Grateful Dead Music Forum

I just picked up this guitar off Craigslist. It's kind of a Strat/Alembic mash up from 1980. The electronics seem to have been rewired and the pickups were clipped out. Since they were clipped so close to the body of the pickup, I may not be able to salvage them as they're epoxy dipped. The route isn't as big as a standard Strat pickup, so I'm kind of stumped as far as what to use for replacements if I can't use the originals. I'm looking for '70's single coil Jerry tones with this guitar. Suggestions are welcome!

The controls are:
Three way rotary switch for neck PU, neck and bridge PU, bridge PU
Mini toggle: mid PU in phase, mid PU off, mid PU out of phase
Master volume, neck tone, bridge tone

Japanese guitars from that era often used proprietary pups of unusual sizes. Beyond having someone expand the routes, which would affect the collectibility, maybe contact Andy for adapters or other suggestions. I've ordered parts from him for my 70's Ibanez. Good luck.
http://www.reproguitarparts.com

Thanks for the link. I know some pickup builders, so if worse comes to worse, I can get something made. I'm in a temporary living situation so a lot of my guitar stuff is packed away, so I can't pull out other pickups to see what fits. Hopefully the originals can be salvaged, but someone with better soldering skills then I will have to do it.

I realized that there's not all that much collectors value to this guitar, so I think I'm going to do a swimming pool route and do a mounting plate like on Wolf and Tiger. That gives me lots more options. I'm thinking a Strat sized P-90 for the neck, a regular Strat for the middle and a tapped humbucker with a little twang for the bridge. Whose pickups, I haven't decided yet. Harmonic designs and Frailins are in the running. Lollars, too. Suggestions accepted!

If you can dial in the action, these guitars play and look pretty cool!
I have a "Thor sound". That I like a lot!
John

After a few months I've landed on a set of Kent Armstrong pickups, VIntage '57 Strat pickups for the neck and center, and a "Kentron" for the bridge. The Kentron is his take on a Gretsch Filtertron. I think it will have more twang then a standard humbucker which is something I'd like as I think this will be kind of a dark sounding guitar.

Next up will be the electronics, a five way rotary switch, volume and tone pots plus a bridge pickup tone pull pot for the Kentron to take out one of the coils. Once that shows up, I can send it to the luthier for routing and a cover plate/pickup holder, assembly and final set up.

I'm looking forward to showing up at band practice with this. I haven't even told my bandmates that I bought it.