One of the new models, but not a new axe, I got a deal from a local guy here whose eBay auction bids didn't meet his minimum. I contacted him and offered him slightly less than his minimum, saying I had the cash in hand, but I was only interested if I could pick it up in person, and save shipping. He was agreeable, so we met in the parking lot of the La Mesa Guitar Center, of all places, and done the deal. It had a few dings on the back, yes, but it was in pretty nice shape overall and came with the nice gigbag, so I was pleased with my purchase.
Now, these guitars have a reputation of not staying in tune, and my first look at the setup on this one hinted at a possible reason why. The neck had a bit too much relief, and the tune-o-matic saddle adjustments were quite exagerated. I guess we'll see if that's a myth I can bust!
The first thing I went after was the trussrod, and in a few minutes I had the neck relief the way I like it - practically FLAT! After that, I hit the nut (they're NEVER cut correctly), the bridge height and intonation, and amazingly, in less that an hour, I had the axe playing beautifully - AND staying in tune, even with the stock "tulip" Klusons. The neck on these is a bit "flexy", like the SG, but with my light playing touch, I don't think that will be an issue. The faded finish - or should I say, lack of finish! - responded nicely to a rub of lemon oil, making the red a little deeper and richer-looking. I actually gigged with this bad boy the VERY NEXT DAY, and it was a hit with my bandmates.
BTW, Mychael told me I'd have to dress a little more "pimped up" to play an axe like this, and so here I am, just before I left for the gig.
The one thing that I really noticed at the gig was that this axe seemed to have a "harsher" (to my ears) sound than my ES-333 (with Seymour Duncans) or my LP Studio (Gibson 490R and 498T). I'm certain that this is because these come loaded with Gibson's cermaic magnet humbuckers, with a 496R in the neck spot and a 500T in the bridge spot, where my other favorite Gibsons have alnico magnets. Gibson says that the ceramic magnets have "cutting power" and "add highs with increased definition and no muddiness" - OK, I believe 'em. I have considered re-pupping this guy, and it may come to that, but for now, I'm trying a different solution.
As with all my Gibson humbuckered axes, I opened up these pups and added a coil-shunt lead for each. However, instead of the usual p/p, I decided to to use one of my "FAT-O" rotary switches, and wired it in a unique way: notch #1, normal humbuckers (no coil-shunt); notch #3 I wired as regular coil-shunt* (both pups); but for notch #2, I jumpered the two shunt leads together - what this does is play the bridge humbucker with ONE coil of the neck pup in parallel, and plays the the neck humbucker with one coil of the bridge pup in parallel. Just thought I'd give it a try...
So, in the new experimental #2 notch, I don't notice any change in the "both" position of the 3-way pup selector, but it certainly mellows the bridge-only and neck-only throws with a bit of a "cluck" - kind of a both-pups-on tone, but it's different for each pup. It is more noticable on the neck pup, I ASSUME because the bridge pup in this axe is wound way-hot. I'll play it this way for a while, and see if it works better on stage for me... Because, dang it, if I repup this axe with alnicos, I'm afraid it will lose its identity, and I'll just have another Gibbie that sounds like my other Gibbies - and where's the fun in that? This way, it keeps the snarl and snap of the stock ceramics, but I can turn the rotary and tone it down a tad, if I feel the need.
As a "side effect" of the rotary replacing the single tone pot, I wired the other two pots as a master volume and tone, subbing in an Orange Drop .022mf cap for the cheapo mini-cap that Gibson used. As with all my favorite mods, it's completely "invisible" - I put the tone knob back on the rotary, and the guitar just looks stock. With no new holes, it could easily be rewired back to stock if desired.
I'm still playing it with the strings the previous owner had on it - my best guess is that they're Ernie Ball .010's - and I'll probably be switching to my standard .009's after these are used up. When I lowered the stop tailpiece all the way down (I'm an old fart, and that's where we all thought they needed to be for max sustain), I noticed that a few of the strings are hitting the back of the bridge, so they have a "double break-over." Hmmmmm... To address this, when I finally do change the strings, I think I'll try the controversial "over the top/back wrap" on the stop tailpiece so that they'll clear the back of the bridge, and see what all the noise concerning that stringing technique is about. Stay tuned!
Overall, I'm very pleased with this guitar. Judging from this model, it seems to me that the "faded" specials might just be an easy and inexpensive way to get with Gibson...
* NOTE: As with all the Gibbie humbuckers I've modified, to keep the screw coil active you have to shunt to HOT, not GROUND (same as Seymour Duncan).
March 2008: I finally DID do a pickup swap, installing a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates Plus in the bridge and a DiMarzio DP 103 in the neck. Both pups have AlNiCo V magnets and modern four-conductor leads, so I rewired the rotary to give me the common options: humbuckers/coil-shunts/series-out of phase. Both pickups have white bobbins, which look nice on the white pickguard. Since I'm no longer gigging, I can't really give any "under fire" impressions yet, but I'm sure I'll be pleased with the results of this swap. Pics coming soon...