• Ernie Ball
  • MusicMan
  • Sterling by MusicMan

Cenobyte

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 3, 2012
Messages
147
Location
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
But I thought the middle pickup was a single coil?? Am I missing something??

So typically the Silhouette has a DiMarzio custom single coil in the middle and Virtual PAF's on either side of it.

This BFR has a DiMarzio Chopper instead... which is a hot, dual rail, stacked humbucker. The pickup is made mainly for Strat players who want Humbucking options in an SSS... this guy is matched with the classic Super Distortion in the bridge and Super II in the neck... so it's a really hot guitar literally and figuratively lol
 

GWDavis28

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 23, 2003
Messages
12,470
Location
Mass
So typically the Silhouette has a DiMarzio custom single coil in the middle and Virtual PAF's on either side of it.

This BFR has a DiMarzio Chopper instead... which is a hot, dual rail, stacked humbucker. The pickup is made mainly for Strat players who want Humbucking options in an SSS... this guy is matched with the classic Super Distortion in the bridge and Super II in the neck... so it's a really hot guitar literally and figuratively lol

Ah ok, didn't realize that. And your right they are hot, Glitter Machines!!!

Thanx, Glenn |B)
 

Cenobyte

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 3, 2012
Messages
147
Location
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
MYSTERY SOLVED! (I feel like 70's detective era Batman or something! :p)

So as always EBMM customer support comes through... the wrong switching diagram was indeed included in my case. I feel like the wrong diagram could have been included in other BFR cases, so I'm going to attach it here for others who grab this guitar and might be asking similar questions!

Turns out I was not far off, switching is indeed the same as the St Vincent! ie: pos 1-3 are the individual humbuckers and pos 4 and 5 are all three humbuckers and Neck and Bridge humbuckers respectively. The difference being everything is in series on the Silo, pure HHH across the board. The St Vincent uses parallel wiring in pos 4 and 5.

So there you have it. I will likely think about this a bit but, I plan on keeping this guitar so I may look into adding similar parallel wiring in pos 4 and 5... I need some quack for live stuff. I'll likely do something similar to parallel pos 2 and 3 with the ALHH (outer coils of neck and bridge in parallel and all coils of neck and bridge in parallel).
 

Attachments

  • CFD Silhouette HSH BFR Silver Flake 20200116.jpg
    CFD Silhouette HSH BFR Silver Flake 20200116.jpg
    52.6 KB · Views: 151

headcrash

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 2, 2007
Messages
240
Location
Germany
MYSTERY SOLVED! (I feel like 70's detective era Batman or something! :p)

So as always EBMM customer support comes through... the wrong switching diagram was indeed included in my case. I feel like the wrong diagram could have been included in other BFR cases, so I'm going to attach it here for others who grab this guitar and might be asking similar questions!

Turns out I was not far off, switching is indeed the same as the St Vincent! ie: pos 1-3 are the individual humbuckers and pos 4 and 5 are all three humbuckers and Neck and Bridge humbuckers respectively. The difference being everything is in series on the Silo, pure HHH across the board. The St Vincent uses parallel wiring in pos 4 and 5.

So there you have it. I will likely think about this a bit but, I plan on keeping this guitar so I may look into adding similar parallel wiring in pos 4 and 5... I need some quack for live stuff. I'll likely do something similar to parallel pos 2 and 3 with the ALHH (outer coils of neck and bridge in parallel and all coils of neck and bridge in parallel).

Wow, how does that Pos 4 and 5 sound (expecially 5)? Is it really all three in series, or the two coils of each humbucker in series for themselves, and all three pickups paralleled?
 

Cenobyte

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 3, 2012
Messages
147
Location
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Wow, how does that Pos 4 and 5 sound (expecially 5)? Is it really all three in series, or the two coils of each humbucker in series for themselves, and all three pickups paralleled?

The diagram shows Series only on all switches so I guess it's just the pickup itself in all cases... the sound, still trying to decode, but so far pos 4 is a little bassy sounding but has a bit of a quack (I mean "a little bassy" as the Super 2 in the neck is a pretty treble heavy neck pickup), and pos 5 seems to be the most quacky/stratty I guess? Still need to try plugging into some other amps and stuff... will try a newer H&K Black Spirit 200 when I have some time this week!!
 

