the mod squad
in the last two instalments of mod squad we’ve installed new active and plug-in passive humbuckers. in this issue, Dave burrluck is looking for a different voice…
Amajor part of the modding world is to improve a function or a sound, making a guitar (hopefully) better. But what about wanting to make an instrument sound different, perhaps dramatically so? For a guitar maker that’s easy and we’ve seen plenty of examples from all sorts of sources that maybe plonk a pair of humbuckers onto a Strat, or a set of Filter’Trons onto a Tele, or a Tele’s pickup set on a Jazzmaster… to name just a few sonic mash-ups. Mixing up the design cues from the classics is commonplace, but beyond butchering a perfectly good guitar, investing in a full partscaster build, or commissioning a custom build, is there another way? Of course!
As we know, there are plenty of humbucking pickups that we can voice to approach the sound of a single coil, and plenty of single coil-sized designs that emulate the sound of a full-size humbucker. These can in, the first instance, give our instrument more sounds or beef up a bolt-on in the second. All good, but it’s just scratching the surface.
Numerous other pickup designs exist that didn’t originally fit either the humbucking or classic single coil-size protocol. The Gibson P-90 was one of the first to be adapted to fit a standard humbucking route, for example. Conversely, especially in its soapbar size, there are plenty of pickups that’ll drop into that size cavity and offer very un-P-90-like sounds.
Different Voices
But these industry-standard sizes simply don’t reflect the diversely different pickup designs that have been used throughout the history of the electric instrument: Fender’s Jazzmaster or Jaguar pickups and the original ‘Wide Range’ humbucker, for example; the Gretsch Filter’Tron or Dynasonic; the Gold Foil and its variants that graced many a retro Japanese build; the Guild LB-1… There are plenty more.
But, increasingly, and as we documented in our Hot Mods feature in issue 449, many pickup makers are offering some of these and other ‘irregular’ designs in standard humbucking sizes. The Gretsch Filter’Tron and its variants are obvious examples. Fender’s Wide Range is another rather trendy design that many have downsized to fit a standard humbucker cavity.
Lesser known pickups such as Supro’s Vistatone and Super Alnico looked like humbucking-sized single coils but were never intended to mount in a standard humbucker ring, yet new versions of these unusual designs certainly do. Then there are brands, such as Duesenberg, who offer their own very retro designs in mini and full humbucking sizes – like the noiseless SingleTwin Domino from the German maker. To put it another way, there’s surprising choice if you want to revoice your guitar but in a totally reversible manner.
As we’ve discussed in previous Mod Squad columns, the pickup alone will not create a Les Paul out of a Stratocaster, nor a Gretsch 6120 out of a Telecaster, but you can, in theory, narrow the gap. Ever since I tested a Kauer Starliner Express back in issue 446 I’ve had a bit of a hankering for some Gretsch-y flavour from a solidbody. That guitar used TV Jones Power’Trons and thanks to Mod Squad Patron, aka Guitarist reader and keen tweaker Alan Kirby, who donated a set of TV Jones Classics to the cause, I thought it was time to try this ‘something different’ approach. Instead of using the Classics to upgrade a Gretsch Electromatic, for example, couldn’t I use them to revoice a guitar that, historically at least, would never have used such a pickup?
Mix it Up
TV Jones has long recognised that it’s not just Gretsch guitars that could provide a home for its pickup designs. Initially, the English Mount, which allows a classicstyle and size Gretsch pickup to sit in a humbucking-sized ring, was offered, although a little while back the company came up with the Universal Mount, which allows you to either screw-mount the pickup in a Gretsch fashion or suspend it from a humbucker ring (modified to fit the narrower pickup) via included clips. Spend a little time on the TV Jones website. Aside from the Universal Mount, it makes numerous models in full-humbucking sized Humbucker Mount and the soapbar-size Soapbar Mount formats.
