Jackson SLAT3-7 Mod Step 4: Electronics
It’s good to be back posting regularly. Per the previous post, the next thing to do is wire up tho pickups and the electronics.
Here we go!
Musicologyee
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Jackson SLAT3-7 Mod Step 3: Pickup Prep and Installation
Alright, back at it.
I had originally planned to Dremel out the Jackson pickup routs for the mounting tabs of the BKP. This would require a steady hand and would be fairly obvious. I figured there was just too much room for error. Instead, I followed Marty Searing’s approach after all.
Let’s carry on…
Jackson SLAT3-7 Mod Step 1: Disassembly
A real step!!! YEAH! DOING STUFF!!! No, but seriously, I will finally present some pics and get things done instead of just musing on them. I have most of the goodies I need to get started. I have steadily been receiving parts—electronics, strings, Tremol-no, pickups, etc. This should be a nice change of pace from the previous, purely academic discussions and the pics should mostly speak for themselves, though there aren’t ones for every step because it was just not feasible. [Bear with me as I am not a studied photographer.]
Lots of the tricks I learned from observing the Floyd Upgrades videos and the Ultimate-Guitar forum setup threads. But I didn’t follow everything to the letter. Don’t know if my way is the best, but it seemed to more sense to me.
One last playtime before I move on. I was just playing unplugged in these photos, in case you’re wondering.
Jackson SLAT3-7 Mod Assessments pt. 2
As promised, here is part 2, the follow up to part 1.
Current Gear
I added a sidebar link to current gear.
Rewired Christine to fix a couple things. The photo is the “stock” diagram provided by Dimarzio. My further customization to produce further switching options requires one each of a 3PDT (on-on) and 4PDT (on-on, not Dimarzio on-on-on special switch). Unfortunately I am completely useless when it comes to drawing on a computer so I have just copied/pasted in MS paint. Hopefully this is legible.
I used the 3PDT for a “blower switch” feature, routing the bridge pickup direct to the output with no tone/volume in between. Essentially, this is like a full-blast solo setting with “memory”. You could have the neck pickup on and playing something with slightly lower volume and/or tone setting, then flick the blower and get all bridge. Tom Anderson and Suhr guitars both use this.
“Normal” mode allows switching as shown in the stock diagram, while the “strat” mode is exactly that—single coil in neck & bridge positions, parallel quack tones in 2 & 4. The middle pickup MUST be reverse wound, reverse polarity for this to work.
For the most part you would ignore the piezo switch if your guitar doesn’t have one and just tie the output of the 5-way switch to the input of the volume pot (lug 1 that goes to the tone pot). This would be much the same as the Dimarzio wiring.
The cap is a paper in oil .022u Russian part. The potentiometers are 500k audio tape Bourns type 95 Premium guitar pots. I also intended to add a 330k resistor to ground for “vintage voicing” but I believe the tones are already pretty convincing. I also would need one more pole on the strat switch, so that’s not going to happen. I think if I had spent more time rethinking this switching scheme, I could do it, but this is the least convoluted I could get if you can believe it.
Jackson SLAT3-7 Mod Assessments pt. 1
Hoping to update with further progress on the as yet unnamed Jackson, I thought I’d discuss the reasons for modifying each aspect, the thought process behind choosing components, tonal impressions before changes and my overall comments on the design of the guitar. I’ll probably throw in budgetary concerns as well. I try to discuss things categorically from top to bottom of the guitar, but also in logical order of priority, just as I methodically think through it myself. (I know, I know, “pics or it didn’t happen”.)
This ties in with the shopping I’ve been doing to get all these aspects “fixed”. I’m still waiting on some parts, so this should tide you over until I have a free weekend or at the least, a couple evenings. I’m a regular weekday worker so my progress on such projects is either in bursts or long and drawn out over what is probably months.
I’m splitting this up into a couple parts due to length. Here’s part 1…
About Musicologyee
A personal blog on grooves, gear, tech, and instruments
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