Norrin Radd
Well-known member
You never know what kind of mischief they may be up to! Look what happened to my poor Alberts. 
- Thread starter Norrin Radd
- Start date
Spudmurphy
Well-known member
A fine pair - liking the mods?
browndog
Well-known member
Nicely done. The both look great!
metalmarty
Well-known member
Oooooooohhhhhhh , I love that sparkle . Nice pair!
. Nice pair!
beej
Moderator
Nicely done, sir. The 'buckers in the sparkle body look kick-ass.
How do the singles sound in the mahog body?
How do the singles sound in the mahog body?
straycat113
Well-known member
Really nice tinkering Norrin, beej is right the buckers look sick in the sparkle finish. Wow you brought me back to my childhood with the Surfer comics, I used to have 1-10. Let me see if I can remember ,is the one with Thor #4.
Norrin Radd
Well-known member
I am! I like them quite a bit, actually.
Thank you!
Oooooooohhhhhhh , I love that sparkle
Thanks! I love that sparkle too - when it finally became available, I had to snag it. I've been lusting after a cool sparkle for looooooong time - and that color is one of my faves. Plus, Stratus Blue and Gremlin Green are really really hard to find!
Thank you - yeah, I especially like the look of the HBs in the Sparkle. I just pulled that PG from the HH AL, and after some, ahem, effort, put it on.
The singles in the mahogany body sound fantastic! They were great before (I had them in an alder bodied maple neck strat - area '67s) but in the HH AL (should I call it that anymore?) they become much more rich! The tone is very full and well rounded - great EQ balance across all the strings - and never "ice picky" at all. I'm sure the RW neck helps with that as well. I've also notice the RW neck seems to add clarity and more individual definition to the strings no matter what guitar it's on. I almost also decided to switch necks for S&G, and I would have had the maple been a natty.
The sparkle originally had MM90s in it - and I loved the tone of them. It's just that I've become very spoiled by silent single coils to the point where any 60 cycle hum is distracting to me, and I just don't like it anymore. SO, I searched for some silent P90s to replace the MM90s with. Let me just say, the available options are not very plentiful, nor are they very cheap. SO, I decided, WTH, I've always wanted Blues Saraceno's Gold Sparkle HH AL - let's try and do that! And that was how this all started......
Norrin Radd
Well-known member
It is! It is also the most rare. A semi truck carrying most of the copies of that issue overturned (I think it was in Canada, IIRC) on a highway and the comics were destroyed - making that issue the one with the least amount of copies available for purchase.
Oy, feeling very geeky all of a sudden!
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Spudmurphy
Well-known member
Did you take any pics of the "surgery" ?
Norrin Radd
Well-known member
NO! I should have. I did take one photo of what an MM90 looks like under the hood - I'll post it below. You can tell from that photo how the MM90s are loaded - and you can imagine what it took to make it accommodate the HH AL loaded guard. I know if I posted surgery pics some might say - how you could do that to a rare EBMM?!?!? That answer to that is simple - I've got to play it! It's got to fit me! Trust me - I thought about it a lot before I did it. There was a lot of time and effort with a Dremel and a routing bit and then some sanding pads. The first cut was the hardest one to make.
After that it was just about patience and trial and error with the fitting. Some shorter pickup adjustment screws helped ease my nerves a bit too. It all fits well now and I removed as little body wood as I could. Anyways - gander at the photo and imagine.........Well, there was a lot of grunting and groaning, and a lot of high pitch squealing from the Dremel. The dog looked at me and groaned a couple times as well. And my youngest kept yelling from upstairs for me to come and feed her. Other than that it was pretty quiet.
Seriously, both guitars sounds great - see my reply to beej for the SSH tone difference. The Sparkle sounds AWESOME! It's got a real bite to the crunch in it - it's really breath taking. Think an HH AL but with a whole lot more bright, and a whole lot more bite!
Spudmurphy
Well-known member
Hee hee I like seeing gruesome shots - nice one , thanks for posting the pic.
Luc
Well-known member
Wow that ARB AL is to die for! Love it!
Smellybum
Well-known member
Norrin - love the swaps, -I've been thinking of doing it with mine - how does the maple sound with the buckers?? - could you post us a you tube vid please?
Sticky1973
Well-known member
Greg that is fantastic.
Love the swap, the Autumn AL looks great with the HB config.
I too have become a big fan of DiMarzio Areas, nice pickups.
Very tasteful, yet awesome swap.
Love the swap, the Autumn AL looks great with the HB config.
I too have become a big fan of DiMarzio Areas, nice pickups.
Very tasteful, yet awesome swap.
Jonny Dubai
Well-known member
Smokin..................
Norrin Radd
Well-known member
I will try! I'm not much of a player, but I can wrangle some tones out for you. The video capture and posting will be the real trick!
Not done that before.
Slav123
Well-known member
That's some phenomenal work there Greg! Love how both guitars look now. Congrats!
jzeijen
Well-known member
Great experiment! Somehow I always associate a rosewood neck with humbuckers, but this combination should work also. And the sparkle with humbuckers
