Silhouette Special Pickguard Experiment

[nervous]

Right about now the long, cold northeastern winters start to bore me and I start looking for fun and sometimes challenging projects to occupy my mind for long periods of time. Planning, problems to solve, research, then the actual work, mucking something up, needing more research, parts, etc, you get the idea. I just finished up a nice bass restoration and this new one has been percolating for a few weeks now. It all started because I have an Axis pickguard that I originally had made for a SSH EMG set. So my poorly thought out plan was to load that one up and using the usual EBMM style Molex connectors have myself a modular setup like the SIlos. Found a lovely like nest EMG set, researched and ordered up the Molex connectors and started planning my attack. Then reality. Somehow I had overlooked the fact that the Axis Sport does not exchange at all like the Silo. DOH! Cancel that plan. But, I do have a Silo, but no pickguard, so around in circles I go. More research on pickguards had me not loving the idea of spending $100 on a PG for a project I really didn't need to do. So I let it lie a while longer. Then I came upon some inexpensive direct import Silo Special specific PG's that had my attention, and for a $20.00 delivered gamble I decided to give it a shot. Took a little longer than I expected to get here, but it did. And it was lovely. Quality as good as anything I'd ever gotten from some of the big USA made PG makers. But in the end everything comes down to fit. My quick preliminary overlay was a pleasant surprise as it looks to be a perfect match down to the screw holes. I will know 100% soon as I commit further in to this but very optimistic. Time will tell on their durability.

So, just as an FYI:

'Pleroo guitar pickgaurds'

For Musicman Silhouette Special SSH Electric Guitar Pickguards Scratch Plate

For Musicman Silhouette Special SSH Electric Guitar Pickguards Scratch Plate | eBay


They come with open coil round corner humbucker routs, but I knew that and had a plan. I had recently reshaped some P-Bass cutouts by hand so I was confident I could effectively square them but I have a Dremel router I had never used so what better opportunity to try that out. Had the right template, got a small bearing bit from Stewmac and tonights did the deed and the results were great.


Everything fits perfectly and next to wire everything up. Seems a have to have a guitar built with such great intended modularity and never use that. And quality $20.00 pickguards are gamechanger for that. And a nice opportunity to test some colors or patterns I wouldn't otherwise want to do.

 

[DrKev]

Excellent!

 

[GWDavis28]

I did the exact same thing with the exact pick guard. Just haven' gotten to the point of the wiring. Yours looks a lot better than mine!!! Nice job!!!

Glenn |B)

 

[beej]

Nice! I can relate with the winter projects ... I have a box full of pickgards from swaps.

 

[fbecir]

Nice! I can relate with the winter projects ... I have a box full of pickgards from swaps.

Winter projects are nice, especially in Canada where winter starts in September and end in June ...

 

[nervous]

Well, we're going to call this one a success with a few caveats. Pickguard itself is very good, especially considering the pricing. That the holes aligned nearly perfectly is a minor miracle. Three along the edge were just very slightly off but of no consequence to installation. Neck pocket perfect. The bridge cutout did require a pretty good amount of scraping to gain enough clearance and eliminate contact for me to be comfortable. EMG pots have smaller shafts so a small o-ring on each, as Audere does, keeps them centered and secure.

For challenges there were a few that required some noodling where adding an active system was not quite as straightforward as a passive system would have been and I wanted to maintain some level of quick change swap capability, because why not. And EMG uses a separate line from the jack ring where this era of SS used a 4 pole jack where the battery + ran through that. I had 4 pole to 3 pole conversion sheet and ultimately opted to remove the original and replace with a Pure Tone stereo jack which worked nicely on all fronts. I also opted to splice a separate quick connect to the battery box wires, making a custom cable for the EMG switch side. Also made a custom cable to run from the ring lug to that switch connection.

That led me to needing two (black and wires output wires) simple Molex pin crimps to complete that portion but what learned is that Molex pins are not fun. Geez, those things are fussy and fiddly. And had to have Amazon send me in a special crimping tool because I had nothing small enough for the job. And even with that my lack of skills made that a far longer and frustrating job than it needed to be. But I eventually got it done, assembled and working as it should. And again, with another custom EMG switch interface cable.

The last area of surprise was in the final setup and adjustment, and that was wearing on me. This guitar plays beautifully and will easily accommodate my preferred 4/64" low E to 3 or 3.5/64" high E with just slight neck relief. Very clean. But when I want to adjust the pickup heights per my usual 1/8" bass side and 3/32" treble side I was having difficulty in getting them that low. Treble sides were fine but the bass sides on the two single coils were bottoming out against the pickup connectors, and the humbucker was teetering on the bundle of zip-tied pickup cables I created in my efforts for tidiness, which in hindsight was a mistake. I can only currently get 3/32" on that bass side until I can go back in and sort that the during the next string change. However, I may be in luck because in after-the-fact researching preferred EMG pickup heights it seems that most folks prefer them closer to the strings, some as close as 1/16", and the EMG recommended starting point is 3mm, which si less than the 1/8 I was striving for and likely better suited at the 3/32" starting point I can easily attain. So that issue may just work itself out naturally and save me spending any time in the cavity deepening pickup and cable routs.

