Climax Pickups and body wood?

[Donn]

Hi all, I have a Climax, Hss and am wondering who wound those pickups? In George Fullerton's book he said that the humbucker was G&L's and doesn't say about the single coil's. I didn't think G&L wound standard style humbucker's? In the neck pocket, and on the neck heel, the guitar is stamped 1992. It also appears that the body is maple and not ash as it say's in the book? Can anyone help me out as there is not much info on Climax model's. Thanks-----------Donn

[Craig]

[from a post on the G&LDP Re: Climax Plus: Any info is appreciated by
GPD on February 26, 2008 in response to this post:
Climax Plus: Any info is appreciated posted by HackedByChinese! on
February 25, 2008]

The Climax series (3 different models) was a short-lived BBE era offering. The line basically
replaced the pre-BBE trio of the Rampage, Superhawk and Invader. The concept was to get
more of a Jackson or Charvel sort of model with the sharp edged "Dinky" shaped body, sculpted
neck heel and basic Superstrat hardware. The list prices were rather steep back when they were
new but they never sold too many of them and in the late 90's G&L replaced the Climax series with
what is now their line called the "Invader".

: Pickup type/characteristics
Either private label (No markings) Seymour Duncan’s wound to Duncan Distortion spec’s or
Gotoh Japan made humbuckers. If you like the Duncan distortion…then you’ll like them.
The pole spacing isn’t correct so the strings will never line up with the poles…no big deal…
but thought I’d point that out.

The single coil is a piece of crap. It is a plastic bobbin, alnico slug-pole machine wound jobbie
most probably produced by Gotoh as injection molded bobbins are identical to what I’ve found
on other Gotoh single coils of that vintage.

The real problem with the Climax is the control circuit. The volume and tone pots are 1 mega
ohm audio taper making humbuckers overly bright and the single coil unlistenable. Swap in a pair
of 500K audio taper pots and you’ll hear a dramatic improvement overall. Also, the combined
humbucker/single coil sounds are exactly that…the entire humbucker combined in parallel with
the single coil…not very useful. You wire it so that the positions #2 & #4 use only one coil of each
humbucker so you get a decent faux Strat “tweener” tone.

: Floyd Rose make/quality (Schaller?)

It is made by Gotoh, Japan. It is actually higher quality than the Schaller built Floyd’s. it sports a very
nice billet brass sustain block. This is one of the nicest Floyd Rose type bridges ever produced.
One problem with all Climax guitars is that the nut is an R-2 which is too narrow for the #3 & #4 they
are typically bolted to. You’ll notice a very obvious gap up where the nut attaches to the neck. Kind of
strange but easily fixed by swapping in a 1.75” wide Floyd Rose nut (R-6).

: Neck characteristics (fret size, finish type, shape/thickness)
The Climax series was inspired by the Jackson/Charvel instruments built years earlier in So-Cal by
Grover Jackson. The nut width is generally 1.75” though I’ve seen a few with factory 1.625” nut widths
and the radius is 12”. Basically, either a #1 or #3 G&L neck though the back profile is unique.
The profile is almost a cross between a “D” and a “U” though certainly slim and fast. I guess this
was G&L’s shot at the wide skinny neck. Personally, I love the profile…very comfortable to my hand.
I’ve seen them finished in either Satin or Gloss poly…no rhyme or reason as to which got what.

The coolest feature of the Climax is the sculpted heel region…it really makes for a skinny neck joint
region making playing up high much more comfortable. One problem with this is the reality that less
wood here translates into less strength in the neck pocket region so you will often find small cracks
in the joint. Not a huge deal but don’t be alarmed if you see cracks in the finish (which mean there are
cracks beneath the finish in the wood). The neck joint is plenty strong…just prone to cracks.

Body wood varies…with a transparent finish they are generally ash though I’ve seen a few with maple
bodies. With a solid finish they are almost always made from alder. The body shape is very obviously
influenced by the 1984 neck-through Jackson Soloist or the later “Dinky” bolt-on version.

The neck is affixed with the same excellent 3-bolt, precision-tilt dealie George Fullerton was awarded a
patent for back in 1970 when he worked for Ernie-Ball/Earthwood. It is the same attachment method
used from 1980 to around 1997 by Music Man and G&L. Tuners are Schaller M-6 in black with a G&L
logo on the housing cover. The 5-way switch is a top-quality, 2-pole CRL piece. Knobs are knurled
dome jobbies in black.

Case is your basic early BBE era injection molded plastic SKB style. These aren’t the most durable
cases in the world but that’s what they originally came with. If the latches have failed…no big deal,
these guitars fit into just about every Strat/Superstrat case ever produced.

Here is a picture of a Climax Plus that I used to own [Unfortunately, the photo has been lost]. It was
built for the January, 1993 NAMM show. It sports a cherryburst finish over a 3-piece flame maple body.
I revised the control circuit and it turned out to be an extremely great playing shred-mobile that sounded
quite good.

Hope this helps,

Gabe

[jimbob]

Hi Craig;

Is it ok to put this info on an ebay post for a climax plus that I have up for sale? I want to be as accurate as possible in my listing.
Thank you.

Jim

[Craig]

Hi Craig;

Is it ok to put this info on an ebay post for a climax plus that I have up for sale? I want to be as accurate as possible in my listing.
Thank you.

Jim

Hi Jim,

Sure you can quote the infomation. And thanks for asking before using it.
It's very much appreciated.

Good luck.