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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Gear »

Permalink Rockabilly Project (updated 2018)

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I've got some wacky ideas bouncing around my head about how to make that guitar a little less nu-metal and a little more rockabilly/surf styled. Problem is, I don't have the foggiest idea where to begin...so, basically I'm asking for a little feedback, or dialogue with some of my ideas. Who knows, it may not go anywhere, but I am very interested in exploring my options.

First on the docket is pickups. I like how cheap and well-reputed GFS offerings are, and I've had my eyes on their Retrotrons and their humbucker-sized P-90's. I can't exactly find many audio comparisons though...there are quite a few text reviews, but those rely on everybody's favorite ambiguous buzzwords...you know the ones: clean, jangly, sparkly, spanky, chunky. On a slight tangent, just to do a little experimentation, I removed the screw polepieces from the humbuckers this weekend, and quite enjoyed the "fat" single-coil sound (there's another one of those buzzwords), so if anything resembles that sound, I'd be very interested in looking into it.

Second in line is the bridge and tailpiece. Are there any mods that can be done to a Tune-o-matic to make it a little sharper sounding? I've heard mixed things on all the aftermarket saddles, from brass Stew-mac offerings, to Graph-tech Tusq TOM saddles. Speaking of brass, I have a complete TOM bridge system from a cheap Ibanez that's entirely brass...Could/would that have a tonal effect over the ferrous bridge and tailpiece on there currently?

Finally, there's the aesthetic angle. I'm 95% satisfied with the sound out of the guitar as it is, though like I said before, I'm mostly just vetting out ideas and itching for a new project. I have enough spare parts to totally deck the guitar out in chrome right now. But, what about refinishing, or adding a graphic? I have a few visions on this; either some classic hotrod pinstriping, or a pin-up girl. Is there a good, reliable way to knock back the glossy clearcoat just enough to apply a graphic, then re-apply a fresh clear layer?

Last edited: Aug 05, 2018 20:39:57

Check out the Billy Gibbons SG. It has Hot Rod pinstripes like you're describing. I think it would look good with some red and white striping.
The Gfs surf 90's work great for surf and rockabilly. I've never tried the dream or mean 90's.
Vibramate makes a device to mount a Bigsby without drilling any new holes in your guitar.
I'd love to see what you end up doing to it!

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Dig that strange tremolo!

Green_Meanie — cool looking guitar! I've always liked the offset Viper shape much better than the regular SG shape, whatever purists might think.

As far as pickups are concerned, GFS is a good choice — one of the best bang-for-the-buck options. Their Surf 90s are Dynasonic style single coils and therefore great for Rockabilly tones, and suitable for Surf too. If you prefer a P90 style sound then get the Mean 90s (once again, great for Rockabilly and also works fine for Surf, even though they're not the most used pickup type for this particular style). Dream 90s on the other hand are not P90 style pickups, they're more like overwound single coils with oversized bar magnets. They sound good, but probably lack a bit of brightness and "bite" for Rockabilly. Then there's the Retrotron vintage-style humbuckers (Nashvilles, Memphises and Liverpools) but I've never tried them. They're supposed to be modeled after Filtertron style pickups so they should work for both styles. Don't worry too much, if by any chance you don't like the pickups you buy it shouldn't be too difficult to sell them online and recoup some of the money you spent.

Regarding the bridge I don't think upgrading it would make a dramatic change. A vibrato would be useful both for Rockabilly and Surf, though. A Bigsby-style unit is the obvious choice here. Surf_Skater mentioned the Vibramate, which doesn't require any modification to your guitar, but it's fairly pricey and only works with genuine Bigsbys, which are quite expensive as well. If you don't mind doing permanent mods to your guitar (i.e. screw holes) then a noname Bigsby knockoff is about $20 on eBay. You can then replace the Tune-O-Matic style bridge with a roller bridge for smoother vibrato action, but the Bigsby will work without.

I wouldn't bother with refinishing. All black is a classic Rockabilly look after all... Maybe you could make a custom pickguard? I think white or 3-ply black would look great on black. Don't overdo the chrome parts, go for the Gretsch Black Falcon look — classic and classy. Maybe add a Rockabilly themed sticker (50s pin-up girl? Four aces? Eightball? Or what abut a f-hole shape?) for good measure.

In the end, keep in mind that it might actually be cheaper for you to sell your Viper and buy one of Guitarfetish's Xaviere hollowbody guitars than upgrade it.

Surf_Skater wrote:

Dig that strange tremolo!

Sideways Vibrola Smile

Old punks never die... They just become surf rockers.

