Turning My Tribute Legacy HB into a LegASAT Special

Acknowledgments
Before I get into this, I want to thank Michael-GnL-Michael for starting the thread that prompted Craig to ressurect Dean Coy's TASA and Gabe Dellevingne's LegASAT from the old GbL Gallery. I was considering going the 2HB route (using Fralin P-92s), but you guys unknowingly convinced me to keep it G&L or real or something like that.

Intro
I've been a G&L owner since the mid-90s; my USA S-500 was my first electric and is still my baby. Through the years, I've become increasingly interested in tinkering with my gear, but I could never bring myself to risk screwing up my S-500, so I decided to purchase project guitar I would feel comfortable working on. I'm a fan of the dual fulcrum vibrato and the S-500/Legacy body style, so a Tribute Legacy seemed like a pretty good fit. In the end, I bought a used Tribute Legacy HB, because it would give me a chance to try G&L's AlNiCo single coil pickups, as well as a humbucker (at this point I was still thinking about trying a 2HB setup).



After playing the Legacy HB through various amps (a 1974 Fender Vibrolux Reverb, a 1978 Fender Champ, and a 1981/82 Fender Deluxe II) for a few weeks, I realized three things: (1) I don't think I'm a humbucker person, (2) none of the pickups on the Legacy HB cut like the MFDs on my S-500, when playing with a drummer, and (3) I've been completely spoiled by the Sperzel locking tuners on my S-500. Before addressing the first two issues, I decided to replace the existing (Ping?) tuners.

Installing Hipshot Grip-Lock Locking Tuners
At first, I was just going to buy another set of Sperzel's, but I was able to get a pretty good deal on a set of Hipshot Grip-Lock Locking Tuners, and I thought it would be fun to try something new. Most of the reviews I've read on Hipshot's tuners have been glowing, and the folks at Hipshot were very helpful when I called to ask them questions. Hipshot's Grip-Locks aren't a drop-in replacment for the stock Tribute Legacy HB tuners, but, then again, I don't think drop-in, locking tuner replacements exist for the Tribute series.

When the tuners arrived, I removed my old tuners and installed the new, screwing the nut onto the post tight enough to hold them in place, but loose enough for me to adjust them (I decided to use the stock washers because the Hipshots were a little smaller and exposed a bit of the wood that the stock washers had roughed up). I used my handy StewMac straight edge to line up the tuners, and then marked the screw holes with a pencil. The Hipshot tech I spoke to recommended using either a 1/16" or 5/64" drill bit, so I started with a 1/16" bit, measured the depth I needed, and then marked the depth on the bit using a strip of masking tape. Then I removed the loosely attached tuners and carefully drilled the holes.

The holes looked pretty good, but I couldn't get the screws to go in, so I switched to the 5/64" bit. Once the holes were widened, I tried putting another screw in, but I still had to use so much force that I stripped the head a bit. At this point I decided to consult the Interwebs and found a few tuner installation threads that recommended screw lubrication. I didn't have any beeswax available, so I just rubbed my screws against an old candle and they went right in.

Here's a shot of the completed installation:



I haven't had a chance to restring the guitar and test them, but they look pretty nice. I'll report back once I've had a chance to try them out. Oh, I called Hipshot to ask if I could buy some replacement tuner screws, and they offered to send me a set for free. I know screws are cheap, but it's still pretty cool.

Next Up: Ordering a New Pickguard from Chandler Guitars

Last edited by fa-1397 on Fri Aug 29, 2014 12:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

This is WAY cool. Keep us posted on your progress. ~JagInTheBag

i would recommend the bkp mississippi queen to fit that humbucker route and have a pup that sounds somewhat like a large mfd. although changing that pg can only be a good thing since someone already puked on it.

i would recommend the bkp mississippi queen to fit that humbucker route and have a pup that sounds somewhat like a large mfd. although changing that pg can only be a good thing since someone already puked on it.

Loius' religion is the hatred of pearloid and tort pickguards. They are his devil. The god figure in his theology is bare wood finishes. The rest of the dogma is developing...the vitrues of satin over gloss necks is the next thing to be declared Halal.

... The god figure in his theology is bare wood finishes. ...

But allow me to rephrase that such that atheists can relate to it too: 'The Higgs-boson in his universe is base wood finishes'.

- Jos

i would recommend the bkp mississippi queen to fit that humbucker route and have a pup that sounds somewhat like a large mfd. although changing that pg can only be a good thing since someone already puked on it.

