SD Triple Shot pickup rings

[Dave Sloven]

I've just bought a set of Seymour Duncan Triple Shot pickup mounting rings for my Epiphone Explorer.  I've been planning to take the Warpigs out and enlarge the cavity for a week or two now, as it became clear to me in adjusting pickup heights that the base plates are rubbing on the pickup cavity and thus I need to take to the cavities with my sanding drum once again before adding some more shielding paint (including to the underside of the scratch plate.

So I thought this would be a good opportunity to fit these pickup rings, as the other issue I have experienced with the Warpigs is that the pickups are too hot to get a good clean sound with my Peavey amp. Having the ability to not only coil split the humbuckers but also choose which coil I want to switch off, and also the parallel/series option, will give me a few more sounds to choose from.  I'm not going to worry about installing a new harness at this point, as I might install a push-push phase switch and a push-push to switch the H-H combination between series/parallel relative to one another as the volume pots later.  That will probably entail enlarging the holes in the body for US size pot shafts and I will check the shielding in the control cavity then.

I'm wondering if others have used these SD rings and what their experience of installation and use has been like? To me they seem like the best option, but I will admit to being a little concerned that the wiring might bunch up under the pickups and jam the already tight cavity.

I am not using a router to enlarge the pickup rout, just a Foredom SR flex-shaft machine like you would use for woodcarving with a 3M sanding drum mounted on a 1/8" chuck.  There is no worries regarding the power of this unit relative to the job but I will have to keep a steady hand and not squeeze the footpedal too hard!

I found this useful video on installation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?src_vid=yWu1Pkjyw_E&v=ay2BE_II8CY

I will probably install them with the switches at the bottom as I think that will suit my playing style better.

Fedor Chernyshov's pickups with Seymour Duncan Triple Shot system video test

That last video is also a good demo although it's not captioned to tell you what he's switching to/from

[Mr. Air]

I got a set of triple shots on my LP clone with Emeralds in and they work really well so I'm very satisfied. They're super easy to install as well. The switches are tiny so it's quite hard to change settings fast. You'll defenitely need some practice to do it fluidly in the middle of a song. I know Jonathan/Feline has used them on some of his guitars so perhaps he'll chip in as well.

[FELINEGUITARS]

Yes I rather like the triple shot rings
Here is a guitar that I fitted them to this week (reworking an old favourite neck into a new axe)
the pickups are Abraxas models
Sorry the tape hides the rings - will get better pix once everything is screwed in place

[Dave Sloven]

Cheers for the responses.

A quick question: do you have the switches on the low E or high E side? For the curved set apparently you don't have a choice, but with the flat set they can go in either way.  It might change how you solder them however, as there is a standard and reverse way to wire them up.

I tend to think that having them below the high E might suit me better as I'm most likely to change from the standard setting to something else if playing a lead, when my hand is diving down that way for the pickup selector anyway.  Also with all the palm mutes etc for heavy rhythm playing (remember this is an down-tuned Explorer with Warpigs, so I'm unlikely to be strumming a lot of open chords on it!  Some arpeggiated chords obviously, for 'Snowblind' etc) I could end up gumming up the switches with skin and gunk if too close to the low strings.

Here's a photo of an Explorer with the rings mounted that way: link

EDIT: Turn out the guy (ebay seller) is out of stock with these now.  Lucky I waited to hear before paying. I told him that I will wait to hear that he has my pickup rings in stock before paying, and that I will let him know if the process is taking too long and I need to cancel

[hunter]

I have them in my Edwards. Very easy to install. They work great and I love the additional sounds. Price is way too high though for what it is material wise.

[Dave Sloven]

OK, I just got an email that these are back in stock so I sent the money via Paypal.  Should have them soon. Hopefully I will get around to installing them sometime soon - I need to allow time for grinding away a bit more of that rout and painting the cavities though, and I also discovered that my selector switch has no 'neck only' position at the moment and a nasty noise in the switch.  It only has 'both' and 'bridge only' at the moment, and I have to make up my mind as to whether I am going to start to move toward chrome hardware or get a gold switch.  Personally I hate gold hardware, and any bridges etc I want to change will be more expensive in gold than chrome.  The gold Grover tuners though are perfectly serviceable, even if a bit tarnished. Hmm, I guess they will just end up in a drawer for years if I change them.  Otherwise I could go with the mix-and-match look ...