odibrom
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I love all of this minus the pickup rings, why, why pickup rings on that 7 stringer? IMO it makes the guitar look cheap...
..............
Ok, my turn now... previously known as MIJ Ibanez RG7421... I'm not sure if I've posted this one here already, sorry if it's a duplicated post...
Here's my RG7421 with the same wiring approach, all the same combos as yours + Graphtech Ghost piezos, which makes 145 different tones to mess with.
And its controls (old photo)...
By the time this photo was taken, the controls worked like indicated in the picture, but that was because the pickups were rotated 180º. Now, the outer and inner coils controls are swapped and the pickups are custom Alnico 5 loaded ones for a mid/high output. The Kill switch is'n't working properly and I don't really like it as it makes a bit of noise. First time I re-wired this guitar and a few others, I also installed push/pull pots, but moved away from them pretty fast. They're cool for pretty guitars, but for those guitars that are racing machines, no thanks, get me switches...
Tip, for out-of-phase humbucking tones with one coil from each pickup, use the coils with the same polarity, like both North or both South.
The actual pickups look like this:
These are headless screws with a point tip, inserted upside down. Compared to its original screws, these kind of focus a bit more each string's capture, while the original screws gave the pickup a bit more rawness... I love the look of the pickups in the photo, but those screws can't be out much nor I dig when picking or they'll start to scratch my picking hand... some particularities that we only understand once we experience them...
The back of the headstock...
Mods of this lady here are (from head to bottom):
1 - Open gear locking tuners from Hipshot + open gear locking X-tender on the 7th string for precise and quick drop A (not that I use it much though)
2 - Graphtech graphite nut
3 - Stainless steel frets
4 - Custom wound Alnico 5 pickups.
5 - Graphtech Ghost piezos with the Acousti-phonic preamp
6 - Crazy ass wiring
7 - Hand / brush made paint job.
8 - Battery box installed, but not pictured...
All mods by me except for the Stainless Steel frets and Graphite nut. I routed a small channel beneath the bridge to collect all the piezo wires and then rout them into the main cavity. I also had to carve a bit the inside of the main cavity in order to fit the Freeway 3X3-05 Ultra switch. Other than that, its cavity retains its original size. I had to enlarge the jack channel and therefore also had to get a new jackplate, but at the time I hadn't any, so I made one with what I had at hand, it works properly, so, move along...
The cavity is tighter than an egg. I use PCB connectors in order to have the circuit modular, so I can swap or replace parts when needed without soldering inside. here's how it looks.
... and the Graphtech's preamp fits inside the jack cavity without any mod...
I have some photos of the guitar pre-assembling... original paint stripped out and piezo wires' channel routed.
The red-ish paint was desired to be transparent, but did I know about re-finishing guitars back in late 2000's? I like its looks so, move along...
