NGD - big project result

[fazool]

I am a big fan of the discontinued Taylor solidbody guitars and have owned several.

I needed a guitar with a tremolo and I always want to have a backup guitar.

I found a guitar thousands of miles away. My very close friend picked it up for me and held onto it for a couple months until my next trip out to visit him.

The guitar was a mash-up of leftover parts that a Taylor employee had collected. When I bought it, he included a LOT of brand new spare parts which was great.

The best feature was a gorgeous (and less common) stained mahogany neck with ebony fretboard (not typically paired with the painted bodies).

Except for fret wires I removed every single attached piece of hardware, right down to just the painted wood.

The frets showed almost no use so I was able to do a nice fret dress and fingerboard conditioning.

Every single piece of hardware was replaced with brand new (pickguard/pickups/electronics, tremolo/bridge, tuners, strap buttons, tremolo springs and claw, etc.)

So I polished the finish and rebuilt the guitar, as-new but with a number of customizations:

I changed the pickup config to an SSS, then replaced the bridge pickup with an SD Custom Shop little '78 humbucker (for added bite).

I added PW elliptical strap buttons and my favorite vegan strap.

I built and installed a custom hard maple strap block to make the floating tremolo a one-way dive-only and then added an extra tremolo spring - this resulted in really good stability.

Added stock locking tuners and an XL nut.

I also cut down the 5-way switch post and the switch button to lower it about 1/4" and it clears my hand and the trem arm nicer now.

And finally, I installed my own designed TRC from Bill Nichols which is a logo from my favorite album cover.

Here are my takeaways and reviews of this:


The guitar is fantastically playable - Whatever secret sauce, magic pixie dust Taylor has, this guitar got a dose of it. The playability is the high point of this guitar.

With a tremstop in place, the tremolo is actually very usable and stable and reliable. I hate floating trems so this invisible and removable mod was mandatory for me. It came out amazing and with great results. The added spring really returns this solidly every time.

My other SB has my favortie pickup config which sounds amazing. This one is "OK". It's definitely very clear and articulate high output single coils. The SD little 78 is "OK. It will certainly serve a purpose and add some gain and grit when needed but it's no match to a real humbucker. It has less output than the single coils (which is super odd), but when used in parallel with the middle SC, it has a nice combination of distortion and clarity.

All in all I'm happy with it. It's a perfect backup guitar with a tremolo that I will need occasionally.

[Dirk Hofman]

That's all really cool. Nice that you can do all that work. What Taylor is that, I didn't know they made a solid body. Don't see it on the website.

EDIT: Finding them on Reverb. Got it. Seems like a pretty cool guitar! Interesting addition to my quest.

[jricc]

Nice work Fazool! It's cool to have a backup (this nice) of your favorite.

[rockabilly69]

Hey Fazool sounds like a great project guitar! I like the idea of blocking that trem, and cutting down the 5 way for more clearance.

About the pickups...

The humbucker is quieter than the singles? Are you sure the humbucker is wired right? What is the DC resistance of the Taylor single coils? The little '78 is listed as 9K and that's a pretty hot pickup. Have you measured the DC resistance of the individual pickups at the jack? Maybe there's a cold solder joint. I just watched a Jason Lollar video where he said a cold solder joint can affect output and low end output.

And what's even odder is usually when two pickups are combined in parallel they get even lower in volume as it's dividing the DC resistance in two.

[rockabilly69]

whoops double post

[SpruceTop]

Beautiful Taylor & Nice Custom Work By You--Enjoy!

[fazool]

Originally Posted by rockabilly69

Hey Fazool sounds like a great project guitar! I like the idea of blocking that trem, and cutting down the 5 way for more clearance.

About the pickups...

The humbucker is quieter than the singles? Are you sure the humbucker is wired right? What is the DC resistance of the Taylor single coils? The little '78 is listed as 9K and that's a pretty hot pickup. Have you measured the DC resistance of the individual pickups at the jack? Maybe there's a cold solder joint. I just watched a Jason Lollar video where he said a cold solder joint can affect output and low end output.

And what's even odder is usually when two pickups are combined in parallel they get even lower in volume as it's dividing the DC resistance in two.

Yeah it was weird. I checked everything and it all looked correct. I didn't ring out the SC's. But I did (just last night) make a radical move and swapped the L78 into the neck position. Now that pickup is designed to be optimal in a slanted bridge position I know. I put it in the neck and *WOW* it opened right up and it's a humbucking monster.

So now I have a lot more tonal flexibility.

One remaining oddity is that the SC's and the 78 aren't really matched well so when I go into position 2 (78 and mid-SC in parallel) the decreased resistance dramatically changes the RC filter cutoff and becomes VERY trebly.

So, now I have it set up as a reverse HSS
and I get the following

1) incredible screaming humbucker tone (I cant believe this thing is so small)
2) ultra overly bright combo
3) nice mid SC clean
4) beefier SC with some twang from mid+bridge SC
5) bright SC - super clean and twangy/funk

[rockabilly69]

By your new results, I would bet there was something wrong when it was wired in the bridge position. But, I personally love fat neck tones too, although I can't stand thin bridge pickup tones

Like you, I just finished a guitar project....
https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=611712

The bridge pickup was too thin on that guitar, so I had a set of pickups wound custom for it. Now I'm happy...

[Bob Womack]

Nice! Is it an album cover from Wishbone Ash?

Bob

[fazool]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Nice! Is it an album cover from Wishbone Ash?

Bob

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=437728

[fazool]

Originally Posted by rockabilly69

...I like the idea of blocking that trem,...

This is what I used - I added a fourth spring to secure the trem solidly and made a custom sized hard maple block. The screws are and oddball head but sit flush. I burnished the contact surface to harden it a little more and shape it to line up solidly. Works great

[The Growler]

Very cool and well done!