Help! My Butchered and Well GiggedLuke :)

[brownpants69]

Hi folks.

As you may remember, I'm one of those guys that put passive pickups in his Luke- controversial, I know

Here is my dilema: I fitted a very nice Bare Knuckle Crawler humbucker, which is awsome, and a single coil in the middle and a seymour duncan lil 59 in the neck.

All well and good so far... apart from the fact the pole piece spacing is terrible on the bottom and top e strings with the 59. Also, I've grown to hate the lil 59, so I'm going back to one of my all time fave pickups, the Cool Rails. I've also got a Vintage rails pickup for the middle.

My dilema is two fold- what pickup combinations do I go for and do I bother installing the spare silent circuit I knocking about?

I could wire it up so I have all pickups un tapped- which would be easy, or do I go for fancy splitting and stuff, with the silent circuit- in which case I need help with putting a wiring diagram together! Help me Obiwan, your my only hope etc etc...

Thoughts, advice and opinions please! Thanks guys.

 

[Grand Wazoo]

Are you in UK or US? if you are in UK I could recommend you a super repairman that will sort it out for you.

 

[beej]

Depends what you're going for. If you're going for a high output thing SC, you've got it with those but you're probably not going to get a great SC tone, even when split. In which case, I probably wouldn't bother splitting them. (NB: you could wire them to be split in the quack positions, but the combination is inherently noise canceling so you don't need the SC.)

If you want more for of a typical strat vibe, I'd look at good SCs and the Silent Circuit, or good noiseless (Lawrence, Dimarzio Area, etc. ... maybe the Vintage Rails is good for that?).

As for wiring up the SC- that's easy to do. When you split p'ups, the easy way to do it is to wire a ground where the two coils meet (via a switch). So what you'll need to do is wire the blue or violet lead from the SC instead of the ground (depending on the phase). That way you get out-of-phase noise wired up which quiets your signal.

 

[brownpants69]

Grand Wazoo- I'm in the UK. I'm in need of a good tech- the guy I used to use retired with ill health. I've been sorting my own guitars for a couple of years now- scary! LOL

Beej- Good point. I've noticed split buckers are weedy. In fact I don't think I've ever been happy with splits (Apart from my Silo Spec), especially split SC sized humbuckers. Maybe I should keep this guitar simple.

What do you guys think about full humbucker and middle pickup together?

I used to hate this position when I had the EMGs, but maybe it will yield better results with pasive pickups?

Thanks for the info!!!!

 

[beej]

Split buckers on their own usually aren't great, there are some notable exceptions. However split buckers in parallel with another single often sound pretty decent. So I'd probably opt for that for the quack positions, if that's the sound you want. And again, in those positions you won't need to worry about wiring up the Silent Circuit.

 

[brownpants69]

I was thinking maybe the vintage rails (un-split) with bridge bucker split. Wouldn't be hum cancelling. I don't think the vintage rails splits very well- I think for a long time it didn't even come with four conductor wiring!

Would you live with full bucker and vintage rails, or would you go through the nightmare of wiring in the silent circuit?

Decisions, decisions.

 

[beej]

Ah, I see (just had a look at the SD site). I dunno man, it really depends how you like the sound of it, and whether or not the noise would bother you. (For me, wiring is the easy part ... choosing is the hard part.) It's all a trade-off.

Another thought: you planning to use the Vintage Rails on it's own? If not, you could try a traditional SC in the middle and pair it up with a split coil from the bridge or neck in positions 2 & 4. You could then make switch position 3 neck & bridge (or split N & B) , rather than middle p'up only.

Alternately, you could find a better noiseless single for the middle, one that splits that you could mate up with your split bridge p'up.

 

[brownpants69]

Thanks Beej- I really appreciate the input on this. You seem to be the forum's authority on wiring!

My current setup is with a regular single. Pickup selector is as follows

1. Bridge Humbucker, full Great tone!
2. Bridge split (slug coil) with middle single. Big drop in level.
3. Both humbcukers, full. Loud! Don't have a use for this tone.
4. Lil 59 split. Spanky, but weak. Too weak.
5. Lil 59 full OK- but I prefer the Cool Rails.

As you can see, I'm only really happy with two of the sound combinations at the moment.

My Silo Spec is what I use for lower output, stratty tones. I guess for my Luke I'm looking for more power, but still being quite versatile.

I think I want middle by itself so that I can get that spiky bright tone for when I do 80's gigs. Neck and middle and neck alone will be fine with the Vintage and Cool rails pickups I think.

