www.shortscale.org

spirograph · Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 12:52 am Post subject:

love that mockup freddy!
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Josh · Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 4:43 am Post subject:

FUCK BUCKERS, FUCK YEAH FREDDY.

always kinda wanted an sg b/c of teh cream, but I don't really get along with humbuckers much. stoked to see how this turns out.

Freddy V-C · Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 8:15 am Post subject:

I'm meeting BobAC to get the Jag pickups off him on Friday, then I'm visiting my parents that evening so I'll be able to dig out these Strat pickups (they're somewhere in amongst all of my crap). And I ordered the pickup rings yesterday, so I should have all the parts very soon.

I was a little worried about how all this would come together since I'm still completely hopeless at soldering, and the dude I usually trust with these matters no longer works at the local guitar shop. Luckily I managed to contact him directly and he's more than happy to help out. Rad!
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markleton · . Joined: 01 Sep 2008 Posts: 315 Location: Ipswich, UK

jagsonic · . Joined: 28 Dec 2009 Posts: 792 Location: Germany

What about Filtertrons? Think they sound a bit more like singlecoils but will look better on a sg...

Freddy V-C · Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 3:17 pm Post subject:

Will they really look better though?
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George · . Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 20945 Location: UK

i have a retrotron in my strat. it looks hilariously mismatched but sounds okay. not quite on the same level as a real single coil and i keep meaning to put the original pickup back in. i'd go ahead as planned. it'll look great. you gonna go for blank covers or not? i'd recommend white with polepieces showing. will look great.

Freddy V-C · Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 3:28 pm Post subject:

I'm visiting the parents this weekend, and I think I've got some cheap shitty Strat pickups in a box somewhere at their house. I'm planning on nicking the covers off those. White with pole pieces showing, THE ONLY WAY TO GO.
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James · Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 4:36 pm Post subject:

Do it! It looks fantastic in the mock-up.

I'd go robroe covers but then I'd also go with robroe covers.
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benecol · Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 4:48 pm Post subject:

Just to clarify James: would you go with robroe covers?

James · Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 4:58 pm Post subject:

Never!

also -> always*
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Freddy V-C · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 1:06 pm Post subject:

I haven't posted any updates on this in a while, oops!

I met up with Jon/BobArseCake a couple of weeks ago. He gave me his VM Jag pickups for free because he's a top bloke! We had a rather nice pint together.

I've got all the other bits and pieces together (although I'm not 100% sure whether the pickup covers I've got will fit). We had a soldering workshop at uni last week, and I was hoping that if I did well I might be able to solder this together myself. As it turns out, though, I'm still absolute garbage. So I've just met up with my friend Phil who's gonna wire it all up for me, and also tweak the setup.

We're considering wiring the pickup selector so that it switches between series and parallel rather than neck and bridge, because I pretty much always have both pickups switched on.
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BobArsecake · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 10:48 pm Post subject:

After Mike gave them to me because he's a top top bloke and I thought Freddy would put them to better use! D:

Freddy V-C · Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2014 12:16 am Post subject:

AND IT'S FINISHED.

Unfortunately the Strat pickup covers wouldn't fit inside the pickup rings, but it looks rad either way so I'm still super happy.

This thing sounds amazing. Even though the pickups are the same as in my VM Jag, I'd say the closest guitar I've had sound-wise is the Baja Tele I sold a year or two ago.

I was a bit concerned that replacing the pickup selector with a series/parallel switch would leave me with a limited palette, but I'm getting a real variety of sounds. I'm mostly playing in parallel, but in series things thicken up nicely, and when I'm playing clean it's pretty cool to switch to series as a volume boost. I also don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that this guitar in parallel through my Harmonic Percolator into a slightly overdriven amp is my favourite guitar sound I've ever achieved.

Possibly more pics/opinions once I've spent a little more time with it.

A further mod I'm considering is taking out both tone knobs and one of the volume knobs seen as I only really need/use one volume. I'm just not sure what I'd do about the unsightly holes.

I'm also tempted to get a tort pickguard cut somewhere down the line, although that might be a little too ridiculous.

Maybe even green pearl... haha.
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torchindy · . Joined: 27 Mar 2014 Posts: 102

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dub · . Joined: 20 Aug 2008 Posts: 1598 Location: WGTN, Aotearoa

stewart · Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2014 12:19 pm Post subject:

i'd be tempted to go super ugly and put a big aluminium plate on it. would cover the holes and make it look like a framus or old japanese thing at the same time. (30 second photoshop, sorry)

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Dave · Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2014 12:27 pm Post subject:

Holy shitting balls, this is a great project. Somehow I just know single coils in an SG would sound amazing.
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