OLYMPIC MEDAL
I loved the question and reply about Epiphone Olympics last issue. I picked up an Olympic about six years ago and it became my go-to for home strumming due to its playability and comfort. It’s had a couple of live outings, too, and held its own comfortably. I’ll add a word of caution about changing pickups, though. Mine was fitted with a Seymour Duncan JB Junior, which is a lovely pickup, but didn’t sound quite right in the Olympic. As soon as I put the original pickup and wiring back in place, it all came together. Those old single coils don’t have the kick of a humbucker or P-90, but they’ve got a sweetness of their own and warm up to an almost cocked wah sound with the tone rolled off. If you don’t like them, a single-coil-sized humbucker or P-90 will squeeze into the cavity without reaching for the router. Olympics are creeping up in value now – and we’ve all seen what happened to the ‘worthless’ 60s SG Juniors that got routed for humbuckers in the 70s and 80s because the P-90 was considered weak… Jim Goad, via email
Thanks, Jim – we agree that you should give those old pickups a proper try before dismissing them and swapping them out, especially if that involves any invasive work. It’s arguably better to sell it on than permanently alter the guitar, in some ways. After all, Olympics and their ilk are climbing in price and it’d be a shame to
spoil their originality. If what you really want is a Les Paul then… get one of those? Just a thought! Happily, many pickup makers will now make a range of classic designs that will fit the ‘wrong’ guitars with little or non-reversible modifications, as we discovered in our Hot Mods cover feature a few issues back. Creamery and Mojo pickups offer things like gold foils and Tri-Sonic style pickups in single-coilsized enclosures, so there’s no lack of choice in harmless mods for such guitars.
PICKUP PUZZLER
Hi and thanks for the brilliant review on the PRS SE Paul’s Guitar in issue 447 – I have read it 10 times and ordered mine in
Amber! One question: you mention turning the review guitar’s neck pickup around, to match the pickup orientation found on the Core model Paul’s Guitar that the SE is based on. However, if you look at the pic on p94, which shows Paul holding what I assume is the original ‘Paul’s Guitar’, the neck pickup is the other way round – in other words, the same as the SE’s was when you first got it. So, which is correct? Alan Reynolds, via email
Our gear editor Dave Burrluck replies: “Hi Alan, glad you liked the feature and you’ve ordered one up. Okay, so the Core 2019 Paul’s Guitar – by design – has the neck pickup reversed so the slug coil, voiced in the single-coil mode, is pretty much where it would be on a Stratocaster. (The guitar Paul is holding in the pic on p94 is not a Paul’s Guitar, by the way).
“The SE Paul’s Guitar should have had the pickup placed in the same way, but the first consignment from Indonesia had the pickup placed standard with the screw coil closest to the neck. Apparently, Paul liked it like that so it stayed that way on the SE model.
“Personally, I prefer it ‘reversed’, which is a very easy thing to do, plus to evaluate both guitars and compare them it made sense to have both neck pickups placed in the same way. I hope that helps clear up any confusion. And I also hope you enjoy your SE Paul’s Guitar as much as we did when it arrives!”