Number 5
The guitar to end all guitars. Number 5 was meant to be as versatile as possible while experimenting with a neck-thru construction.
I thought I would try a 24″ scale but still have a very chunky neck and a 1 5/8″ wide nut, like my other guitars. The neck pickup is made from two single coil bobbins and Alnico V polepieces. The centre pickup is an Axesrus TT-73 humbucker that is splittable to make sure that the 2 and 4 positions are hum cancelling. In the bridge is an Axesrus The Purist. With a DPDT switch and a five way switch I get the following:
DPDT down: 1 – bridge humbucker / 2 – bridge and middle (both split) / 3 – bridge and neck humbuckers / 4 – middle and neck (both split) / 5 – neck humbucker
DPDT up: 1 – bridge humbucker split/ 2 – bridge and middle (both split) / 3 – bridge and neck humbuckers split/ 4 – middle and neck (both split) / 5 – neck split
It really is like having two guitars in one, and some tele-like sounds too. The high gain bridge humbucker sounds great when split, and the special neck pickup construction really makes it sound like a single coil when split.
The body is yellowheart, maple and walnut on the back, heavily chambered so it’s resonant and reasonably light. . The neck is maple with a cocobolo fingerboard and birdseye maple headstock.
The tone switch has a push-push that enables a 28db active boost, adjustable with a mini-pot via a hole in the control cavity cover. Oh and that trem is a Wilkinson WV-50 – very smooth!
