Your sound - your pickups
You'd be amazed at how much the sound of your guitar is influenced by your pickups.
I take great pride in my rewiring. Wherever I feel that there is a need, I will use heat-shrink tubing to protect soldered joints from shorting. I use cable ties to ensure that pickup wires are routed correctly and my wiring remains neat and tidy. This not only looks great but it reduces the chance of future problems ocurring.
On a Vintage guitar I will use cloth-covered wire sympathetic to that instrument.
I recommend Bare Knuckle pickups
Over the last few years I have fitted quite a few Bare Knuckle pickups and have never failed to be impressed by their sound. Bare Knuckle now produce a huge range with somthing to suit every taste.
I can source and fit almost any after-market pickups you wish.
The basic sound of the guitar is dependent on the woods and construction techniques used. A Gibson Les Paul gets its tone and sustain from using solid mahogany and a set neck. A Fender Telecaster on the other hand, is generally made from ash (or alder) with a maple neck. You cannot make a Les Paul sound like a telecaster by fitting Telecaster pickups and vice-versa.
However, within any guitar's basic tonal palette you can get a wide
variation in sounds by changing the pickups. A Fender Stratocaster can be a
very different guitar depending on whether "vintage" or "hot" pickups are
fitted. A common upgrade for a Stratocaster is to fit a humbucker to the
bridge position for more output when soloing. This is often coupled with a
coil tap so that it can be reverted to single-coil sound when desired.
Please note that the cost of this service will vary depending on the type of guitar being worked on. It is far easier to change the pickups on a Fender Telecaster than a Gibson ES-335!
Guitar Shielding
Kill that hum!
I can effectively shield most guitars from unwanted hum. I use only high-quality copper foil which is soldered to form an almost complete barrier to interference.
Pickup Potting
If you are happy with the sound of your pickups, but find that they squeal in high-gain situations, why not have me pot them in wax for you? I have had superb results potting older Epiphone pickups. It's certainly cheaper than replacing them!
Custom Switching
I can perform the following:
- unusual pickup combinations (e.g. bridge and neck on a Strat)
- custom switching for out-of-phase sounds
- PRS-type 5-way switching using a rotary switch
Case Study 1 - Coil-tap and out-of-phase
The owner of this Telecaster style guitar wanted a range of sounds from one guitar. I fitted a Kent Armstrong HRC-1 high output humbucker to the neck position and a Kent Armstrong TEHR-1 twin rails Telecaster pickup to the bridge. Both the volume and tone controls were fitted with push-pull switches, to coil tap the humbuckers and put them out of phase.
The result is a guitar capable of an outstanding range of sounds, from standard Telecaster to thick Les Paul with a touch of Strat and Jazz Master thrown in.
Case Study 2 - Varitone circuit
I am a big fan of the Gibson Varitone circuit as it gives a huge range of very usable sounds. One of the volume controls in this Les Paul Special was replaced by a Varitone circuit. The remaining volume control was wired as master volume.
You can see the high quality of my wiring in the picture above, using highest quality components, in this case CTS pots and Sprague capacitors. The cavity is shielded using carbon-based paint and the control cover has a lining of copper foil.
Case Study 3 - Neck and bridge switch
This 3-pickup Telecaster is fitted with a five-way switch which gives all the pickup combinations found on a Stratocaster, but is missing the neck and bridge combination of a standard Tele.
The solution? To fit a push-pull pot on the tone control which brings in the neck pickup in all positions, giving neck & bridge and even all three pickups at once combinations.
Case Study 4 - Straight pickup swap
This Gibson Les Paul Studio is being fitted with a pair of Gibson's recently introduced BurstBucker pickups which recreate the original PAFs of the late 1950s. I fitted a type #2 in the neck position and a #3 (which is overwound and therefore hotter) at the bridge. I have to say that I was very impressed by these pickups and recommend them highly.