Cenobyte

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 3, 2012
Messages
147
Location
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
A few in hand images as promised... the colored ones were taken under colored Nanoleaf LED panel lights (with flash to counter the LED lighting and show off the sparkle) to show what stage lighting could do to the guitar... fancy AF really! :D

I'm really loving this guitar... makes me very happy!
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2375.jpg
    IMG_2375.jpg
    99.5 KB · Views: 158
  • IMG_2369.jpg
    IMG_2369.jpg
    101.5 KB · Views: 146
  • IMG_2374.jpg
    IMG_2374.jpg
    103.2 KB · Views: 141
  • IMG_2378.jpg
    IMG_2378.jpg
    91.3 KB · Views: 139
  • IMG_2345.jpg
    IMG_2345.jpg
    112.8 KB · Views: 144

SiloCologne

Member
Joined
May 13, 2020
Messages
15
WOW, what a great Silo, congrats!

Thank you for the pics!
I felt direcrly in love with that axe :D

May you tell more about the pickup sound of the Super Distortion and the Chopper?
I had a SD in the neck in my HSH Silo but it was little bit to bassy via Kemper Amp over headphones.

best regards from Germany
 

Cenobyte

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 3, 2012
Messages
147
Location
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
May you tell more about the pickup sound of the Super Distortion and the Chopper?
I had a SD in the neck in my HSH Silo but it was little bit to bassy via Kemper Amp over headphones.

Thanks a bunch! :)

For sounds, the Super Distortion does have some extra bass in it (as you probably know the pickup is profiled to have some extra bass for punch) it isn't super bassy to me, it's a tight sounding pickup which handles distortion well with maybe a little bit of added expansion due to the upped bass.

The Chopper on the other hand is quite bassy in the middle position of this guitar... to a point where I'm not sure I'd use it very often as it stands right now. It's a bit of a strange pickup for me, and I think it's position on the body in relation to the longer neck is affecting how it sounds possibly. I do need to play with it more for sure.

The Super 2 is also a bit bassy but not as much as you'd maybe want it to be in the neck (It's got some treble in it) which is weird to me, but I am getting used to it and can hear some of it's merits!

Overall the guitar sounds huge and I'm enjoying a few of the 5 positions, but it is missing some glassy tones you'd get from splitting and wiring up a few positions in parallel (everything is in series on this guitar). Because I'm a gigging musician who brings one guitar to a gig, I may swap out these pickups for something which suits my style a bit more. I would likely built it from scratch on it's own mirror guard from Pickguard Planet and drop it in so I don't destroy the original factory electronics. Otherwise I may just get this rewired to a more traditional HSH 5 way with a couple split options.

For me this guitar visually was a bit of a dream guitar so the electronics didn't matter quite as much verses knowing the neck shape, fit/feel and of course the beautiful finish were all on point, I've wanted an all silver guitar for a long time and have love for the SIlo as a guitar so I knew i'd be happy there... electronics can be altered without too much pain! :)
 

Cenobyte

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 3, 2012
Messages
147
Location
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I have JUST got the older sister in my hands... I've taken delivery of #2!
It's love!

Wow nice, congrats!! Amazing right?! I still play it daily with love, very fond of mine... helped get me through this last stupid year! :)

They're getting a little scarce online these days... was it used or were you lucky enough to find it in stock at a shop somewhere? I know in my area there's been one in stock since last year at one of our larger retailers, as of right now I feel like I'm probably the only guy in Canada with this beast in their actual collection!

Side note: I grew up listening to Jeff Waynes WotW (my dad bought it for me on vinyl when it came out), it's an old fave! Would be awesome if you ended up playing it for one of those gigs :)
 
Last edited:

GuitarPlaya

New member
Joined
Dec 28, 2021
Messages
1
Location
Nashville
Just got maybe one of the last ones in a small store in Daytona. Really cool guitar. The wiring and pickup choices do yield some unique tones that you won't find in a standard 5-way switch guitar. Just curious if anybody swapped out that Chopper middle pickup? I'm thinking a Chrome Dimarzio Area 67 might brighten up positions 4 and 2.
 
Top Bottom