Fuzzy John Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 My Riviera P93 and I just had our first anniversary. To celebrate I gave it a new wiring harness made by myself, new pots, switch jack and humbucker pickups. Sounds much better than the original pickups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pesh Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 My Riviera P93 and I just had our first anniversary. To celebrate I gave it a new wiring harness made by myself, new pots, switch jack and humbucker pickups. Sounds much better than the original pickups. An interesting array of pickups; please do tell what they are? And what wiring scheme have you put in for the new setup? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sleeko Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 What a beautiful guitar. Love the color! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuzzy John Posted October 16, 2015 Author Share Posted October 16, 2015 An interesting array of pickups; please do tell what they are? And what wiring scheme have you put in for the new setup? The bridge and neck are GFS Gold Foil Alnico Soapbar 4 wire humbuckers. The middle is an Ibanez 3PU12A0013 2 wire mini humbucker. All 4 pots have switches. The bridge and neck pots switch their respective pickups between series (down) and parallel (up). In series both pickups have a nice warm sound. Switching each pickup to parallel lowers the level just a bit and puts a nice chime in the tone. The switch on the middle pot, since that humbucker only has 2 wires, turns the pickup on and off eliminating the need to turn the volume all the way down for that. The switch on the tone pot I really couldn't think of anything to do with it so I set it to switch between 0.022uF and 0.047uF caps. For wiring I used all Gavitt braided shielded cable. Only the very shorts runs between the pots and the switches are not shielded. Since I had everything off the body I also shielded the pickup cavities with copper foil (connected to ground, of course). The bridge and middle pots were pretty difficult to get into position. Those locations are close to the edge of the body and the clearance inside is less than the other 2 pot locations. I doubt those pots are ever coming out. As you know, it is not a trivial task to install a different pickup in place of a dog ear. I rigged up a system using soapbar pickup frames with extended ears (which I took from humbucker pickup rings with long legs. I installed threaded bushings on the bottom of the soapbar pickup rings located so that the height adjustment screws from the new pickup would thread into them. Initially I was planning to use springs with these screws but when it came time to install the new pickups in the body I switched to the foam pads. The new frames get installed in place of the old P90 pickups. I had a set of dogear rings custom laser cut to cover everything. I tried to use commercially available dogear spacers but the opening on those is too small and I was unable to use my Dremel tool to enlarge the opening without it looking like crap. I got 6 of these custom dogear rings laser cut for $25. Not much more than the standard dogear rings which I mangled up. Now each of the 3 pickups has about 1/2 inch of height adjustment using the regular height adjustment screws. No need to use spacers. A year ago, when I received the guitar, after reading several stories about the output jack coming loose and falling inside the body, I made sure that the nut is tight and the I put a couple of drops of super glue on the threads between the nut and the jack body. Let me tell you... that works That nut never again comes loose, not even when you want to remove it. I ended up using a wrench to stop the whole output jack from spinning and then carefully I drilled out thru the jack hole. After the first buzzing I heard from the ABR bridge wire I replaced the bridge with a Wilkinson Roller bridge and never looked back. For strings I am using Dean Markley Helix Pure Nickel Regular Electric Guitar Strings (10-46). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spudking Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 That is a gorgeous guitar! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve112 Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 My Riviera P93 and I just had our first anniversary. To celebrate I gave it a new wiring harness made by myself, new pots, switch jack and humbucker pickups. Sounds much better than the original pickups. Wow, that truly is a gorgeous guitar. As well, you've done an excellent job with the mods, congrats on a very unique and very personal Riviera. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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