My quest for the all in guitar

[x24]

Hello, long time lurker, first time poster ;)

 

I currently have an Epi Les Paul Traditional PRO and I'm pretty much just a bedroom guitarist. I've played back in highschool and I'm just trying to get back to playing again after 2 decades. I gifted myself with a nice LP to replace the knock off I had back in the day. I can't really have multiple guitars since budget/space/skills does not allow nor justify it. So I was thinking of making my LP into the all-it-can be guitar.

 

Here's what I have in it so far:

- A Tronical tuner - retunes it instantly, no need to keep a separate guitar just to have different tunings, and quickly for that matter (just lazy to retune manually).

- Bigsby B7 - I love the look of the Bigsby so I've put it on using a Vibramate, in case I decide to take it off.

- a roller bridge to go with the Bigsby.

- The Trad PRO comes with coil-split pickups, so I have that humbucking and single coil style tones.

- Everything else is pretty much stock

 

What I've been thinking is I'd like to have active pickups as well. But that pretty much means settling for that, leaving behind the normal coil-split humbuckers. Having both means they have to be on two guitars. I didn't want active on the bridge, passive on the neck config, like others have done. Knowing that there are single slot humbuckers and single slot active pickups. Can I have both on a regular humbucker slot?

 

After searching around, I have seen people put two single slot pickups in a single humbucker slot, with a modified pickup ring to accommodate the extra screws. Here's one setup from the manufacturer directly, although without using rings:

 

 

So basically I'd like a single slot active pickup and a single slot humbucker combo, both on the neck and bridge position. One of which would be in white, to keep the zebra look. BUT, the usage will be just either actives only or passives only (neck,bridge,neck+bridge). An active and passive pickup cannot be on at the same time. Thinking about this further, here are the things that need to be considered:

 

1. Body modifications may be required

- The cavities may not be wide enough for single slot pickups.

- Pickup rings will need drilling.

- Rear electronic cavity may need to be routed more for extra controls.

 

2. Wiring will be the biggest challenge!!!

- Active pickups use different pots than passive ones - this is the main challenge. Do we end up with 8 knobs? I tried looking for different pots that can work to keep this from happening.

- We'll need a way to toggle between active and passive. We can probably use a small toggle switche and place it behind the bridge, much like Neal Schon's, or maybe have the switch on the pickup rings much like on SD Triple Shots.

 

We might need some wiring wizardy to make this as neat as possible, or even possible at all. I've looked into Dual-ganged pots, switching ones, dual control ones, etc. You might be thinking, with all the pickups to be used, the parts and special wiring, the costs may just lead to just getting another guitar. Just the Tronical tuner itself costs as much as a decent guitar anyway. So I thought might as well go crazy on it and go further.

 

What do you guys think?

[LPS1976]

I think my head just exploded! :)

 

with all of that work and new electronics; wouldn't it be easier to just get a used guitar with active electronics? I know you said you didn't want multiple guitars but 2 should be ok.

 

I don't know. I wish I had some ideas for you. sounds like an epic modification. I wish you luck!

[Parabar]

There is no such thing as an all-in-one guitar. No matter how many variables you include, some will have to be left out.

 

The closest you could come would be something like a Line 6 Variax, but even that doesn't cover ALL the bases.

[x24]

I actually forgot to mention adding a piezo bridge pickup as well, to add to the insanity. I may be the first person to try this out, but not any time soon though. It might get messy but who knows.

[kidblast]

the only product that I've ever seen come even "close" to what you are talking about is this

 

https://deanzelinsky.com/guitars/lavoce/lavoce-z-glide-custom

 

Check the demos,, they are pretty impressive for the money, no active pickups but just about everything you could want or need..

 

 

and by the time you are done buying stuff to mod that les paul with, you probably would have spent at least the cash that you'd need to spend to own this guitar (I actually think you are looking at more money than even what this would cost)

[x24]

I'll probably just skip the piezo bridge as I don't want to mess around with blending and such.

 

I found this in stewmac though, it would probably help with the switching end of things.

 

Free-Way Pickup Switch

http://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and_Electronics/Components_and_Parts/Free-Way_Pickup_Switch.html

 

Positions 1-3 could control the passives, 4-6 for the actives.

 

At least I know now there are options such as this. I'll continue researching.

[mirrorboy]

Use the low impedance volume and tone to control the active pickups and the other high impedance volume and tone to control the passive pickups. Forget the coil split switching as it would really be a redundancy issue if you plan on using that mix of pickups you proposed.

 

Good luck!

[x24]

I could just leave the coil split function for the passive humbuckers though.

 

Anyway, I believe the only way of making this work the easy way is to go with a single tone and volume pots for the passive and active sets. No more separate controls for neck and bridge. I could do mismatched knobs much like on Bonamassa's LP.

 

So basically it will be 2 sets of [2 hum,1 vol,1 tone,3 way switch,1 push/pull] setup but instead of the 3 Way, it will be the 6way using the Free-way switch.

[ErickC]

I had an idea for a quick-change system for pickups on a flat-top type guitar, say, an LP special, where the pickguard would be split into two parts, one with the electronics, and one with the pickups mounted. Inside the E&E bay there'd be some alligator clips, and you'd have a different secondary pickguard to fit differing pickup types (humbucker, P90, et c). You'd just unscrew the secondary guard, slide it out with the pickups attached, unclip the leads, clip the new pickup leads on, slide it back in, adjust the height, and go. It'd be far simpler than the way Gibson does it on the demo guitars they have (which utilise body pieces that slide in and out!). You could connect the pickups to the clips any way you wanted, say, if you wanted the polarity reversed on one pickup. You'd still be stuck with one scale length, though!

[Pete B]

Didn't one of the Epiphone Prophesy's have active/passive pickups?

 

 

[Edit]

I did put a piezo bridge in one of my SG's. Without adding extra pot holes, you just turn your humbuckers to a two pot control system.

 

[Edit again]

I did have an Idea for an almost instant different guitar.

You would need the following:-

 

A stop tail bridge

Pickups and controls mounted in your pickguard (strat style)

An easy release plug for your output jack

A way of using small neodymium magnets for mounting your pickguard.

 

So, Loosen strings, unscrew stoptail, move strings out of the way, lift up pickguard, unplug it from the jack socket.

Reverse procedure for mounting the new one. Quick tune up, job done.