Loius' religion is the hatred of pearloid and tort pickguards. They are his devil. The god figure in his theology is bare wood finishes. The rest of the dogma is developing...the vitrues of satin over gloss necks is the next thing to be declared Halal.

that is assuming that the devil is a bad thing. considering my name you should know it's the other way around. the god figure is pearloid and tort guards.

i would recommend the bkp mississippi queen to fit that humbucker route and have a pup that sounds somewhat like a large mfd. although changing that pg can only be a good thing since someone already puked on it.

Loius' religion is the hatred of pearloid and tort pickguards. They are his devil. The god figure in his theology is bare wood finishes. The rest of the dogma is developing...the vitrues of satin over gloss necks is the next thing to be declared Halal.

that is assuming that the devil is a bad thing. considering my name you should know it's the other way around. the god figure is pearloid and tort guards.

Why didn't that come as a surprise?

- Jos

that is assuming that the devil is a bad thing. considering my name you should know it's the other way around. the god figure is pearloid and tort guards.

Why didn't that come as a surprise?

- Jos

This response is so predictable, it is almost borning.

Too easy to anticipate, Mr. Cyfer.

that is assuming that the devil is a bad thing. considering my name you should know it's the other way around. the god figure is pearloid and tort guards.

Why didn't that come as a surprise?

- Jos

This response is so predictable, it is almost borning.

Too easy to anticipate, Mr. Cyfer.

obviously, since you should have already known, the correction for getting it backwards was predictable. is "borning" like being born?

This is WAY cool. Keep us posted on your progress. ~JagInTheBag

Thanks, JagInTheBag. Will do. By the way, the Hipshot tuners are working out pretty well. Tuning stability is great, so far, and string changes are nice and quick. Plus, the exposed gears are an unexpected aesthetic bonus. I mean, I knew the gears would be exposed and I saw photos before I purchased them, but I didn't expect to like the look as much as I do. I still have plenty of time to develop a retroactive loathing for change, though.

i would recommend the bkp mississippi queen to fit that humbucker route and have a pup that sounds somewhat like a large mfd. although changing that pg can only be a good thing since someone already puked on it.

The BK Mississippi Queens have a cool vibe and I've read lots of good reviews on them, but I've already purchased a set of ASAT Special pickups, so my Legacy HB's first rebirth will almost certainly involve those. I came close to going with some sort "P-90 in humbucker's clothing" instead of the soapbar MFDs, though. I really like the sound clips I've heard of Lindy Fralin's P-92s, but in the end I decided to stick with the Asat Special MFDs, plus a set of new P-92s weren't really in the budget.

Yeah, the black pearl pickguard hasn't grown on me, but I'm not opposed to vomit/pearl/tort, in general. A wooden pickguard would be ideal (I mean, how awesome would a gnarled, spalted maple pickguard look on a black body?) , but it seems like that might be a bit cost prohibitive. The few places I've found seem to charge $80-$100 for their stock strat and tele pickguards, so I haven't even inquired about the cost of a custom Tribute Legacy pickguard with soapbar MFD cutouts.

Unless I experience some sort of pickguard anagnorisis in the next few weeks, I'm going with baltic amber. I sent Chandler an e-mail and they said it wouldn't cost anything extra to omit the middle pickup on their 6124 - G&L Legacy with 3 MFD soapbar pickups pickguard, so I should only have to spend $60 + shipping. I'll have to ship them my existing pickguard, so that means I'll have to do a bit of desoldering and remove the wiring harness and switch...

Yeah, this will be my first experience with the shiny new Weller soldering station I got for Christmas. Does anyone have a recommendation for the temperature setting I should be using for desoldering braid? I've been watching some soldering videos on YouTube, and I'm almost certain that I won't put my eye out, but any advice that could decrease my chances of total guitar butchery will greatly appreciated. If not, no worries; I'm sure Google can set me straight. I specifically bought this guitar as a guitar wiring experimentation test subject, so I'm fully expecting to make some mistakes.

Last edited by fa-1397 on Mon Aug 06, 2012 11:50 am, edited 1 time in total.

you definitely want one of these

, and i like it around 50-60 watts, gets it done faster.

but you won't have to solder anything to send in the pg, just undo the pup screws, the switch screws and the pots and you can keep it altogether.

