Dual Humbucker Solidbody Guitars

[jkokura]

What's your fav?

Me personally, I can't stand 4 knob guitars. I like Master Volume and Tone setups, so for me the Les Paul family of guitars really is rough. I own an Epi Dot, which is 4 knob, but I like it for other reasons. I have always moved along anything I've ever had that had 4 knobs.

All that to say, I don't really have a good dual humbucker solid body. I've had some PRS SE guitars that I liked but haven't stuck. I also have a set of Humbuckers from my favourite Pickup guy, Tom Anderson, ready to drop into some dual hum bucker guitar.

I think my dream setup would be a bolt on neck Les Paul Junior type of guitar with a wraparound, master Vol/Tone and 3 way switch, with a pair of humbuckers. I can't find a custom guitar maker who builds something like that and who will let me do the finish work...

What's your favourite Dual Humbucker Solidbody and why?

Jacob

[mjcyates]

I love my Reverend Warhawk. The neck feels like a Fender and the tone has the girth of a Les Paul. The bass contour control on it is great feature as well. I find the neck pickup of most dual humbucker guitars to be too muddy. The bass contour helps with that.

[culturejam]

What's your favourite Dual Humbucker Solidbody and why?

Les Paul by a mile.

A lot of the time I don't make use of ANY of the knobs, as they are generally all wide open. But there has been many a time where I did use all four knobs. It's mostly for getting a certain type of fuzz tone for recording. There is a lot of tonal territory with both pickups on and having the ability to tweak the individual output level AND tone roll-off. Sometimes it also works for getting that perfect tone for ambient swells and pad sounds. It's not that it's impossible to do with some other setup, it's just intuitive for *me*, but I understand how it wouldn't be a good "user interface" for other people. I guess. 

That said, if a Les Paul isn't doing it for you, my next suggestion would be a dual bucker Tele. Flat top, two knobs, classic body shape, and you can usually get it in any kind of wood you can imagine. And make it a Thinline for extra mojo.

[gordo]

Interesting that you want a bolt on neck Jr.  Why bolt on?  And I'll assume maple?  I have a few Lado's that I love with all kinds of knobs but in the end: master vol, master tone, and a bunch of stuff in between.  A really cool Hamer Standard (Explorer) with 2 vols and 1 tone.  And I just picked up a GFS project that is a set neck Les Paul-ish/PRS-ish cluster-f**k that has really cool potential but is going to be a ton of work.  No holes drilled so I can go all Jeff Beck with a wrap around and do whatever control layout I want.  This thing has a hideous flat fingerboard and the whole thing has been dipped in a vat of polyester finish so I have my work cut out for me.

Still...has something about it that speaks to me...

All my other 2HB guitars are 2V/2T

[culturejam]

What I never see for sale is hardtail strats. I blocked the trem on mine and love it that way. I would really like a hardtail that's not a $3k signature model or some weirdo small luthier build for $4k that I could likely get $500 for if I resold it.

If I ever need to make several hundred dollars disappear, I'll pay one of you guys here to make me one. 

[jkokura]

my next suggestion would be a dual bucker Tele. Flat top, two knobs, classic body shape, and you can usually get it in any kind of wood you can imagine. And make it a Thinline for extra mojo.

I have a thinline Tele build coming along in mahogany with a maple top and neck with ebony fretboard, so it's similar in many ways to what you're describing. It'll have a mini-bucker in the neck and a stacked single in the bridge, so it's really close to being a Les Paul without being an actual Les Paul Tele.

I still want a solid body dual bucker guitar I just haven't found one I really liked.

Interesting that you want a bolt on neck Jr.  Why bolt on?

Bolt on is familiar and easily maintained in my opinion. It's something I can easily work on and tweak, as opposed to a set neck which I'm unfamiliar with and generally haven't a clue how to work on if there's an issue. That said, my Dot has never been an issue, so i wouldn't really care if it was set or bolt as long as it was set right.

I'll check Reverend out.

Jacob

[gordo]

Funny you should say that.  My first strat was a hardtail and they are few and far between.  Completely different sounding beasts from the typical whammy variety.  I wish I still had mine.  Had a jacked up neck but was a see thru blonde with large peghead and at one point Paul Dean from Streetheart (later Loverboy) rewired it so that the controls were master vol/middle pickup vol/master tone with a 3 way switch.  I traded Paul the work for some fret wire for a bass he was working on.

