Rainy day... let the upgrades begin!

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pimphat

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Posted this on the MLP Forum and thought i should share it here as well.

Well today i will be spending some time with my Tokai LS-85Q and i'm going to upgrade a few things. First off, let me say that the stock parts i'm replacing arent bad at all. In fact i am quite impressed with the Tokai pickups. I'm just use to certain things that suit my style as well as my needs. Being in a cover band, i like to have versatility and my style has more of hard rock-kinda edge. I have done a similar set-up to a Greco i owned and it was great.

Here she is as of now...
tokai013-1.jpg


So here are the upgrades i will begin today...
Bill Lawrence L-500XL in the bridge
Billlawrencel-500xl1.jpg


GFS Crunchy Pat in the neck
zebraneck.jpg


CTS pots with Sprague Orange Drops
05-21102.jpg


Push pull pot for coil cut (both pickups)
EMK227_A.jpg


Grover Rotomatics (i will have to ream the tuner holes a bit)
TK_7900-010-141%20grover%20rotomatics.jpg


I also plan to get a Faber bridge and tail kit eventually but i am going to start without it. I know it will look killer with the zebra pups and as far as sound...i love the Bill Lawrence L-500's. I couldnt have picked a better day too...it's raining and ****** outside so i think i'll grab my Ipod & headphones and head down to the workbench! I will of course show pics when done. Wish me luck!
 
don't forget what gary player said though...

"the more i practice the luckier i get ".....
 
Curious to know what you think of the Bill Lawerance pickup? I had one of these in the bridge position and couldn't get rid of it quick enough.....it was terrible..... :eek:

Mick
 
leadguitar_323 said:
Curious to know what you think of the Bill Lawerance pickup? I had one of these in the bridge position and couldn't get rid of it quick enough.....it was terrible..... :eek:

Mick

Well, i find them to be great for me. Keep in mind i'm using the pickups from Bill and Becky Lawrence, not the "Bill Lawrence USA" version.
They suit me well. Lots of clarity and punch. No artificial distortion....just balls. I play with more of a hard rock edge so they work for me when palm muting and the just have great picking responce.
 
well i was not able to spend as much time as i wanted with the guitar yesterday. Wife had me running around most of the day. I managed to get the Grovers installed last night though! I used a tapered reamer to enlarge to holes and it worked great. You can see the top holes from the original Gotoh tuners just barely above the grovers but i'm not worried about it. Bottom holes lined right up. Stung her back up and ....sweet....they are smoooooth. :wink:

results....
grover1-1.jpg

grover2.jpg


i used one of these:
reamer250.jpg
 
Well i finally had some time to get it done today. The results are just incredible. Really happy with the versatility i get with the push/pull pot. I can get anything from stratish tones to tele type tones to full on balls to the wall. Here are some pics. Please forgive the quality. I really need to get a new camera.

Bill Lawrence installed....
tokaidone5.jpg

GFS Crunchy Pat installed...
tokaidone6.jpg

Master volume is coil cut for both pups, CTS pots and Orange Drops....
04-13-09_1046.jpg

Tuners....
tokaidone3.jpg

Again...sorry for the poor pics. I can get better pics tomorrow in daylight. My camera just hates indoor lighting.
tokaidone4.jpg
 
Tele sound with this combination? Now you got my interest. I put an 82 OBL into an R8 VOS recently btw. Is this the same Bill Lawrence?

Could you please put some sound/details onto youtube?

Cheers! Rup
 
I put an 82 OBL into an R8 VOS recently btw. Is this the same Bill Lawrence?
Not really sure what the deal with OBL is. Pretty sure that was Bill's company at a time but i guess no longer. I'm using http://www.billlawrence.com pickups.
the_man said:
Could you please put some sound/details onto youtube?

I have no means of recording here at home. :( I'll see if i can get something going on soon though.

Here's the finished guitar. I dulled the poly down and i'm really happy with it. Plays and sounds great.

finish3.jpg

finish4.jpg

finish5.jpg

finish6.jpg

lpcase2.jpg
 
I was fine with the tuners on my LS85S before I read this. Now I want Grovers.....

:-?
 
Great job man!

That's what its all about - getting the guitar the way you want it. Of course I'm not saying there aren't some guitars that probably shouldn't be changed! :wink:
 

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