New pickups for my Steve Morse Y2D Darklord

[Joeoboe]

So I had read lots about people loving their Y2D but not loving their pickups. As an owner of a The Darklord variant of the Y2D, I also wanted a change in pickups. The bridge pickup in particular was harsh and hard sounding. The neck was super warm, and the single coil was slightly thinner than I like.
Since the Darklord uses covered pickups, it uses a different pickgaurd, so I purchased a stock Y2D pickguard and loaded it with a JB/Jazz and a FiftyTwo strat pickup.
Oh my goodness!!! This transformed this guitar. These pickups work well with the 250K pots that the Y2D uses, and are still plenty bright....especially compared to the stock pickups. I could not be happier with this combo!
However, the mounting ears on the humbuckers had to be modified because they were square and the stock pickups were small triangular mounts, but a Dremel tool took these extra corners off the mount easily. The single coil also needed to be ground down so it would fit as well... Not hard to do, but you need a Dremel tool to do it quickly. So... Not a perfect drop in replacement but ALMOST a drop in.
I'd be glad to draw out the exact mods that I had to do, if anyone wants to do this but is hesitant. It really IS super easy!
Again... The JB/Jazz with the FiftyTwo strat...magic!! So well balanced!!! Very sweet and open and detailed...and MUSICAL!

 

[dominus]

Re: New pickups for my Steve Morse Y2D Darklord

Still have the stock Steve Morse pickups?

 

[Joeoboe]

Re: New pickups for my Steve Morse Y2D Darklord

Still have the stock Steve Morse pickups?

Yup! I kept them mounted to the original pickguard to make it easy to restore the guitar to original if I ever decide to sell. These pickups are not available through Dimarzio, and have normal pole pieces and chrome convers. Even the single coil strat pickup is covered.
I can't imagine selling this guitar though. There is not a thing I am not thrilled with!

 

[sosomething]

Re: New pickups for my Steve Morse Y2D Darklord

Very cool! Post pics if you've got them!

The JB/Jazz are such perfect swaps for guitars with 250k pots. It's almost like the JB was designed with that pot value in mind.

 

[Joeoboe]

Re: New pickups for my Steve Morse Y2D Darklord

Here are the pictures of my JB/Jazz and FiftyTwo installed in my Darklord. I plan on getting a plain black satin finish pickgurd. The Plexiglas is really a dust and scratch magnet and on this dark finish you cannot see through to the wood below with all the reflection anyway... so I think a plain satin black will be a neater look.
I also included a picture of the old cover DiMarzio Steve Morse pickups for those who have not seen them in this version. They are not available as far as I know except on this guitar

.

 

[sosomething]

Re: New pickups for my Steve Morse Y2D Darklord

That looks absolutely killer.

I really, really like those guitars. If it were me, I'd keep the transparent guard and let that flametop continue to shine through.

Congrats on the swap, again.. and if you ever decide to sell that thing...