With Great New Pickups, Come Great New Guitar Days

Yes, I know I have a problem.  I shouldn't be buying yet another guitar, but hear me out.  Here's the breakdown.  I have sold three guitars.  I traded one for an amplifier, and I will be selling that amplifier today.  So I am actually down four guitars. 

What I needed was a guitar to test pickups out on.  All the guitars I have now are set-up so perfectly with great pickups.  So what I really needed was a guitar that I could mod the hell out of, and didn't need to worry about it. 

I found the cheapest Epiphone Les Paul Standard I could on Reverb.  They guy didn't say why he needed to sell it fast, only that he did.  I saw that he had received a bunch of offers, but I figured they were all for $100 or so since the guitar was still for sale.  I made him an offer with the added point that he could ship the guitar by ground and save himself some shipping money.  He countered with an offer, and after thinking about it I accepted it. 

Here it is:

Once I received it I did the usual.  I fret-dressed it and set it up.  I also adjusted or added some lock washers under the pots.  I've also put in an order for another knob since one of them was broke. 

A few days ago I created a mutant pickup.  I installed that pickup in this guitar.  I wrote all about the creation of this pickup here.

http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2017/03/tales-from-workbench-mutant-guitar.html

I was dying to know what this pickup sounded like.  I have to admit, once I heard it, it was awesome.  If had to describe it in a short sentence it would be, "bright, but balanced."  I would break down the EQ like this:

Treble: 8
Mids:   5
Bass:   5
Presence:  10

With an Alnico 2 magnet I would have never guessed it would have sounded like it did.  I don't play with that much distortion, but this pickup can handle distortion with the best of them. 

So I feel great about this whole venture.  I had a few things surprised me about this guitar.  It reminds me of a former Epiphone Les Paul that I had.  My former one and this one were both made in the same manufacturing plant in the same year (1998.)  They are both Limited Editions (but different colors.)  Both of them are internally made similar.  Namely, where they cut the holes for the wiring to go through.  They really made them deep and wide.  That's one reason this guitar is so lightweight. 

So I'm really happy with all I've been able to do lately.  I'll admit, I love tinkering with guitars as much as I love playing them.  I think they go hand in hand.  The good news is that, this guitar is made for tinkering.  I'll have some fun with.  But with guitars, I'm always having fun.