this seems to be the best place to post, my RG350 might be getting some upgrades

[jeremywills]

Hi all. I dont post here often for various reasons. In fact I joined in 02 and this is post #6, crazy right, I have trolled for a good 5 years though!

I have an great RG350 thats been fantastic for me so far. I love this guitar. I got very lucky on this one, bought it for super cheap second hand and it and I have come to an understanding. I would really have a hard time letting this one go, something about that damned maple capped neck and the black sharkteeth. I like the neck too, its not a Wiz but its still a very capable neck. Im seriously considering doing a major upgrade and dropping a Dimarzio Tonezone in the Bridge, a Reserve wound Blue Velvet in the middle and an AirNorton for the neck. I want a Medium output sound and I think these pickups can provide a wide range of tones for what Im after. I like metal sounds and all that, but.... Im not a gain freak and I like to play a wide variety of other stuff. I love Satch, hes the best but I dont wanna just get his pickups just because. I also love Paul Gilbert and so the ToneZone definately fills that bill.

With all that said. Heres the building block Im working off.



I have had alot of fun with getting this guitar to play like a guitar, I set it up myself, its got very low action, its stable, the bridge is the Edge III and yes I know some of you probably hate it, but for my purposes until it craps out its been perfectly fine for me. Props to Mr Rich Harris, that setup guide of his has been like a lifesaver, hopefully he sees this and if so, thank you sir.

Now its time to upgrade the sound, the Infinity pickups are very lackluster, they function, but just dont have that great of a sound.

Heres something I whipped up in Kisekae the other day...


If Im going to be doing this it might be easier to just get a new guard, new pots, wire it all up as a whole before I tear my guitar apart and make it as quick and painless as possible. What do you think? Im sort of wanting to make it look like a Psuedo 87 RG550. I may stick with the pearloid guard and the black knobs/switch tip, haven't decided yet, black f spaced pickups are pretty common it seems locally but the white is gonna have to be ordered it seems, so Im at a crossroads of what to go with, I have to know before I order anything, I dont want to be stuck with something becuase I rushed and was stupid beforehand.

Thanks to Dee I've also discovered you can throw an Edge Pro into the Edge III route so food for thought down the pipe, but the Edge III now is working just fine, I should note I swapped the stock Ibanez springs out for some Fender ones that were less stiff, now the trem is perfect for my tastes. Even a Tremlno might be on the horizion, but for now the pickups should probably be the first of many upgrades. I love taking something cheap and fixing it up.

Ideas or additional suggestions greatly appreciated. Dee can tell ya I been excited about this prospect for quite some time now.

Thanks for reading this and please, any comments Im grateful for. Good or bad.

[_FR0D0]

why not put a Norton in the bridge instead of the Tone Zone?

[jeremywills]

its a possibility, thats why im asking opinions of folks

[sugizo_esp]

hey
nice score

i m thinking to purchase the same model and throw in a fernandes sustainer in white pickups and covers

[_FR0D0]

form DiMarzio's web site:
The sound of a Norton® is right between FRED® and The Tone Zone®. It's got some FRED-like harmonic overtones that can only be described as nasty, with more of the power and mid-range of the heavyweight Tone Zone®. (...) Norton® might be our most versatile bridge pickup. Combine it with a wide choice of neck pickups like the (...) Air Norton™.

So if you like satch and TZ the Norton is right in the middle and it combines with Air Norton, so ... thats my recomendation to you. With a reversed Blue Velvet bridge in the midle of course.

BWT I like it mutch better with white pickups and black pickguard

[jeremywills]

well I emailed DiMarzio tech support and someone named Steve had replied, I gave him my desires and what i was after and his official suggestion was the Tone Zone, a rev Blue Velvet and the Air Norton, I think Ill probably stick with that, I like the TZ because if I wanna play something hot, the pickups quite capable, but back off on the vol and lighter picking it seems lots of folks I have seen saying it can clean up quite nice, so anyhow, thanks for the Norton suggestion, its a good alternative, however no where I have seen shows a Norton in white or f spaced for that matter that I can find, is it a special order type thing? speaking of which, I know jemsites full of good folks to buy from, where would be a good recommended trader or seller to choose from here?

[Dee]

Jeremy! Hello dude it's good to see you posting here.

I like the black and white vibe. It's nice, simple, and clean. Looks sharp. The way I like it is always to have contrasting colours next to each other, so with the white pickups, black guard and white body with black hardware it'd be headed in the right direction, IMO. Those white Strat style knobs with black rubber grips I mentioned the other day woud suit it well too. I got the black ones for my 550,as you know. They look and feel good. For anyone else wondering, these are Strat style knobs only they don't have "volume" or "tone" printed on them. They have the numbers, but they have a rubber grip on the sides. I believe Fender used them on their HM Strats, the only difference I can see is they had a "F" stamped on the top and these don't.

