MM Steve Morse pickup concepts

[nunofrg]

hey guys!

having a blast with my standard morse guitar for a while now (3 months and something) but i had problems figuring out the tones of the guitar.

the concept of the guitar is to be able to sound like a tele, strat and a les paul all in one (which are 3 different models which sound all different between them) which makes the guitar amazingly versatile, but i´m having problems figuring out which configuration sound what

this is what i think it is, and please correct me if im wrong (i´m following the nº of the pickup just like the official diagram: bridge humbucker 1, single coil over is nº2, next the angled single coil is nº3, and neck pickup is nº4)

with the pickup nº3 off and having only the humbuckers activated, i get a les paul sound
with only the pickup nº3 activated, i get a strat sound
with the the pickup nº3 activated plus the single coil (pickup nº2) or having just only the pickup nº2 activated, i get a tele sound

and besides this i can blend this and get even more sounds (the std model has 11 configurations), but this is what i think it is, what do you think? are these configurations the correct to get a tele strat and a les paul sound?


and what do you think it is configuration to get the BEST cristaline clear clean tone of the guitar? i actually think its nº2 and 3º together.

btw for what/why did morse got the pickup nº2 and 3º? i think the pickup nº2 has a big importance in morse´s playing but i still didn´t understand why clearly, even though i saw all of his interviews and videos on youtube talking about it..


thanks !

 

[SPI]

I've rewired standard morse wiring using 5 way switch like this
three way lever
1 - bridge single choosen
2 - bridge + neck single choosen
3 - neck single choosen

5 way switch

1 - bridge humbucker
2 - bridge humbucker splitted + whatever on 3 way lever choosen
3 - 3 way lever
4 - neck humbucker splitted + whatever on 3 way lever choosen
5 - neck humbucker

2 way lever is like original (adds bridge to whatever choosen on 5 way switch)

So whats I've achieved?
1 and 5 positions - pretty les paul (rock tone)
2, 4 - close to strat quacky sound (not real close, pretty unique sounds, especially with two singles combined)
3 - with 3 way lever it's a virtual tele!!!

I'm mostly use 2 and 4 with bridge single, rarely with neck single. In blues and country influenced tunes "virtual tele" is my choice.
And I've replace neck humbucker with Tone Zone, since my Standard morse is PDN (mahogany body, don't like much my Steve Morse neck humbucker in that body).

 

[Samoht]

I would recommend, if modding is something you're into, taking note of SPI's configuration. To me, that's the most logical way to arrange switching for the four pickups. You get every possible combination, too. Add a series/split/parallel switch for bridge and neck humbuckers and you really open up the possibilities.

Great guitar though. I love mine.