I haven't updated this in while, so I thought I would check-in to say that Chandler is working on my pickguard now. Due to the larger size of the ASAT MFD bridge pickup (it's about 0.5 cm longer than the neck pickup), there wasn't enough room for the traditional bridge pickup angle and the 3-knob setup without moving the knobs closer together. I wanted to keep the flexibility of the 3-knob setup — I want to try a blender pot at some point — and I didn't want to alter the knob spacing, so I just had them reverse the angle of the bridge pickup. Hopefully I won't regret that decision.

Anyway, once that comes in I'll need to mount the pickups and deal with the wiring. Do you guys have any recommendations for wire? I was thinking of using standard cloth-covered wire from Mojotone. I like the sound of "easy to work with," but if you've had better luck with PVC coated wire or something shielded, please let me know.

I'm purchasing new pots for this project and just leaving my existing Legacy HB harness intact, so I've been combing through the forum for options. It seems like the easiest way to get the 1M, reverse audio taper, bass cut pot is just to order it from G&L. And if I order that from G&L, I may as well order the others as well. I noticed that G&L sells different (smaller?) pots for the Tribute line, and folks chiming in on the forum seem to agree that routing is required to install the USA pots on Tribute models, but it looks like there is plenty of room in the control cavity of my Tribute Legacy HB for the pots used in my mid-90s USA S-500.

Am I missing something? Is the depth of the control cavity on the Tribute Legacy HB different than on other Tribute models? I guess it's worth noting that the 500KA treble cut pot in my Tribute Legacy HB is a push/pull pot for spliting the coils on the humbucker. I don't know if this is stock, but if the cavity is deep enough for this thing, shouldn't the USA pots fit?

Okay, I know it's been over 10 years since I started this thing, but I just wanted to report back to say that I finally finished the project in 2021. As I mentioned in the previous post, I reversed the angle of the bridge pickup and I went with the 3-knob PTB circuit. You can see from the photo below where I had to modify the swimming pool rout to accommodate the bridge pickup. When I began working on this in 2011, I foolishly started with a set of hand files. Note the body scratch to the left of the bridge pickup that was miraculously covered by the pickguard. Because I didn't own any serious woodworking tools, I finished it off using a Dremel drum sanding bit. It took a while, but it worked.

Anyway, the next challenge was mounting the pickups in the rout. In the photo below, I've already applied 3 coats of shielding paint, but you can see the faint outline of the two longitudinal ridges running along the edge of the swimming pool rout. That's where I had to glue two wooden rods to fill the mysterious 1/2" deep channels that ran along both outside edges. I initially tried to find longer versions of the G&L Jumbo MFD mounting screws, so the screws would reach to the bottom of the canyon, but I ended up ripping a 1"x2" birch board into pieces that would fill them. It's not flush, but it was good enough.



When I ordered my pickguard from Chandler (now Pickguard Heaven), they were still offering the Baltic Amber material, which I think looks amazing on a black or natural body. The hole alignment was good enough for me to mount it without having to plug and re-drill. If anyone in the future wants to order the pickguard I used, the part number on the back of mine is "660Custom-134 Tribute Legacy ASAT PU".

Initially, I was going to modify Gabe Dellevingne's SC-2/ASAT 4-Way wiring diagram to include the PTB bass control, but I abandoned the 4-way switch when I realized the selector switch slot in my custom pickguard wasn't long enough to accommodate the longer throw distance. By the time I got around to wiring up the guitar ten years later, Baltic Amber was no longer an option and I didn't want to risk damaging my custom pickguard. I tried grinding down the blade of the 4-way selector switch, but, yeah, that did not go well. In the end, I just used a standard 3-way switch and pieced together Gabe's diagram with the second S-500 wiring diagram in Burndog's thread about S-500 wiring. If I remember correctly, the diagram burndog posted (#2) was the closest to the wiring on my '95 USA S-500.

I took Gabe's guidance about the mica cap for C1 and used grounding tabs for the pots. All of the ground wires run to a tab I screwed into the bottom of the shielded cavity. I've been using the guitar for about a year and a half and haven't had any weird grounding issues. Fingers crossed. Here's a shot of the wiring. The next time I open it up (if I can remember), I'll try to get a shot with better lighting.



And here it is assembled. You get all of the sonic goodness of the jumbo MFD pickups, the playability and shape of the Legacy (if that's your thing), the simplicity of two pickups, and the tonal flexibility of the PTB setup. I don't have a good setup for recording, but I'll do a good side-by-side comparison with my '95 USA S-500 and post my subjective notes on the differences.

Well done!

Glad to see it came to a successful result.

Looking forward to additional reports and impressions.

Wow, that’s unique!

A good motto, don’t rush it!