GuitarJunkie Posted June 7, 2009 Share Posted June 7, 2009 There was a thread a few months back about "should Gibson make a P90 equipped V?" and coincidentally, I picked up a used '07 V a couple days later. I went to the guys place to pick it up and immediately went to the shop to pick up some P90s on the way home. Someone in the other thread had done a conversion and had posted a link to these guys here for a custom pickguard. Long story short, a couple months later and I finally got everything together this weekend and did it. Here are the "before" shots... I figured since I was using a new pickguard and pickups anyway, for the price of some pots, a switch, and a jack I would wire up the new set-up on the new guard and leave the old one intact. Now all I have to do is loosen the strings and in a few minutes, I can swap between the humbucker guard or the P90s. Here's everything ready to rock... I did plan on mounting the pickups to the guard by making a bracket to add tabs similar to a humbucker, but I would have needed to rout the pickup cavity to make it wide enough. The pickups I went with were Suhr brand, and came highly recommended. What they didn't come with were mounting screws. Normally, P90s just screw through the pickup right into the wood in the back of the guitar (another reason I wanted to "guard-mount" them) so I got some #4, inch-and-a-quarter wood screws, but even with the smallest head they had, it still wouldn't fit between the pole-pieces. The wood screw is on the left, a standard humbucker height-adjustment screw on the right... The problem with using the height adjustment screws is that you need something for them to screw into, so I found some matching nuts. I started by drilling holes slightly larger than the screw itself... Then I countersunk a second hole slightly smaller than the nut... I put the nut about a third of the way up the screw and tapped it into the hole until it sat flush. Left to right is the countersunk hole, the nut before pressing it in, the nut in it's final spot, and the resulting hole... Now I could have custom ordered some threaded inserts, but it would have taken another week or so and I wanted to rock NOW. I mention that because here's the only part I'm not too proud of. I had to do something to keep the nuts in place since the pickups will be trying to pull them out, so I reached for the trusty ol' glue gun. It ain't pretty, but it gets the job done... Now it's time to wire it up, and the only thing better than a good wiring diagram to go by is the old wiring... Here it is, wired and ready to install... And now the part I could have just skipped to and saved you all the trouble of scrolling through all that other crap... My new P90 equipped V Even my daughter recognizes the greatness of P90s and couldn't wait for me to finish taking pictures to get her hands on it. BTW, her name is Korina. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wakefire Posted June 7, 2009 Share Posted June 7, 2009 Beautiful. I can imagine how much you can rock with those things. Are you planning on starting your daughter on guitar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarJunkie Posted June 7, 2009 Author Share Posted June 7, 2009 Are you planning on starting your daughter on guitar? Well' date=' here she is about three years ago... [img']http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg251/2manyGuitars/misc/IMG_1608mr.jpg[/img] and last year... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted June 8, 2009 Share Posted June 8, 2009 Wow that V looks great with the P90s, I bet it sounds great. I have been gassing for another P90 guitar for a while, I only have a Casino with P90s but I would like a solid body. I do not know what I am getting yet probably a cheap guitar and then upgarde it with good pickups. I have a new Mesa amp that makes P90s the way they should. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dem00n Posted June 8, 2009 Share Posted June 8, 2009 Nice! Now they need gibson to make that guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted June 8, 2009 Share Posted June 8, 2009 nice guitar but personally i hate P90 they're ugly and they aren't the best for the genre i play :- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluesburst Posted June 8, 2009 Share Posted June 8, 2009 Well GuitarJunkie, I hope your frickin' happy... Wonderful, here I am minding my own business with GAS in control thinking that perhaps next year I may consider a P90 equipped guitar and you go and post this, this, THING What you forgot to put in your post are valid reasons for the financial controller why this thing of beauty is absolutely essential, I used up all of my excuses on my last purchase. I dislike you in an admiring and envious kind of way Over & Out Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjr Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 kool guitar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Rax Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 so I reached for the trusty ol' glue gun. It ain't pretty' date=' but it gets the job done... [img']http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo183/gear4sale_photos/v90/v10.jpg[/img] Very nice. That's one hell of a good looking ax. If the only thing you didn't like was the glue you could try and replace it with epoxy, but no one will ever see it so it's OK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGBENDS Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 Nice job, Junkie! I hope she sounds as good as she looks. Great idea on improving a V. Let us know how she sounds through the Mini Z. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wonker Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 Rad! It came out great!!!!! Here's a new shot of my V jr. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morten M Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 One of the best DIY posts I've seen in a long time. Nicely done. Hope the sound satisfy your needs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarJunkie Posted November 9, 2009 Author Share Posted November 9, 2009 Here's a new shot of my V jr. Nice job. Very cool guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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