Adrian Smith SDX Upgrade

[freedom's door]

I gave my Adrian Smith SDX an upgrade:



1- Replaced the Special with an Original Floyd.
2- Pickguard from Warmoth
3- Hot Rails in the bridge, Fender N4 noiseless bridge pickup in the middle, DiMarzio Injector bridge model in the neck. The pickups are what I had laying around, other than the Hot Rails which was bought new for this guitar.
4- Duncan YJM speed pot for the volume, and Ernie Ball 3 way switch.

This was the first time I've ever wired a pickguard from scratch, and it went smoothly with one slight hiccup; remember- don't forget to solder the third lug of the volume pot to the pot itself

The pickguard from Warmoth was not a perfect fit, but the screw holes lined up close enough that I didn't have to drill holes. I had to use a Dremel to cut away a slight bit of the pickguard around the neck pocket and above the neck.
I also had to use the Dremel to shave away some of the wood so the Hot Rails would fit.

I couldn't be happier with the results. I dig the sounds in all three positions, and the neck shape and size on this guitar is my favorite. If I ever had a custom Suhr built, I would send John this neck and have him digitally copy it.

Negatives: these guitars are known to sometimes have an issue with the high E being close to the edge of the fretboard, and this is one of those. it is not bad enough that it bothers me, just something I need to be aware of, and TBH I've been playing this guitar long enough that I don't really think about it.
Also, once the weather gets cold, I will bring it to my tech for a pro fret dress and setup, as there is a bit too much fret buzz in the higher end of the neck, and it is beyond my skill set to correct. Once that is taken care of, this guitar will be my ideal guitar, and what you could expect if a company was going to make me my own signature model.

[metalhobo]

nice! usually not into the tortoiseshell but the green looks killer. yeah the fender vs. j/c pickguard compatibility is something that has been noted before, I'm glad it was workable. the eight-hole looks good, too.

sucks about the alignment, I think it's just something that is a consequence of the heavily-rolled edges and the nut width as it seems so common. there's two things you can try to relieve it. one is, while the guitar is strung up, slightly loosen the four neck bolts and see if you can carefully shift the neck inside the pocket to correct the alignment. the second thing is, after retightening the neck bolts, to take the locks off the nut and with the strings tuned to pitch, loosen the screws holding the nut to the neck and see if you can shift the nut slightly. retighten the wood screws to the nut, but do not overtighten as this would shift the nut back to its original position.

[freedom's door]

nice! usually not into the tortoiseshell but the green looks killer. yeah the fender vs. j/c pickguard compatibility is something that has been noted before, I'm glad it was workable. the eight-hole looks good, too.

sucks about the alignment, I think it's just something that is a consequence of the heavily-rolled edges and the nut width as it seems so common. there's two things you can try to relieve it. one is, while the guitar is strung up, slightly loosen the four neck bolts and see if you can carefully shift the neck inside the pocket to correct the alignment. the second thing is, after retightening the neck bolts, to take the locks off the nut and with the strings tuned to pitch, loosen the screws holding the nut to the neck and see if you can shift the nut slightly. retighten the wood screws to the nut, but do not overtighten as this would shift the nut back to its original position.

Thanks, I've tried the neck shift, but not the nut. I appreciate the advice.

I've never seen the need for 11 screws for a pickguard- 8 is more than enough!

[Mudlark]

I think that looks sweet and I'm not in to pick guards.

What year is it? I thought the E string issue was solved years ago?

[Number Of The Priest]

I like it!

At the risk of suggesting something you might have already considered and tried... have you adjusted the fit of the neck in the neck pocket, as per the video linked below, to help your string alignment issue?

[freedom's door]

I think that looks sweet and I'm not in to pick guards. What year is it? I thought the E string issue was solved years ago?

Thanks!

I'm not sure of the year- I bought it from Sweetwater about 2 years ago, so unless it was old stock, it's a newer one. I was looking at the nut today and noticed that it doesn't seem perfectly centered, so I'm going to try metalhobo's advice and see if I can shift the nut a bit when I do the next string change.

[freedom's door]

I like it!

At the risk of suggesting something you might have already considered and tried... have you adjusted the fit of the neck in the neck pocket, as per the video linked below, to help your string alignment issue?

Thanks, I'm going to try both this and seeing if I can shift the nut the next time I change strings.

The guitar is playable as it is, but if get the strings more centered, it will be killer.

[rjohnstone]

Great guitars for modding.
Gave mine the chrome package.

[freedom's door]

I like it!

At the risk of suggesting something you might have already considered and tried... have you adjusted the fit of the neck in the neck pocket, as per the video linked below, to help your string alignment issue?

Hey man, I just wanted to thank you for this video. When I posted my last reply I hadn't watched it yet, but I took a look at it afterwards, and decided to try and shift the neck the way that guy demonstrated.
It made a huge difference, and the guitar plays like I want. Even the string buzz isn't as bad. I'm now in no rush to take it in for a setup, I''l probably wait until it needs a refret and maybe get SS frets put on.

This is now my favorite guitar, and I can't think of anything I would change about it.

Now I need to hunt down one of those gold finished AS models

[Number Of The Priest]

You're welcome. Glad it worked for you. It's a very useful skill for anyone who owns bolt-neck guitars, and especially important for people like me who disassemble bolt-neck guitars and need to ensure the string alignment is restored when reassembling.

[freedom's door]

I've decided that this guitar is my "experimenting" guitar, so I've been changing pickguards/pickups almost on a monthly basis.
Currently it has a PAF Master in the bridge, an FS-1 in the middle, and a Cruiser in the neck.
The graphic is just one of those laptop "skins" you can buy off of Amazon for $10.

[slayer]

That looks great!

[freedom's door]

That looks great!

Thanks man!

So far it's had a single hum (Tone Zone), the green guard in the OP, a black pearl H-S guard with an Invader and Cool Rails, another S-S-S with three FS-1's, and now this one.
I'm not an expert using an X-Acto to trim the graphics, but they come out good enough for my purposes.
I do dig the idea of having different guards with different pickup configurations to swap in and out depending on my mood.

[slayer]

Thanks man!

So far it's had a single hum (Tone Zone), the green guard in the OP, a black pearl H-S guard with an Invader and Cool Rails, another S-S-S with three FS-1's, and now this one.
I'm not an expert using an X-Acto to trim the graphics, but they come out good enough for my purposes.
I do dig the idea of having different guards with different pickup configurations to swap in and out depending on my mood.

Having different loaded pickguards is great for options. I`m a single bridge pickup only guy, but options are cool!

[freedom's door]

Having different loaded pickguards is great for options. I`m a single bridge pickup only guy, but options are cool!

Yeah, at this point I have three loaded guards that I can just switch in and out. The only thing is that you have to remove the neck to get the pickguard off if there's a nick pickup, otherwise it would be a 10 minute job just to switch them out.
I actually just put the black guard back on the other day:



The Cool Rails is my favorite of all the different Rail pickups I've tried in the neck position, and the Invader is great. This has the Lynch push/pull knob switching for simplicity.