NGD (flameproof suit on!)

andy1839

Well this popped up for sale on the Facebooks:

http://i64.tinypic.com/2q9exsm.jpg
http://i68.tinypic.com/2ccx8nl.jpg

I’ll admit to having a fondness for the more obscure Gibsons, and I will one day have the holy trinity of this, a Dusk Tiger and a Firebird X. 
Not entirely complete, missing a knob (not me), and the main circuit board from the control cavity and charging cable.
The previous owner has gone for the Classic 50’s wiring with CTS pots and orange drops. 
It sounds absolutely brilliant, the bridge is a Burstbucker 3 and the neck is some Gibson hum cancelling P90. 

I was hankering after a PRS SE Chris Robertson as I liked the idea of a bit of P90 action in the neck, but this came up cheaper than one of those. 

It has a massive neck, at least as big as my R8, but I find chunky necks quite comfy so I was more than happy. 
The piezo bridge is still there but I have no idea if it could be made to work without the circuit board it plugs into. I have no idea about piezo. 
The robot tuners will be coming off and silver buttoned klusons gong on. Or grovers. Or something. 

I’m just very excited, it’s a right big teddy bear of a guitar. 

ICBM

I’m fairly sure you could make the piezo work with a Fishman Powerchip or a similar preamp/blender unit. You would have to replace one of the controls with it so you would need a V/V/T wiring scheme of some sort, but it might end up quite decent sounding and useful.

drwiddly

That's ace mate. Love the pseudo carbon fibre look on the pickups and rings!

Winny_Pooh

Good pickup combo, enjoy!

Arktik83

Getting one of those for cheaper than a Chris Robertson PRS SE is a good deal I'd say, these were big bucks back in the day so I'm sure the woods are decent.  Nice score!

Roland

The piezo bridge can be made to work. Presumably there’s space for a circuit board and battery in the control cavity. If you’re interested I’ve got a Graphtech Acoustiphone board which I recently bought from @TTony, but won’t be using.

usedtobe

I like that!

lustycourtier

You beat me to it. Was a total bargain, that. Are you putting all the good stuff back in?

andy1839

lustycourtier said:

You beat me to it. Was a total bargain, that. Are you putting all the good stuff back in?

No mate, the important bits are missing. There’s a load of circuit boards that did live in the control cavity. 

there are two cables, one from the bridge which I assume is the piezo and one from the tailpiece that I assume is to do with the robot tuners as they’re not the standalone ones you get on the modern Gibsons. 

In in fairness I would have probably done the same as the previous owner, but tried to keep the piezo. 

The cables are are very small and I fear that trying to get that to work, with my skill level, is something that will never happen. 

Still, decent enough for basically a BFG with a gloss top!

Fretwired

andy1839 said:

Well this popped up for sale on the Facebooks:

http://i64.tinypic.com/2q9exsm.jpg
http://i68.tinypic.com/2ccx8nl.jpg

Nice guitar .. I like that .. enjoy your new purchase.

paganskins

Roland said:

The piezo bridge can be made to work. Presumably there’s space for a circuit board and battery in the control cavity. If you’re interested I’ve got a Graphtech Acoustiphone board which I recently bought from @TTony, but won’t be using.

If they're of no use to @andy1839 I'd be interested in the Ghost bits

Philly_Q

I never really read much about these.  In retrospect it's a pretty cool guitar if you ignore all the electronic gubbins, and the humbucker/P-90 combination has actually become quite fashionable.

Does one of the pots control the tuning system (like my Robot SG), or is it all in that mysterious-looking toggle switch? 

mikeyrob73

That is pretty damn cool 

put the Flameproof suit away 

andy1839

Philly_Q said:

I never really read much about these.  In retrospect it's a pretty cool guitar if you ignore all the electronic gubbins, and the humbucker/P-90 combination has actually become quite fashionable.

Does one of the pots control the tuning system (like my Robot SG), or is it all in that mysterious-looking toggle switch? 

Yep, originally one of the pots lit up and did the tunings and whatever else it did. 
The toggle switch was just a three way, but you turned the toggle to blend in the piezo signal. 

I always liked the look of them. I would have liked the original electrics, but would have probably ended up going back to how it is now. 
The complete ones on reverb are getting on to being £1000 more expensive. For me it's taken over as my sofa guitar, it's incredibly light. 

Dominic

Lovely guitar ..obscure but very lovely and probably a cracking tool