Legacy Modding questions

[bigben]

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Hi. I've owned my #1, a USA 1993 Legacy since 1998 and its STILL my #1. Its stock except for the Dimarzio Virtual Vintage Blues bridge pickup and I did the expander switch mod. Both of these were done YEARS ago, probably 1999. I've since added guitars to the stable and to fill a tonal void in my little arsenal, I think I want to put a full size humbucker in the bridge position. Obviously will need a new pickguard. So I have a few questions:

1. What pickup should I get(subjective as hell, I know)? I want a good rock and blues, overdriven tube amp sound, but not so hot that it buries the other two pickups. Ideally, one that coil taps/splits well.

2. How would I/can I wire it so that I got full on humbucker in the bridge position switch, but can use a mini toggle as a coil tap? Or is it possible to put a push pull volume pot for coil tapping AND use a mini toggle for 7 combination expander switch usage? Kinda like how an S-500 with a humbucker would be?

3. Going from a single coil to a humbucker, would I NEED to change pot values?

Also, I just ordered a mahogany ASAT Special Tribute. Excited! I assume intonating the Saddle Lock bridge is no different from intonation anything other than needing to first loosen the two side set screws, right? Also, any tips for adjusting the individual MFD pole pieces?

Thanks guys. Any wiring diagrams/pics, please send them my way!

[bigben]

And, I KNOW I used to post here WAAAAY back, in the early days of the internet:-) I believe this it the FIRST message board I ever read/joined. What happened to the board in terms of its history? Big server change? No biggie either way, just curious

[Craig]

Welcome back!

For the history of the GbL website and navigating the new forums, check this post: Welcome! Read This First.

See this post in G&L Knowledgebase for wiring diagrams and schematics: I need a wiring diagram for my G&L - do you have one?.

Hope you like the changes and additions we've made to the GbL since you've last been here.

[blargfromouterspace]

1. What pickup should I get(subjective as hell, I know)? I want a good rock and blues, overdriven tube amp sound, but not so hot that it buries the other two pickups. Ideally, one that coil taps/splits well

IMO there is no humbucker that splits to a single coil convincingly, they always sound very thin in contrast to a regular single coil. I have a PRS Starla which is equipped with pickups that were designed specifically to be split and for me they're completely unusable as single coils. Output is well below standard too.

Getting a humbucker to match single coils (and vice versa) is very difficult too, and is something I've given up trying to achieve on my Bluesboy (although the Bluesboy pickup config is the reverse of what you're going into, and probably harder to get a good balance). I think you'd be better off replacing the bridge pickup with a beefier single coil, I'd suggest a Bill Lawrence L298 they're plenty beefy and retain a lot of single coil character and you don't have to get a new pick-guard!

Check out the Seymour Duncan website for a heap of wiring diagrams, I'm sure what you want would be there - anything is possible*.

*not eveything is possible