Change Electronics on Historics or no?

[pippy]

That's the thing for a question like this. There is no right or wrong answer...

This, of course, is absolutely correct.

There's no bad blood here. I respect what others choose to do with their own possessions...

I think we are all old enough and hope we are all wise enough to see this is the only logical standpoint.

...Why did you buy the guitar in the first place if you don't like the way it sounded?...

I am firmly in this camp myself.Although I would not be remotely averse to modifying an Historic if I felt it would improve the instrument I probably wouldn't have bought it in the first place if I wasn't 99.9% happy with how it sounded.

Pip.

Edited March 15, 2019 by pippy

[pauloqs]

I didn’t know some RI came with BB. Mine has CustomBuckers which I really like. I also like Bare Knuckle’s the Mule/Riff Raff or the Mule/Black Dog Neck/Bridge combos. Personally, I wouldn’t swap any of the other electronics, just the pickups. Furthermore, for a custom shop guitar, I would go all out with the pickups and either get the 57 Classic/classic+ or custombucker, if he can find a used pair, or either one of aforementioned Bare Knuckes combos. Though, I’d probably lean the BK route.

[Col Mustard]

I've said this in other similar threads

but if you bought a custom shop guitar and paid the premium price

for it, and then you find fault with it...

 

What I think you should do is sell that guitar unmodified to someone

who values it more than you do. Don't mod it, sell it, and use the money

to buy what you really want.

 

There is no reason for any Gibson guitar pickups to sound 'too bright"

or 'too muddy" or what. Gibson pickups are accurate. The tone achieved

by the player is a combination of many factors, beginning with the pick he

selects, (or his bare fingers) and continuing through all the magnetics and

electronics and output through the speakers he chose to install in the amp

he chose to play.

 

If you can't figure out how to find your tone with a Gibson Custom shop guitar,

then I recommend you sell that immediately to someone who can. Then use

the money to go on your quest. Go where they sell them...Play as many as they'll

let you. Buy the one that comes alive in your hands. That's the only way to find

the right guitar. Because with Gibsons, it doesn't matter if it's a custom shop

guitar or an SG faded special... One will be a clunker, and one will be gold.

 

And there's really no way to know, until you play it. Play a lot of them, and one will

emerge as THE ONE. It might surprise you, and be of much more humble origins.

But still a Gibson. It really doesn't matter if a guitar was made in the custom shop,

if it doesn't come alive in your hands when you play it.

 

Players like me regard the Custom Shop as a con game.

All Gibsons are excellent. Custom Shop makes instruments for guys that can afford to

pay extra for the same thing the rest of us already have. *shrugs

You don't have to believe me. Just go on the personal quest that I recommend, and make

up your own mind.

 

But before you do, unload the Custom Shop guitar that doesn't please you.

Unload it without devaluing it by ill considered modifications. Somewhere there is a player who

would respect that instrument much more than you do. Find that person, and get their money,

and turn over the Gibson, and let it all go. Then begin your quest in person. I predict that you'll

have a lot of fun in the search, and you'll end up with something that makes your music

soar like an eagle.

[Black Dog]

 

What I think you should do is sell that guitar unmodified to someone

who values it more than you do. Don't mod it, sell it, and use the money

to buy what you really want.

 

 

Hey there Col. I guess i'll take a couple more postmortem kicks at the horse.

 

I don't disagree with your overall sentiment about this. But, my answers are largely based on the fact that the OP said he'll never sell the guitar.

 

I agree that I never would have bought it if it didn't sound good when i played it. I'd have just kept shopping, but that wasn't what he asked.

 

As for the opinion that a Custom Shop Historic is just a USA guitar with a different price tag, I'll have to respectfully disagree on that.

 

Jam on.

 

 

 

[Col Mustard]

sorry I repeated myself...

I musta been dreaming about people tearing down beautiful guitars...

 

Love this from Black Dog:

 

"They take a perfectly good historic, take it apart completely, strip the finish, re-carve the top and neck,

change the fretboard and put it all back together claiming it's even more historic than when it was historic ...

