Looking for advice on a Warmoth build

[TheKhann]

Hi guys,

I have been putting together a Warmoth partocaster in the last month and the time has come to choose the pickups, so i come here to ask you kindly for advice, as i am having some doubts.

The guitar is a strat with a rear route, SSH config, one piece Mahogany body, Wenge/Wenge neck and 2 point Gotoh tremolo. I am trying to make the guitar be as versatile as possible, i do not generally like high output pickups. If i have to pin point a sound, it would have to be jazz/fusion/blues, but not the high gain shred type fusion, more so in the vein of Brett Garsed, Timmons and Guthrie ( his work with The Fellowship ).

The pickups that i have considered so far from other brands for the bridge position are the Dimarzio 36th PAF and the SD `59. For single coils the Dimarzio Cruiser. I am however leaning towards BKPs, but there aren't that many samples out there and the combination of woods for this particular guitar is not that common. What i am considering from the BKP line up are the Black Dog and Crawler SSH sets, and i am leaning a bit towards the Black Dog for now as the Crawler seems to be a bit too high output for me. Please share your opinions on the matter, any advice is highly appreciated.

Also, what would be the recommended potentiometer values for the BKP SSH sets, have in mind the guitar is routed for 1 vol and 1 tone knobs ?

[darkbluemurder]

The Crawler is not that high output. It has more output than a typical PAF and also more output than the Black Dog but it's nowhere near lets say a DiMarzio Super Distortion, Lawrence L-500 XL or Duncan JB. The Black Dog has about the typical PAF output, maybe a bit more. For the tones you mentioned I would prefer the Crawler over the Black Dog.

I have no experience with Wenge as a guitar wood. Warwick used to use Wenge fretboards for their basses. Not many luthiers like this particular wood because it is very hard and difficult to work with.

Cheers Stephan

[Telerocker]

Good recommendation. I certainly would look at the Abraxas too, has a bit more chime then the Crawler which a mahogany based guitar could need.

[darkbluemurder]

Also, what would be the recommended potentiometer values for the BKP SSH sets, have in mind the guitar is routed for 1 vol and 1 tone knobs ?

The convention is to use 250k pots for single coils and 500k pots for humbuckers. 250k on humbuckers may make them a bit dull (but not necessarily) whereas 500k on single coils may make them a bit too sharp. But that depends very much on the guitar, pickups and amp set up. If you really must have the "correct" (or more appropriately "conventional") load on each type of pickup, use a 500k pot and wire the pickup selector in a way that for all positions with a single coil engaged, a 470k resistor to ground is inserted. 500k in parallel with 470k provides for a total load of 242k - more than close enough.

So get one pot of each and a 470k resistor and experiment. Keep what you like best.

Cheers Stephan

[TheKhann]

Thanks for the advice. I have seen a Suhr schematic that uses that approach, 500k pots and resistors so the singles see 250k, will probably go that way. Thanks again.