S500 MFD's with a JB bridge.

Do S500 MFD's in the Neck and Middle jive with a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge, and can you get all 7 positions. I want to swap out my Legacy pickups in my HSS, thanks.

[Craig]

Do S500 MFD's in the Neck and Middle jive with a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge, and can you get all 7 positions. I want to swap out my Legacy pickups in my HSS, thanks.

In 2010, G&L did some Special Builds including a small run of S-500 HBs:

Steve Grom sent me this picture of a special build they did over the summer.

Steve said: "I worked with our Export Sales Dept. to come up with a few “specials” to offer during the summer. One of the models we came up with was the S-500 HB.
It’s an S-500 with a Seymour Duncan TB-4 in the bridge position. They were only offered in three colors … Black, White and Candy Apple Red …
One pickguard option – Black and all had a black painted headstock.

I’m not sure at this point if we are going to build any more. The majority of these ended up going to Japan ."

.

If I'm not mistaken, the mini-toggle was a coil splitter for the bridge HB. I never had an opportunity to hear them, so I cannot comment on the tones.
I would suggest you try it and wire the mini-toggle (or a push-pull pot) to have the standard S-500 expander function. Check out this Album in our Gallery: Album: Instrument Manuals and Wiring Schematics.

If you do decide to do these mods, please post about your project in The Project Page sub-forum.

Hope this helps.

Last edited by Craig on Sat Aug 18, 2018 8:43 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: corrected typo

Thank you for responding I've ordered a push/pull from G&L and when the pups arrive I'll have it all put together and post the results. Is the MFD going to fit in the Legacy body or does it need more room below it?

The Legacy and S-500 have the same bathtub route. So the MFDs should fit fine.

Cheers, Dan

I just received my S500 mfd's one has black and white wires the other green and yellow, which is the middle and which is the neck, thanks.

I just received my S500 mfd's one has black and white wires the other green and yellow, which is the middle and which is the neck, thanks.

Green and yellow would be the middle, I believe.

see this http://www.guitarsbyleo.com/FORUM/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=9242 thread though.

So it's done I think it sounds great still adjusting the pickup height and dialing it in on my RA 100 Mesa but I'm happier with the full tone of the MFD's, all 7 positions work only issue is the split JB sounds very thin and can't compete with the MFD's so is there anything I could do about that?

If you want a better output match from the split tone to the MFDs I think it'd be tough not to consider a different pickup; perhaps a Duncan Distortion with a ceramic magnet. On the other hand you could swap the A5 magnet in your JB for a Ceramic and wind up with what is called the "Dokken-bucker" mod, or even swap for a double-thick ceramic which makes your JB into 90% of what a Distortion is.

Also- have you tried raising the JB height?

Of course- the full tone will change too with any magnet mod. I'd actually be more tempted to switch to a lower output pickup (like a Screamin Demon or Duncan Jazz) ; IMO neither of those needs a split to give a good clean, single coil-esque tone while still giving you a relatively fat humbucker tone. Duncan has a good exchange policy..

When I switch to Mid/Bridge it's like power is cut in half there is a .001uf cap. attached to the bass pot for the taming of the brightness they say and the split JB never sounded that thin before the wiring change.

Sounds like the JB is wired out of phase; try flipping ground and hot in the JB.

Im a rookie here which would those be there the green and black are together on the toggle and the red to the 5 way and the bare is soldered to the treble pot. So run the black to the 5 way and the red with the green on the toggle?

Making sure we know what's going on here- How is your guitar wired? Is there an auto-split when you select the Bridge + Mid setting? Or is the split only activated when you use the push/pull? Can you post a schematic of your wiring, as-is?

Is your problem with the split JB only when it is used in the Bridge + Middle combination? Does the full/non-split Bridge + Middle combo also sound weak & twangy (if your wiring even allows you to select that?)

In general, on a Duncan you would switch green and black to reverse the phase. Switching the phase will only affect the tone of the bridge pickup when selected in combination with the mid. It will not make your bridge pickup alone sound any different.

what is your email I'll send pictures, I had it done at a local shop I'm hoping I can fix it myself. It was originally an HSS with a toggle split, now its supposed to be wired like an S500 when I go to mid/bridge with coil split it drops dramatically in volume and is very thin and non split isn't much better the JB wasn't that thin before. The green and black are soldered together on the toggle, there is a push pull to get the bridge /neck and all 3

what is your email I'll send pictures, I had it done at a local shop I'm hoping I can fix it myself. It was originally an HSS with a toggle split, now its supposed to be wired like an S500 when I go to mid/bridge with coil split it drops dramatically in volume and is very thin and non split isn't much better the JB wasn't that thin before. The green and black are soldered together on the toggle, there is a push pull to get the bridge /neck and all 3

Post your photos here so that others can see them. For posting photos see: Tutorial: Posting photos.

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1881/439 ... ca73_m.jpg

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1888/447 ... f8c4_m.jpg

I tried to get on the photo sharing something went wrong won't let log in but you can look at these I hope

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1881/43905006055_abbfbdca73_m.jpg

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1888/447 ... f8c4_m.jpg

I tried to get on the photo sharing something went wrong won't let log in but you can look at these I hope

Here are the photos inline:

what is your email I'll send pictures, I had it done at a local shop I'm hoping I can fix it myself. It was originally an HSS with a toggle split, now its supposed to be wired like an S500 when I go to mid/bridge with coil split it drops dramatically in volume and is very thin and non split isn't much better the JB wasn't that thin before. The green and black are soldered together on the toggle, there is a push pull to get the bridge /neck and all 3

Sounds like you are out of phase then.

It looks like they did something kind of strange with your JB- Green and Black are soldered to each other? Typically Red and White get soldered to each other with a Seymour Duncan pickup. However- You should still have correct series humbucker operation in series with it wired as-is. Just flip white & red. White is grounded to the back of the pot, correct? Looks like he put some sort of shield on the white wire? Connect white where red is on the switch, and ground red.

EDIT: Also make sure the bare wire stays soldered to the back of the pot. I have a feeling he put it together with the white under that shield.

It's fixed thank you very much for your help, the quack is back in 2 and 4 the split JB has lot's of volume again. So I now have an ex Legacy HSS that was built to match my 2004 Harley and now have a 10 position S500 HB in Black Satin Frost with a #4 Neck, Ebony Board It's a custom built one of/one off G&L LOVE IT!!!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/167024637 ... ed-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/167024637 ... ed-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/167024637 ... ed-public/

Glad it works, looks good.

So I've tried my best to dial it in but it just doesn't sound good with my Royal Atlantic too harsh so I've put the Alnico's back in what happens if I leave the wiring S500 style and that extra capacitor

Have you tried adjusting the tone controls or pickup height a bit. The MFD pickups have more output than the alnicos that were in the Legacy.

Not sure what specific effect the extra cap has. I agree if you're used to alnicos in particular, the PTB controls are useful in crafting the sound. You can also play with polepiece and overall pickup height.