So I guess it's a case of what do I do with position 2 (or is that position 4 ) If I split the bridge and combine with the vintage rails I'll have to go for the silent circuit.

You say wiring is the easy part? How's about putting a wiring diagram together and I'll repay you with guitar strings or an I-tunes voucher or something?

 

[beej]

Ok, sounds like you've thought it all out.

Yep, I can do that. I'm a bit swamped, but I'll try and get something together for you in short order. No repayment required, just good karma to help out from time to time.

 

[Jason2112]

Ah, I see (just had a look at the SD site). I dunno man, it really depends how you like the sound of it, and whether or not the noise would bother you. (For me, wiring is the easy part ... choosing is the hard part.) It's all a trade-off.

Another thought: you planning to use the Vintage Rails on it's own? If not, you could try a traditional SC in the middle and pair it up with a split coil from the bridge or neck in positions 2 & 4. You could then make switch position 3 neck & bridge (or split N & B) , rather than middle p'up only.

Alternately, you could find a better noiseless single for the middle, one that splits that you could mate up with your split bridge p'up.

I feel sorry for the tech that has to sort all that out

If it were me I'd just go with the Vintage rails in the neck and mid full-on and not worry about tapping them for the 2&4 positions. You'll get a pretty nice Strat-ish tone, but you definitely won't get an authentic single coil tone. If the Vintage Rails are anything like the Duckbuckers, which I've used, you don't want to hear the split single coil tone anyway (it's pretty bad). However I would recommend splitting the bridge hb when used with the mid pickup (again, not split), that should keep the hb from overpowering the mid pickup.

 

[Grand Wazoo]

Grand Wazoo- I'm in the UK. I'm in need of a good tech- the guy I used to use retired with ill health. I've been sorting my own guitars for a couple of years now- scary! LOL
Thanks for the info!!!!

Ok mate if you are anywhere near London then please go to:
http://guitar-xperience.com/onlinestore/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26&Itemid=42

and check out is CV at the bottom of the page. top guy and one of the best in the south here.

 

[beej]

I feel sorry for the tech that has to sort all that out

If your tech can't do what you want ... I'd look for a better one ...

But seriously, none of this is overly difficult, some of the EBMMs have more complicated wiring from the factory. HSH with the buckers splitting in parallel with the middle is pretty standard (Silhouette). The SSH Special has N&M in position 3, so it's close as well.

 

[brownpants69]

Charlie Chandlers! I've ordered loads of stuff from them. Great customer service, but no Balls If only I lived a bit closer to London. I'd love to try that Plek profile they do.

OK then, I've decided! I think. If I go for the split bridge with full vintage rails (as Jason2112 suggests) I'll need to get the silent circuit wired in. So I'll have

Bridge Humbucker
Bridge split + Vintage Rails + Silent circuit
Middle Vintage Rails
Vintage Rails + Cool Rails
Cool Rails

Beej- can you knock me together a wiring diagram for that? I'll owe you big time for that!

Thanks again folks. Appreciate the ideas everybody.

 

[spkirby]

Got any pics? I'm interested to see what passives look like in the Luke....

 

[brownpants69]

Hi spkirby.

If you look under my previous posts you should find the thread on my first attempt at this. It kinda looks cool.

There was a guy on youtube who stuck passives in his Luke- should be easy to find. And I also think there is a pic of Luke with a strange incarnation of his Musicman, with regular pickups, possibly on the back of the starlicks DVD- I've just realised, I've lent that to someone! But Who? ArrrrghhH!!!!!

 

[brownpants69]

Hi- sorry for bumping this back up a page... BUMP! see there! I did it!

Anyway...

Any help on putting a wiring would be appreciated on this one. Beej- I'm counting on you! No pressure Or if anyone else wants to put in their 2 cents about pickup combinations before I get the soldering Iron...

Back to my last post in this thread- has anyone got the starlicks DVD close to hand? Does Lukather have a Luke with passive pickups on there somewhere? Or did I imagine it?

 

[beej]

No worries, I will get something to you

 

[brownpants69]

Beej- you are a star!

 

[wolf5150]

Where in the UK are you ?

 

[brownpants69]

Hi Wolf

Didn't I get my silent circuit from you!? No I still haven't got round to installing it...

I'm near Walsall, West Midlands. Why? Do you want to wire my guitar for me? That's so kind of you hahaha. Why do ask?