Swap S-500 pickups into Legacy

I have a great ash-bodied Legacy with the “slim C” neck that is my fave, but I am craving the S-500 sound. Has anyone swapped the S-500 MFDs into a Legacy? Obviously I wouldn’t have the toggle switch. Any issues with this?

I would purchase an S-500 pickguard, wire it up with the appropriate S-500 pickups and electronics including the switch, and swap it into your guitar. Then you can easily go back to the Legacy configuration if you want. You should check the circuit designs, but I expect the potentiometer and capacitor values to be different between the Legacy and S-500, so you might have to change them anyway as part of a pickup swap.

I don't think you'd have any issues. I have a 2012 US Legacy body with the "600" pickguard and the pickups fit perfectly. I'm going to send it to G&L and have a new neck made.

I have a great ash-bodied Legacy with the “slim C” neck that is my fave, but I am craving the S-500 sound. Has anyone swapped the S-500 MFDs into a Legacy? Obviously I wouldn’t have the toggle switch. Any issues with this?

You should be able to swap a loaded pickguard from an S-500, and there are people interested in making the opposite switch. Just recently, there was a guy on here wanting to switch from MFDs to alnicos. He didn't seem receptive to my suggestion to swap loaded pickguards, but I'm sure there are others who might be. There's a G&L buy/sell/trade group on FB.

David

You should be able to swap a loaded pickguard from an S-500, and there are people interested in making the opposite switch. Just recently, there was a guy on here wanting to switch from MFDs to alnicos. He didn't seem receptive to my suggestion to swap loaded pickguards, but I'm sure there are others who might be. There's a G&L buy/sell/trade group on FB.

David

This would probably be the best route to take if you want the expander switch and don't want to have to deal with soldering or buying electronics parts. I find I don't use the expander switch much so I will just stick with the Legacy pickguard. I will also try it out with the wiring I have as-is before modifying it to add extra capacitors or anything. Paul Gagon's diagrams show 4 caps for S-500 vs 2 on Legacy (though the photos do not seem to match the wiring diagrams). It would be interesting to see some updated diagrams from G&L. I guess I'll have to make some of my own the next time I tear into the non-modified guitars I have.

Diagrams: http://www.guitarsbyleo.com/GALLERY2/main.php?g2_itemId=97

I believe the S-500 MFD pickups are a little higher than the CLF-100s with the former having the magnet at the bottom. Just a heads up even though with the bathtub rout it might not be an issue nowadays.

- Jos