So if I was going to fit these ‘wrong’ pickups to any number of guitars that have regular-sized humbuckers, the first thing I’d need are some pickup rings and TV Jones, of course, supplies those: the tilted
“The pickup alone will not create a Les Paul out of a Strat… but it can narrow the gap”
Gibson-style EM1 or the thinner, flat EM4. You can order these directly from TV Jones but will incur a fair bit of extra cost from shipping and import costs. In the UK Retroville Guitars (www.retrovilleguitars.co.uk) doesn’t stock every option but at least solves the shipping/import costs.
Then there is the electric circuit of your host guitar to consider. TV Jones suggests 500k pots, like a standard humbucker, so chances are if you’re replacing conventional humbuckers that’s what your pot values will already be. The Classics also come four-conductor wired. For standard series humbucking, the red and green are joined then either the white or black are hot or ground (it doesn’t matter which so long as you wire both – if you’re fitting a pair – the same) and the bare-stranded ground wire goes to the back of the pot as usual. If you’re mixing a TV Jones with, say, a single-conductor Gibson P-90 or PAF-alike and they are out of phase in the mixed position, reversing those black and white wires will sort it.
Changing History
With the pickups and ‘conversion’ rings ready to go, all I needed was a guitar to fit them on. The addition of a Les Paul Classic to the testing/gigging arsenal meant that the Tokai ‘Les Paul’ I’d modded a while back is going spare and with a good quality vintage-wired Emerson hardness already installed it would make an interesting host, which invariably gets you thinking…
What if original Filter’Tron designer Ray Butts had worked for Gibson not Gretsch back in the day? The Les Paul would have looked and sounded different, right? What would the ‘Beano’ album have sounded like? Would All Right Now have had a rockabilly swagger? Guns N’ Roses might have been a country band… What if? Well, I’m going to find out…
With the strings off and the Tokai’s twin’buckers and mounting rings removed you can offer up the new pickups and rings to see if this slightly bonkers idea is going to work. Not all mounting rings are identical, not least with the slight differences between imperial (USA) and metric dimensions. The TV Jones pickup rings are slightly undersized compared with the ones fitted on the Tokai, so for a permanent install you’re best off filling the original mounting screw holes and redrilling them. If you just want to experiment with the concept, though, you can use your existing humbucker mounting rings. Obviously the Classic is narrower from top to bottom so they will leave a gap, plus it’s very slightly wider bassto-treble than a covered humbucker: a tight fit. That consideration aside, the retrofit is absolutely straightforward.
Now, while the Classics – and numerous other Gretsch-style pickups – are available in more humbucker-looking formats, using the original-sized pickups here also visually creates quite the Frankenstein-style mash-up. The Tokai ‘Ray Paul’ now looks oh-so-wrong but rather appealing, doesn’t it? No? Let’s just back track a moment. I haven’t butchered a vintage anything. This is an easily reversible mod: that’s the point. Have I created a mythical tone beast? If I haven’t, replacing the Tokai’s Bare Knuckle Boot Camps is simple and no-one will know of my misguided sonic experiment.
I followed TV Jones’s height suggestions, tuned up and plugged in. Oh! Where has my sound gone? The pickups are lower in output but not by much. There’s certainly that Gretsch-y sparkle and bounce you’d expect in the mixed position, less so with either pickup voiced on its own but it’s the different attack, slightly textured and more single coil-like, that sounds less refined, less smooth than the vintage-y ’buckers these TV Jones have replaced. The neck pickup is less thick – but far from thin – while the bridge is a little less sharp. Pulling back either volume certainly softens and smoothes the attack, even with vintage wiring, and if you wanted to go further down the Gretsch voicing route, then a different circuit might work better (treble bleed circuits on the volumes and maybe no-load tones), but that’s a consideration I’ll need to get back to after some more play time. It’s a beautifully balanced pickup set, too, and needs minimal tweaking.
I certainly haven’t created a ‘better’ Les Paul. The Tokai with its maple neck and maple-veneered alder body hardly follows the correct construction recipe, but this instrument now sounds less of an imitation and more like a guitar in its own right. Maybe it just needs a Bigsby…
“The Tokai sounds less of an imitation and more like a guitar in its own right”
That should give you something to think about till our next issue. In the meantime, if you have any modding questions, or suggestions, drop us a line - The Mod Squad.