Last edited: Nov 06, 2014 16:06:28

I do have a few "sacrificial" records that I bought with the intent of cutting up into pickguards; including Chet Atkins, The Ventures, and The Rolling Stones...although, as I say that, The Ventures are playing on an old record player, and I don't think I can really do that. Shock

Surf_Skater wrote:

Dig that strange tremolo!

The trem isn't strange! It is a Gibson sideways unit missing the cover!

JakeDobner wrote:

Surf_Skater wrote:

Dig that strange tremolo!

The trem isn't strange! It is a Gibson sideways unit missing the cover!

I'd never seen one without the cover.

Green_Meanie wrote:

First on the docket is pickups. I like how cheap and well-reputed GFS offerings are, and I've had my eyes on their Retrotrons and their humbucker-sized P-90's.

P-90s are not what people think they are, twangy single-coil machines. They are thick and full pickups, a PAF humbucker will get you closer than a P-90.

As for the Tune-o-Matic, just buy a nice ABR-1 or ABR-1 clone(Tonepros makes a great one). ABR-1 style tune-o-matics are fantastic bridges. If you have troubles with it, it is because it is a cheap one with soft metal. And if it goes out of tune, that is likely in the nut, tail piece, or how you string your guitar.

I thought we were talking about something like this:

image

horax wrote:

I thought we were talking about something like this:

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Nah, just the Japanese knockoff of a Gibson SG.

Anyway, those of you who recommended Dream 90's...From a purely aesthetic point of view, I prefer the looks of a Filtertron-style pickup. Sonically, what would a P-90 style offer over a Filtertron?

I wound up getting rid of the Viper...traded it for a new case.

Thanks for the help though, even though the project never got legs!

Oh, hey guys. While I got rid of the Viper in question, the years have been kind and allowed me to procure this bad boy, affectionately referred to as my Dumpster Fire:
[img]https://i.imgur.com/SWtc0ax.jpg[/img]
I bought the body on Ebay, spent a full year (seriously! 12 months!) trying to refinish it, before just throwing in the towel and buying a power sander with 40-grit discs. I wound up buying a complete Epiphone Les Paul Special to harvest the neck and use on the Ibanez body. From Ebay, the wiring on the neck pickup was shorting out, so I replaced that with another Ebay find: a bridge pickup from an Ibanez Artcore.

So, over the past few years, I've been making a mental checklist of what I need to do with this, and 2018 is going to be the year. It needs a complete set of pickups...while both of 'em work right now, I'd like to get a matching set and give this guitar a nice theme. And, the wiring is shot, so I gotta get new pots, switches, and all the other guts.

I'll keep this thread updated as the project moves along.

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Here she is: My newly assembled Ibanez Epiphone Guitarfetish monstrosity! I wanted to do a guitar with the GFS Kwikplug system, so I went ahead and bought one of their harnesses and a set of Dream 90 pickups. The Dream 90's are humbucker-sized single coils, and they really smooth out the harsh edge that I got from the OEM pickups (the body is a GAX series, which is more rock and metal than it is smooth or twangy), but it's got more mass than a cutting single-coil sound.

Nice. Dream 90's by reputation are a bit more like high output Strat pu's than P-90's. As Jake said previously, P90's tend to be kind of upper mid heavy and snotty sounding but mileage may vary depending on how they are wound, magnets, etc. I find P-90's to sound very different in hollow bodies vs solid bodies. Great rock pu's. The truth is, your fingers and your amp can be the biggest components to your sound. I've seen/heard demos of players getting great rockabilly and even decent surf sounds out of pointy metal shredder guitars with high output 'buckers and Floyds.

Surfadelphia wrote:

Nice. Dream 90's by reputation are a bit more like high output Strat pu's than P-90's. As Jake said previously, P90's tend to be kind of upper mid heavy and snotty sounding but mileage may vary depending on how they are wound, magnets, etc. I find P-90's to sound very different in hollow bodies vs solid bodies. Great rock pu's. The truth is, your fingers and your amp can be the biggest components to your sound. I've seen/heard demos of players getting great rockabilly and even decent surf sounds out of pointy metal shredder guitars with high output 'buckers and Floyds.

Yeah, part of my struggle with this particular guitar was nailing down the sound or tone that I wanted. I watched dozens of rig rundown type videos and listened to just as many podcasts, trying to find out what gave my favorite bands their signature sounds, and I was surprised to find that I have a larger pedal board than most of my favorite bands. To boot, 2 of the bands I was researching use a single-pickup P-90 guitar as part of their signature tone (Green Day and Social Distortion (by way of Johnny Wickersham)). So, from there, I realized that "tone" doesn't really matter as much as I initially thought, and just went with the Dream 90's because I liked GFS's sound clips, and the look of the chrome-on-black pickup in the guitar Very Happy

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