The White Whale gets a face lift.

[LucSulla]

I went ahead and put a stop bar tailpiece on it. I actually dig the functionality of the Schaller stuff, but that tailpiece was just so clunky. I'm sticking with the roller bridge though - kinda dig the easy string spacing.

 

I also swapped the Schaller pups out for some SD Alnico II Slash models I picked up on the Bay. I play some high gain stuff occasionally, and the stock pups were a little noisy. I went with the Slashes based on Rockabilly's suggestion, and I dig them! I can't really turn it up loud tonight, but they are definitely more to my liking - warm but kinda nasty.

 

 

On a side note, this guitar is already starting to yellow. It's going to be fun watching it go more off white over the years.

 

A before shot:

[squawken]

Arrrgh! Thar she blows! Sweet

[davesultra]

...Yarrhh Matey! That be a 157 without a neck binding? The '10 white 157 I purchased from smaj last summer has quite a bit of yellowing too. I like to think of it as "instant vintage".

[MartyGrass]

Black neck binding.

[brentrocks]

that is a cool Heritage

[FredZepp]

Nice !! I like the changes you've made... that is a sharp looking axe.

[smokedtires]

Nice! I just put some gold pup rings on mine to go with the rest. Stemac and Ebay have them

[LucSulla]

Thanks everyone!

 

Dave, that is the one flaw I see with black binding on ebony necks. However, it looks really cool on the body, and I dig the somewhat rare nature of the combo.

[bobmeyrick]

I've done a similar thing with my 150 VSB - replaced the original Schaller tailpiece with a Schaller stopbar I snagged off eBay (along with a Schaller TOM bridge). I decided to keep the roller bridge for the same reasons as you, plus the TOM had grooves cut into the saddles which didn't seem quite right. I'm considering replacing them with a set of Graphtech saddles.

 

The stopbar tailpiece does seem to have improved the sustain. The original looks like the fine-tuning version, but without the fine tuners! I also got a Gibson TOM and stopbar off eBay, which I put on the 150 Special Goldtop.

[MartyGrass]

Thanks everyone!

 

Dave, that is the one flaw I see with black binding on ebony necks. However, it looks really cool on the body, and I dig the somewhat rare nature of the combo.

 

I never saw it as a flaw, just a subtlety.

[LucSulla]

Bob, I really dig the top on that 150. Very cool looking guitar. How do the triple shots work with that P-Rail?

MG, I guess I am going to have to play it now and see if I agree. :-p

[rockabilly69]

ooh you got the Slashes!!! Drop the neck pickup down into the ring until it cleans up perfectly, then balance that with a slightly hotter bridge pickup signal,

and the middle position will sing! I like the stop bar better! It's looking good my man!

[LucSulla]

I actually just discovered that this guitar has far and away the best middle position of any of my guitars now before I surfed back over here and saw your post. I guess you can say your opinion is independently supported -- You aren't lying. If I back the tone off the bridge just a shade, the sustain is epic!

 

MG also had some after market alchemy with the capacitors done I believe. It works quite well with these pups.

[rockabilly69]

Well I do spend alot of time recording guitars, and the microphones don't lie! Now go get your Dickey Betts on:)

 

I just bought the custom wound Peter Green pickups by Seymour Duncan and they should be here today, and I'm seriously

wondering if they will be any better than the Slash p/us. I told MJ at the custom shop not to flip the magnet, so that it would

have the normal middle position. I'm just not bonding with the Pearly Gates pickups in my H150, I love the neck pickup for it's

clarity, but the bridge is a bit too thin for my tastes.

[bobmeyrick]

Bob, I really dig the top on that 150. Very cool looking guitar. How do the triple shots work with that P-Rail?

 

If anyone is contemplating getting P-Rails, I'd recommend getting the Triple Shots too. Installing them is straightforward - there's a small piece of circuit board which has connections to the switches and an output cable to the volume pot. This board is stuck to the bottom of the pickup. The wires from the pickup are soldered to the appropriate connection pads on the circuit board. I found it was necessary to shorten the pickup's output cable quite significantly so that it didn't foul the inside of the pickup cavity.

 

Once installed they're easy to use. Both switches in (towards the middle of the ring) - coils in series; rear switch out, front switch in - P90 coil; rear switch in, front switch out - rail coil; both switches out - coils in parallel. The advantage is that each pickup can be switched separately - using push-pull pots means that both pickups are the same. I reckon that gives 24 different sounds! (4 from the neck. 4 from the bridge, 16 from both pickups together)

[smokedtires]

I have the P-Rails that came stock on my Godin and then placed them on my H140, like them lots!

[shook494]

Super sweet. I like the covers removed on that one. It makes look a little more rock!

[LucSulla]

Quick question - I had to put new bushings in for the screws on the Gotoh TP I bought. I didn't check to see if they were higher than the Schaller bushings, but they seem to not fit flush in the old holes. This is a big deal to me as you can't see it, but I do want them to be in as far as they will go. Can any of you remember if they are taller?