Post by Rich on Jan 27, 2008 11:11:33 GMT -6
A number of years ago, I had a guitar built for me in Brazil. It is a wonderful instrument, built by Marcio Zaganin.
I originally provided Marcio with a pair of Kent Armstrong pickups, basically P-90's in a humbucker footprint. Those were dogs, and came out shortly after I received the instrument. They were replaced by a SD Seth Lover in the neck, and a JB in the bridge. That was a nice pair of 'buckers, but I wanted to maintain the classy, custom look of the guitar- so I installed gold closed covers on both pickups.. What a mistake. The covers robbed the pickups of everything I liked about them. I liked the clean look, though..
As is typical of myself, I'm in a constant state of searching for "that tone". The gold covers came back off, and the guitar was better- but in the meantime my tastes had been morphing.. I still liked the humbucker sound in the neck, but couldn't get any Tele sounds from the guitar. Out came the JB. Now, this axe wasn't cheap, and I didn't want to go hacking it up, but I needed to have "that sound".. Eventually, I contacted Scott at Harmonic Design, and he built me an "STP" pickup. This is one of his off-the-wall pickups, basically a '54 Special Tele bridge pickup, with a Strat sized bobbin and a modified (smaller) baseplate. I couldn't fit a regular shaped Tele bridge pickup neatly into the guitar, as the shape won't work with a humbucker rout. A Strat size pickup will fit, however, with a hum/single coil conversion ring. I had to remove a bit of wood from the pickup route, but it is contained within the pickup ring shape- so it looks proper when installed.
I mean to tell you- this is one hell of a pickup, well worth the $$$.
I left the Seth Lover in the neck, and Chris worked some wiring magic to give me all the regular tele tones, plus a few more.
This guitar covers all the ground I need to play in a cover band all night without switching guitars. Two thumbs up for the STP!!!
I originally provided Marcio with a pair of Kent Armstrong pickups, basically P-90's in a humbucker footprint. Those were dogs, and came out shortly after I received the instrument. They were replaced by a SD Seth Lover in the neck, and a JB in the bridge. That was a nice pair of 'buckers, but I wanted to maintain the classy, custom look of the guitar- so I installed gold closed covers on both pickups.. What a mistake. The covers robbed the pickups of everything I liked about them. I liked the clean look, though..
As is typical of myself, I'm in a constant state of searching for "that tone". The gold covers came back off, and the guitar was better- but in the meantime my tastes had been morphing.. I still liked the humbucker sound in the neck, but couldn't get any Tele sounds from the guitar. Out came the JB. Now, this axe wasn't cheap, and I didn't want to go hacking it up, but I needed to have "that sound".. Eventually, I contacted Scott at Harmonic Design, and he built me an "STP" pickup. This is one of his off-the-wall pickups, basically a '54 Special Tele bridge pickup, with a Strat sized bobbin and a modified (smaller) baseplate. I couldn't fit a regular shaped Tele bridge pickup neatly into the guitar, as the shape won't work with a humbucker rout. A Strat size pickup will fit, however, with a hum/single coil conversion ring. I had to remove a bit of wood from the pickup route, but it is contained within the pickup ring shape- so it looks proper when installed.
I mean to tell you- this is one hell of a pickup, well worth the $$$.
I left the Seth Lover in the neck, and Chris worked some wiring magic to give me all the regular tele tones, plus a few more.
This guitar covers all the ground I need to play in a cover band all night without switching guitars. Two thumbs up for the STP!!!