Wired in a Liberator today

[Xeromus]

I have a cheap Jackson that I rather like, but I use it for a project guitar. I had a Liberator and some free time, so why not?

First, I had to enlarge the hole for the volume pot to accommodate it, and then disconnect much of the wiring to reconnect to the Liberator. An hour and half later, my guitar sounds exactly the same, which is good. I kind of like soldering, and I don't know if I would ever put this in another guitar. The instructions were straightforward enough, and it's a quality product. It's a novel idea, but I feel like the labor of installing one is only worth it in a guitar where you're going to swap pickups often or use as a test bed (which is exactly the reason why I installed it). It's nice to swap pickups without firing up the ol' soldering iron, but at the same time, I don't know it actually takes less time than soldering. I'll probably appreciate it later when I test out some different pickups.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Wired in a Liberator today

Yes, it initially takes some time installing it, but it actually makes the process of switching pickups a lot faster. When I was going to test 3 or 4 pickup sets, I was glad I had the Liberator.

 

[donaldr]

Re: Wired in a Liberator today

I wanted to buy a BYOP pickguard, but it's not available anywhere in Canada, even online.
I'm wanting for my Obsidian Wire for Strats.

 

[shadowfire90]

Re: Wired in a Liberator today

For the liberator system the biggest con as to why I wouldn't get one is say you get a used pickup and the wires aren't long enough. There is still some basic soldering or wiring knowledge needed. The obsidian system is overpriced in my opinion. Just like the liberator it does have it's purposes absolutely like I could quickly throw a pickup out of phase if it's a guitar I'm not too picky about how extreme I need the wiring to be.

for Donaldr - try asking an authorized seymour duncan dealer they may be able to help you out. Perhaps email long and mcquade?

For alternatives to the liberator system I experimented with Morlex cables epiphone uses to a bunch of other things and if people do a lot of pickup swaps "servo cables" male to female are your best bet. It's a similar approach to EMG. The only issue is Servo cables only go male female up to 3 pin. So unless Seymour Duncan starts doing a 5 pin base on the pickups similar to the HZ models I don't see it catching on because some guys like parallel and other complex wirings than a standard series tone or the option to coilsplit but every project I put with those cables in everyone called or emailed me and asked for more. Servo cables are under 1$ each and all you'd need is a bit of heat shrink. I got the idea as this older person I used to work on all his guitars was far sighted and wanted a simple system to switch pickups and it went from a cable I was buying by accident and snipping the female ends off to using them way more diversely. This PRS he has I think he can switch between 6 pickups now. Than of course his fender I can switch pickguards on without much effort either.

 

[Xeromus]

Re: Wired in a Liberator today

What I do like about the obsidian wire kits, is that they aren't just a easy drop in for standard wiring, much of them do something neat without having to fiddle with getting the wiring correct. For example, in my SSS strat, I have the blender mod kit, which is more or less the gilmour wiring where the neck and middle can be blended, among other things. It's really cool and I paid for the time savings of doing it myself. For my next build, I will probably get the HSS kit, because it switches between 500k and 250k pots based on the pickup selected, as well as the coil splitting. It just saves me some time and that's worth it to me. Otherwise, basic pickup replacements, I just solder them in.

 

[donaldr]

Re: Wired in a Liberator today

for Donaldr - try asking an authorized seymour duncan dealer they may be able to help you out. Perhaps email long and mcquade?

Yep I called Long and McQuade, and they told me Canadian distributor doesn't have it in stock, no ETA. Was looking for a simple STK-S4 and it was minimum 6 weeks, again not in inventory on distributor.
I agree that Obsidian is overpriced, but I wanted the treble bleed and I was at 60% just in parts. Since I'm not very good with a soldering iron, and wanted a system to swap pickups easily, I thought it was a good buy. I can sell it in the future if I want money, which is not possible if it's my own wiring.