My Silo Special fully loaded with Duncans!

[B2D]

Check it out!

After close to 4 months of experimentation with 6 different pickups and mag swaps on all but one, I've reached my favorite combo for this particular guitar. My Music Man Silhouette Special, with an Alnico 2-Screamin' Demon in the neck, and a JB w/Alnico 8 in the bridge.

This combo of pickups and magnets goes pretty well together, and sounds pretty ferocious through the POD. I'll be testing this combo with my live rig in rehearsal tonight and report back!

 

[Kaloyan]

And please dont forget the audio samples =)

 

[B2D]

And please dont forget the audio samples =)

That'll have to wait for a bit... this is the setup I'll be using to record the EP for my new project, so give it about a month from now. I'll give you a detailed written description in the meantime, though.

 

[Kaloyan]

Godspeed

 

[B2D]

Tested the guitar tonight in rehearsal. Interesting results... The neck pickup worked wonderfully for what I was going for. The stock Demon in the neck was a little too hot and too tubby in the bass and needed more mids. The A2 mag fixed that right up and now I've got a great pickup in the neck slot that reminds me very much of a PAF Pro but with a little more sparkle and dimension in the sound.

The bridge pickup may need some tweaking. I'm aware that a JB with an Alnico 8 is a VERY hot pickup (mine reads about 17.2 K) so I didn't put it as close to the strings as I would with a normal JB. It sounded pretty close to what i wanted, but it made the guitar feed back quite a bit just due to the excessive output and the fact that I rehearse with my live rig at gig volume level. The mids were a bit smoother, but the treble content was a bit much even after adjusting my amp controls.

I think I may try a 250K pot with this setup to tame that treble and output and smooth the sound a bit more. I'm almost there... just a few adjustments and I might have it nailed.

I think I may also move to a regular pot and a mini switch to split instead of the push-pull setup I have now. The tight space tolerances are a PITA to work with sometimes.

 

[Coffeemug]

That's a bad-ass configuration you've got there...

 

[skerwo]

Oh my god, where are all the nice singlecoils gone ? That´s what I love my SS for, so I never would put humbuckers in this guitar .


Rainer

 

[B2D]

That's a bad-ass configuration you've got there...

Thank you!

Oh my god, where are all the nice singlecoils gone ? That´s what I love my SS for, so I never would put humbuckers in this guitar .


Rainer

I like single coils, but I need 'buckers for the styles I do. I wouldn't mind having an SSS Silo or an Albert Lee, though. Or I could get another pickguard setup entirely.

 

[Ricman]

Very cool. It's your guitar - mod it to hell I say. If you like it, it's good. If it were mine I'd get a new pickguard and put the volume where the switch is now, and put the switch where morse and JP have there's. But hats off for for the mod - sound clips would be nice!!

 

[Lukesilo]

Love the finish on it. Thought about Duncans for mine but not sure if I will like them better or not. Also thought about putting the Petrucci pickup setup too. Choices, choices.

 

[RocketRalf]

Very nice. I love Silo mods. Specially the ones that involve high gain humbuckers .

 

[Slav123]

That's a bad-ass configuration you've got there...

+1! That's one bad-ass Silo! Love the gunsmoke pearl color too!

Slav

 

[Lukesilo]

How about EMGs then????

 

[B2D]

Very cool. It's your guitar - mod it to hell I say. If you like it, it's good. If it were mine I'd get a new pickguard and put the volume where the switch is now, and put the switch where morse and JP have there's. But hats off for for the mod - sound clips would be nice!!

Until EBMM opens up a true Custom Shop, I'll have to modify my EBMMs to my taste, and that's all right with me.

The other major change I had done was jumbo stainless steel frets. Best mod I've ever had done. The guitar was almost TOO easy to play when I got it back from having that done! Expensive but VERY worth it for my #1 player axe.

Love the finish on it. Thought about Duncans for mine but not sure if I will like them better or not. Also thought about putting the Petrucci pickup setup too. Choices, choices.

Thanks! It's a Gunsmoke Pearl from 2001. The shade of the paint looks different in different lights, this it how it looks at it's brightest.

If I ever got another Silo Special done like this, or a Silo or a SUB1, I think I'd do with an Air Norton in the neck and a Tone Zone or Air Zone in the bridge. I had the D-Sonic in my other guitar once and it worked well for what it did but didn't really do it for me.

Duncans and Dimarzios are different enough for me to enjoy and exploit the unique qualities of each.

Very nice. I love Silo mods. Specially the ones that involve high gain humbuckers .

Thanks!

+1! That's one bad-ass Silo! Love the gunsmoke pearl color too!

Slav

And thank you!

How about EMGs then????

I had a Les Paul Studio for a short time with an EMG 60A in the neck and an 85 in the bridge... loved that combo. I don't like the 81's very much. I'd love to try Duncan Blackouts.

 

[Lukesilo]

Yeah I have an 81/60 in a Les Paul and its cool for metal and shred. In my Silo I want more of a versatile tone so gonna research a ton of different pickups and see if I wanna change any. I have the piezo in mine so I dont know if that makes it harder to swap pickups or not though.