some fun mods (Freeway 6 way Switch) and another Tele with a BG1400 pickup

[rockabilly69]

A few days ago I replaced the single coil Nocaster Cavalier Holy Grail pickup in the partscaster Esquire that I built with a Seymour Duncan Billy Gibbons BG-1400. I love having a great sounding single coil sized humbucker in it, especially because it's humbucker quiet! The Nocaster Holy Grail was great sounding too, but I hated dealing with the single coil noise when recording by my computer monitor.

And just last night I replaced the 5-way switch in my PRS Custom 22. I never liked that switch, as I never knew what position I was in. And grasping the 5-way switch with sweating hands while under the stage lights was a pain!

Fortunately there's a company "Free-Way" that makes a great 6-way toggle switch that is fairly straight forward to install. I used model Number 3X3-08

Here's the guitar with the Free-Way switch installed...

The switch has 2 banks of pickup selections.

There's a left and right side of three postions each...

Left Side

position 1:  neck pickup (coils in parallel)
position 2:  neck and bridge in phase (coils in parallel)
position 3:  bridge pickup (coils in parallel)

Right Side

position 1:  neck and bridge  (in series)
position 2:  neck and middle (in series)   Out Of Phase
position 3:  neck and middle (in parallel) Out Of Phase

So here's a demo of the Esquire as the rhythm guitar, and my PRS with me switching through the switch positions starting with position 1. I'm also playing bass, snapping my fingers, and I mic'd the floor so you can hear me tapping to the beat:)

 

[TalismanRich]

That's  funny, micing the floor to hear your tapping.    

I once read an interview with Paul McCartney, and he said there's one thing EVERYONE does wrong when they play Blackbird.   He said that nobody ever taps their foot, and that was something he did on purpose!

Nice pickin',  Daniel.

 

[rockabilly69]

9 hours ago, TalismanRich said:

That's  funny, micing the floor to hear your tapping.    

I once read an interview with Paul McCartney, and he said there's one thing EVERYONE does wrong when they play Blackbird.   He said that nobody ever taps their foot, and that was something he did on purpose!

Nice pickin',  Daniel.

 

Thanks Rich, I had a big condensor mic on in the room and when I was tapping my foot I noticed it picked up a pretty good thump from the carpeted floor  And... I always tap my foot when I play Blackbird!!!

BTW I posted the wrong pickup combinations, this is the right combos...

Left Side

position 1: neck
position 2: neck and bridge In Parallel / In Phase
position 3: bridge

Right Side

position 1: neck and bridge In Series / In Phase
position 2: neck and bridge In Series / Out Of Phase
position 3: neck and bridge In Parallel / Out Of Phase

 

 

[bolero]

I never liked those rotary switches either. That's a good option!

[rockabilly69]

1 hour ago, bolero said:

I never liked those rotary switches either. That's a good option!

Frankly, it kept me from playing that guitar!

[bolero]

yeah, I sold mine

[rockabilly69]

2 hours ago, bolero said:

yeah, I sold mine

I almost sold mine, but it was too good sounding after I put the Wolfetone pickups in it (Dr Vintage neck, Marshallhead bridge), and when I changed out the switch, I put new CTS 500K pots in , Sozo .022 cap, all new cloth pushback wire, and a switchcraft jack, so it's good to go!

 

[bolero]

haha, yes, Wolfetone pups are the bomb!!

[bolero]

btw that cliop sounded really good!

[rockabilly69]

7 hours ago, bolero said:

btw that cliop sounded really good!

Thanks I got a new preamp in the house, a Sebatron VMP2000VU, I use the 4 channel version of this in my studio, although my studio one doesn't have the VU meters. I don't think there's better multi-use tube preamp for home and project studio use. I love it on everything. All the drums you heard from my studio were through the Sebatron. And it sounds great on bass and guitars too.

I recorded a cleaner and slightly longer version of this song with my Jaguar through the same mics and pre...

 

[rockabilly69]

this the Sebatron...

Edited 3 hours ago by rockabilly69