Duff
November 6th, 2008, 03:05 AM
I just put my extra Epi LP std nickel plated HB's into my ESP LTD EC-50.
The job went without unusual complications. Again, apparently they used the modern lead free solder on the pots; very very hard to melt. I melted it w my iron and soldered in the new pickups. The Epi pups are different for the neck and bridge, labelled as hot bridge and classic neck but both are hot, I should have checked the impedance but forgot.
The EC-50 was an awesome sounding LP style guitar with the stock lower end ESP pups. I love the guitar, the tone, the output, the neck, the feel, the way the tough chords just fall into your fret hand, its finish is a beautiful antique burst. My first burst guitar. Until I found it, er or, it picked me out from the crowd, I didn't like sunburst guitars. Now I really like burst guitars, especially my Squire standard cherry burst. Isn't it funny how people change.
Well, back to the project. The nickel plated Epi humbucker in the ESP LTD EC-50 sound crystal clear, even the neck classic HB type. The bridge "hot" pup is clear and toneful. All three switch positions sound great, unlike before the change when the middle position was not great sounding. Their is a widely distinct and different tone between the neck and the bridge pickups which is way way more separated in tonality than the stock ESP humbuckers. The master tone control on the guitar works great and provides a wide range of great usable tones with the EPI pups; it practically made no difference in tone with the stock low end ESP pups.
I'm glad I made good use of these Epi LP standard stock pickups that were just laying around because I've used two sets of them lately to outstanding effect.
I have a group of guitars that all sound different and that I play when I want a certain sound when I have the knowledge and ear to think that a particular guitar would possibly sound best for some particular thing. None of my guitars sound the same. I have several outstanding sounding guitars for my purposes.
I'm slow, the pup change took me about 2 hours; but I'm very careful and do a progressively better job as I do more installations. Plus I check all the other wiring when I'm in there and other things that might be visible.
This guitar sounded outstanding before the change and super outstanding after the change and I could never figure out why it sounded better than guitars costing three times as much and more.
I noticed that the ESP LTD EC-50 has a 500 K tone pot. It is possible that this and the value, which I don't know, of the capacitor could be responsible for why it sounds so good.
I know I'll be playing this great guitar a lot now, but that Schecter Omen 6 I just beefed up is also going to get some play time, and I'm not going to forget about my super great sounding Ibanez AS73 cherry.
So I thought someone might enjoy reading about how someone made good use out of some fairly good parts that were just laying around.
I enjoy and look forward to modding and even planning out my next projects.
I think my next project is to hot rod this affinity P bass in great playing condition I picked up for less than 100 and it is in great shape. New pickguard on the gloss black body; probably that aged amberish white pearl pickguard or a black pearl pickguard. But there are other collors that I'm still considering, like the gold one, etc. Black and gold would be great but not as classy as a nice pearl or tortise shell.
Then I'm going to put Seymour Duncan quarter pounder P bass pups on it or GFS hot P bass pups on it. The SD's actually don't cost that much more for the P bass, but for the Jazz bass the SD's are a lot more than GFS.
Right now I'm playing a stock new affinity Jazz bass in metallic red thru one of those new Marshall practice bass amps: the MB30. Marshall now has the pro models out with over 400 watts and even mine has clean and overdrive and amp voices and manual adjustable compression, boost, and four knob eq including a voice adjusting knob. Nice little cheap bass amp that will handle a five string bass.
I play for fun and relaxation. Last night I fell asleep at least twice with the Fender Hwy 1 across my chest. Playing it at low but sweet level thru my Peavey Delta Blues 15 with a digitech rp350 in between. Fun. Totally relaxing. With the amount of practicing I do my ear is getting way better and I'm learning a lot more chords and progressions, etc. Bought some books on theory and how to play songs because I am working a lot of evenings and haven't been able to get in enough lessons. So I want to make use of my time to improve my playing by learning new chords and families and other theory type stuff.
Duffy
The job went without unusual complications. Again, apparently they used the modern lead free solder on the pots; very very hard to melt. I melted it w my iron and soldered in the new pickups. The Epi pups are different for the neck and bridge, labelled as hot bridge and classic neck but both are hot, I should have checked the impedance but forgot.
The EC-50 was an awesome sounding LP style guitar with the stock lower end ESP pups. I love the guitar, the tone, the output, the neck, the feel, the way the tough chords just fall into your fret hand, its finish is a beautiful antique burst. My first burst guitar. Until I found it, er or, it picked me out from the crowd, I didn't like sunburst guitars. Now I really like burst guitars, especially my Squire standard cherry burst. Isn't it funny how people change.
Well, back to the project. The nickel plated Epi humbucker in the ESP LTD EC-50 sound crystal clear, even the neck classic HB type. The bridge "hot" pup is clear and toneful. All three switch positions sound great, unlike before the change when the middle position was not great sounding. Their is a widely distinct and different tone between the neck and the bridge pickups which is way way more separated in tonality than the stock ESP humbuckers. The master tone control on the guitar works great and provides a wide range of great usable tones with the EPI pups; it practically made no difference in tone with the stock low end ESP pups.
I'm glad I made good use of these Epi LP standard stock pickups that were just laying around because I've used two sets of them lately to outstanding effect.
I have a group of guitars that all sound different and that I play when I want a certain sound when I have the knowledge and ear to think that a particular guitar would possibly sound best for some particular thing. None of my guitars sound the same. I have several outstanding sounding guitars for my purposes.
I'm slow, the pup change took me about 2 hours; but I'm very careful and do a progressively better job as I do more installations. Plus I check all the other wiring when I'm in there and other things that might be visible.
This guitar sounded outstanding before the change and super outstanding after the change and I could never figure out why it sounded better than guitars costing three times as much and more.
I noticed that the ESP LTD EC-50 has a 500 K tone pot. It is possible that this and the value, which I don't know, of the capacitor could be responsible for why it sounds so good.
I know I'll be playing this great guitar a lot now, but that Schecter Omen 6 I just beefed up is also going to get some play time, and I'm not going to forget about my super great sounding Ibanez AS73 cherry.
So I thought someone might enjoy reading about how someone made good use out of some fairly good parts that were just laying around.
I enjoy and look forward to modding and even planning out my next projects.
I think my next project is to hot rod this affinity P bass in great playing condition I picked up for less than 100 and it is in great shape. New pickguard on the gloss black body; probably that aged amberish white pearl pickguard or a black pearl pickguard. But there are other collors that I'm still considering, like the gold one, etc. Black and gold would be great but not as classy as a nice pearl or tortise shell.
Then I'm going to put Seymour Duncan quarter pounder P bass pups on it or GFS hot P bass pups on it. The SD's actually don't cost that much more for the P bass, but for the Jazz bass the SD's are a lot more than GFS.
Right now I'm playing a stock new affinity Jazz bass in metallic red thru one of those new Marshall practice bass amps: the MB30. Marshall now has the pro models out with over 400 watts and even mine has clean and overdrive and amp voices and manual adjustable compression, boost, and four knob eq including a voice adjusting knob. Nice little cheap bass amp that will handle a five string bass.
I play for fun and relaxation. Last night I fell asleep at least twice with the Fender Hwy 1 across my chest. Playing it at low but sweet level thru my Peavey Delta Blues 15 with a digitech rp350 in between. Fun. Totally relaxing. With the amount of practicing I do my ear is getting way better and I'm learning a lot more chords and progressions, etc. Bought some books on theory and how to play songs because I am working a lot of evenings and haven't been able to get in enough lessons. So I want to make use of my time to improve my playing by learning new chords and families and other theory type stuff.
Duffy