benadrian wrote: Mon May 20, 2024 11:06 am

cakes wrote: Mon May 20, 2024 10:58 am Looking around for metal enclosures that are larger than 5x7x2. What's your go-to place to buy enclosures for electronics? One with slots or vents to start would be great, but those can be cut out if necessary.

For me, I've either worked at places, or had friends who work at places that had e-waste. Various tech and AV e-waste, specifically. I've built stuff into old computer keyboard/monitor switchers. The 2U rack unit that I built my tube bass preamp (used in Replicator) came from Skywalker Sound's e-waste/giveaway pile.

Of course, if you want to make something that you might want to sell to other people, this probably won't work. For that, I've used the usual suspects; Mouser, CE Dist (or Amplified Parts), Parts Express, Angela Instruments (do they still exist?), etc.

Good Luck!

Great, thank you!

cakes wrote: Mon May 20, 2024 10:58 am Looking around for metal enclosures that are larger than 5x7x2. What's your go-to place to buy enclosures for electronics? One with slots or vents to start would be great, but those can be cut out if necessary.

There are other suppliers, but you might look at Hammond for options: https://www.hammfg.com/electronics/small-case

Yesterday I mocked up a version of the pickguard I want to put on the Hippie Sandwich to turn into a CAD file so I can have it sent to SendCutSend and have them cut out the shape into an aluminum plate. The quote comes out to about $30 shipped which seems pretty decent. This process has also made me very deranged, jumping between GIMP, InkScape and LibreCAD using all of my “Graphic Design Is My Passion” skills to produce something the website can use.

I am going to wait for the pickup rings I ordered to install before doing it for real. Would it be a better idea to omit the piece that goes between the pickups so it’s one less thing that has to go wrong if the fit isn’t exactly right?

Also, anyone have any experience with Lace Sensor Hemi Humbuckers? The no-polepiece look is one I like and I thought the few sample clips I could find sounded good. Looking for something with plenty of treble and bass response and flatter mids—trying to find something that matches or approximates my favored G&L Jumbo MFDs.

That guitar looks legit great and to hell with the hippie sandwich haters. Needs three mini toggle switches though for coil tap and phase and possibly a 4th that doesn’t do anything.

The tone pots are already push-pulls!

When I was sketching out a guitar like this in high school I definitely put a bunch of extraneous toggle switches on it.

defendyachtrock wrote: trying to find something that matches or approximates my favored G&L Jumbo MFDs.

Good to have you back man.

I guess my question is why not get those? I know you mentioned liking the look of no exposed pole pieces so if that's the main consideration, cool ignore me but if "it's all about the toan maaaaaan" then G&L does sell individual MFD pickups and they do not appear to be cost-prohibitive.

I'm kinda surprised not to see a bunch of used ones on Reverb for cheap - back in the day when US G&Ls were more affordable and popular, most of the ones I saw folks playing out had the original pickups removed which always baffled me a bit. Maybe they're all still sitting in someone's parts box.

Also agree about that guitar, it's cool. Never heard the hippie sandwich term before but I'm getting some chuckles out of it.

Missed you, my dude!

The problem with the Jumbo MFDs would likely be figuring out a way to fit the damn things into humbucker cavities (or any other guitar) that doesn’t look like a hack job. They have their own dimensions—the bridge pup is slightly longer to accommodate the slant, and they’re just sliiiightly thinner than P-90s. If you can think of a way they could fit without extensive mods or fabricating something even more brain-breaking than the pickguard I’m all ears. Man, the MFDs are so good though. My understanding is that the same ones they put in the US models are the same as the ones they put in the Tribute/import ones.

(Additionally, the no-polepiece look is a good chunk of the way of my plan of turning this into my “I’ll never own a TB-1000A so this is how I compensate” guitar.)

Routing the cavity slightly bigger to accommodate a larger pickup is a pretty common ask for a guitar tech. I had a whole new routing done on The Duke bass to get a p-pickup in there and it looks super natural, nothing to cover up and looks like it came from the factory with it and didn't cost me a ton of money to have done. If it weren't already finished, I'd probably have done it myself.

If you yank it though to go to a smaller pickup, that's when you'd probably want to fabricate a plate around it or something to cover up whatever gap is left behind.

Ehh, the Jumbo MFD is already going to be less wide than a standard humbucker rout, so it’s already going to involve some kind of plate to cover up the parts of the cavity that would remain exposed if I just plopped in the MFDs as-is.

I remember reading somewhere online (maybe TDPRI or the G&L forum) about someone commissioning a pickup builder to make a humbucker-sized single-coil with ceramic magnets, hex screw polepieces, and a big metal baseplate to replicate the Jumbo MFD, but alas my Google-Fu fails me. They said it got pretty close to the sound but not all the way through.

The Lace Sensor Hemi humbuckers seem to cover a couple of the bases the MFDs do (ceramic pickups, wound hot but not too hot) so I think that’s why I’m gravitating towards them. I’m also considering Creamery’s take on the TB or Firebird pickups but those would come out more expensive than the Laces.

defendyachtrock wrote: Wed May 22, 2024 4:26 pm Ehh, the Jumbo MFD is already going to be less wide than a standard humbucker rout, so it’s already going to involve some kind of plate to cover up the parts of the cavity that would remain exposed if I just plopped in the MFDs as-is.

I remember reading somewhere online (maybe TDPRI or the G&L forum) about someone commissioning a pickup builder to make a humbucker-sized single-coil with ceramic magnets, hex screw polepieces, and a big metal baseplate to replicate the Jumbo MFD, but alas my Google-Fu fails me. They said it got pretty close to the sound but not all the way through.

The Lace Sensor Hemi humbuckers seem to cover a couple of the bases the MFDs do (ceramic pickups, wound hot but not too hot) so I think that’s why I’m gravitating towards them. I’m also considering Creamery’s take on the TB or Firebird pickups but those would come out more expensive than the Laces.

I've never heard of any pickups trying to sound like MFDs, which is a shame, because MFDs are awesome. However, I will offer this bit of experience:

Try wiring humbucker coils in parallel. Humbuckers with four conductors can be wired in a variety of ways. Every time I've wired the coils in parallel (rather than the standard series), I get a sound that is somewhere in between single coil and traditional humbucker. It loses a bit of volume, but it never goes down to single coil level. It loses mostly lows and mids, so it seems to have more detail and clarity. The result is not that far off from how one might describe an MFD pickup. I just have a hunch that you will enjoy that sound and will be able to make it work for you.