I know you're sticking with H-S-H, but what I would do is go for a custom guard and H-S config, plus ditch the tone knob and move the volume knob down slightly. That's not what you're going for, but I find H-S does everything I need, looks cleaner, gives more picking space, and it's less expensive to replace pickups! Hehe. I am tempted to do this witrh my RG550 sometime, but I would keep the original electronics and pickguard in tact and drop a different loaded guard in there and only have to solder a couple of wires (ground & output).

The guy who replied to you from Dimazio was probably Steve Blucher himself!

BTW, try a seller called Banjomikez on e-Bay -- he can order any Dimarzio pickup you can think of and always has a vast range of colours in stock.

[jeremywills]

thanks, i already had a jemsite member offer some vanilla strat knobs and a switch tip in white for free, cool beans and I went ahead and replied to his PM about it, again folks if anyone here on jemsite sees my WTB thread and has what Im after or can recommend a vendor around here who can fill the bill, Im all ears thanks

i prefer to avoid evilbay when i can these days, no offense to anyone who sells there as well from here

[_FR0D0]

also sigler_music (Sigler Music Center) and MusicLandCentral are good. BTW the last one has a website outside evilbuy with a very big colour selection.

[ohioplayer]

I bought my Evo Mid from Sigler. VERY happy with the price and the free shipping.

[nuno]

wow, that looks cool, and the kisekae "planning" looks even cooler! congrats! i agree with _FR0D0 about getting a lesser output pickup at the bridge. the less the output, the more the sound options. the ToneZone is my fave pickup ever but i have to say that if you're looking for versatility, well, it's not its best feature. also, you're looking for a medium output sound, so... you can also try an AirZone.
anyway, congrats, cool guitar

[neptoess]

well, if you want major change, drop a kahler in it. they're sweet

[jeremywills]

so your suggesting a norton or an air zone in place of the tone zone and keep the reverse wound blue velvet in the middle and the air norton at the neck?

anything i drop in there has to be better than these infinities, they just sound blah to me, i like the idea of the reverse blue velvet steve the dimarzio guy suggested, with the 5 way he said i could split the humbuckers with the single in the 2 and 4 spots on the switch, if i kept the stock infinity middle i couldn't do that from what i understood of it all, the middle has to be reverse wound right to achieve that middle splitting? If Im not mistaken alot of strats and the Jems come that way right?

thanks for any advice, really i appreciate it, i want to do my homework before hand, its a lot of money for me and alot of work to not wind up liking the end results

one final thought, I liked the Tone Zone because Im mainly after med range output but every now and then I might get a metal itch and want to jam out to some pantera or something, thats why i was considering it, if i did and decided I didnt like the pickup Dimarzios pickup boxes say they will replace of equal or lesser value another pickup, is it true, are they easy to work with in swapping out for a another pickup?

[jb4674]

I'd say put zebras on (that is black and white or black and cream pups), that would look kinda cool on it and not deviate the colors too much.

Jimmy

[_FR0D0]

Originally Posted by jeremywills

so your suggesting a norton or an air zone in place of the tone zone and keep the reverse wound blue velvet in the middle and the air norton at the neck?

Yes, it will be air norton / reverse bridge blue velvet / norton or air zone

Originally Posted by jeremywills

anything i drop in there has to be better than these infinities, they just sound blah to me, i like the idea of the reverse blue velvet steve the dimarzio guy suggested, with the 5 way he said i could split the humbuckers with the single in the 2 and 4 spots on the switch, if i kept the stock infinity middle i couldn't do that from what i understood of it all, the middle has to be reverse wound right to achieve that middle splitting? If Im not mistaken alot of strats and the Jems come that way right?

You can keep the infinity middle if you want, but putting a replacement will improve your sound ond pos 2, 3 & 4

Originally Posted by jeremywills

thanks for any advice, really i appreciate it, i want to do my homework before hand, its a lot of money for me and alot of work to not wind up liking the end results

Originally Posted by jeremywills

one final thought, I liked the Tone Zone because Im mainly after med range output but every now and then I might get a metal itch and want to jam out to some pantera or something, thats why i was considering it, if i did and decided I didnt like the pickup Dimarzios pickup boxes say they will replace of equal or lesser value another pickup, is it true, are they easy to work with in swapping out for a another pickup?

You can put a booster to get more gain to push your amp harder, then you will have the hi gain you are looking for but in a more flexible way