Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey guys,
I'm beginning a new electric guitar project. The body is going to be shaped like a PRS, but for tone, I'm hoping to be able to have LP and Fender tone. What pickup combo would make the most sense? Humbuckers at the bridge and neck, and a single coil in between, or what? So far I've done only LP's, so I have zero experience with single coil pickups or Fenders in general.

Thanks,
Phillip

_________________
Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

Well, if you want the twangy Tele sound, I'd go with a Tele bridge and humbucker neck.
Or, you could go with Tele neck and humbucker bridge.
A simple two-way toggle switch.
I guess it depends on the type of music you play.
For thrash, I'd go with a humbucker bridge.
Dan

_________________
wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

P-90's....

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

there ya go!

_________________
wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

You could do a Jimi Page setup too. Lots of possible combos splitting humbuckers, running them parallel, out of phase, single coil, series etc all from using push/pull pots. heres a link to some wiring diagrams. http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/custom- ... -help.html

_________________
Jason Moe
LaCrosse WI 54601

Phillip since you don't have much experience with Fender I thought it might be worth mentioning that
the scale length difference between the LP and Strat/Tele is a major difference to the sound....with any guitar really but
the design differences between (well known) Gibson with short scale/angled neck and Fender with long scale non-angled neck are IMO much like
the difference between double/single coil pups.

One of these days, I want to make a bench guitar that will allow pickup placement and wiring testing.
Maybe I'll butcher one of my old builds. Should be able to hack out a chunk of the body between neck and bridge to leave a large open area.

_________________
wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

Which Fender sound are you looking for? Strat, Tele, Jazzmaster? The main guitar I build is a Tele, but my favorite pickup combo has been PAF humbucker in the neck, tele bridge pickup, and a 25" scale length (which is the PRS scale).

Out of this combo you can get some fantastic LP neck sounds while still keeping that tele twang in the bridge. The middle position is my favorite because you get the full, fat tone of the neck with the bite of the bridge. It's pretty much my favorite combo now. You could add a coil tap to the neck if you wanted.

If you're looking for strat, single-coil quack and LP sounds, then go with P90s as mentioned earlier.

A 5 position rotary switch and a pair of humbuckers much like a PRS can give a lot of tonal options depending on how you split and pair the coils.

_________________
Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

One of the issues with mixing Singles and Humbuckers is string spacing If you are going to do that I'd suggest blade style pickups .

The TV Jones Supertrons are sublime , sparkle , and killer when driven . If you want a bit more spank try Joe Barden , he made the pickups for Danny Gatton

I'm with Brian on this, I've used the five way rotary on my first two and it gives some great, distinct tones. I wouldn't go with high output pickups though as the difference in positions becomes less noticeable.