Hello from Munich/Germany! TECH COMANCHE PICKGUARD QUESTION:

[drumatic]

Hey there all!

I am not really new on this website, actually I visited pretty frequently since last year, but I never created an account for myself, so today is the day. My current top two G&L beauties are:





But what really got me to create my own account today is the following G&L Comanche pickguard I bought used from Italy:




I already saw other Legacy pickguards with the PTB electronics, but on my Comanche pickguard, the electronics seem quite different (have a look at the two tone pots... weird). Does anyone of you have an idea what this is, why it looks so different and if it does something special? I am not knowledgeable about the electronic stuff and have not installed the pickguard yet (anyhow I would not know where to solder the input jack wires to).

Can anyone help me on this one? This would be highly appreciated!

Greetings from Germany!
Jörg

[Challenger]

Welcome!

Sorry I can't help you on the electronics. But, I wanted to tell you that I love the looks of your Legacy Special. Clear blue has become one of my favorite finishes lately. I also have a Legacy Special with the saddle lock bridge. It is one of my favorites.

Chip

[drumatic]

Hey thanks! I love the clear blue, too. And the Legacy Special with the Saddle Lock Bridge is just amazing, I love it. It is lightweight, too (I was lucky), about 7 pounds only.

[Katefan]

Guten Tag and Welcome!

Nice guitars!

Re the pickguard wiring.... someone added a potentiometer with a pull switch, that's what the square box is...often used to split a coil, or reverse the phase of a pickup in relation to another pickup. More than likely that is its function judging from the wiring.... you'll know once its installed and you can give it a go.

To wire it up, take the 2 wires coming from the input jack and solder the signal side (most likely white wire) to the middle terminal of the volume pot and the ground wire (most likely black wire) to any of the potentionmeter cases. That's all there is to it!

Cheers,
KF

[drumatic]

Thank you so much, KF! This is greatly appreciated (and saves me from a trip to the next guitar repair shop)!

Cheers,
Jörg

[Katefan]

You're welcome Jorg! Glad to lend a hand!

Cheers,
KF

[drumatic]

This morning I did it (with the great instructions of KF, thank you again!), I converted my LS to a Comanche and it came out great. Have a look:



The second tone pot is indeed a push/push pot and puts the pickup combinations 2 and 4 out of phase for a thin, shrill sound. All the rest seems to function like a normal Comanche. So the former LS (year 95 with 3-point neck mounting) sounds fantastic now, so much better than the three bass- & midrange voiced Kent Armstrong STHR-1 PUs (that are normally used only for bridge pimping anyway, so I have no idea why G&L put them in all three positions, it just does not make any sense soundwise).

The only flaw is the cracked corner of the pickguard, so maybe I will go for a new one, if it bugs me. Anyone out there with a nice cheap Comanche pickguard to sell, fitting the blueburst?

[Challenger]

I'm confused. Did you have two Legacy Specials? Because the one you pictures at the top is not the same one as you pictured as a Comanche. Otherwise, how did clear blue become Blueburst? And how did a saddle lock bridge get routed for the DFV?

The vast majority of Legacy Specials did not use Kent Armstrong pickups. They used pickups made by Gotoh that were built to G&L specs as designed by Paul Gagon. They only used Kent Armstrong pickups when they ran out of the Gotoh ones as a temporary fix. You must have had one of the anomolies.

UPDATE: I see in the registry where you do have two Legacy Specials. So, I'm not losing it. Cool to have a LS and Comanche now. So, I'm guessing the Gotoh pickups are much better sounding than the Kent Armstrongs. I'm only familiar with the Gotoh and I love the sound of my Legacy Specials.

[drumatic]

You are perfectly right, I had two Legacy Specials. The Clear Blue with the Saddle Lock Bridge was/is my dream guitar I already had (bought it from Canada used, although it was mint), the Blueburst with the DFV was a bargain I recently made on the ebay flee market. It had the Kent Armstrong PUs installed, that really don´t compare to the stellar sounding Gotohs. Then shortly after the purchase I saw the Comanche pickguard in a flee market ad in Italy for a really good price, so I bought it. And today after installing the pickguard I am VERY happy that I did, because now the guitar sounds absolutely amazing.

[Challenger]

So that Clear blue Legacy Special is the same one that I saw for sale in Canada. I would have bought it if I didn't already have one just like it in another color. Yes the Gotoh pickups in the Legacy Special are fantastic.