[darkbluemurder]

So I have assembled another partscaster with a HSH routed alder body and a maple neck. I have the following spare DiMarzios:

- Virtual PAF bridge
- Air Norton
- Bluesbucker
- Norton
- Super Distortion (not F-spaced)
- Injector neck
- Area 67

So I can do HSS, HH, HSH or HS in any combination. At the moment I do not have any particular idea what to do with this guitar (i.e. more vintage or more raw). I want a relative balance (so SD bridge Area 67 neck is out).

My ideas so far:

- Air Norton , VPAF or Bluesbucker bridge, Area 67 neck, with 250k pots
- Norton bridge, Injector neck neck, with 500k pots
- Norton bridge, Injector neck middle, Bluesbucker neck, with 500k pots
- Norton bridge, Bluesbucker neck, with 500k pots
- SD bridge, Bluesbucker neck, with 500k pots
- Air Norton or VPAF bridge, Area 67 neck, Injector neck, with 250k pots

What do you think? Any other ideas?

Thanks and kind regards,
Stephan

EDIT: The VHPAF I thought I had turned out to be a VPAF bridge

[Jerryman]

 Air Norton or VHPAF bridge, Area 67 neck, Injector neck, with 250k pots

[darkbluemurder]

Thanks, Jerryman.

I started with Norton, Injector Neck, Bluesbucker and 500k pots as I don't have a HSH in my stable. I used a Schaller E-type switch and wired the Injector as single coil (it will never be used alone, only in combination with the split buckers). It is wired up and it works but I have to flip hot and ground of the Injector as it's out of phase with the others and hums - should not be a big deal to remedy that.

First surprise: that guitar is bright. I had the neck on two other bodies, and those guitars were anything but bright, even with the Norton in the bridge and a load of 500k. You can tell that this guitar now is bright by the fact that the Bluesbucker in the neck is bright enough - usually I prefer single coil types, Firebirds or minihums. Yes, bright enough. And the Norton in the bridge is rippin' bright. I will have to bring down the load for that pickup. The #3 (bridge and neck both split) is fine and very tele-like.

I also will have to set up the guitar - I just made a quick test whether it is working.

Cheers Stephan

[darkbluemurder]

I corrected the phasing issue by simply reversing hot and ground of the Injector. Here is a brief description of how the guitar is wired now (switch position going from 1 - bridge to 5 - neck).

#1: Norton bridge humbucker
#2: Norton neck side (slug) coil with Injector in the middle - strat type sound
#3: Norton bridge side (screw) coil with Bluesbucker neck side (screw) coil - tele type sound
#4: Injector in the middle with Bluesbucker neck side (screw) coil - strat type sound
#5: Bluesbucker neck humbucker

All combinations are humcancelling (this is important to me). I achieved this by wiring only the signal coil of the Injector and ignoring the dummy coil. With this wiring it is no issue as the middle pickup is never used on its own.

I changed the tone pot for the bridge pickup to a 250k audio (before that I had a no-load pot in there) to make the pickup a bit less bright - worked well so far. I used an 820pf cap (=0.00082uf - yes, you read that correctly). With the pot rolled down, it sounds like a more midrangey humbucker, which is a useful add-on. The tone pot for the neck pickup is 500k audio with a 2200 pf (=0.0022uf) cap. I probably will try a smaller cap there.

I have not yet installed a treble bleed circuit but I will as the single coil sounds suffer severely when turning down the volume pot.

Cheers Stephan

[darkbluemurder]

Treble bleed installed (1 meg resistor in parallel with a 180pf cap - that was lying around as a leftover from another guitar). Works great, which is a surprise since I never seem to get it right with the first try.

I like the guitar as is now. Great for 80s hard rock to Blues.

Cheers Stephan

[darkbluemurder]

New ideas coming soon ...

[darkbluemurder]

I think I found a way to get the split neck pickup alone in addition to the other tones. I just have to add a wire from the terminal where the neck pickup's black+white are connected to the free terminal of the tone pot. Tone pot full up will be the split Bluesbucker, tone pot slightly down the Bluesbucker as humbucker. I will replace the existing 500k tone pot (which is flakey and needs to go anyway) with a 1 meg pot). Of course the split Bluesbucker on its own will not be humcancelling.

Cheers Stephan

[BluesJam]

For a different approach, Norton in the Bridge.  Guitar wired Esquire style.  4 way switch. 1) direct out  2) volume/Tone 3) .001 capacitor w/volume  4) .0047 capacitor w/volume. 

If you do a push pulls, you can do single coil & parallel wiring.  (12 different.  I think it would freshen things up and give you some untraditional lead and rhythm sounds.

[darkbluemurder]

For a different approach, Norton in the Bridge.  Guitar wired Esquire style.  4 way switch. 1) direct out  2) volume/Tone 3) .001 capacitor w/volume  4) .0047 capacitor w/volume. 

If you do a push pulls, you can do single coil & parallel wiring.  (12 different.  I think it would freshen things up and give you some untraditional lead and rhythm sounds.

More cool ideas, thanks a lot! However, for this particular guitar push-pulls don't fit.

[BluesJam]

You can do a blend pot instead of a tone pot for a series/parallel in positions 2-4

[darkbluemurder]

I think I found a way to get the split neck pickup alone in addition to the other tones. I just have to add a wire from the terminal where the neck pickup's black+white are connected to the free terminal of the tone pot. Tone pot full up will be the split Bluesbucker, tone pot slightly down the Bluesbucker as humbucker. I will replace the existing 500k tone pot (which is flakey and needs to go anyway) with a 1 meg pot). Of course the split Bluesbucker on its own will not be humcancelling.

It's done now and works as expected. The split Bluesbucker sounds great in this guitar both clean or driven.

I did another tweak as I added a 2.2 meg resistor from the terminal where the Norton is connected to ground. This was done to reduce the load on the Norton from 500k to about 400k. Sonic result is a fatter and warmer tone on both the Norton alone (#1)  and the split Norton with the Injector in the middle (#2). With a 500k load, #2 sounded good for low chords but not so much for higher notes. With a 400k load on #2, the higher notes do no longer sound as thin and the guitar sounds more even throughout the range. I could not achieve this with the bridge tone pot before the modification - this took only sparkle away but did not add anything useful. I don't think it did anything beneficial to #3 (bridge split + neck split) but it did not do anything bad either so it stays. #4 and #5 are not affected by this tweak as the bridge pickup is not active in these positions.

Cheers Stephan

[BluesJam]

Nice mods using resistors. Sounds like a great guitar.   For some time now, I only prefer bridge pickups, so I add custom wiring to get what I need for sounds.  I’d rather get sounds that other people cannot do.  It keeps things interesting for my ears. DiMarzios are very versatile if you know how to wire a guitar and have basic electronics knowledge. Kudos to your ingenuity. 

[darkbluemurder]

I tried to upload some pics of the guitar but it does not seem to work.

[darkbluemurder]

By now the guitar is on the third (and hopefully final) bridge pickup - a Mo' Joe. Review is in the "Everything you wanted to know" section.