Grateful Dead Music Forum

Been a long time coming. I’m finally putting the finishing touches on my first guitar. I’m very happy with the process so far.

Looks great. Congratulations on stringing up your first one!

augustwest1 wrote: ↑Sun Oct 06, 2019 3:52 pm Looks great. Congratulations on stringing up your first one!

Thanks man. Its definitely not perfect but I’m really happy with it for a first build. It’s got super distortions and a tcp-2 buffer now. I like the strat pickup in neck a lot though. Im thinking I may have to build another one with alnico 5 strat pups.
This one sounds very early 80’s tigerish.

I’m really interested in direct mounting the pickups to the body. I’m not sure I like pickguard mounting.

Pointclear wrote:I’m really interested in direct mounting the pickups to the body. I’m not sure I like pickguard mounting.

There are some systems out there that will work with standard pickups but I don't love them. The Alembic way of doing it works great but would require that you modify the pickup screw holes and make some custom screws. It's nice in that it doesn't use springs and it pretty solid.

None of them are "just exactly perfect," including the iconic ones we are all so enamored with!

ac4468 wrote: ↑Sun Oct 06, 2019 5:39 pm

Pointclear wrote:I’m really interested in direct mounting the pickups to the body. I’m not sure I like pickguard mounting.

There are some systems out there that will work with standard pickups but I don't love them. The Alembic way of doing it works great but would require that you modify the pickup screw holes and make some custom screws. It's nice in that it doesn't use springs and it pretty solid.

Exactly. I don’t want to mess up the original screw holes.... I’ve looked at the Warwick threaded inserts as well, but I’m not sure if they’d be compatible with the 3-48 screws that dimarzio uses.
I’ve gotten so accustomed to the direct mount pickups in my rickenbacker 650d, and I really enjoy the directness, fidelity , solidity, and sustain it has.
I’m wonder if putting foam pads under the pickguard mounted pickups may be a good compromise. Has anyone tried this? Thoughts?

Wow, great job!!

Great job, Pointclear. Will you be playing that thing in the area?

aiq wrote: ↑Mon Oct 07, 2019 8:35 am Great job, Pointclear. Will you be playing that thing in the area?

Yes! I’ll be playing with east l.a. fade-away!

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipM ... GZ7ZFl4VP9

Here is a little clip from the other night: walnut, cherry, and maple wolf with dual sounds, tcp-2 buffer, sms classic, mc2125 bridges to mono, and 2x12 Jbl k and e

Link suboptimal.

aiq wrote: ↑Mon Nov 25, 2019 8:40 amLink suboptimal.

Does it not work?

Not working for me. Would love to see!

https://youtu.be/QGSmRI3kZUs

See if this works.