Albert Lee HH & SSS Neck Swap

[kimonostereo]

So this happened while I had some free time last night:

Before:


After:








Wow! What a difference it made for both guitars!

The AL SSS has D. Allen Johnny Blades (Johnny Hiland Signature pickups) in it now. While I liked it with the maple neck, I LOVE it with the rosewood neck even more. The Al with the maple neck is very bright and clean sounding. With the rosewood neck, it mellows it out a bit. Much like a rosewood strat with an ash body, but better because it's 100% EBMM.

I've always wanted either a triple P90 Al in pearl white like Phatduckk's or a SSS in pearl white with a rosewood board. There isn't an option to get a rosewood SSS Albert Lee so this is the next best thing! I know Big Poppa will kill me for writing this, but this option would be killer for both of these guitars.

The AL HH really has changed tonally as well. With a maple neck it sounds closer to an Axis but without the locking trem. A real rocker! Mahogany and Maple does sound different.

I was planning to sell the AL HH, but now I'm not so sure. We shall see.

 

[Malmucci]

Wow that HH looks great! I would love to hear how it sounds! Youtube?

 

[skerwo]

In my opinion the neck makes a lot of the whole sound of a guitar. So your experience does confirm me. The white AL looks superb and seems to be a real SSS rocker.

Congrats to your nice ALs.


Rainer

 

[musikarero]

cool......glad it worked out for you!

 

[Spudmurphy]

They both look great!!!

 

[kimonostereo]

Added a before pic to the first post.

 

[mtrejo]

Those do look great and sounds like you got some, unexpected, positive tone results. We're there any shims to keep track of when you removed the necks? Also, how was resetting them up after the swap?

Nice job! Both are beauties.

 

[kimonostereo]

MTrejo: there were no shims at all! Also, the only other thing that I needed to do was a slight truss rod adjustment. The neck and body mated together without issue. I haven't checked intonation but it seems close. Both neck pockets were very tight. This is top quality craftsmanship. Simply amazing.

 

[mtrejo]

MTrejo: there were no shims at all! Also, the only other thing that I needed to do was a slight truss rod adjustment. The neck and body mated together without issue. I haven't checked intonation but it seems close. Both neck pockets were very tight. This is top quality craftsmanship. Simply amazing.

Very Cool!

 

[coldsummer]

I love the look of the white body with rosewood neck. How does it sound with those pick-ups in?

 

[klaveguitars]

I did the exact same thing with my ALs, HH and SSS, about two months ago. Before the swap I was a bit "meh" about them. After the swap, I can't stop playing either of them, and I have used both in every single project I have done since.

The SSS is now FAT and rich, and the HH is bold and present.

I see great minds think alike! hehe...

 

[kimonostereo]

I love the look of the white body with rosewood neck. How does it sound with those pick-ups in?

I've only spent an hour or so with the D. Allen Johnny Blades so far, but they are very nice sounding. They sound fuller and bigger than a standard single coil, but still retain the single coil chime. It's hard to explain it.
They are also dead quiet since they're actually humbucking. Positions 2 and 4 have a very nice strat quack. The bridge pickup is probably the most impressive. It can do just about any style of music and sounds like a full sized humbucker when overdriven but still can do single coil sounds if needed.

I added a push/pull for series/parallel in the bridge. This gives a really cool telecaster bridge pickup sound, or an extra quacky position 4 (or 2 depending how you count).

I'm still playing with the height of the pickups but overall I like them a lot as they are very versatile. David Allen is a great guy to do business with. Very personable and responsive. All my questions were answered before and after the sale. Awesome pickups and customer care.

 

[kimonostereo]

I did the exact same thing with my ALs, HH and SSS, about two months ago. Before the swap I was a bit "meh" about them. After the swap, I can't stop playing either of them, and I have used both in every single project I have done since.

The SSS is now FAT and rich, and the HH is bold and present.

I see great minds think alike! hehe...

To be honest, this is why I hardly played my Al HH. I always preferred the sound of my Axis. I thought it was because of the floyd rose more than the neck of the guitar though.

When Sweat sold me this guitar, I had it in my head to do the swap but had to wait a few weeks before I had time. Since I was redoing the pickups, I decided to do the neck as well. Nice surprise! Still debating if I should keep the Al HH or not though! Got lots of guitars that cover the humbucker sound now...

 

[Smellybum]

Stunning Job, I've been tempted to do this for the last 9 months or so but haven't had the stones.... fair play to you. Both look awesome. How is the HH tone with maple?

 

[kimonostereo]

Stunning Job, I've been tempted to do this for the last 9 months or so but haven't had the stones.... fair play to you. Both look awesome. How is the HH tone with maple?

You should do it just to experiment. I was very careful and removed the front six screws from the pickguard so I could gently lift it to put the neck into the neck pocket. The pickgaurd is cut slightly smaller near neck adjustment wheel and may crack if you force it into the neck pocket while it's screwed down.

HH Tone with maple: It's no longer a darker sounding guitar. To me, it's got spank and clarity compared to when the rosewood neck was on it. It's closer to sounding like the axis now but without the locking trem. It would be interesting to find out what the guitar sounds like with an EVH Frankenstein pickup in there or an uncovered pickup but not really interested in doing all that work to swap them.

 

[Sweat]

Scott thats awesome man that pearl white looks killer with the RW neck, great idea and job!!!

 

[kimonostereo]

Scott thats awesome man that pearl white looks killer with the RW neck, great idea and job!!!

Hey Keith!
It's going to be tough to swap them back because it sounds so good with this combo... but I'm still in love with that flame maple neck... *sigh*

 

[mtrejo]

Hey Keith!
It's going to be tough to swap them back because it sounds so good with this combo... but I'm still in love with that flame maple neck... *sigh*

Why??????? Sounds like they are more usable to you with the old switcharoo.

 

[kimonostereo]

Why??????? Sounds like they are more usable to you with the old switcharoo.

I plan on keeping them with the switched necks, but I do ♥ the flamed maple neck too. My predicament is that I have too many humbucker guitars and I probably don't need another one. I was planning on selling the Al HH when I got the Al SSS from Sweat. Still debating if I should sell the Al HH or one of the others in my collection...

 

[fsmith]

I put the D Allen JohnnyBlades in my AL... Completely changed that guitar, it got rid of the "dark" sound you mentioned with the rosewood neck.