Help with Sheraton Mods

[abilbay]

A few months back I bought a tobacco burst 98 Sheraton II. It looked almost new, but was unplayable. I leveled the frets, made a bone nut, and installed a TonePros bridge. Then it was playable. After a few months of daily playing I have decided it desperately needs new pots and new pick-ups. The pots are really bad. When I turn down the tone, I lose ALL sound. If it turn up the tone it gets way to dirty and muddy. The bridge volume often deteriorates during a long practice session. The pick-ups are just muddy and weak.

 

I would like the coil splitting options offered by a push pull pots and Seymour Duncan 4 wire pick-ups as long as they accurately emulate the sound and aggression of a P90 or P94 when split. If not I will probably go with P94 (I already have a nice set of humbuckers on my Gibson LP). I can do all the work myself, but I don’t have a lot of $$$ to lose on trial and error so I need ya’lls help. Here are my questions.

 

1) Will the short shaft push pull pots fit inside the body of a Sheraton? I am sure they will fit through the f-hole, but I wonder if the body depth will allow for the extra length of a push pull pot to be maneuvered into place inside the body.

2) When the humbucker is split will it truly emulate the aggression and sound of a P90 or P94?

3) If so what is the best humbucker to split. I want clarity without sacrificing the sound and aggression of P90s.

 

I play mostly rock, metal, and a little blues. The most important thing to me is clarity when I am clean and distorted. Any help and advice will be greatly appreciated.

[stein]

Firstly, a P-90 is a unique pup...and not at all sounding like a typical "single coil" sound. They are beefy and fat, much more like a humbucker. Maybe you knew that. But to answer your question, a split humbucker will not sound ANYTHING like a P90.

 

As to the shaft length, I don't know for sure, but I don't really see how it wouldn't work. You COULD always stick a pencil in the hole and use it to measure.

[dbirchett]

Seymour Duncan makes a pickup that gets you closer to what you want. Its called a P-Rails and kind of combines a P90ish pickup with a Stratish pickup to make a humbucker. You then have three options of HB sound, P90 sound or Strat sound, at least sounds suggestive of those.

 

 

Link: Seymour Duncan P-Rails

 

Hope this helps.

[Septic]

If you want something that'll drive well and stil give that P90 type of clean, cutting, but controllable single coil sweetness, you could try the Bare Knuckle Misissippi Queens which are the nearest I've found that'll do the job and as they're a 'bucker sized single coil, you won't need the coil taps...Their site has sound clips for comparison...

[Jon S.]

You shouldn't have any issues using short shaft pots in the Sherri. I've put them in 2 of mine and they worked great.