[Dozin]

I think the tone is a large difference but nothing the volume control wouldn't take care of

[mkaufman]

Finally - significant progress!

My prototype is now built. I took an '82 Ibanez Blazer and modded the pickguard. Then I installed the following:

- Dimarzio Virtual PAF DP196 (neck)
- Dimarzio Virtual Vintage DP410 2.2 (middle)
- Dimarzio Virtual PAF DP197 (bridge)

- on/off toggle for each pickup
- 3-way toggles for the DP196/DP197 (HB series, single coil & HB parallel)

- stacked tone/volume control for the outside pups
- stacked tone/volume control for the middle pup

All-in-all, it sounds great. The middle pickup makes all the difference presenting some very nice Strat-like tones. I still have some wiring issues to iron out such as the tone/volume controls which are not totally independent. As far as I'm concerned, I've proven to myself that this project is feasible. The next/final step would be to transfer the electronics to a different guitar and I have lots of options from which to choose.

In addition, I plan on swapping the bridge pup for an Ibanez Trisound Super 80 to see how that sounds. In the end, I may have two Cowboys: one matching Weir's '78-'83 Cowboy with the pickups above (same as the officially released Cowboy in 2005) and another with Ibanez Super 80's matching his '75-'78 guitars.

Question: the guitar has 2 HB's (which I'll mostly run in single coil) plus the middle single coil. Should I use a .022 or .047 cap(s)?

mk

[mkaufman]

Well...I almost posted my first picture! It's just missing the neck pickup which looks identical to the bridge pup and can be seen here:

http://www.ibanezcollectors.com/forum/i ... 2597;image

mk

[jeffm725]

very cool mk! Thanks for the info! If you really wanna get nuts,and are totally after the weirness, try taking that middle pup and sliding it down toward the bridge humbucker almost, but not quite butted up against it.

[mkaufman]

Yes - I forgot to mention that. I need to have someone route out a space for the single coil. I was thinking of doing something like Weir did where it was adjustable. Just need to come up w/ an idea that works.

mk

[mkaufman]

Project status update:

Option 1: with Dimarzio pups: when I initially wired the pickups, activating the middle pickup resulted in a phase reversal sound rather than a Strat-like quack. I carefully looked at the Cowboy schematic and realized that the wiring on the middle pickup needs to be reversed! (ie: red (hot) goes to ground and green/ground goes to hot). I changed the wiring and voila, I had the Strat quack, however, it still wasn't 100%. I then re-read the Dimazio wiring instructions for their Virtual Vintage pickups and it said to rotate the neck pickup to get a better Strat quack. I checked pictures of the Cowboy and confirmed that the adjustable poles on the outside pickups both point to the outside. Therefore, Weir's Cowboy was wired with the neck pup rotated. So, I rotated the neck pup and it made a big difference. Now it's really close to the Cowboy sound. I can't wait to hear what is sounds like in a substantial guitar (think Ibanez Artist) rather than in a Strat clone. Now I need to choose which guitar to route...

Option 2: with Ibanez Super 80 pups: I installed a 70's Maxon (Ibanez) single coil in the middle and wired everything up. I got some very interesting tones using a combination of single coil & phase reversal settings. I even rotated the neck pup. It sounds really cool, however, there's more work to be done as I'm not yet getting that May '77 sound.

Getting closer...

mk