Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: Joe Dorcia on July 08, 2005, 03:49:12 PM

Title: My Customised Strat Pickguard - Tim Plz Read
Post by: Joe Dorcia on July 08, 2005, 03:49:12 PM
Hi there Tim (and others who want to read which is why i did not PM Tim directly)

Its Joe here, we spoke on the phone the other day about my pre-wired plate with a Mid + Bridge Irish Tour and the 4-way Tele Switch.
I have ordered my Scratch Plate from WS and should be here in bout 6 weeks, hopefully. I will PM you when I have sent it off.

For other ppl, not just Tim -

I am trying this mod for my guitar that Tim reccommended which is using my Mid and Bridge pups (i only have these in my other strat too, no neck in either) which is using a 4-way Tele switch to allow: -

1 Neck
2 Both in Series
3 Both in Parallel
4 Bridge

This should be sweet, coz i have the normal tones (1,3,and 4) and 2 will make a stretched humbucker type sound. With Irish Tours in my strat, it should really scream beautifully. I will let ya'll no when I have it finished as it seems to be a popular tele mod, it might catch on for strats too

Joe
Title: My Customised Strat Pickguard - Tim Plz Read
Post by: TwilightOdyssey on July 08, 2005, 03:54:34 PM
Hmm, that sounds like a really cool guitar!
Way more options than I would ever use, of course.
I have 2 single HB guitars with nothing but a kill switch!!
Title: My Customised Strat Pickguard - Tim Plz Read
Post by: Joe Dorcia on July 08, 2005, 03:59:40 PM
Well, I dont really use the other tones for my band, but its nice to have for extra guitar tracks in recording or playing weddings if you want, lol. I got the idea of just the mid and Brdige from Biffy Clyro. Their guitarist, Simon Neil has loads of strats with just either mid n bridge in parallel or just the Bridge, no knobs or switches. They look ace too, really neat. I only have the two pups and a switch. It looks sweet and stops me hurting my hands when i go mental on stage. lol
Title: My Customised Strat Pickguard - Tim Plz Read
Post by: TwilightOdyssey on July 08, 2005, 04:05:13 PM
If you look at Adrian Smith's Jacksons from the Somewhere In Time era, you will see he must've had about 20 mini toggles on those guitars! And you never hear those sounds in Maiden; I always guessed that he liked to dial in different tones when playing alone, since Maiden is not known for unconventional guitar sounds.
Title: My Customised Strat Pickguard - Tim Plz Read
Post by: Joe Dorcia on July 08, 2005, 04:52:01 PM
good point. Its like the brian May sig guitar, with 12 on/off switches. Whats the point, they dont have an explaination on either. Stupid!
Title: My Customised Strat Pickguard - Tim Plz Read
Post by: chrisola on July 08, 2005, 07:05:31 PM
the brian may switches are for the pickups...

on\off\series\parallell for each of the 3 pickups! (i'll let someone else work out how many different combinations you can get!)

The Adrian Smith thing could be synth controls maybe, as that era had alot going on in the music... imo the best maiden guitar sound, especially on the leads!! (Galien Kruger amps?)
Title: My Customised Strat Pickguard - Tim Plz Read
Post by: tav on July 08, 2005, 08:18:05 PM
akshoolly it's on/off and in/out of phase. I think Brian only uses a few of those combinations though.
Title: My Customised Strat Pickguard - Tim Plz Read
Post by: jt on July 09, 2005, 02:44:14 AM
:D If you`ve got 12 switchs on your guitar your way to Anal about it !!  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

i wonder how many times in a live situation he`s flicked the wrong switch !!  :P
i bet he does it far more often than he would care to admit to !!

 :D  8)
Title: My Customised Strat Pickguard - Tim Plz Read
Post by: Brow on July 09, 2005, 09:39:29 AM
The Brian May guitar only has 6 switches, not 12  :)

Each pickup has an on/off switch and an in/out phase switch.

Brian uses the bridge and middle pickups in phase (produces a humbucker type tone) for about 85% of the Queen stuff.

I s'ppose he likes to keep his options open  8)
Title: My Customised Strat Pickguard - Tim Plz Read
Post by: PhilKing on July 09, 2005, 12:22:22 PM
I have the guild BM signature from the early 90's and this actually came with a leaflet to tell you what the switches did and what combinations were good.  There was also a quote from Brian May saying that he sometimes messes up the switching too  :twisted:

Mine has the SD pickups, though somewhere I have a couple of DiMarzio BM pickups.  I don't know how these compare to the new Burns ones (which I think are Kent Armstrong's).  The SD's seem a bit too straty really.  I need Tim to rewind them  8)
Title: My Customised Strat Pickguard - Tim Plz Read
Post by: Joe Dorcia on July 09, 2005, 12:54:03 PM
Quote
The Brian May guitar only has 6 switches, not 12


