The White Westie. How would you finish it? (AKA Sergio's Cloudzilla)

Hey, it's been a minute since I updated this, a bunch of sh!t happened that kinda turned my life upside down but I wanted to give y'all a taste of what's been going on.


First, my super-homie Shawn rolled into Chicago and bestowed upon me a bunch of gifts, the one most relevant to this thread is this:



How rad is that? My lil' dude has himself a personalized backplate. Thank you, Shawn!


Second, I wasn't really gettin' on with the 53/10 in the neck position for this particular guitar. After a bunch of deliberation and oh-so-very scientific research I decided it was time to throw a 57/08 in there. Since this was the first time I had the strings off and was able to peek in the pickup cavities I figured I'd snap a pic:



No, not that one. That's where I hide my weed.



Yeah, this one. I tried putting it in the MODCAT decoder but I must've broken it. No idea what any of that means.

I tried to poke around and see if I could see any sunken paint lines to deduce if this has a Sapele top on it but... It's a little new for that.
 
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My vote is for black hardware with ivory tuning buttons and black brushed pickup covers with silver screws. I think that would look nice.
 
Another update:


I had been having issues with the neck pickup in this guitar. The 53/10 that I had thought I wanted was just so... wrong for this guitar. So big and so dark, not at all what I had expected. I had tried to wire it permanently split to a single and it still remained pretty unusable for me.

I had been at Rider's house a few weeks prior, and finally wasn't too scared to play his ME for more than a second, and fell in love with the neck pickup tone (both full and split). So I left there lookin' for the closest I could get to that sound which led me to lookin' for a 57/08. Well... that search wound up with me accidentally buying a Mira, and though I thought I was gonna yank the pickups.. Sh!t... I'm learning to know better than to mess with a magic-soundin' guitar, so that meant I was back to lookin' for another 57/08.

I found an old one, brushed, un-etched, and with the old sticker that spells out 1957/2008 on TGP for a nice price and waited for it to arrive. I slap it in there and wire it up... Better. Much better. The darkness and unevenness was gone but... still not quite the same magic as the ones in the Mira. I don't know.. I know it's a different guitar but, there's something missing from this particular pickup.

I've heard stories, and have experienced first-hand how there are discrepancies in some of the 57/08's. Some are spectacular and some are just.. still good pickups but, they're missing the "airiness" and "glassy" "halo" around the notes... Hard to describe but, if you know, you know what I'm saying. I've messed with the height and the pole pieces for a week or so, and think I have it the best it's gonna get so... I don't know. I think I'm gonna have to keep an eye out for another one at some point.

But still... I'm in love with the guitar and it's way more Bangin'! now. I'm just on that last 10% tip of the search if you catch my drift.


But! The real cool sh!t was this:

My lil' dude Paco started to kinda crawl/scoot this past Sunday. He's now all over the place and I can't take my eyes off him for a sec. His mommy comes home yesterday and is keeping an eye on him and yells to me to come here and check him out... I swear, there was zero. None. No prompting or fake-@ss trickery involved. Paco Just crawled over from his play mat, about two feet away, and grabbed this. The first one he was interested in:








Dude knows. I had this moment:

 
sergiodeblanc said:
Another update:


I had been having issues with the neck pickup in this guitar. The 53/10 that I had thought I wanted was just so... wrong for this guitar. So big and so dark, not at all what I had expected. I had tried to wire it permanently split to a single and it still remained pretty unusable for me.

I had been at Rider's house a few weeks prior, and finally wasn't too scared to play his ME for more than a second, and fell in love with the neck pickup tone (both full and split). So I left there lookin' for the closest I could get to that sound which led me to lookin' for a 57/08. Well... that search wound up with me accidentally buying a Mira, and though I thought I was gonna yank the pickups.. Sh!t... I'm learning to know better than to mess with a magic-soundin' guitar, so that meant I was back to lookin' for another 57/08.

I found an old one, brushed, un-etched, and with the old sticker that spells out 1957/2008 on TGP for a nice price and waited for it to arrive. I slap it in there and wire it up... Better. Much better. The darkness and unevenness was gone but... still not quite the same magic as the ones in the Mira. I don't know.. I know it's a different guitar but, there's something missing from this particular pickup.

I've heard stories, and have experienced first-hand how there are discrepancies in some of the 57/08's. Some are spectacular and some are just.. still good pickups but, they're missing the "airiness" and "glassy" "halo" around the notes... Hard to describe but, if you know, you know what I'm saying. I've messed with the height and the pole pieces for a week or so, and think I have it the best it's gonna get so... I don't know. I think I'm gonna have to keep an eye out for another one at some point.

