Sponsored by
www.seymourduncan.com
The making of The ‘Modocaster’ Simon Croft builds a test guitar for different electrics using a few spare parts and the cool new Seymour Duncan Liberator pickup change system…
omparing the subtle differences between pickups is not easy – and even if the manufacturer has been thoughtful enough to provide sound samples on their web site, it can be hard to decide whether a 59 Mellowtone in the neck and a 15k KillerVolt Deathbucker in the bridge will work on the same guitar. Like most guitar tinkerers, I’ve made the mistake in the past of thinking that just because individual guitars produce classic tones, my Danolesrickocaster is going to be the best of all worlds. Only to discover half way through your first gig with the monster you’ve created that there’s not much chance of getting one decent tone out of the thing, still less a whole bunch of them! When Aria UK recently sent me a couple of Seymour Duncan Liberators to try out, I decided to make myself a guitar specially to road test pickups and pickup combinations. The SD Liberator allows you to quickly mount and replace pickups completely solder-free. It is fast and very simple to use, and is ideal when you like to switch pickups around frequently as I do! The body and neck used in this month’s comlum were damaged stock scrounged from my local music shop. If you want to build something similar yourself, a lot of guitar shops have parts like this kicking about for not much money, so it’s always worth asking.
C
Fitting the neck to the body Step one was getting the neck to fit the body. I’ve put a detailed video about this on www.
Fig. 1
playmusicpickup.co.uk but to cut a long story short, I had to chisel and file away at the neck pocket on the body until the neck would fit. Then I had to re-drill the neck holes, so that the neck lined up correctly with the bridge. One of the reasons I chose this body was that it has what’s known in the trade as a ‘swimming pool rout’ (fig. 1). In other words, there’s a big rectangular hole where the pickups go, meaning almost any combination of pickups will fit. Perfect! Well almost. Usually, on a guitar of this type, it’s nigh on
impossible to remove the electrics with the strings still in place. To make it easier to slide the electrics out, I’ve dressed away the treble side of the pickup ‘pool’.
Next, I took an existing scratch-plate and drew its shape repeatedly on a piece of display board. This is a lightweight plastic sheet used for mounting posters and the like at exhibitions. It’s not really durable enough for long-term use but it only costs about £3 a sheet and it’s easy to cut – ideal for what I want to do. Notice how I’ve cut out different pickup
shapes, so I can combine single coils and humbuckers as I like (fig. 2). I can also experiment with moving pickup positions just slightly, which can make a big difference at the bridge.
Refer to the illustration on page 41 (fig. 6)
which shows the plate I’ve made up with the Seymour Duncan Liberator, 250k version. The pickup is a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder. (In case you’re thinking this is gratuitous product placement, I should point out I’ve used this very
same pickup for about 20 years.) Where possible, I’ve used slots rather than screw holes through the plate, so that I can easily slide it out without removing every screw.
I’ve also put the jack socket on the same plate, meaning I can take all the electrics out in one go. I’ll need to sort out some shielding in the body cavity, which is covered in another video on the Playmusic website. Otherwise, this guitar will be seriously noisy.
Other than the Liberator – and whatever pickups are going in – the most expensive part on this guitar is a set of genuine Fender machine heads. It might seem like overkill but it certainly stays in tune (fig. 3). With my new Modocaster (fig. 4), I can
experiment with different wiring schemes as well as pickups, so expect plenty of new ideas over the next few months. Meanwhile, if you head over the Playmusic website, you can see the guitar being built and hear it in action.
Fig. 3
Fig. 2 40 3pickup
Fig. 4
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68