Not much guitar playing going on around here right now, as I’m recovering from a cycling accident in mid-August.
But I did get a couple of things that will definitely feature in my annual end-of-year blog posts.
BJFe Flame Top Overdrive Pedal
Going into the year, there was only had one pedal on my bucket-list: Björn Juhl’s Flame Top overdrive (FTOD for short). And I finally found one.
My interest in the Flame Top is simple: it’s said to be the prototype for Mad Professor’s Sweet Honey Overdrive (SHOD for short). The SHOD is my #1 drive pedal. So naturally I was very curious to hear what the differences are.
It did not disappoint.
It’s quite a bright pedal, thanks to a mixture of having a traditional Treble control and (to my ears) quite an aggressive low-end cut. That makes it an option with guitars that have quite dark neck pickups, where my beloved SHOD can sound muddy on its own.
I’m working on a First Impressions post, and a second post directly comparing the Flame Top to the SHOD. Look for them soon.
Gibson 496R/500T Humbucker Pickup Set
As I couldn’t play guitar in September, I made a start on drafting my end-of-year blog posts. And as I worked through the first draft about the guitars I’m playing, it made me think about the guitar I’m not playing: my first Les Paul.
I’ll save the whole story for the First Impressions post.
To keep it short, my first Les Paul came stock with 496R/500T pickups. When I got into vintage-voiced PAF-like pickups, I swapped the 496R/500T out for a set of hotter PAF-like pickups, but didn’t like the results. The guitar’s been very unloved ever since.
So I’ve finally gone back to a new set of 496R/500T pickups in my first Les Paul. I couldn’t be happier. I feel like I’ve got my guitar back.
Monty’s Guitars 50s Wiring Harness For Gibson Les Paul
I decided to change the wiring harness in my first Les Paul at the same time.
When I put the hotter PAF-like set in, I also replaced the stock wiring harness with a Jonesy Blues 50s/60 hybrid wiring harness. The idea there was to use push-pull pots to switch between 50s wiring (where the humbuckers are interactive) with 60s/modern wiring (where the humbuckers are independent of each other).
This time round, I wanted a straight 50s wiring harness. To save on guitar tech bench time, I went with a prebuilt 50s wiring harness from Monty’s Guitars.
I don’t know how to evaluate wiring harnesses against each other. That’s why I bought from Monty’s Guitars, because of their excellent reputation. As far as I know, there were no problems with the harness.