ItsaBass
New member
I got this yesterday. It came without pickups, and it has been previously repaired and nicely refinished in satin black. I threw in what I had lying around: EJ Custom neck with a Fender Diamondback bridge (basically a Fender knockoff of the Duncan PG+). Both pickups are wide spaced, but should work fine for now. I also got rid of the stock cream plastic parts.
Eventually, I intend to heavily modify this such that it resembles a '50's LP Special that has been converted to humbuckers and refinished. I'll be adding white neck binding, a '50's-style single-cut Special pickguard, a headstock veneer with a MOP inlay and LP Special decal, and the protuberant neck joint hump that the old Specials, Juniors, and Melody Makers had. It'll be converted to a tunable wraparound bridge (which I prefer to the standard TOM/stopbar). It'll be painted clear-coated neutral white over "original" TV yellow. If I decide to go full bore, I'll also give it a 7-1/4" radius and skinny frets, and file the wraparound to match...but I'll probably just leave the fingerboard and frets stock. It'll get black knobs, switch washer, switch tip, and jack plate. Tuners will be some sort of modern butterbean lockers.
I am considering Liberator pots, and routing the pickup cavities through to the back side, to make it able to be used as a test guitar for various pickups. That would allow quick pickup changes, and the elimination of string changes and inconsistencies as a variable in tests. If I do all that, I'll also probably install a series/split/parallel mini toggle for each pickup. The problem with trying pickups for me is that I am really happy with my 2xHB guitars as they are, and I don't want to monkey with them. This guitar is cheap and less than perfect, so I won't mind constantly modding it to try various pickups.
I'll also be converting the four stock pots to PTB controls for each pickup, and adding a master volume control on the pickguard.
Eventually, I intend to heavily modify this such that it resembles a '50's LP Special that has been converted to humbuckers and refinished. I'll be adding white neck binding, a '50's-style single-cut Special pickguard, a headstock veneer with a MOP inlay and LP Special decal, and the protuberant neck joint hump that the old Specials, Juniors, and Melody Makers had. It'll be converted to a tunable wraparound bridge (which I prefer to the standard TOM/stopbar). It'll be painted clear-coated neutral white over "original" TV yellow. If I decide to go full bore, I'll also give it a 7-1/4" radius and skinny frets, and file the wraparound to match...but I'll probably just leave the fingerboard and frets stock. It'll get black knobs, switch washer, switch tip, and jack plate. Tuners will be some sort of modern butterbean lockers.
I am considering Liberator pots, and routing the pickup cavities through to the back side, to make it able to be used as a test guitar for various pickups. That would allow quick pickup changes, and the elimination of string changes and inconsistencies as a variable in tests. If I do all that, I'll also probably install a series/split/parallel mini toggle for each pickup. The problem with trying pickups for me is that I am really happy with my 2xHB guitars as they are, and I don't want to monkey with them. This guitar is cheap and less than perfect, so I won't mind constantly modding it to try various pickups.
I'll also be converting the four stock pots to PTB controls for each pickup, and adding a master volume control on the pickguard.
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