Pickups for an Epiphone Flying V?

[ThreeChordWonder]

Hard to tell. It's definitely, um, wood, and the top and back look like korina. What's in the middle is hard to tell because the cavities got a good thick coat of varnish. I can't see any mahogany, however.

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

Anyway, all the gold hardware is now off, except for the string ferrules on the back, which are set in, not with a lip like those on a Tele for example. As they're on the back, they can stay.

The other exception is the bushings for the bridge screws. They don't appear to be standard Gibson size, bigger. Theyll be hidden by the pickguard and the height adjustment screws so no big deal. The chrome Gotoh bridge and height adjustment screws were a straight swap.

The tuners have been swapped for Kluson SD90SLN Tuners. The bushings had to be swapped becuae the Epi ones have a slightly smaller inside diameter, metric vs Imperial, I expect, but the old ones came out and the new ones went in without any fights. The screw holes lined up perfectly.

Next up it's rewiring the pickguard for the new pickups.

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

Tuners and bridge swapped, SNSs trail fitted with chrome pickup rings. I say trial fitted because I forgot to put some tape round one of the leads so I can tell which is which

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

Chrome truss rod cover too.

 

[jeremy]

looks good! betcha itll sounds great too

 

[chadd]

Tuners and bridge swapped, SNSs trail fitted with chrome pickup rings. I say trial fitted because I forgot to put some tape round one of the leads so I can tell which is which

Usually tugging on the cable will make one of them wiggle in the cavity/mounting ring

 

[Wound_Up]

Just an FYI - are you SURE said Epiphone is really Limba / Korina?

Reality may vary. My understandi9ng is that, while there may be some runs of V's that are two pieces of solid Korina, they can also be Korina Veneer over random chunks of Korina, or over another kind of wood. I trust Epiphone - not!

And as always - what is it you want to do with this guitar, and after you have lived with whatever pickups are in there, what do want/need more/less of. It may sound great.

But lets don't stop those minor things from a recommendation. I'll take the Schenkers - I assume you mean the Lights Out set. Punchy as hell tight Ceramics ~16k. But I'm a Schenker fan....YMMV.

If they are Black & White and you don't use them, I'll buy them.

You think the US FTC would actually
​​​​​allow them to falsely advertise stuff like that? I don't. So I tend to believe specs when I read them. There's no conspiracy to get over on guitar players by using wood you think isn't as good, while claiming it's the good wood in the specs. That sort of stuff doesn't fly these days. It's not 1910 anymore.

 

[Aceman]

I think Epiphone may "change specs" on a whim. because there are great examples of it all over.

 

[ErikH]

They may advertise it as Korina but that is the color, not the wood. The wood is most likely Limba or something similar in color and characteristics, like Nato is to Mahogany, but it's not Mahogany. Then there is a veneer slapped on top and back to cover the seams and make it look pretty through a transparent finish. That said, there is nothing wrong with that. Good wood is good wood. None of this is new.

If it were me with an Epi V, I'd slap a set of DiMarzio 36th's in there, or DiMarzio Air Classics, a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates set, or Super Distortion in the bridge with an Air Classic or PAF Pro in the neck.

The SNS set I don't hear enough about. How is everyone's experience with those that have tried them?

 

[Mincer]

Companies are very careful about their descriptions these days. They usually are filtered through several teams before they are seen by customer's eyes.

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

The place I bought it from (which wasn't Sweetwater) and Sweetwater have it listed as having a korina body. Sweetwater actually has it as no longer available, but they've left the specs up for reference.

The place I bought it from (which wasn't Sweetwater) says it has a korina neck as well. But Sweetwater has it listed as having a mahogany neck.

It may well be that the body is 2 or more pieces with veneers or thicker nice looking wood over the top and back, but then most LPs and SGs have multi-piece bodies too.

Short of drilling out cores and sending them to a wood expert, I have no way of knowing what the wood really is I think it looks good and its a decent weight, so i dont think there's any balsa or other cheap / undesirable wood in there.

 

[uOpt]

The place I bought it from (which wasn't Sweetwater) says it has a korina neck as well. But Sweetwater has it listed as having a mahogany neck.

Korina is a subspecies of mahogany, so they could be both right.

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

Korina is a subspecies of mahogany, so they could be both right.

And both are subspecies of tree.

Even though theyre all Ford SUVs, trying to sell an Edge as an Explorer or Expedition wouldn't wash.