So now we will see how I like them. Does that now make this a Pseudo-Luke or Si-Luke?

One thing I can say with certainty is that the new PG will never again be cleaner and shinier than it is today.

 

[elvis2]

Very cool

 

[beej]

Nice! Came out great

 

[Pink]

Well done. I tried to do the same and my results looked like I had a sneezing fit the entire time I was attempting to cut.

 

[nervous]

Well done. I tried to do the same and my results looked like I had a sneezing fit the entire time I was attempting to cut.

The two single pickup SS models you posted didn't look so bad... There is some inspiration in those. I like.

 

[Pink]

Appreciate it. The guards are prefabs from Pickguard Planet.

 

[Bri440]

Really nice! Great match for the Las Vegas Gold.

 

[Sweat]

Looks good to me love the PG color and well always been a fan of EMG pups

 

[nervous]

Well, after testing yesterday it regrettably turns out that this ENG setup is not what I needed after all and I have reverted back to stock tonight. Main reason, as dumb as it sounds, is that live I have to cover a lot of ground, and all my Helix presets have been tweaked and perfected for my two main Axis Sports, especially the position 2 clean sounds which is critical for me. Good OD and distorted sounds is easy, sparkly cleans are fussier. So the stock Silo Special is a departure from the Axis, far enough to noticeable to me but not far enough to make it work. The EMG are further than that and not something I personally can make work. Two orders removed I guess.

So I will now put the entire loaded PG unit up for sale and offer it here first with a nice friends and forum family discount. If anyone is interested just PM me please to discuss.

 

[jlf599]

Well, after testing yesterday it regrettably turns out that this ENG setup is not what I needed after all and I have reverted back to stock tonight. Main reason, as dumb as it sounds, is that live I have to cover a lot of ground, and all my Helix presets have been tweaked and perfected for my two main Axis Sports, especially the position 2 clean sounds which is critical for me. Good OD and distorted sounds is easy, sparkly cleans are fussier. So the stock Silo Special is a departure from the Axis, far enough to noticeable to me but not far enough to make it work. The EMG are further than that and not something I personally can make work. Two orders removed I guess.

So I will now put the entire loaded PG unit up for sale and offer it here first with a nice friends and forum family discount. If anyone is interested just PM me please to discuss.

That's really interesting considering just how hot the Axis pickups are. Don't get me wrong, it's my absolute favorite humbucker out there, but it is definitely hot.

I ended up doing Bareknuckles Abraxas HB + Mothers Milk singles in my Silo Special and I think it was a win.

 

[Vito Porkleone]

I have a Thornbucker (version 1) in my Silo, and it's perfect. It has a little more clarity than the stock pickup, but also does the vintage PAF thing that is perfect for classic rock tones.

 

[Bri440]

It definitely comes down to what you hear with your own ears. I'm glad to see you held onto that guitar - I'm sure it would have fallen into the "damn I never should have sold that guitar" category we all have. BTW what amp are you running the helix into? I just made the digital modeling leap.

 

[elvis2]

EMG pickups are their own animal. Clearly players like Lukather can get any tone they want from them, but there is a learning curve for sure. I've struggled with them as well.

 

[nervous]

It definitely comes down to what you hear with your own ears. I'm glad to see you held onto that guitar - I'm sure it would have fallen into the "damn I never should have sold that guitar" category we all have. BTW what amp are you running the helix into? I just made the digital modeling leap.

I think you're correct about keeping this one. Folks were sending ridiculous offers and it just wore me our which I took as a sign to keep it. In hindsight I am happy that I did.

Not using any amp with the Helix Floor and that was one of my motivating factors when I goy my first years ago. Learning curve was steep given the seemingly limitless tweaking options. But I am at a point that I have a foundation of presets I am very happy with that when other variants are needed I can pull one those and tweak to need. I could honestly get by a full nights work with 2 or 3, hell maybe even one.

This is my setup as it's been for a while now. Stereo direct to the front mains, stereo rear facing QSC K8.2 for both the guitar and the entire band mix. Helix feeds into the QSC A channel, band mix into the B channel and I can control my guitar volume separately with the Floor Big Knob. And since this pic was taken I have added a separate small custom single switch using EXP3 that I can assign pretty much any preset single parameter to for quick access. I use it as a 3db boost right now. I also have another 3db boost assigned to FS5 but on the fly it's a small target to hit in a hurry so the outboard switch is a great option.

The Stomp XL sits there as a backup should the Floor ever fail. I currently run the keyboard through that which makes a $500.00 unit sound like s $2000.00 unit. And it would make for an easy changeover in that event. I also have a modified Little Robbie Worker midi pedal that has 4 inline foot switches to mimic the Floor's lower row snapshot 1-4 access. And I also carry and even smaller Pod Express Guitar that sounds great for a worst case scenario.

 

[Bri440]

That's a really nice set up! I've been there with the low ball offers and shady people so I guess everything turned out for the best. I just picked up a PodGo and I'm looking for some kind of FRFR because my desktop speakers aren't cutting it. I'm not much of a tweaker, but this thing is pretty impressive for the price.