Ahhh, right, that makes more sense. lol. My bad! Thanks man[/quote]
Title: My Customised Strat Pickguard - Tim Plz Read
Post by: Miracle Man Matt on July 09, 2005, 12:58:43 PM
I have a Kent Armstrong Motherbucker in one of my guitars which is effectively 2 hotrails stuck together, so you have 9 wires coming out of it!!! theres also a neck version that he does as well!!!  I couldn't be arsed to wire it all up to max efficiency, although the leaflet does give a wiring guide with three mini sw's.
-having said that im interested in doing it though, it sounds ok 23kohms i think, but it has no top end and not much too much bottom. harmonics come out easily too.  I think its the one that Matt bellamy form Muse has in alot of his guitars.
Title: My Customised Strat Pickguard - Tim Plz Read
Post by: Steve-Mr Pig 2U on July 09, 2005, 01:32:21 PM
Yeh Matt has them in his guitars. Hopefully not for long as he has had 2 or 3 new guitars made with Nailbombs and BKP-90's!
Title: My Customised Strat Pickguard - Tim Plz Read
Post by: Afghan Dave on July 09, 2005, 04:48:35 PM
Adrian Smith's white Jackson/Strat was modded with a synth, that was the period I first started playing electric and I used to love that guitar!
Title: My Customised Strat Pickguard - Tim Plz Read
Post by: Bowks on July 09, 2005, 08:11:44 PM
I've got the 4 way switch mod on my Tele (fitted with Di*****o Virtual Vintages  :oops: ) and the flexibilty you get with the both in parallel/both in series is well worth it for the £15 the switch costs.  It's great for scaring people at jam nights with the fat sound you get from both pups in series.  I'd heartily recommend it to any Tele players and I wonder if this works with 2 hbs too, anyone know?
Title: My Customised Strat Pickguard - Tim Plz Read
Post by: PhilKing on July 10, 2005, 12:14:41 PM
If we are talking more knobs and switches, the 2 makers that come to mind are BC Rich and John Birch.

I nearly bought a Mockingbird in 1982 (I should have done now they are collectors pieces).  I seem to remember it had 3 knobs (2 vol and tone) 3 way selector, 4 mini switches (coil tap and series/parallel for each pickup) and a vari-tone switch!

My John Birch is not as bad as some I have seen, but it still has 5 knobs (vol & tone for each pu + master vol), 3-way selector, 3 pos rotary (mono/stereo/reverse stereo) and 2 phase reversal switches.

The switching I have the most problems with (even though it is simple), is the PRS rotary.  I am forever getting the worng setting :evil:  So much so that I tend to use just the 2 outside positions, unless I have time to get the tone between songs   :wallbash:

I once met Paul and asked him if he would make me one with a 5 way switch, but he told me he had had too many problems with them not having enough wood around the switch, so he would never fit one.  I guess he fixed that with the 513  :shock:
Title: My Customised Strat Pickguard - Tim Plz Read
Post by: Joe Dorcia on July 10, 2005, 02:47:55 PM
Quote
I've got the 4 way switch mod on my Tele (fitted with Di*****o Virtual Vintages  ) and the flexibilty you get with the both in parallel/both in series is well worth it for the £15 the switch costs.


It sounds fun, especially in the way im using it with just the mid and bridge positions on my strat. It will be sexy. Shame you paid £15, Tim is charging me £9.50 and he's wiring it me for free! WOOOOOOOOOOOO, i love BKP! Rock n roll baby! I cant wait to hear the result of the mid and bridge Irish tours in series to make that streched HB sound. Twill be ace, I will have to post some sound clips of them, my Apache set on my other strat and my black dog and BKP-90 on my custom build (the one i built). I need to get my other guitar sorted though, the saddles on the low E decide to drop real low. I need some darn ALAN KEYS!
Title: My Customised Strat Pickguard - Tim Plz Read
Post by: Bowks on July 15, 2005, 08:33:32 PM
Quote from: Joe@fortyseconds
Quote
I've got the 4 way switch mod on my Tele (fitted with Di*****o Virtual Vintages  ) and the flexibilty you get with the both in parallel/both in series is well worth it for the £15 the switch costs.


It sounds fun, especially in the way im using it with just the mid and bridge positions on my strat. It will be sexy. Shame you paid £15, Tim is charging me £9.50 and he's wiring it me for free! WOOOOOOOOOOOO, i love BKP! Rock n roll baby! I cant wait to hear the result of the mid and bridge Irish tours in series to make that streched HB sound. Twill be ace, I will have to post some sound clips of them, my Apache set on my other strat and my black dog and BKP-90 on my custom build (the one i built). I need to get my other guitar sorted though, the saddles on the low E decide to drop real low. I need some darn ALAN KEYS!


I'd have paid more than £15 for the mod, it sounds great.