Electric Slide Guitar with P90s

[DavidRees]

Several months ago a number of contributors were generous with their advice regarding a little customisation project I had in mind to convert a 1980s Yamaha SG500 into a full time slide guitar. Courtesy of Tim at Bare Knuckles and Charlie at CCGX it is now a reality
 
The pickups are Bare Knuckle Manhattans [a cleaner and less powerful Mississippi Queen P90] and it is strung with Michael Messer Newtone Electric slide 15 -56  .  The Bare Knuckles were a great idea I think, not only do they look great but they seem very open and transparent [quite steel like in a way] and I am pleased I went with Tim’s recommendation of two tone controls as they seem to darken the sound differently for each pickup offering up quite a range of flexibility. When I tried the guitar through a seriously dirty channel – pure evil in a very good guitar sort of way!

Thank you everyone for making this dream a reality. Perhaps now is the time to treat myself to a Diamond Bottlenecks Ultimate to match.

[AndyR]

Nice one :D

I'm thinking of Diamond's Ultimate as well. I've been using a Red House for several years now. My favourite slide is still an old piece of brass pipe that my drummer got cut for me in 1982.

[Plexi Ken]

Sounds like you're having a blast  8)
I'm currently using a Shubb Axys Slide but I'm not much of a slide guitarist 

[WezV]

manhattans sound perfect for this, its probably putting out just as much output as an MQ with that size of string anyway

[DavidRees]

Wez
very much so - part of Tim's advice was the balance of the pickups output with the heavy strings to keep things  tamed but ready to be unleashed when necessary - you may have seen in another post of mine that I'm looking to get a 1x15 cab made with an Eminence Legend in it - I reckon that will be the icing on the cake for some great 'steely' slide sounds
David

[Ratrod]

I'm actually thinking about swapping my Crawlers for MQ's in my SG400.

If anyone wants a trade, drop me a PM.

[38thBeatle]

Sounds like a great guitar to me. I love slide but I play in standard tuning with a Dunlop glass slide.

[DavidRees]

I reckon if you're playing with other musicians standard tuning is the way to go. Open tunings sound fabulous when doing solo stuff when you need lots of things going on but when you need to give others some space - two/three notes at a time adds some wonderful texture and if you rethink your pentatonic shapes out of their boxes it opens up the neck for slide wonderfully. Still having trouble loading up the pictures but I'll keep at it.

[DavidRees]

some pictures

[darcym]

what an intersting project, and a nice looking and solid sounding I'll wager finished item.

[Plexi Ken]

Those strings are huge  :o

[AndyR]

Great for slide though, Ken :D

[38thBeatle]

Great for slide though, Ken :D

And for slicing cheese.

Great looking guitar.

[ToneMonkey]

Bloody work server, I really wanted to see the pics  :(

I'd like to know what goes on in Tim's head, he's certainly "at one" with magnets and wire.  If you played music in one of his ears and put a mic in the other, I'm sure it would come out with better tone.

Can't say enough about diamond bottle necks.  I've met Ian a few times (over a few beers) and he's a top bloke.  I'm really glad that they're getting the recongition they deserve.  He's a mate of my reso building buddy.  If your a slide man, then check out http://www.deltaresonatorguitars.co.uk/listen.htm there's some clips of him playing them.

[Fourth Feline]

Between this 'project' and WezV's comments - it is very interesting for me to hear of the lesser known 'Manhattans' being used for a wider range of tonal requirements.

I would be very interested to hear how other Manhattan users  describe  their character and tone in these contexts.  Great pickups that deserve more 'exposure'.  :) 

They must sound lovely in that particular guitar, as the weight of the woods - and overall quality certainly deserve 'bringing out' with a remarkable / revealing pickup. Great score !  :)