At the moment this is my #1:
It's my 2009 Carvin ST. It's all maple and is loaded with DiMarzio pups.
DiMarzio originial PAF at the bridge. (DP 103)
DiMarzio Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues II at the middle. (DP 409)
DiMarzio Virtual Solo at the neck. (DP 420)
I got rid of the Carvin active electronics module and replaced them with all MIJ parts. Only my 5-way rotary switch is not MIJ; to be honest I have no idea where it was made. But it works great! I went with the 5-way for more connection options; I have the pups connected in parallel in positions 2 and 4 but I will change it to series in 2 and 4. I already have the wiring layout done in paper so now I just gotta get out the good old multimeter and double check my wiring. Obviously, I placed my 5-way rotary switch where the original 3-way toggle switch was located; if you look closely you can see the little dimple the selector knob has as a position key. It really helps!
The pickup rings were custom made by Dave at fretsonthenet. Carvin uses rather unorthodox dimensions when it comes to its designs so to keep everything as close as possible to the original I had the rings custom built to fit the guitar perfectly. The bridge pup is just for a DiMarzio humbucker while the neck ring holds two DiMarzio single-coil pickups and that is how I managed to squeeze in the three pickups in the guitar. I gotta tell you this is my most versatile axe yet; I love the 5 distinct sounds it offers. The Virtual pups are just awesome by themselves while the PAF is really loud by itself. I wired the guitar with just one volume and one tone; I have the other two knobs as well as the three mini-switches connected to ground for the time being; in the future I'll wire a mini-switch to have the PAF in series or in parallel.
