Re: Post your main guitar
How's that bridge humbucker? It sounds like it would have a higher output than I would expect you to like.
That pic is almost as old as the guitar. At that time, it didn't have the hybrid pickups, and the bridge pickup was a JB wound by MJ, and it's coils could be switched to parallel via the push/pull volume pot. It was only about two years ago that I installed the hybrids ... it turned out that I also had an MJ-wound Custom, so making the JB/Custom hybrids was a no brainer. The JB was great, but it did feature a bit of that upper mid emphasis they're known for, despite the guitar body being a single piece of Honduran mahogany. But it was never offensive.
My other mahogany guitars all have the 59/Jazz hybrids in the neck, and 59/Custom hybrids in the bridge, so i figured a) one of them should have the somewhat hotter JB/Custom in the bridge, and b) I was used to the JB in this guitar, so this would be the one to use the JB/Custom. I like it a lot ... this guitar's sister, the LP I built, and my Hamer Studio Custom, both sound more traditional with the 59/Custom hybrids in the bridge, and this one is just a little more 'contemporary' sounding, just a slightly harder edge to it for serious rockin' out. Of course it has more of that kinda 3-dimensionality that the hybrids bring than the straight JB did, and it's wired for parallel operation via the volume control just as the JB was.
So if anything, I actually slightly tamed the bridge sound on this guitar, but it still rocks, and now has that extra sonic dimension to it. Probably due to the fact that i use vintage-style amps, and only an overdrive pedal rather than distortion, and that my playing sensibilities are mostly '70s-based (in other words, I'm old and my way of doing things hasn't changed much since way back then, hehe), I probably tend to get more of a slightly hotter traditional sound rather than a crushing modern one. However, if i wind up the dirt from the OD pedal and adjust my mentality, I can get it sounding pretty powerful and crunchy.
(It's worth noting that although the guitar is small, the body is 2" thick and the hardware is brass ... the guitar is deceptively heavy, and it's sound is very full, not thin as one might expect). Also the new pickups have new gold covers and black, flat metal mounting rings now ... here's a pic from two years back with her younger sister, the LP I built from the same plank of mahogany, soon after the new pickups were installed ...