 

Of course, that was for the older generation historic's which were less historic than the current historic's.

Nothing is more historic than the current historic's.

 

To get anything more historic now you'll need a time machine."

 

Love it love it.

 

And yeah, it's always the privelege of the OP or anybody else to make up their own mind

and do as they wish. Be well, play loud...

Edited March 24, 2019 by Col Mustard

[justtryme]

So what would happen if the OP does change it out for himself and keeps the original stuff in a box somewhere if the guitar will sound better after the alteration? It is his guitar and if he is planning on keeping it what difference does it make? I am thinking of putting an upgraded pre wired set of emerson pot harness in mine with different caps. I do not see the big deal if the OP is going to keep the guitar.

 

 

EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[justtryme]

I didn’t know some RI came with BB. Mine has CustomBuckers which I really like. I also like Bare Knuckle’s the Mule/Riff Raff or the Mule/Black Dog Neck/Bridge combos. Personally, I wouldn’t swap any of the other electronics, just the pickups. Furthermore, for a custom shop guitar, I would go all out with the pickups and either get the 57 Classic/classic+ or custombucker, if he can find a used pair, or either one of aforementioned Bare Knuckes combos. Though, I’d probably lean the BK route.

 

Yes I think your right, its the custombuckers I dislike, the burstbuckers I despise.

Thanks for that clarification

[justtryme]

I've said this in other similar threads

but if you bought a custom shop guitar and paid the premium price

for it, and then you find fault with it...

 

What I think you should do is sell that guitar unmodified to someone

who values it more than you do. Don't mod it, sell it, and use the money

to buy what you really want.

 

There is no reason for any Gibson guitar pickups to sound 'too bright"

or 'too muddy" or what. Gibson pickups are accurate. The tone achieved

by the player is a combination of many factors, beginning with the pick he

selects, (or his bare fingers) and continuing through all the magnetics and

electronics and output through the speakers he chose to install in the amp

he chose to play.

 

If you can't figure out how to find your tone with a Gibson Custom shop guitar,

then I recommend you sell that immediately to someone who can. Then use

the money to go on your quest. Go where they sell them...Play as many as they'll

let you. Buy the one that comes alive in your hands. That's the only way to find

the right guitar. Because with Gibsons, it doesn't matter if it's a custom shop

guitar or an SG faded special... One will be a clunker, and one will be gold.

 

And there's really no way to know, until you play it. Play a lot of them, and one will

emerge as THE ONE. It might surprise you, and be of much more humble origins.

But still a Gibson. It really doesn't matter if a guitar was made in the custom shop,

if it doesn't come alive in your hands when you play it.

 

Players like me regard the Custom Shop as a con game.

All Gibsons are excellent. Custom Shop makes instruments for guys that can afford to

pay extra for the same thing the rest of us already have. *shrugs

You don't have to believe me. Just go on the personal quest that I recommend, and make

up your own mind.

 

But before you do, unload the Custom Shop guitar that doesn't please you.

Unload it without devaluing it by ill considered modifications. Somewhere there is a player who

would respect that instrument much more than you do. Find that person, and get their money,

and turn over the Gibson, and let it all go. Then begin your quest in person. I predict that you'll

have a lot of fun in the search, and you'll end up with something that makes your music

soar like an eagle.

 

 

Oh make no mistake I found the right guitar.

It just has the wrong pickups in it.

[01GT eibach]

Oh, make no mistake; I found the right guitar. It just has the wrong pickups in it.

I don't know if I have ever thought "this is the right" guitar when I hate the pickups in it. Just one opinion, though ...

[merciful-evans]

 

Of course, that was for the older generation historic's which were less historic than the current historic's. Nothing is more historic than the current historic's.

 

 

 

so the prehistorics are older than the posthistorics but with a smaller historical quotient. Meaning the prehistoric is more novel than the posthistoric. Its like some hysterical novel?!