It took a few years, but the bug bit again and I had to build more guitars.
So, I found a local woodshop (the candy store known as Black Forest Woods ) and bought a piece of alder, some curly maple and birds eye maple.
This axe was going to be different. Oh yes. Rather than just a stratocaster, it was going to be something lighter and sleeker. I thought I’d have a go at winding my own pickups too, which didn’t turn out so great. The pickups were weak and not really very usable. Later on I bought some from Irongear (Smokestack in the neck, Pig Iron in the middle and a Platinum P90) to replace the three single coils I had made.
Well here it is. Number 2.
The wiring is a little different too. The six way rotary switch selects 1 – neck pickup, 2 – neck and middle, 3 – neck and bridge, 4 – middle, 5 – middle and bridge, 6 – bridge. The tone switch is a push-push “blower” switch that connects the P90 straight to the output jack, bypassing the volume and tone. The volume pulls up to coil tap the neck pickup. Yes, coil tap. The Smokestack is a double-stacked single coil that is normally wired tapped (7.3k). A switch turns on the rest of the coil, making it a whopping 12.4k, almost like a P90.
