👕 Get New Ernie Ball Merch Now!
  • Ernie Ball
  • Music Man
  • Sterling by Music Man
  • Security notice: Ernie Ball staff will never send you a direct message about a prize or giveaway, and will never ask you to click a link to "claim" anything.
    If you receive a message like that - even from an account whose name looks official - do not click the link. Please report it using the Report link on the message so the moderators can act. A scam campaign impersonating admin accounts was blocked on 29 July 2026; those accounts are banned and their messages have been deleted.
John Myung Bongo 4

Silhouette Special re-wired! (video inside)

DrKev

DrKev

Moderator
Joined
Jul 8, 2006
Messages
7,757
Location
Paris, Dublin, and Buffalo
After more than a year of idle threats, I finally re-wired my Silhouette Special and even made a little vid to show off the new tones. The changes are in posns 2 and 3, which now have the full humbucker in parallel with the middle and neck single coils (with silent circuit), rather than just one coil from the humbucker. Position 3 is the killer - sounds like a cross between the middle positions on a Tele and an LP. Funky!! :cool:

Skip ahead to 4:50 for the actual sounds and playing (yes, I talked about why for nearly 5 minutes). Excuse the iphone audio quality and crappy playing but I think you get the idea. :)

 
Nice! Something tells me you're gonna spend quite some time in that 3rd position (of the pickup switch of course..)

Sounds really good.
 
Doc that guitar was made for you! some reason I pictured you as an older gentleman...lol
 
Very cool Kev. On the middle position- I have the opposite thing going on my Y2D (split brige & full neck HB), and I quite like that position for a similar reason.
 
Really cool Kev, i liked the sounds, you should do a demo with some distorted tones as well ( even though i dont think its your cup of tea) it would still be cool!
 
It's not that it's not much cup of tea just not what I need right now. One of these days I'd like to do a short demo with better audio quality than the iPhone can do but ya know, life etc.. If I do, I'll crank a little gain too. :)
 
You know what i do for iphone recordings? I use an Irig. Its an iphone guitar adapter, and i go from, guitar--POD 2.0---Irig--iphone. So when i shoot an iphone video i am getting direct guitar sound from the pod, and they sound great! Or you could mic an amp and take the mic cable into the irig and record that way too!
 
haha, yes, a Fun Control...I will be awaiting that diagram! You are hilarious, Dr. Kev. Seriously, that was an excellent video.
 
Great Vid Kev thank you.

By spooky co-incidence, I have just re-configured my SSS Silo Special. Dimarzio Chopper in the bridge, Cruiser (Bridge model) in the neck, left the original pickup in the middle, but my middle position is now the neck and bridgepickups in parallel. Sounds great, mine is more Tele than LP, but still very useable.

Loving your work Sir!!!!
 
Ricman said:
but my middle position is now the neck and bridgepickups in parallel. Sounds great, mine is more Tele than LP, but still very useable.
Click to expand...

Yep! On my old strat I had the same sounds too (I went with one tone control and used the second as a blender pot to add neck pickup to any other position). It also gave me all three pickups in parallel, which I didn't find as interesting.

Of course all the HSH Game Changer owners are laughing hard cause they can audition all this stuff on the fly!
 
not to thread hijack but im curious... has anyone ever used a piezo style silhouette pickguard to have two tone knobs?
 
LewisW said:
not to thread hijack but im curious... has anyone ever used a piezo style silhouette pickguard to have two tone knobs?
Click to expand...

I don't know of anyone that has done but there is no reason why not. It might also have the volume knob closer to the strings, which would also make for easier volume swells.
 
LewisW said:
not to thread hijack but im curious... has anyone ever used a piezo style silhouette pickguard to have two tone knobs?
Click to expand...

One of the things on my do do list this year. I'm putting the original pickups back in the silo spec. I'm going to ask the tech about a concentric knob so that I can add a tone knob and still have the volume for the piezo. We'll see.

DrKev,

Nice work, and nice playing too. Sounds great! Do you have the bridge set to float slightly?
 
You, sir, have given me some audible insight and inspiration to my conundrum with the 2 Silo Specials. Wire the hardtail as you have. Wire the tremolo Special as per a typical HSS with:
1) HB
2) full HB + middle
3) middle
4) middle + neck
5) neck

This'll give me that Tele/LP/Strat/EBMM magic in 2 neat little bundles of Vintage Burst comfort and joy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Classic Rock N Roll Slinky
Back
Top