Simple guitar for a simple guy

[passarellee]

Well, here's what i did with my bender Al. You know, most of the time i use my bridge pu, so that got me thinking.

I always played Tele style guitars, so i'm kind of used to a 2 pu configuration. The middle pu in the Al give me some trouble with picking, the neck pu i rarely use.

I took the original turtle SSS guard and filled the neck & middle holes. Then, i cut a new MM90 size hole for the bridge position. After that i painted it in an off white color.

I wired it like an Esquire,

It's just an experiment that can be reversed if i decide i don't like it

 

[mbgreene]

cool little hot rod
I like it

 

[alba22]

Cool! What did you use to cut the guard? Also, how did you fill the neck & middle guard holes?

 

[passarellee]

Thanks!

I filled the holes with some leftover pickguard material. I cut 2 singlecoil shaped pieces and sanded them to fit in the holes. I used a jigsaw for cutting.

I glued the pieces into place with a mixture of superglue and stamped salt, this works fantastic. Then i sanded the surface real smooth for the refinish.

 

[Bman]

Looks great.

 

[Ricman]

Cool guitar - looks great.

I wired it like an Esquire,

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Never really understood how they were wired - can you explain please?

 

[Colin]

I really like that, nicely done too.

 

[fogman]

Is this the new Benji Al?

 

[robelinda2]

Cool mod!

 

[travs]

excellent work with a great finished product. thanks for sharing.

 

[Spudmurphy]

Gotta say that you are the king of the AL customizers!!

I always remember your 2 pick up AL.

 

[passarellee]

Gotta say that you are the king of the AL customizers!!

I always remember your 2 pick up AL.

Haha, yeah i love to try new things with guitars. I wish i still had the black MM90, that one played like butter. They all do but that one was special.

The MM90 bridge pu in my bender Al originally belonged to the black Al. The new owner emailed me and just asked me would i like to have the pu since he put a humbucker in there. So he actually gave me the pickup.

 

[passarellee]

Cool guitar - looks great.




Never really understood how they were wired - can you explain please?

Ok, There's one pickup and a 3-way switch. Very simply said, position 1&2 are most important.
Position 1 doesn't have tone control (sound is bright, twangy and very clear good for lead), position 2 does have tone control (pretty much same sound but tone can be rolled off, good for rhythm.
Position 3 for me is unusefull, it gives a dark, bassy sound that was originally 'invented' during the time when the bassguitar was not yet there. They used this pu position to simulate the sound of the bass.

What i do is, i use pos. 2 with tone rolled off a bit when i want to play lead i flip the switch to pos. 1
Like i said, i'm a simple guy i can't handle too many options.

 

[lenny]

Looks Great i really really Like it! and Nice and simple Clean looking as well!
But i do have one question ....what is stamped salt?

 

[Ricman]

Interesting - thanks.

 

[Spudmurphy]

what is stamped salt?

+1

 

[kissmyaxe]

wow, that is sooo tight! I would love to do that with a Silo and a D-sonic since there are 4 positions in the pickup alone.

 

[passarellee]

Looks Great i really really Like it! and Nice and simple Clean looking as well!
But i do have one question ....what is stamped salt?

Thanks Lenny,

Well, when you mix salt with superglue you get a really good glue that becomes very hard and also functions as a filler.
To make the salt even finer, like powder i put some between two pieces of sandpaper and rubbed this. Result was some very powder like salt.

Sorry for the bad description, sometimes i have trouble finding the correct words.

 

[darnright]

That does look cool and I'll bet it sounds really good. I love the Al's with 3 P-90's

 

[Spudmurphy]

That does look cool and I'll bet it sounds really good. I love the Al's with 3 P-90's

Hey darnright - welcome to the EB forum.
Yup the MM90's (as they are EB's own pickups) do sound nice - and so do the single coils that are referred to as SSS.

Do you have an EB guitar?
Spud