Suggestions anyone?

[Wana_make_a_guitar]

Right, this might be a long read, but I wanna make sure i have everything I need when i decide to order it, make suggestions for changes and thing if you feel that you need.I will be stating the obvious.Buying all but Pups from Warmoth.

LP Carved, Quilted Maple Top Mahogany Back top double lamtop w/ cream binding, Black/Red/Yellow burst top-Trans red back, OFR routed, 2 Hum size Pup holes, 4 control, battery box hole in the back, LP switch hole, contoured Heel, OFR.

LP "Pro" 25 1/2" 22 fret mahogany neck(trans Red(that includes head))/rosewood fingerboard, OFR nut, Planet waves auto trim tuners

Just say if you want to know about the electronics. ( I will have a crack at doing them myself with some help from Books and my Dad)

ccasion14:

 

[ice man]

So your'e going with active pups?  That guitar is begging for a C5 Duncan or a '59.  Sounds like it will be a sweet build.  Think long and hard about your pickups-what kind of music will it be used for primarily?  I have a mahogany esp viper 1000 with emgs, and I much prefer my guitars with passive pups.  I may swap the emgs out some day.

 

[Wana_make_a_guitar]

Yeah Actives are the go for me, i want to play dark and dirty sounds with really low tunings as well as cleans and stuff like metallica.

 

[dbw]

Personally, I think the cleans from EMGs are boring-sounding... just a heads up.  Too sterile.  I'll second ice man's SD '59 recommendation....

 

[Fish Out of Water]

The SD '59 is a great pickup.  I have one mounted in the neck of my Epi LP.  I threw a JB in the bridge and man does it scream!!!  They also clean up real nice for clean chording.  I like the EMGs too, but they do sound a bit flat when played clean, at least to me they do.  But if your just gonna play distorted all the time, then go for 'em...

 

[Orpheo]

warm open sounding clean, which will fatten up for blues and jazz in neck? jazz and air norton (mule, miracle man, cold sweat, nailbomb)

warm sounding pickup, but not nasal or mushy for heavy metal, and fatten up with less gain and tone a bit closed? jazz and air norton (mule, miracle man, cold sweat, nailbomb)


tight screaming pickup for in the bridge? jb and air norton (miracle man, painkiller)

warm enough so it wont sound skreechy? jb and air norton and superdistortion and EVO (miracle man, painkiller)

great harmonics? jb, air norton (miracle man, painkiller)

open, almost acoustic sounding clean? jb, air norton (miracle man, warpig, mule, holydiver)

great singlecoil sounds? jb, air norton (miracle man, painkiller)

 

[Wana_make_a_guitar]

I get your meaning, your trying to lean me towards a JB and air norton, but how much will that cost?

Find me a bridge jb with pots, capacitors, mounting rings, jack for cheap and a air norton and i'll buy it and put it in my guitar.

If you can, get me a wiring diagram for them, seeing as the one on SD website it just for the JB you'll have to make one or find an existing one.

 

[Orpheo]

I get your meaning, your trying to lean me towards a JB and air norton, but how much will that cost?

Find me a bridge jb with pots, capacitors, mounting rings, jack for cheap and a air norton and i'll buy it and put it in my guitar.

If you can, get me a wiring diagram for them, seeing as the one on SD website it just for the JB you'll have to make one or find an existing one.

air norton on ebay: with luck, 70$
JB: same thing
pickuprings: 10$ (www.guitarfetish.com)
switch: 5$ (guitarfetish; good quality! got it too)
caps: 20 cents at your local electronicshop
pots: 40 bucks at warmoth's.

my problem with active pickups are the following:

1: one trick pony
2: no musical feel or vibe (blackouts have this problem less than emg's by the way)
3: batterychange.  A guitar has to function and has to work. too much wiring and stuff can make problems. I've seen it too many times that the sound would just drop because the battery went dead, or the connectors would come loose
4: completely, utterly: sterile!  its almost als clinical as the OR in your local hospital. its just not cool

some pro's:
1: silent. dead silent
2: hot, hot, hotterthan hell (eventhough thats not really true; the output is just as much as the JB, duncan distortion, x2n, painkiller or warpig; the 9 volts are just to power the onboard preamp; the output is NOT 9 volts! can't even be; you'd wreck your amp with that)

thats it. If you play heavy metal (zakk wylde, CoB, Dimmu Borgir, or even 'heavier') but also you wanna play blues and jazz from time to time, with the same guitar,and everything in between, I suggest to take again, a look in my former post in this thread

My other problem with actives is that warmoth's woods are so goddamn well-sounding, its a shame and a waste to use actives! I always recommend them in case a guitar sounds bad, but warmoth's sound so good, you will loose all the lespaul-character (but with more ring and punch and clearness compared with the real thing!) with actives.

oh well, no offence, but when I was your age, I wanted EMG's too, and nothing else (blackouts didnt exsist at the time).

 

[Fish Out of Water]

Wiring diagrams are available at the Seymour Duncan website.  You can get a diagram for many different configurations.  If you're looking for something a bit more specific or custom, then I'm sure that someone here could help you.  They've helped me...
Active pickups, I've found, are generally a bit more expensive than passives and you have to be sure to keep a battery with good charge loaded in the guitar at all times...especially if you play out.  You also have to be sure to not leave the guitar with the cord plugged into it or you'll drain the battery and you have no way of knowing how much juice is left in the battery. 
The bass player in my old band had actives in his bass and he had a bad habit of leaving it plugged in.  On more than one occasion we'd be in the middle of a show and all of a sudden there would be this tremendously loud squealing coming from his amp.  The sound was ear-shattering... His battery was nearly dead and needed to be changed...
I'm a SD guy.  You can get a new JB for around $72- 73 at Music 123, MusiciansFriend, GuitarElectronics.com or your favorite music store.  You'll pay close to 100 bucks for an EMG 81 (that's the hot bridge pickup).  You can also wire passives for dual to single coil switching, phase switching and the like as long as it had a 4-conductor cable.  I think that most Seymour Duncans, Dimarzios, etc, come prewired like that these days. .  EMG has just come out with a pickup that has that ability but I'm not sure of the price and I've never heard what it sounds like.
I suggest that you play a bunch of guitars with different pickups loaded in them.. Don't just play EMGs because your favorite bands play them.  Chances are that you're not gonna sound like them anyway.  If that were the case, we'd all sound alike...
But ultimately the decission is completely in your hands. 
Good luck...

 

[onedrop]

You're obviously going for something specific, but active pups do have their limitations, not the least of which is having to mess with the battery. Usually they sound pretty crappy played clean IMO, but you can pull off some killer higain stuff.

Have you checked out dimarzio D Activators? I see them for like $90 on ebay, and then you don't have to worry about a battery going flat in the middle of a show (or the extra components/wiring), plus they sound way better clean to my ear. They seem more versatile while still giving you that metal crunching capability.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFY6OgKIdTo

Edit: you can get them quite a bit cheaper than $90
http://www.google.com/products?q=dimarzio+d+activator

 

[Wana_make_a_guitar]

I'm fairly impressed with that, i'm getting them! But i'll get the X model. i just saw, before i watched the video, they were Heavier with the cleans and stuff as well (to what i heard). I'm decided. I'm not changing my mind, unless offered for free otherwise.(LOL :toothy10
:rock-on:

Wows :headbang1: