Blues Boy question

[thunderfan1979]

I just picked up a used BB hollow body swamp ash birds eye maple neck. It took a couple of days to get used to a little fatter neck not sure which one it is. It is freaking awesome. Really wanted a amercian deluxe tele, got to talking to a couple of guitar guys they said check out g&l started looking and bam two days later used BB. I have a hss tele and an american standard strat this BB is the real deal. Alright I have modded every guitar I have ever owned and would like to do a couple of things to my BB. I have seen bits and pieces of post but not a true BB Mod post. If have missed it please direct me to the way.

The seth lover, I like it but dont love it. Really bass heavy I have lowered this pick up and played with the poles still don't love it. when in the mid posiiotn it sounds better but kneck by it self not a fan. I like to play a little bit of everything.
Has anyone else tried something they love?
SD Antiquitys, forget the name but they are duncans p90 humbucker, SD jazz?
would be nice to have a 4 wire to add a push pull.
Has anyone put locking tuners on as a direct replacement without having to drill hole? Dont have tuning issues just locking tuners make changing strings so easy.
Has anyone attemmped to add a s1 switch to your blues boy?
Just trying to get ideas.

[NickHorne]

As you say, you have a really special guitar!
And your question re the Seth Lover is perhaps complicated by more factors than might be obvious at first sight.

The Seth is possibly the brightest PAF-type that Duncans make, although you might not be thinking so right now.
But please refer to my little contribution to the thread "Bluesboy pickup changeout" a little way back (late August) in this same "G&L 1992 to present" section. There are specific wiring features that make the Seth sound darker than it might, when in the Bluesboy.

I love mine, even though I'm going to try changing it (I'll get to that soon). I run an amp setup that's pretty full, frequency-wise, both at the bottom and top ends, and play with bare picking-hand fingers and thumb most of the time, and I do enjoy the Seth as well as the MFD, for all that they are quite different.

But I have wanted to expand the options of my Bluesboy semi. I love its core character, and the way I feel at ease with it, and want to develop the guitar; certainly wouldn't think of replacing it.

And after some thought and a custom order, I have just received from Duncan's Custom Shop a (good-value) variant on the Seth that has:
Screw poles in both coils, all adjustable via 12 holes in the cover.
4-conductor-plus-ground cabling, so that I can wire all options.
Otherwise a Seth; metalwork, windings and magnet the same, and cover too apart from the 6 extra holes.

I have a circuit scheme ready to give me full humbucker or half-a humbucker or a partly-tapped humbucker either alone or in combination with the bridge MFD, with the Seth coil chosen for maximum effectiveness / hum-cancelling in each pickup selection when combined, and I plan to enable Jerry Donahue / Bill Lawrence "controlled degree of reverse phase" Strat-sounding combinations too, in a scheme that just uses a 5-way switch (I do have to mod these, though, to fit into a Tele-type control cavity), a toggle, and a pull-pot for the Tone. Won't be confusing to use in battle!

I am confident of it sounding great, and very flexible. The two sets of adjustable poles should give me good control of balance, regardless of which coil is in use, as well as better balance when used as a regular humbucker. And I will be able to use the most hum-cancelling and also most appropriate-sounding coil in each selection too; it all works out very neatly.
This is going to take a while to install, as time is full right now, but I'll post an update on how it works out in due course, as soon as I have it done (December?)

Locking Schaller tuners will go straight in where regular Schallers came out of. I'm not certain re Sperzels. Schaller and Sperzel holes are different from one another, though.

The Fender S1 switches are not robust, and haven't been a great hit; I doubt whether Fender will continue to either fit or support them, and they had them specially made; they're not just a switch / pot manufacturer's off-the-peg product. Spares are getting hard to obtain and I would expect this to get worse. A toggle in the control plate works fine for me, but I did spend some time with a dummy of matchstick and school putty to make sure I liked the position and it wasn't in the way of anything else before drilling a hole.

I do hope you enjoy your B/boy semi for a very long time, and go patiently with developing it; they're really unusually musical things!

G&L addiction begins like this. You are almost beyond help already...

[vacant]

I thought the same thing about my BB and ended up putting in a Lollar Firebird style mini-humbucker. I had to order a new pickguard since the mini-hb is smaller. I think the mini-hb is a great compliment to the MFD in the bridge and it can be split. I've yet to get a push-pull pot to do that though.

[yowhatsshakin]

Has anyone put locking tuners on as a direct replacement without having to drill hole? Dont have tuning issues just locking tuners make changing strings so easy..

You should be able to use locking tuners provided that you use the same brand as your non-locking tuners. So replace Schallers with Schallers (these are the G&L stamped machines) and Sperzels with Sperzels. This is because the exact location of the dowels on these machines is slightly different for these brands.

- Jos

[SouthpawGuy]

I'd caution using locking tuners on a semi hollow Bluesboy it may end up leaving the guitar slightly neck heavy. I have a solid body ASAT Deluxe with non locking tuners and a semi hollow ASAT Deluxe with locking Schallers ... the semi is slightly neck heavy.

You may need to change the tuners buttons to plastic or ebony to lighten the headstock.For what it's worth locking Sperzels are slightly lighter than locking Schallers.

As for the neck pickup a commonly used Duncan neck pickup is the SH-2 Jazz, it is brighter and more articulate than a Seth Lover or '59. It can also be split or wired in parallel. I don't have that pickup in a Bluesboy as I really like the Seth Lover in that guitar, but I do have it in a LAG Louisiane, a strat /tele hybrid.

Push / pull knob on the volume pot splits both the neck SH-2 and the bridge Hot Rails for tele ...



.

[thunderfan1979]

I have put the jazz pickup in another guitar I used to have and loved it. It was actually the jazz bridge humbucker but everyone said to put it in the neck because it was just a little hotter than the regular jazz, anyway it had a fantastic tone. When I purchased this guitar it had a tone rider t90 in it not a fan so I put the seths back in. Where can one buy g&l locking tuners?
The p rails are looking like a realy cool option.

[SouthpawGuy]

I have put the jazz pickup in another guitar I used to have and loved it. It was actually the jazz bridge humbucker but everyone said to put it in the neck because it was just a little hotter than the regular jazz, anyway it had a fantastic tone. When I purchased this guitar it had a tone rider t90 in it not a fan so I put the seths back in. Where can one buy g&l locking tuners?
The p rails are looking like a realy cool option.

The P-Rails are indeed a great option .... I have them in this late '90s ASAT Deluxe





They are combined with the Duncan triple shot switching rings.

Lots of cool tones, although the weakest is the actual rail or single coil mode. Not sure the triple shots would work on a Bluesboy with a pickguard though.

[thunderfan1979]

Nick can't wait to see that, I like the idea of adjustable poles for both coils. My local shop is having a discount on in stock duncans Has any had experience with the antiquitys? I would like to probably get a zz top type sound out of the neck the more I think about it.