So I was wondering if anyone tried or did in fact replace the stock Illuminators on their Majesty guitar.
I have wanted to do this for months now, but every time there seems to be one problem or other.
At this point I'm actually really annoyed with EBMM for making this (normally fairly easy to do) process almost impossible.
First off there is the switching system which looks quite overwhelming to be honest (even though I'm letting a seasoned luthier do the job....eventually). And EBMM customer service isn't forthcoming with info on how the pickups are wired to this switching system. I've asked twice (via email) and no reply.
Second, the routing of the guitar itself. However beautiful, it's more than a little restrictive in terms of replacing pickups. If possible at all. There is the height of the pups, which is quite low. Most brands I've measured (Suhr, Bare Knuckle, Seymour Duncan) are too high and since they're tto be mounted directly to the body...well. Then there's the legs, which are triangular as opposed to traditional square. SD doesn't even make those for example. I've found Lundgren Pickups in Sweden who was willing to tailor-make them for me, but they're quite expensive and more important; I've found only 2 Youtube demo's on this particular pup.
So I've more or less resigned to the fact that I'll have to stick with DiMarzio pickups. And after having owned 3 different pu-sets in the past and watching hundreds of vids on Youtube over the last 4 months or so, I can say that I don't like the sound of their pickups. Most of them I should say. There is something about them that sounds....dunno...off to me. Not enough depth, openness, growl. I'm fully aware that tone is subjective as hell but even still, I'm struggling to find a DiMarzio sound I really like. I do think the Crunchlab/Liquifire combo sound a lot better than those Illuminators (to my ears), but They also sound too progressive to my ears.
You could argue (like EBMM does, when I mailed them about these matters) whether I should have bought this guitar in the first place. BUT...I really really love this guitar. How it sounds (acousticly), how it plays and feels. I bought this guitar solely on specs, on how it's build and the woods (ok..and the Arctic Dream color;-) ). And it didn't disappoint.
But what I don't get is why they make it so hard to replace pickups, which is something most guitarists do in time to make the instrument their own, to create their own sound.
Now even the edges of the pu-sockets are rounder than usual, so I fear that even if I were to buy different DiMarzio pickups, they still wouldn't fit without me filing down the edges of the plate. So forget about putting in a pair of covered humbuckers.
So I guess that's were I'm at now. Thinking about buying a pair of Transitions (was debating the new Paf Masters, but they seem to come with square legs.....
) and let my guitar tech file down the edges (if necessary). At least I like that tone and the pu height should be ok. Plus...the Transition should works fine in conjuction with the onboard PreAmp, since the Luke 3 has the same one (more or less).
Hm...longer story than I intended. Anyhow, I'm really interrested if anybode else is thinking about replacing their pups or has already done that.
I have wanted to do this for months now, but every time there seems to be one problem or other.
At this point I'm actually really annoyed with EBMM for making this (normally fairly easy to do) process almost impossible.
First off there is the switching system which looks quite overwhelming to be honest (even though I'm letting a seasoned luthier do the job....eventually). And EBMM customer service isn't forthcoming with info on how the pickups are wired to this switching system. I've asked twice (via email) and no reply.
Second, the routing of the guitar itself. However beautiful, it's more than a little restrictive in terms of replacing pickups. If possible at all. There is the height of the pups, which is quite low. Most brands I've measured (Suhr, Bare Knuckle, Seymour Duncan) are too high and since they're tto be mounted directly to the body...well. Then there's the legs, which are triangular as opposed to traditional square. SD doesn't even make those for example. I've found Lundgren Pickups in Sweden who was willing to tailor-make them for me, but they're quite expensive and more important; I've found only 2 Youtube demo's on this particular pup.
So I've more or less resigned to the fact that I'll have to stick with DiMarzio pickups. And after having owned 3 different pu-sets in the past and watching hundreds of vids on Youtube over the last 4 months or so, I can say that I don't like the sound of their pickups. Most of them I should say. There is something about them that sounds....dunno...off to me. Not enough depth, openness, growl. I'm fully aware that tone is subjective as hell but even still, I'm struggling to find a DiMarzio sound I really like. I do think the Crunchlab/Liquifire combo sound a lot better than those Illuminators (to my ears), but They also sound too progressive to my ears.
You could argue (like EBMM does, when I mailed them about these matters) whether I should have bought this guitar in the first place. BUT...I really really love this guitar. How it sounds (acousticly), how it plays and feels. I bought this guitar solely on specs, on how it's build and the woods (ok..and the Arctic Dream color;-) ). And it didn't disappoint.
But what I don't get is why they make it so hard to replace pickups, which is something most guitarists do in time to make the instrument their own, to create their own sound.
Now even the edges of the pu-sockets are rounder than usual, so I fear that even if I were to buy different DiMarzio pickups, they still wouldn't fit without me filing down the edges of the plate. So forget about putting in a pair of covered humbuckers.
So I guess that's were I'm at now. Thinking about buying a pair of Transitions (was debating the new Paf Masters, but they seem to come with square legs.....
) and let my guitar tech file down the edges (if necessary). At least I like that tone and the pu height should be ok. Plus...the Transition should works fine in conjuction with the onboard PreAmp, since the Luke 3 has the same one (more or less).Hm...longer story than I intended. Anyhow, I'm really interrested if anybode else is thinking about replacing their pups or has already done that.
