Modded C66 (Modding is like crack for me).

Some of you may remember I swapped my sustain block this summer. Well now I rewired the entire guitar, modified the routes (and the pickup baseplate corners and taps) and have it fitted with bare knuckle pickups. A set of rebel yells to be precise. Very very good pickups. They have smooth highs, extremely tight bass and are harmonically massic. The have a bit of a mid bump but are not honkey. They have an immediacy to the attack and are pure attitude. The carvin pickups were sterile, transparent and scooped, so it is quite a change. The Carvins won on cleans though, with the sparkle/jangle, but I slap these puppies into parallel mode and they catch up on jangly, so I don't feel I have lost anything. An extremely versatile pickup, that doesn't suffer from being only mediocre at everything.

The wiring looks like this, from output to pots volume and tone, but they pass through a push/pull switch that bypasses them (a solo switch). From the switch goes a 3 way selector, then a 4pDT on/on/on (dimarzio, the 'petrucci wiring' switch). I wired that switch to be a mode switch for both pickups, it toggles series/split (outside) / parallel for both pickups simultaneously. The cap is a 22nF russian PIO (I did a sound comparison a while ago, the mid range presence changes between the standard, however I only used it as it was around, I don't particularly care. But hey it gives me vintage street cred ).


I have one more mod left to do, an 'improved treble bleed' from the guitar nuts forum
http://guitarnuts2.proboards.com/index. ... hread=5317


The switch is a 4 way for my ASAT special.








You can see all the work I did in this thread if you are curious.
http://www.carvinguitars.com/bbs/postin ... t&p=271889

Last edited by sirmyghin on Fri Jan 14, 2011 9:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

Nice work. Nice guitar. It's always a huge relief when the replacement pickups sound better than the originals!!!

I've always admired Carvin - their guitars and amps all seem to be top notch and very reasonably priced. I've never seen one in the flesh, but if it's good enough for Allan Holdsworth it's good enough for me.

Carvins are wonderful instruments, my ASAT keeps up with it though. As a sum of its components thing the ASAT wins, better electronics, better pickups. For body and finish quality,fretwork they tie, except the Carvin has stainless steel frets. Used carvins are an absolute steal btw, although this one was orderred new, as was my bass and the one I sold earlier this year. The stock pickups were very polite, relaxed, and slightly scooped. They were harsh on the highs and a bit looser than I would like on the lows. Many consider the pickups to be Carvins weakpoint, and the mini pots/ switch they choose to use. As I have rewired it from the ground up I have removed what many consider the weak points, and greatly improved the sound of the guitar.

I was a mite worried after all that work I might not like the pickups though, and as I had to modify them I wouldn't have been able to take advantage of the return policy (10 days or something).

Edit: I am going to be getting another push/pull pot for the tone knob, I have one here but it is small shaft not standard and the hole is a bit loose for my liking now. I will be adding a phase switch to the neck pickup (had it wired that way initially then the other way and decided I would like both.

Stay tooned for my ASAT modding, it will be getting a phase switch, and a 4 way switch. On an odd note, for the pot wiring G&L uses cloth push back wiring. That seems strange.