Jackson San Dimas (Adrian Smith) Mod Thread:

Inspector #20

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Wanted to create a thread for the tone modifications I have planned for this guitar.

My biggest, and really only desire this far, is to change the tone somewhat. The single coils are noisy and very low output compared to the DP-100 in the bridge. They produce an incredible Wolftone which persists even when dropping the pickups and that includes the DP-100.

Digging through my old storage bins, I found a GFS pickguard (with 2004 receipt still in the box) that contains a 13.5k double slug, wax potted humbucker and two - experimental at the time - hum canceling single coils that would later become known as Tru-Coils. They use Alnico II slug magnets and a very thin, second coil affixed to the bottom of the pickup. The middle is 10k and the neck is 7k respectively.

The pots are 500k Alphas and the switch is also an Alpha. I modified the wiring some years back to give tone control over the bridge.

I found a really nice HSS/FR pickguard from Stratosphere, that has a black/red/black color combination. I only need to trim the .015" aluminum RFI shield slightly to fit the Floyd Rose.

I will replace the single. 022uf K40Y with two 0.01uf box-type tone caps, which should be an interesting modification on the shared tone circuits.

More to follow...

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Zoom in on that register receipt!@@!

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Hey, Robert....

If you haven't closed things up yet, can you post a side view of the neck and middle pickups?

Do you know the measurement from top to bottom of the pickup?
 
Hey, Robert....

If you haven't closed things up yet, can you post a side view of the neck and middle pickups?

Do you know the measurement from top to bottom of the pickup?

They have been altered, but the single coils will produce Wolftones flush with the pickguard, but they also have vintage 1950's stagger, which is totally wrong.
 
I had a Dimarzio SD and 2 singles. It was too unbalanced. I ended up switching it to HH. I'm considering switching to SSS. I just can't leave that guitar alone for too long.
 
Not sure about the currently available hum cancelling pickups from GFS, but these 2004 models had virtually zero stagger, which is great for getting closer to the strings..

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Note the pickup screws have not been countersunk yet and the second coil can be clearly seen on the bottom of the pickup.
 
This guitar is hands-down my absolute favorite, most comfortable to grab out of my entire collection. It's always in the stand, plugged in and ready to go.

It's every bit as good a player as my Schecter C1 "Number-One" but it has a more forgiving finish...
 
Glad to hear it is to your liking; I know you are very clear on your preferences.

But,

Is not the *gulp* 25.5" scale a big Debbie Downer for you?

It's definitely noticeable - greater string tension at a given tuning than a 24.75" - and it's certainly twangier in general, but I chose 100% tuning stability under all conditions over my scale length preference...
 
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