[alanp]

Jacob, not keen on the cheaper Epiphone Dot with two knobs, then?

[jkokura]

Jacob, not keen on the cheaper Epiphone Dot with two knobs, then?

Not seen it, but no. I have the one, a birthday gift from my wife, so I won't be switching to another.

Jacob

[GrindCustoms]

My Schecter Tempest Custom is just awesome to me, probably have'nt been built on a friday afternoon, it's one of the earlier models (early 2000s).

Stock, it had 2 master volume and a tone control with the toggle switch at a similar emplacement than a LP. I moved the switch in the past tone hole and just used a MV and Tone, the previous toggle location is now used for a killswitch.

It got a Suhr Doug Aldrich pickup set in there, fantastic sounding pickups for rock to extreme metal playing and with a slight volume roll off (w/treble bleed mod) it gets very vintage sounding and sound great for bluesy and funky stuff.

Guitar itself is an awesome player's instrument, the construction quality, proper setup makes it my favored guitar... i'd buy another one of those from the same era anytime, probably a new one too since they share the same specs still.

Rej

[culturejam]

Jacob,

Do you not like the look of 4-knob guitars, or do you not jive with 4 controls? If it's the latter, you could rewire a LP or SG (or whatever) so it's master volume and master tone and the other two are just mounted but not functional. I've seen more than a few guys do that.

[jkokura]

Jacob,

Do you not like the look of 4-knob guitars, or do you not jive with 4 controls? If it's the latter, you could rewire a LP or SG (or whatever) so it's master volume and master tone and the other two are just mounted but not functional. I've seen more than a few guys do that.

Yeah, I've done a variety of rewiring on various guitars, but I've never found them satisfying. I liked the Gretsch wiring as an alternative more than dummy knobs.

Jacob

[GermanCdn]

Favourite HH?  Right now, probably one of the following

Heritage H535 - easily my favourite semi hollow.  59s sound great in it, neck is on the wide thin side, Schaller bridge is a really nice touch on it.
PRS DGT - it's just "right".  Great pickups, cool neck carve that fits, bigger than vintage frets, great trem.  Controls are a little bass ackwards, but whatever.
Fender Tele Deluxe - the WRHBs have a different voice than standard HBs, and its sparkly orange.
Charvel Wildcard No 7 - not usually a big JB fan, but it works on this guitar.  And the neck is fantastic
EBMM Axis - best feel bolt on neck out there, nice slightly hotter than PAF pups, and a decked Floyd.  The ergonomics of it take a little getting used to.  Axis Sports are a great VFM without all the splashy stuff.

If you're looking for a bolt on wrap around HH, find a CE 22 with a mahogany body, McCarty wiring package, and Dragon IIs.  I know where you can test drive one.

Reverends are a good choice too, but hard to find and pricey in Canada.

[juansolo]

What's your fav?

Me personally, I can't stand 4 knob guitars. I like Master Volume and Tone setups, so for me the Les Paul family of guitars really is rough. I own an Epi Dot, which is 4 knob, but I like it for other reasons. I have always moved along anything I've ever had that had 4 knobs.

All that to say, I don't really have a good dual humbucker solid body. I've had some PRS SE guitars that I liked but haven't stuck. I also have a set of Humbuckers from my favourite Pickup guy, Tom Anderson, ready to drop into some dual hum bucker guitar.

I think my dream setup would be a bolt on neck Les Paul Junior type of guitar with a wraparound, master Vol/Tone and 3 way switch, with a pair of humbuckers. I can't find a custom guitar maker who builds something like that and who will let me do the finish work...

What's your favourite Dual Humbucker Solidbody and why?

Jacob

Don't know how much it'd cost to ship over, but GSP bases do exactly that sort of thing.

http://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/18327/lpj-s-i-made-last-week

[juansolo]

FWIW I had me mahogany bodied dual hum wraparound bridge superstrat made by a luthier friend. He's good to me though and it worked out very reasonably (not a lot more than the resale price you mentioned).