As some may remember, I picked up a Jackson soloist a while back. It came with the Jackson active pickups. They sounded like, well, like ass. No note separation, dull tone, yada, yada, yada. The layout is H-S-S. I had a Duncan JB lying around and bought a set of Lace Holy Grail's from a guy online. The Lace's arrived and naturally they won't fit in the Jackson because the single coil spots aren't routed to accomodate the lip overhang on typical strat pickups. Argh. So I scrounged around a bit and tore apart a Strat I had and came up with a Little '59 in the neck, a neck JB Jr. for the middle, and the full size JB for the bridge. I wired it with a strat superswitch and a Fender TBX pot I had lying around so the positions are:
1) JB bridge
2) JB bridge tapped + JB middle
3) JB bridge tapped + '59 neck tapped
4) '59 neck tapped + JB middle
5) '59 neck
500k master volume, position 1 has a standard 500k tone pot - I'm not sure what the value of the tone pot is - I couldn't read the darn thing in the low light I was working in (or is it that I'm approaching 40 and it's time to face reality [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] ). Positions 2-5 have the TBX pot - this works remarkably well.
Anyway, tonewise it's got a great humbucker chunk in the bridge, nice full Strat-ish squack tones in 2 and 4, 3 is a very cool almost Tele tone, and a fat bluesy position 5. Before I heard it, I was figuring I'd eventually be yanking the JB Jr. in the middle for a single coil but as it turns out I'm very happy with it as is - this combo is a keeper.
My Les Paul and PRS are now jealous because this thing sounds so good that I am neglecting them. [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
BTW, the Strat is happy because it received the Holy Grail's and they sound great!
1) JB bridge
2) JB bridge tapped + JB middle
3) JB bridge tapped + '59 neck tapped
4) '59 neck tapped + JB middle
5) '59 neck
500k master volume, position 1 has a standard 500k tone pot - I'm not sure what the value of the tone pot is - I couldn't read the darn thing in the low light I was working in (or is it that I'm approaching 40 and it's time to face reality [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] ). Positions 2-5 have the TBX pot - this works remarkably well.
Anyway, tonewise it's got a great humbucker chunk in the bridge, nice full Strat-ish squack tones in 2 and 4, 3 is a very cool almost Tele tone, and a fat bluesy position 5. Before I heard it, I was figuring I'd eventually be yanking the JB Jr. in the middle for a single coil but as it turns out I'm very happy with it as is - this combo is a keeper.
My Les Paul and PRS are now jealous because this thing sounds so good that I am neglecting them. [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
BTW, the Strat is happy because it received the Holy Grail's and they sound great!
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