Dave Johnson
Well-Known Member
I can't help myself. These later Epiphones are such a great platform for mods that I just can't control the urge to go forth & mod.
Both were perfectly good guitars before I started this nonsense. Epi G400 Pro's with Alnico Classic Pro pickups & push pull pots for coil splitting.
Most people would be happy with either one of these fine guitars. Not me... I wanted more.
Both got the Bigsby B7 treatment with modded Bigsby's. Both have drilled out string bars for string thru restringing (no string pins) and 360 degree rotating handle... along with locking roller bridges & bone nuts.
The blue one got pimped with a pearl pickguard & poker chip.
That wasn't enough. Modded the white one with the Jimmy Page 21 tone wiring scheme, with the 4 push pulls.
That was a decent setup. Coil splitting, series / parallel switching, in / out of phase switching...
More than enough to keep the average bear satisfied.
Then I chopped up the blue one. Yep, routed it for a 3rd humbucker. Stuck a GFS Fat Pat in the middle.
It was a fun journey. Several pickup schemes later I settled on the Frampton wiring.
The bridge & neck pickup are wired to one volume & tone pot, with the 3 way switch working as normal.
The middle pickup is on its own volume & tone pot, working independently from the neck / bridge pair.
This combination yields 7 pickup combinations. Bridge, neck, bridge & neck, middle, middle & neck, middle & bridge, bridge middle & neck.
That was satisfying till I wanted more...
Then I added 3 push pulls for series / parallel switching, coil splitting and out of phase (OOP) switching.
I think I'm happy with it now... It's the same switching as the Jimmy Page setup with the benefit of the added middle pickup.
The white one was feeling neglected by now. So it got treated to a big gaping hole in the middle of it too...
And a bucker sized P90 to fill the void.
Nothing fancy here, the same Frampton wiring as in the other one without the push pull's. One pair of volume & tone pots & the 3 way toggle wired to the neck & bridge humbuckers. The middle P90 is wired to its own set of volume & tone pots for all 7 pickup combinations. But there just happens to be 4 push pulls on the way so who knows what I'll do to it next week.
Sure makes a great looking and great sounding pair of SG's.
Both were perfectly good guitars before I started this nonsense. Epi G400 Pro's with Alnico Classic Pro pickups & push pull pots for coil splitting.
Most people would be happy with either one of these fine guitars. Not me... I wanted more.
Both got the Bigsby B7 treatment with modded Bigsby's. Both have drilled out string bars for string thru restringing (no string pins) and 360 degree rotating handle... along with locking roller bridges & bone nuts.
The blue one got pimped with a pearl pickguard & poker chip.
That wasn't enough. Modded the white one with the Jimmy Page 21 tone wiring scheme, with the 4 push pulls.
That was a decent setup. Coil splitting, series / parallel switching, in / out of phase switching...
More than enough to keep the average bear satisfied.
Then I chopped up the blue one. Yep, routed it for a 3rd humbucker. Stuck a GFS Fat Pat in the middle.
It was a fun journey. Several pickup schemes later I settled on the Frampton wiring.
The bridge & neck pickup are wired to one volume & tone pot, with the 3 way switch working as normal.
The middle pickup is on its own volume & tone pot, working independently from the neck / bridge pair.
This combination yields 7 pickup combinations. Bridge, neck, bridge & neck, middle, middle & neck, middle & bridge, bridge middle & neck.
That was satisfying till I wanted more...
Then I added 3 push pulls for series / parallel switching, coil splitting and out of phase (OOP) switching.
I think I'm happy with it now... It's the same switching as the Jimmy Page setup with the benefit of the added middle pickup.
The white one was feeling neglected by now. So it got treated to a big gaping hole in the middle of it too...
And a bucker sized P90 to fill the void.
Nothing fancy here, the same Frampton wiring as in the other one without the push pull's. One pair of volume & tone pots & the 3 way toggle wired to the neck & bridge humbuckers. The middle P90 is wired to its own set of volume & tone pots for all 7 pickup combinations. But there just happens to be 4 push pulls on the way so who knows what I'll do to it next week.
Sure makes a great looking and great sounding pair of SG's.
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