in a way that may not be viable.
 
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Re: Help me get the most out of my Fugly Buckers!

FWIW, the Triple Shots I put on my Les Paul seemed like they were a softer plastic than the typical LP rings.
I would think the regular flat rings would work just fine, but if someone knows different...

With regards to your 5 way wiring, I'm pretty sure you'll need something like a Superswitch to take full advantage of all the possible sounds.
 
Re: Help me get the most out of my Fugly Buckers!

MojoMonster said:
FWIW, the Triple Shots I put on my Les Paul seemed like they were a softer plastic than the typical LP rings.
I would think the regular flat rings would work just fine, but if someone knows different...

With regards to your 5 way wiring, I'm pretty sure you'll need something like a Superswitch to take full advantage of all the possible sounds.
Click to expand...

Well, if the triple shots work out, I don't imagine I'd need the super switch, it's just a two bucker guitar, the middle position would select both and the triple shots would do the rest of the work as far as combinations, no? (If that's not the case, that's the very thing I'm here to educate myself about!)
 
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Re: Help me get the most out of my Fugly Buckers!

The triple shots would take care of all the switching possibilities within the pickup itself.

The other possibilities are series parallel for the middle position (default is parallel with all switches) or out of phase. In both cases having a different setting with the triple shots could produce some interesting tones. An out of phase setting usually gives a better outcome where the pickups are quite different in both physical location and tonal output.

Both of these can be done with a toggle switches or push pulls.

edit - with tripleshots you'll only need a 3-way switch, as the typical 5-way superswitch options won't be available anymore. The output of the tripleshot is a 2 conductor wire.
 
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Re: Help me get the most out of my Fugly Buckers!

two Triple Shots, and two push/pulls to handle series/parallel (of the bridge and neck buckers together) and out of phase.
 
Re: Help me get the most out of my Fugly Buckers!

I'm not quite sure what you two mean by series/parallel in the middle position - if both pickups are active, they also work as a whole in series or in parallel? And that's where the wiring of the pickup to the triple shot itself would be standard or reversed normally, but a push/pull would be able to toggle this, correct?
 
Re: Help me get the most out of my Fugly Buckers!

The blade bobbin is oversized and requires a special mounting ring if I'm not mistaken. The triple shots may not work without modification.
 
Re: Help me get the most out of my Fugly Buckers!

That was my understanding as well. The Tripleshots won't fit Trembuckers with covers, and my understanding is the blade bobbin is wider than a normal Trembucker bobbin (like the PA bobbin). My guess is that they won't fit.

I hope I'm wrong about that.
 
Re: Help me get the most out of my Fugly Buckers!

Shadow1psc said:
I'm not quite sure what you two mean by series/parallel in the middle position - if both pickups are active, they also work as a whole in series or in parallel? And that's where the wiring of the pickup to the triple shot itself would be standard or reversed normally, but a push/pull would be able to toggle this, correct?
Click to expand...

When more than 1 pickup is selected via the typical 3 or 5-way, the two pickups are working in parallel. Series/parallel gives you the option to also connect them in series, this will often be louder if both pickups are in full bucker mode.
Out of phase is where the signals electrically cancel out each other....some settings are better than others, usually the ones where the effect is more subtle.
 
Re: Help me get the most out of my Fugly Buckers!

Makes sense, and yeah, I forgot about the oversized blade on this, so that'd be another point against the triple shots (unless MJ confirms otherwise), so what are my options then?
 
Re: Help me get the most out of my Fugly Buckers!

Here is what you do:

trip-shot rings (if possible)

stacked volume pot so you can control the volume of each pickup (There are tons of in-between sounds when you use the V V T set up)

Stellar tone volume pot (even MORE in-between sounds for you)

Then for all the universal switches like parallel and series get this

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/product/SWR61/6-Way-Rotary-Guitar-Pickup-Selector-Switch.html

This switch works like the Gibson L6-S switch
 
Re: Help me get the most out of my Fugly Buckers!

A superswitch could do out-of-phase and serial on the 2 & 4 positions, with standards on the 1, 3, and 5.

Two push-pulls would let you switch between series/rails/PA/parallel on the pair of FBs. You can look at the diagrams for the P-rails for how that'd work.
 
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