Help me, please!

[corsair]

Excellent! Now, the Firebird + reverse Firebird is out 'cause I don't like the shape and I have a bass that doesn't get played as it is so, no, there as well!

However, the PBG-2 is worth a look as is Weirdbits suggestion of modifying a TL-1TB - I hadn't thought of doing such a modification, oddly, and such a mod holds no terrors for this princess! The only fly in the ointment is that I no longer have a router but that's a minor issue...

Plenty to be going on with! Cheers, fellas!! Thank you, one and all!

[corsair]

How about this....

TL-1TB, 70's headstock, reversed. Control cavity filled and a new one routed from the back. P90 at the neck, Tonerider ACII (?) with series/parallel/coil split switching at the bridge.... Locking tuners. Kluson modern string trees - if needed. No Bigsby, through-body stringing.

Unsure of colour scheme, but possibly a burst of some kind? Gotta be a solid colour to camouflage the filled-in front control panel. Headstock colour matched to body.

All improvements/suggestions welcomed!!

Still humming and hawing about this; unsure how the boss will view another guitar when I Have 20+ that are in storage...

[Simon Barden]

Sounds good. You could enquire about a custom order with no pickup or control cavity routing. You can then do all your own and it would make it a lot easier to do a sunburst then.

Not sure if I would go for an ACII for the bridge if I wanted to use a single coil tone a lot. It should be a clean sounding classic PAF tone, but with quite a low DC resistance, so splitting it makes for rather a weak sounding single coil. The parallel option should sound fairly close to the single coil sound.

I'd be tempted to go for something a bit hotter, so that the single coil output ends up more beefy. Though they were pretty characterless humbuckers, the Gibson ceramics that were originally in my LP did sound better when tapped than the Bareknuckle Mules that replaced them.

Or else spend more and go for something like the SD P-rails for a good single coil sound, a good p-90 sound and a good humbucker sound. They really are good, versatile pickups.

Maybe finish it in sea-foam green with flashing disco lights to give FrankenWashie nightmares?

[corsair]

Thanks, Simon - point taken re. h/b, and I'll have a look at the P-Rails, though this will be a budget instrument... sort-of!

Like the flashing lights idea; have actually looked into that once or twice...

Ideas on a finish, lads?? I'm clean out of ideas and the only thing I could come up with for this was sort sort of Paisley... *sigh* here's a quick mash-up of what I'm after...



I'm wondering, too, if a standard 5 way will give me the pickup combinations without resorting to pull pots or mini switches??

[WeirdBits]

The standard 5-way is pretty limited when it comes alternative switching options with 2V 2T. You'd probably need a Grigsby style 2 or 4 pole 5-way to get some/all of your options. Instead, two linked push/pulls would give you all the bridge pup options (series, parallel, inner coil, outer coil) and a 3 or 4-way lever, or even a 3-way toggle, would then be all you need for the pup combinations.

[corsair]

Thanks for that, Scott. I had a sneaking feeling the standard 5 way might be a little limited in scope, but hope springs eternal, eh!! I suspect if this all goes ahead, the pull pots will be the way forward....

[WeirdBits]

I did a few diagrams for someone who wanted options for a Tele with a humbucker neck and single coil bridge, that included some with Grigsby 2 and 4 pole lever switches. They'd apply to your case as well, just with the single coil (P90) as the neck and hummy in the bridge, so it may give you some ideas.

Also, when you plug the 'front' of your control cavity you may want to include a section of maple or some other hardwood where you're going to cut the lever switch slot. That way it can be thinner and still provide more support than soft basswood. Actually, with the ply top on the TB-1TB it may not need it, but check the thickness with the lever switch shaft/lever for clearance.