Saving Up For New Gear!!!!

B

bard2dbone

New member
Sorry. I got excited.

I like to get cheap guitars and mod them until they are stealthy slayers.

I'm wanting to put a set of P-rails and Triple Shots in an Epiphone Dot. But first I have to have money to pay for it.

But then I figured: as long as I'm swapping out the p'ups, it needs better pots, knobs, switch. I'll just upgrade the whole thing!

And while I'm at it, why not do the same for my Hamer?

My current Hamer is a replacement for one I sold and miss. I modded till it was perfect and then got bored. Now I wish I'd kept it. By the time I sold it, it had all TonePros hardware, WCR p'ups, RC switch, cap, and pots...

It basically was a sleeper Les Paul killer.

This one is still stock. It's the model that is shaped like a PRS Santana with two humbuckers, T-o-M bridge and tailpiece, three knobs and one switch. It's got an okay sound, but not yet anything amazing.

SO:

What does everyone recommend for it? My tone preferences for humbuckers run from Santana to Cream to Allmann Brothers to Larry Carlton to Robben Ford, and thereabouts. So mostly I like to have the Swiss Army knife guitar, where I can pull out any tone you can think of.
 
Re: Saving Up For New Gear!!!!

I do the same thing, upgrade Epi's. For a Dot, I like a pair of '59's, a C5/'59N, or C8/'59N. All are good clean, and the C5 or C8 will give you more muscle for solos.

If you want to put in a push-pull you can do ArtieToo's coil swap mod, and pair the bridge slug coil with the neck screw coil. Advantages over coil cut being: a softer sound, but not so thin & bright, hum-cancelling, mismatched coils, and potentially even blending two different magnets. Advantage over parallel: not so darn weak & puny.

If you really want the Swiss Army Knife guitar, put in the Jimmy Page system (4 push-pulls, diagram is on this website) which I've done on a couple 335's, and you get almost two dozen combinations of coil cut, phase, series, and parallel.
 
Re: Saving Up For New Gear!!!!

I've got triple shots in my LP, and really like them. As you would expect, some combinations are more useful than others. One of my favorites is neck slug coil + bridge HB.

Here's an idea that doesn't involve drilling extra holes: 2 concentric pots for vol & tone on each p'up. 2 push/pulls with the pot for spin-a-split and the switch to select which coil is split. All your's giving up on that setup (vs. triple shots) is is a parallel option.

I like the idea of coil swapping, but haven't looked at the diagrams yet. If anyone can post some links, I would appreciate it.
 
Re: Saving Up For New Gear!!!!

cheap dot style guitars are great, they're very toneful and are totally ready for upgrades. i mean, all that space equals places to put pots and switches. perfect, right?!
i just redid my dot studio with a new nut, a cheap fret job done by me, and completely re-vamped electronics;
dual volume/dual tone(alpha 3/8" and orange drop caps), all push pulls for artie-page wiring with an a3 jazzN and a8 PGb. it's a super toneful guitar that can handle almost playing style, all for an initial cost of under $400!
 
Re: Saving Up For New Gear!!!!

I prefer if the mods aren't real obvvious externally. With the Dot that just means that I'll use Triple Shots around the P-Rails. Poof! All kinds of extra switching and sound choices, and nobody can even see it from ten feet away.

That's so many different kinds of kick ass that I don't have words for it.

But for the Hamer, I'm still thinking. I'd like to do something a lot like the Jimmy Page switching setup. But I have two volume pots, one tone pot, and one three way selector switch.

The current thinking is a pair of splittable p'ups and a pair of push-pull volume pots.

Anybody have any better ideas?
 
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