But still... I'm in love with the guitar and it's way more Bangin'! now. I'm just on that last 10% tip of the search if you catch my drift.


But! The real cool sh!t was this:

My lil' dude Paco started to kinda crawl/scoot this past Sunday. He's now all over the place and I can't take my eyes off him for a sec. His mommy comes home yesterday and is keeping an eye on him and yells to me to come here and check him out... I swear, there was zero. None. No prompting or fake-@ss trickery involved. Paco Just crawled over from his play mat, about two feet away, and grabbed this. The first one he was interested in:








Dude knows. I had this moment:

Click to expand...

C'mon brah, how could he not? It's got his name on it! :p

I got an old Archtop you can try in it, if ya want.
 
Excellent baby shot !!!
The pickups in my ME have even lower output than the 57/08, we know some folks that may have some pickups like that for you to try out :)
 
sergiodeblanc said:
I found an old one, brushed, un-etched, and with the old sticker that spells out 1957/2008 , there's something missing from this particular pickup...there are discrepancies in some of the 57/08's. Some are spectacular and some are just..
Click to expand...

Not to poo on the happy 57/08 parade, but I've experienced the same discrepancy. Unfortunately for me, none of the great ones I've played have ever belonged to me...and that's been many...which led to me, frankly, giving up. It just wasn't in the cards for me. I'll live. The sacrilegious alternatives are a-plenty, but I could understand your hesitance to go that direction. I say keep experimenting!

It's time to immerse the little dude. Sit down on the floor, put Paco in you lap and lay the guitar on top of you both. I have pics of Drew in diapers doing the same thing and today, he's a multi-instrumentalist with a monster passion for music. To me, this is my greatest gift to my boys. Enjoy passing it on to Paco.
 
sergiodeblanc said:
Yeah, but getting them to part with 'em...
Click to expand...
I think the pickups in the ME's are called RP's (you probably knew that). I've seen them for sale twice. I was able to buy one of the two. I think it was the bridge but I'll have to look at them to be sure. I put it and a McCarty neck in my Bernie. I'll look and if I have them switched around in my mind, and the RP is in the neck, I could pull it and send it to you so you can try it in your Westie and see if it has the magic you want. I'll look when I get home tonight.

While I'm thinking about it, I have a Mira set I could send the neck pup from them too so you can try it out. then you will know what to look for to buy your own.
 
xjbebop said:
Once the little critters become mobile on their own, nothing is safe..... ;)
Click to expand...

For real. It's already happening!

Boogie said:
Not to poo on the happy 57/08 parade, but I've experienced the same discrepancy. Unfortunately for me, none of the great ones I've played have ever belonged to me...and that's been many...which led to me, frankly, giving up. It just wasn't in the cards for me. I'll live. The sacrilegious alternatives are a-plenty, but I could understand your hesitance to go that direction. I say keep experimenting!

It's time to immerse the little dude. Sit down on the floor, put Paco in you lap and lay the guitar on top of you both. I have pics of Drew in diapers doing the same thing and today, he's a multi-instrumentalist with a monster passion for music. To me, this is my greatest gift to my boys. Enjoy passing it on to Paco.
Click to expand...

Yeah... I mean, I have a great one it's just... Do I wanna take it out of the guitar it's in? I love that Mira. Didn't expect to but...

Little dude is stuck lookin' at me play guitar all day, it's one of the overlooked bonuses of being a housewife. I don't get uninterrupted play time but there's plenty of 5-10 mins here and there, and lil' dude is all over it. He just stares at me and stops what he's doing when I pick one up. It's rad.

AP515 said:
I think the pickups in the ME's are called RP's (you probably knew that). I've seen them for sale twice. I was able to buy one of the two. I think it was the bridge but I'll have to look at them to be sure. I put it and a McCarty neck in my Bernie. I'll look and if I have them switched around in my mind, and the RP is in the neck, I could pull it and send it to you so you can try it in your Westie and see if it has the magic you want. I'll look when I get home tonight.

While I'm thinking about it, I have a Mira set I could send the neck pup from them too so you can try it out. then you will know what to look for to buy your own.
Click to expand...


That's so nice of you to offer Joesph, thank you!

There's a ME II set on Reverb as we speak. I'm hemming and hawing over them... Not sure if I wanna drop $400 on a neck pickup just based on someone else's guitar... but if I wait...

Good call on the Mira's. They're fairly inexpensive used and way overlooked for some reason. The one that was in my KL has killed it in every guitar it has been in until it settled into the Gucci guitar. I wonder if I should grab another and put a cover on it? Or perhaps just buy a 245? Those don't get much love either.
 
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