Advice on 408 Semi-Hollow Body

[Rider1260]

I have both a couple of CU24s and a 408 ( not a semi hollow a rosewood necked standard )

To me the 408 pickups EQ very flat ( IE they have a great balance ) the splits are Great but they are not Straty at all, my CU24 ( VB/HFS ) with the rotary does a better Strat than my 408

Heres a video ( the frost one is mine now ) ( and I make the Tonalinsanity pedals

I do love my 408 BUT I also love a good CU24 I would save up a bit and get a 408 later you will thank us later !!!!!!

 

[László]

I have a 408-equipped guitar that I love about as much as any human being should ever love an inanimate object...though admittedly I don't try to cover other peoples' tones.

But a pic is worth whatever a pic is worth, so...

 

[coyote]

To me the 408 pickups EQ very flat ( IE they have a great balance ) the splits are Great but they are not Straty at all,

This.

And being primarily a Strat player for 35 years, it bothered me a bit at first. I even considered finding a way to replace the 408 neck pup with a Strat pup.

But then I decided to change my perspective. Because the 408 is, within itself, a different and unique guitar voice. It does not need to sound like a Strat at all; I have a trio of them to choose from if I want that sound. And I have an Ibanez AR325 that does some great LP sounds** if I want that. So having restricted myself to the 408 for the past couple months, I have grown to really dig it for exactly what it is.... and have no need to try to make it sound like another guitar.

** I have to say, the 325 looks like a model for the 408 in some ways. It has a three way pup selector, plus two three-way micro switches that do split, parallel and serial on each humbucker. And it's a very wide range of tones available from that setup.