Passive Guitar Mods

TheMadGypsyBaron

New member
What are your favorite passive guitar mods? I ask because I want some inspiration going for future projects.

Other than the obvious Coil Split, Coil Tap, Phasing, Series/Parallel stuff, the ones that come to mind for me are the Black Ice passive overdrive, Eldred Mod for the Esquire, and the Varitone switch.

Lemme know your favorites!
 
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Re: Passive Guitar Mods

I have a 3-way varitone (.005, .022 & .047) on the guitar in my avatar, but I probably wouldn't do it again. I'm not much of a tone control user anyway, and the ability to have three different ones at my disposal has turned out to be almost useless (at least for me). I will say that it taught me that I like the .005 cap for my bridge pickup and .022 for my neck... so that was kind of cool. Now that I figured that out, though, I've been thinking about replacing it with a Black Ice just for giggles.

Unless, of course, I hear of some other great suggestion... ;)
 
Re: Passive Guitar Mods

Some folks here are very keen on the Blower (direct to jack socket) Switch idea. Others like a Kill Switch.

Stratocasters can benefit from the seven sounds mod. http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=switch_f_bp I usually arrange this so that the push-pull is under the upper tone pot and the neck PU is the one that gets switched.

Telecasters can benefit from series interconnection of their picks, either via a four-way switch http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=tele_4ws or by this often overlooked method http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/schematics/schematics.php?schematic=spr96tip

For twin humbucker guitars, there a numerous possibilities offered by the Freeway 3x3-03 selector switch.
 
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I like the bridge always on switch for strats

Treble bleed on volume pots

Prefer master volume/master tone

On two humbucker guitars , all in series makes for a thick driving metal sound . One big pickup



*(Sent from my durned phone!)*
 
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i have both kill switch and blower switch in my guitar, with the addition of a parallel series switch
 
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bypass the controls and go straight to the output. Dunno why they call it a blower, though. Must be a car-guy thang.
 
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Ok, so, no controls at all, (ie. volume, tone) are not in the mix with this so called blower switch? Why would you do that? Sounds like a tone killer to me
 
Re: Passive Guitar Mods

Ok, so, no controls at all, (ie. volume, tone) are not in the mix with this so called blower switch? Why would you do that? Sounds like a tone killer to me

It gives you just a smidgen more volume and brightness of tone... good for cutting through the mix for soloing.


[emoji450]Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk [emoji441]
 
Re: Passive Guitar Mods

also if you settle your knobs to get a mid gain brown sound on a high gain metal setup you can go from that to shred just pulling the knob, since i pretty much lack skill to do even an easy rock solo i just play honky brownie sounding intro riff, then pull the knob and start chugging, think of it like going from whatever your controls are on to 11 with the flip of a switch
 
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Wow. I have never dealt with that type of setup. However, it sounds like something you would need to use a pickup booster for if you needed a smidgen more.
 
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i have enough boost on my board, as said, think of it like a switch to set your knobs on 11, a pickup booster would be like setting the thing at 20

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Re: Passive Guitar Mods

My favorite so far is the Triple Shot mounting ring. One of these days, I may try a Freeway switch in something, until then, it's the Triple Shot.
 
Re: Passive Guitar Mods

1) Veritone mod http://www.diyguitarmods.com/custom-varitone-wiring.php

2) spin-a-split / spit-a-tap, like a split or tap toggle, but with a pot, so you get variable split / tap.

2 a) If the guitar doesn't have a knob to spare, I'll put a trim pot in series with the split/tap so that the effect won't be quite so dramatic.

2 b) If the guitar has two or three tapable/splitable pickups, I'll spin-a-split all two ore three at once with a dual or triple gang pot. A push pull can split or tap two pickups at once.
 
Re: Passive Guitar Mods

Where's Artie?
;)

Working 60-hour weeks. :sad:

There are many, but my favorite is probably the V3rd mod. Neck screw coil, in series with bridge stud coil to create a virtual 3rd, or middle, pickup. Great sound.

Also, de-mud mod, and sparkle tone. (Film@11.)
 
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There are many, but my favorite is probably the V3rd mod. Neck screw coil, in series with bridge stud coil to create a virtual 3rd, or middle, pickup. Great sound.

Isn't that the ArtieToo 'Coil Swap Mod'? I've done that on a few guitars. It's even better when the PU's have unbalanced coils, as you get a different matchup which makes another sound option.
 
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