A while ago we collaborated with Seymour Duncan's user forum and raffled off a prize. We offered to do a complete set-up on a guitar—any guitar! Seymour threw in a pair of custom-wound pickups that would be tailored to the needs of the owner, and they were to be installed in our shop.
Then something special happened. The winner wanted to donate the prize to another forum member who was having some medical problems, and the love just starting pouring in. The consensus was so strong from fellow forumites that the deal was sealed, and arrangements were made.
The new recipient of the set-up prize sent us his 2000 Gibson 335. That's right, we specified that we'd set up any guitar and that meant any brand—we're guitar lovers here, and that extends to all kinds. We don't usually do repair work, but restoration is where we came from so it was a bit like old times.
To be honest, when the guitar arrived it sounded great and played pretty well. I might have just left it as it was. It was loaded with Tom Holmes humbuckers which we've used before and they're top shelf. We'd discussed some of the issues and drawbacks of the guitars current configuration and Seymour came up with a plan. The pickups, based on the SLU neck and the Antiquity bridge were voiced to add tightness to the overall sound, and the decision to use Seymour's "Triple Shot" switching system surrounds would add a whole new world of tones to the guitar. When they arrived we noticed that they'd been engraved: "Lovebucker".
Once we'd gotten the guitar apart, the first thing we did was have Dave go over the frets and take any grooving out. He re-crowned and polished the frets up nicely. That would take care of the slight buzzing that the owner had mentioned. After cleaning and oiling the fingerboard, Dave sent it over to the other end of the room to Todd.
The next step was for Todd to make a wiring loom that would fit into the guitar, and accommodate the Triple Shot switching. I gave him some pointers on how to do a 335, and suggested a teflon coated hookup coax with a braided shield covered in white insulation. It's a nice blend of old school and new tech. The bonus is twofold: it is a small diameter and very flexible which is good for a 335 and it is already insulated so we could do away with the messy shrink tubes that Gibson uses. The result would be very tidy and not as visible through the f-hole. We also put in a new switch.
The owner and I had discussed using oil filled caps, so I gave Todd some Angelas from my stash, with a value of .010 mfd. I figured that would add some nice honk if needed, seeing how the Triple Shots would give the option of twang. The Bridge pickup had alnico II magnets so I figured things would get interesting.
When Todd had things pretty well buttoned up, I did my final tweaking and found that the G string saddle needed to be turned around to get it to intonate properly. There are some disadvantages to the fret spacing on these guitars—I'd almost forgotten about how I re-calibrated our positions for modern strings, but all in all it intonated a lot better when we were done.
The results were quite apparent. The guitar fingered a bit better, and chords were more true up the neck. The tightness of the Lovebuckers was readily heard, making each note ring out in chords as opposed to being slurred. Pushing a Fender Tremolux a bit in the normal channel with the guitar's volume backed off slightly allowed single notes to sound round and full with a good bit of clarity that was missing before. When two or more notes were played, a nice bit of distortion could be coaxed to color the sound and give it edge. Popping the volume up on the guitar resulted in a nice lead tone without giving up to fluttery bottom. The pickups seemed to be doing exactly what Seymour had intended.
The Triple Shot surrounds were an interesting addition. Each bezel has two small slider switches that control the coils on the pickups. I was able to put either pickup into parallel or split coil configurations independently. Being a single-coil fan, this made the guitar come alive for me. The neck humbucker was fat and round—great for single note passages when distorted, but in the parallel mode, the chime really made me smile. The middle position with both pickups on became almost frustrating as there were so many options, all of them good, that it was hard to pick a favorite. I guess in a live or recording context, you'd know right away. Playing through my first generation Matchless DC30 really showed off what this setup could do, and I didn't want to stop.
All too soon it was time to pack up the guitar and get it out in time for Christmas, but it definitely left me thinking about a new guitar design to build. That's why I like all guitars, they open up doors to new rooms—or in this case old rooms with a new twist. Thanks to the Duncan team and the users forum (a great bunch of guitar fans) what a great story. To our winner—be well and enjoy, my friend!
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