Hot rodding old Sports

[dochep]

God bless the Ball family for this forum! It's been a long time coming.

I was wondering how much hot rodding is going on out there. I have a '97 Axis Sport that I've tinkered around with. Here are the mods:

1. Stripped and refinished in Lake Placid Blue nitro.
2. Two singles replaced with Duncan Alnico 2 Pros (ala Albert Lee model).
2. Humbucker replaced with DiMarzio Air Classic.
4. Graph Tech saddles.
5. Cut new bone nut.
6. Blocked the tremelo with a mahogany block.
7. UFO knobs with pot stems cut to place knobs low on the body.
8. Schaller Strap-Locks.

I love the way it sounds and plays. But it was "the" guitar I've spent 30 years looking for the first time I played it. Now it's even more special.

The only thing I'd still change is to put an all maple neck on (instead of the rosewood board), but the company says I can't buy a maple replacement since the guitar was originally produced and sold with the rosewood. Anyone wanna swap?

 

[dochep]

Pic of '97 Sport

Here she is

 

[Jimi D]

Cool Axis!

That's a great looking guitar! Cool to see one that's been hot-rodded... All my Axises have the body mounted pickups so just swapping them out to try something else would be a royal pain! I wouldn't mind finding one of the older "pick guard" era Sports just to facilitate a little experimentation with the electronics - I've been half-heartedly looking for one with singles so I can throw some EMGs in there since EB shot down my "can I get you to mount an Axis neck on a Luke?" idea... What made you decide to go with a Nitro finish? Do you like the look, or is there some tonal difference?

 

[dochep]

Nitro and body mounted pickups

Hey Jimi

Thanks for the comments!

I can hear a difference with the nitro--more open--but it could just be my imagination. Mostly, I wanted to create a Sport that might have been made in '62.

As for the pickups, they are body mounted under that pickguard. After I refinished it, I kept it without a pickguard for a week or so. Ended up thinking it looked too modern for what I was going for.

In a way, it's less hassle to change them out than if they were mounted on the pickguard with those little springs!

 

[Jimi D]

A 1962 Sport! That's a cool idea They're classic guitars - they deserve a little history, even if we have to make it up!

My issue with the body mount pups isn't so much that they're screwed into the wood, but that the pickup "ears" are a proprietary "triangle" shape, so you can't just mount any humbucker in there without either routing the guitar (uh, no!) or modifying the pickup (better, but still a pain)... Fortunately, I like the sound of the Dimarzios

 

[NorM]

On A Black '98 silhouette hardtail with a popular body and a rosewood neck, I put in EMG's. From bridge to neck 85, SA, 89. The 89 is the split coil set up as a single with the volume knob push pull pot to set it to humbucker. In the high end with the 89 opened up this guitar sings!! Then I put on an axis lowers pitch only Floyd Rose complete with a D-tuna. With this I installed a black locking nut and black schaller strap locks. The black hardware made for a nice touch. Finally I added a bridge pickup activation switch just like on the Steve Morse models. The abalitiy to run both humbuckers at the same time just made since to me. Since I have a Steve Morse model too, this lets me be consistant between guitars.

Then on ebay I found an ash and (awsome birdseye) maple '95 translucent teal silhouette floating Floyd Rose with an 89 and an 85 already installed. The guitar was wired so that the battery was always on. I had to rewire the entire guitar and put in the SA I also replaced the black pickguard with a white pearloid and added the bridge activation switch. And of course, schaller strap locks. (I droped a guitar ONCE)

 

[Jimi D]

Okay Norm, I've got one word for you....

PICS!!


puh-leeze

 

[NorM]

Here is a picture of the Teal Silhouette described above. The Black one is at a friends house. I'll try to get a shot of all 6 of my MM EB's.