NGD! Doheny V12 setup and other questions.

[Pork Rind]

After much help from a number of members here, I pulled the trigger last week on a Doheny V12. It arrived a few days earlier than expected, which made for an interesting conversation with my wife, but nothing too traumatic.

I’m having a great time figuring out my favorites of all the combinations of pickup, switch and knob settings and anticipate that will keep me busy for a while. I picked up the new Walrus M1 modulation pedal at the same time and am in pure knob twiddling heaven.

Couple of questions: First, this is my third G&L with the DFV bridge, but it came setup unlike the others. Rather than the eighth inch float parallel to the body that I think is the current normal, the bridge was screwed down with almost no pull up capability, and the saddles were dialed way up off the bridge plate to get the action right 9and it was nicely playable in this config, it didn’t seem like a mistake). I spent the time to raise the bridge and lower the saddles and after probably one last round of tweaks will have it exactly where I like it. Is the Doheny some outlier in how the bridge should be setup? Is the new factory setup putting the bridge plate against the body?

Second, just curious, but does anyone know why the headstock artwork is unlike the rest of the CLF and G&L line? What I have is consistent with what I see on the G&L website so I’m not concerned or anything, but just wondering why no model name nor the couple lines of text below the main logo.

Third, it seems like the pickup selector switch has a small amount of tension in the up or down position that makes it like to jump to the middle position with a small amount of pressure. Some part of my strumming action has me occasionally knocking the switch to the middle position. Probably just a me thing, but has anyone else noticed the “springiness” to the switch?

Thanks all!

[Pork Rind]

I owe a family picture.

[Challenger]

The bridge plate should be floating and parallel to the body of the guitar. It should not be screwed down. I don’t know why yours would have come this way unless the dealer was thinking Fender when setting it up for you.

The headstock on all the Doheny and Doheny V12 is rather plain. That is the way they come. G&L really should have put the Doheny name and V12 on the headstock. I am not a fan of the model logo delete, but that is how they all come for whatever reason.

My selector switch feels normal to me. Much like my Les Paul. I wouldn’t say it pops to the middle easily, but probably easier than a three way ASAT switch.

[Craig]

The bridge plate should be floating and parallel to the body of the guitar. It should not be screwed down. I don’t know why yours would have come this way unless the dealer was thinking Fender when setting it up for you.

The headstock on all the Doheny and Doheny V12 is rather plain. That is the way they come. G&L really should have put the Doheny name and V12 on the headstock. I am not a fan of the model logo delete, but that is how they all come for whatever reason.

My selector switch feels normal to me. Much like my Les Paul. I wouldn’t say it pops to the middle easily, but probably easier than a three way ASAT switch.

Regarding the headstock decal, see this post: New G&L offset model: Doheny!.

[Pork Rind]

Regarding the headstock decal, see this post: New G&L offset model: Doheny!.

Ha! I knew this had to have come up before. Somehow I missed that. Thanks!

[Pork Rind]

Ok, I’ve had a few weeks here to get to know this guitar and have been having a great time, although I’ll admit I spend a lot of my playing time screwing around with all the different tonal options. So many sounds to choose from.

I have a question about the red and white pickup switches. I have been assuming that up is series humbucking, middle is parallel, and down is split. Can anyone verify that assumption?

[Challenger]

Regarding the switches, up is humbucking in series, middle is split, and down is humbucking in parallel. Split and parallel are very similar, but you should notice a little extra high end sparkle in the split.

[Craig]

Ok, I’ve had a few weeks here to get to know this guitar and have been having a great time, although I’ll admit I spend a lot of my playing time screwing around with all the different tonal options. So many sounds to choose from.

I have a question about the red and white pickup switches. I have been assuming that up is series humbucking, middle is parallel, and down is split. Can anyone verify that assumption?

From the G&L website spec page for the Doheny V12:

each of the Doheny V12’s MFD humbuckers is individually controlled by a 3-way mini toggle with classic CLF color-coloded switch tip, white for neck pickup and red for bridge pickup.

and

CONTROLS: 3-position pickup selector, volume, treble, bass (PTB™ system), series/parallel/single mini-toggles for each pickup.

Hope this helps.

[Pork Rind]

Maybe? I’m just looking for confirmation that the switch works like this;


Top : Series
Middle : Parallel
Bottom : Split

I’m pretty confident that top : series is correct, but I don’t have any experience with a parallel configured humbucker so I’m less clear how to confirm that that’s the middle position.

[Challenger]

My V12 is split in the middle and parallel when down. Tap on the coils in the different positions and you will find out if yours is wired differently.

[Pork Rind]

Tap on the coils in the different positions and you will find out if yours is wired differently.

File this answer in the category, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

Thanks!

[tomanche]

The switch in the middle position produces the split pickup. Tapping on the coils indicates that the inside coil on each pickup is the active coil in the split position.

This leads to my thought experiment: I might prefer it if the split coil were in the outside position. Might make it ASAT-like.... Wonder if there's enough slack in the wiring to turn the pickups around...

[SUaPYG]

Regarding the DFV setup:
I have had my V12, Legacy and Comanche returned to me from being set up at a local shop with the DFV screwed down to the deck on the outboard side and then the string height adjusted. String height was to spec but the guitars were not comfortable to play. Took the instruments to an actual G&L dealer with a professional luthier who set the guitars up so the DFV was the correct height and parallel above the body with the strings set a bit lower than factory. Made a huge difference in playability. Enough so that I had to drastically lighten my touch for both hands. The guitars are a joy to play!
The DFV is a different animal and many set up people do not understand how to set them up.

[Craig]

Regarding the DFV setup:
I have had my V12, Legacy and Comanche returned to me from being set up at a local shop with the DFV screwed down to the deck on the outboard side and then the string height adjusted. String height was to spec but the guitars were not comfortable to play. Took the instruments to an actual G&L dealer with a professional luthier who set the guitars up so the DFV was the correct height and parallel above the body with the strings set a bit lower than factory. Made a huge difference in playability. Enough so that I had to drastically lighten my touch for both hands. The guitars are a joy to play!
The DFV is a different animal and many set up people do not understand how to set them up.

Here is the G&L setup information we have in our G&L Knowledgebase:
Some setup info posted in the past on the GbL ...

Hope this helps.

[tomanche]

The switch in the middle position produces the split pickup. Tapping on the coils indicates that the inside coil on each pickup is the active coil in the split position.

This leads to my thought experiment: I might prefer it if the split coil were in the outside position. Might make it ASAT-like.... Wonder if there's enough slack in the wiring to turn the pickups around...

Looked under the hood and found that one wire (white) from the treble side of the inside coil (neck pickup) is too short for the pickup to be rotated 180º. The option I can envision is to splice and solder an extension to that wire, but I'm not going to. So, the pickups remain positioned as they are. (The bridge pup also had the white wire too short.) Perhaps the folks at G&L had experimented with the position options during development of the V12 and settled on the current positions?