Quantcast Ryan's Guitars: May 2007

Saturday, May 05, 2007

20th Anniversary RG Gets New Pickups

After a long wait for the pickups to arrive, it was finally time to finish up the 20th Anniversary RG. I ordered two PAF Pros in hot pink ;). One F-spaced for the bridge and the other regular spaced, plus an SDS-1 single for the middle, also in pink. I ended up not liking the sound of the SDS-1, nor the pink color since it really didn't match the humbuckers at all. So I removed it and took DiMarzio up on their 30 day satisfaction guarantee and sent it back for a swap-out with a pink FS-1. I had a black DiMarzio single coil cover laying around, so when the FS-1 arrived I put that on instead since the pink single coil cover still didn't match the humbuckers very well.

I bought some great original 80's NOS (now old stock) neon knob and switch tip sets from a great guy on Jemsite that lives in the UK. Shipment was prompt and exactly what I was needing to complete this baby.

The pickups were a breeze to install electronically, but presented some difficulty in keeping themselves level in the pickguard. I came up with the idea to use the foam from a paint brush to create a pad underneath the pickups to help keep them level under the strings. Works great!

I love sound of the PAF Pros, they really have a nice chimey quality with plenty of crunch and tons of harmonics that truly captures the 80's lead and rhythm sound beautifully. The FS-1 is a pretty high output single that balances really well with the humbuckers... and the best thing is that these pickup selections are period correct, meaning that these were available for purchase in 1987. A neon green DiMarzio cliplock strap completes the package. Now this thing really looks like it was born in the 80's! Can't play an 80's Ibanez without a neon cliplock strap. :)



Check out the before and after. Narly, brah!