Soloist question...

[The Eristic]

Does anyone own the book "The History of the American Guitar" by Tony Bacon? Near the end of the book, there is a yellow Soloist from 1985. It has what appears to be a Hot Rails-style pickup at the neck, with an oblong surround, which I think is uber-cool. Now, I've not seen another with that surround, so can you tell me if that was custom (or a mod), or available on a stock model? If it was a stock feature, how much should that variation of soloist cost nowadays? (Btw, my Soloist history is wanting, so if there's anything obvious I've missed, could you fill me in?)

Thanks,
Joseph [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[charvel750]

Re: Soloist question...

All Soloists prior to 1990 were full custom creations. There were no stock options, everything was done to the customer's specs. There were commonalities, but all were truly one of a kind creations.

I have seen the one you speak of. Those single coil bezel rings were not the norm, but they were not uncommon either. Carvin guitars used them heavily from the early 80's for about a decade. That Jackson had to have been asked for that way.

[The Eristic]

Re: Soloist question...

Ok, thanks a lot for that info. I had suspected it was custom, because I couldn't find a lot of info on it, but I didn't know they were all custom.

Well, one more guitar to track down. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Jim Shine]

Re: Soloist question...

Even BC Rich used those rings for a while. I remember using those on a few guitars that featured Strat style single coil routes (with the triangular wire eyelet route) to hide the excess routing when using a EMG or stacked humbucker that didn't have that triangular area, and also to give the performance of pickguard style pickup adjusting on a non-pickguard guitar. AllParts still sells these, although I believe the ones you are talking about were slightly different in shape.



[ April 22, 2003, 10:55 AM: Message edited by: Jim Shine ]