robert stucky
03-28-2009, 02:48 PM
Thank you for taking time to read this. I am rebuilding my favorite guitar that has been sitting idle for quite some time. I recently had a baby boy and have taken a break from my playing. The guitar is a GMP Pawnshop Special with an Ash body. Spent about 1,200 bucks. It's a smaller single cut guitar, but it has a baseball bat of a neck and a maple fretboard. The original finish on it was a Cheap looking gloss black. This wasn't my favorite guitar when I bought it. The pickups sounded AWFUL, and being a bigger man (6-4, 260) the smaller, lighter body kinda seemed childish. I did really like the way the neck played, and what I really liked was the fact that it had a tone-pros bridge, but the ball ends sat in individual ferrules in a string thru set up. Overall, it was a decent guitar, but I was rather bored with it.
HOWEVER..
I had replaced the pickups sever times, and ended up using the duncan JB-'59 setup, which was alright, but I still didn't really develop a connection with the guitar like I had with some of my others. So one day, after a weekend of sitting around running licks, I got rather annoyed with it and decided that I needed a change. I had been drinking whiskey pretty steadily that day, and decided the only solution was to burn the guitar. Not burn it completley, but the finish. Soooooooooo, in my brilliant drunken stupor, I took off all the hardware, grabbed a blow torch and burnt the top of the guitar. It ended up looking pretty damn good! I took a cloth and rubbed the charred parts down to clean it up some, and grabbed a bottle of Tung Oil I had and rubbed it in. Damn! This was exactly what it needed. There is no binding on the guitar, so there is a slightly rough edge where it transitions back to black paint on the sides. Now it had personality.
The duncans were okay, but I decided to try a pair of PRS Dragons. The Bridge p/up sounded good, but the neck sounded awful. I heard it was Santana's favorite pick up, go figure. I put the '59 back in the neck it balanced decently with the Dragon. The sound was pretty raw and beefy, and I liked it. Then after a while, I decided to fillde with the electronics, and who knew, but if you get a cheap soldering iron too close to your pick ups, it will demagnitize them! Found that out the hard way.
So I scrapped everything and started over.
I am trying to fing just the right pickups for this guitar. After months of searching and research, I am pretty well set on th Rio Grande Texas BBQ setup. I play mostly Hard Blues/Rock, and want something with girth, but not muddy and over distorted. Something that will fit the attitude of my guitar.
I really want to split the neck p/up coil for a little more options, especially when doing some more bluesy stuff. I haven't heard what the Texas pickup sounds like when split. I am very curious to hear any feed back. I have also considered the Halfbreeds, although I havent heard them in person.
This is a 22 fret guitar, which some say dosen't sount good with a split neck p/up because of it's positioning. The only guitar I have had with a split neck was a 24 fret Ibanez Prestige.
I was also curious about electronics. I am planning on using 500k pots and .022 Hovland caps. I haven't wired any Rio Grande's in the past, and am curious as to what these pickups prefer to be run with. I probably wont use the bridge tone control too much, it's really just there to fill a hole in the guitar.
Any input as to how either neck pickup will perform and about my electronics is greatly appreciated! Thank you.
-robert
HOWEVER..
I had replaced the pickups sever times, and ended up using the duncan JB-'59 setup, which was alright, but I still didn't really develop a connection with the guitar like I had with some of my others. So one day, after a weekend of sitting around running licks, I got rather annoyed with it and decided that I needed a change. I had been drinking whiskey pretty steadily that day, and decided the only solution was to burn the guitar. Not burn it completley, but the finish. Soooooooooo, in my brilliant drunken stupor, I took off all the hardware, grabbed a blow torch and burnt the top of the guitar. It ended up looking pretty damn good! I took a cloth and rubbed the charred parts down to clean it up some, and grabbed a bottle of Tung Oil I had and rubbed it in. Damn! This was exactly what it needed. There is no binding on the guitar, so there is a slightly rough edge where it transitions back to black paint on the sides. Now it had personality.
The duncans were okay, but I decided to try a pair of PRS Dragons. The Bridge p/up sounded good, but the neck sounded awful. I heard it was Santana's favorite pick up, go figure. I put the '59 back in the neck it balanced decently with the Dragon. The sound was pretty raw and beefy, and I liked it. Then after a while, I decided to fillde with the electronics, and who knew, but if you get a cheap soldering iron too close to your pick ups, it will demagnitize them! Found that out the hard way.
So I scrapped everything and started over.
I am trying to fing just the right pickups for this guitar. After months of searching and research, I am pretty well set on th Rio Grande Texas BBQ setup. I play mostly Hard Blues/Rock, and want something with girth, but not muddy and over distorted. Something that will fit the attitude of my guitar.
I really want to split the neck p/up coil for a little more options, especially when doing some more bluesy stuff. I haven't heard what the Texas pickup sounds like when split. I am very curious to hear any feed back. I have also considered the Halfbreeds, although I havent heard them in person.
This is a 22 fret guitar, which some say dosen't sount good with a split neck p/up because of it's positioning. The only guitar I have had with a split neck was a 24 fret Ibanez Prestige.
I was also curious about electronics. I am planning on using 500k pots and .022 Hovland caps. I haven't wired any Rio Grande's in the past, and am curious as to what these pickups prefer to be run with. I probably wont use the bridge tone control too much, it's really just there to fill a hole in the guitar.
Any input as to how either neck pickup will perform and about my electronics is greatly appreciated! Thank you.
-robert