Soapie NGD - comments and questions

[Prina]

Here's the newest beast at unboxing yesterday and with siblings, all arrivals since Christmas:

The the headstock as shipped using the 'no string left behind' stringing philosophy:

The fretboard, after and before tung oil:

I'm still really impressed by the Korean 245's. This one even has a sanded (doubt it was done at the factory), one piece neck. I'd never appreciated how awesome the underside of a neck can feel. Although, it's a bit confusing that someone that would sand a neck but not treat the fretboard and string it the way it was strung. But problems corrected, it plays and sounds great.

My biggest question is about the P90's and what it likely means that they have different covers:

The neck pickup has a step-off at the edge of the top as opposed to the rounded edge at the bridge. Any ideas about which is likely the original? I haven't pulled off the pups since I don't have any experience doing that with P90's and didn't want to mess something up the first day.

The other question is about the neck. It's not a totally one piece neck since it has a thin addition at the bottom of the heel, but otherwise there's a small diagonal of the grain in the neck that crosses anywhere a lamination could have been done. So I'm wondering how common the one piece SE necks are.

It seems to me that this Soapie got a lot of love.

 

[dmatthews]

That
Is
Hot!

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Bangin’!

 

[Bowtiefanatc]

Very nice! Gotta love a good Soapbar.

Just my $0.02, but Wolfetone makes some incredible pickups! I put a set in my 25th Anniversary Mira

 

[Alnus Rubra]

HAF!!

Congratulations.

 

[Greywolf]

nice axe

 

[Torvald]

Very nice! The P90 with the step at the edge should be the original. That's how mine from my Soapbar II are.

 

[Fullmoon 1971]

Beautiful guitar . Enjoy

I've Been on the hunt for one of those for a while now with no luck.

 

[aphantomvaper]

Wow, that's smoking. I'm no expert and have not seen a one piece neck on an SE. There may be a really well done scarf joint by the headstock. I've got a Vela satin that the scarf joint is undetectable.

 

[bodia]

A killer, no filler!

 

[Lewguitar]

Beautiful! Much prettier than mine.

A lot of string wound around those tuners.

Are the pickups humcancelling when combined? It would mean one was reverse wound/reverse polarity relative to the other.

Mine were not so I had to take one pickup apart, reverse the wires and reverse the magnet to make it RW/RP.

I agree about the quality of those Korean Singlecuts. I have four! Three with humbuckers and one with soapbars.

I replaced the pickups in all of them and that was all it took to turn them into 100% professional instruments.

https://imgur.com/NixqY0F

 

[Prina]

HAF!!

Congratulations.

I'll admit my partial ignorance. What's the 'H' for?

 

[dmatthews]

I'll admit my partial ignorance. What's the 'H' for?

Gotta be Hot or Hawt

 

[Lewguitar]

Gotta be Hot or Hawt

Hawt As F###? Just a guess.

Doubt it's Homeowners Association Fund.

 

[DISTORT6]

I'll admit my partial ignorance. What's the 'H' for?

Hippo

 

[Prina]

Hawt As F###? Just a guess.

Had assumed As F* for AF

 

[Prina]

nice axe

Thanks. I noted that you recommended '2000 -3000 grit wet sand' for treating a sticky neck in another thread. If I wanted to sand the poly neck on my other SE245 would the recommendation be the same procedure?

 

[Prina]

Very nice! The P90 with the step at the edge should be the original. That's how mine from my Soapbar II are.

Good to know. I'll probably pull the pups at the next string change to see what's going on. Do you know what years the Soapbar II era spanned?
This one's a O serial #, so assume it's from 2014.

 

[Prina]

Are the pickups humcancelling when combined? It would mean one was reverse wound/reverse polarity relative to the other.

I agree about the quality of those Korean Singlecuts. I have four! Three with humbuckers and one with soapbars.

I replaced the pickups in all of them and that was all it took to turn them into 100% professional instruments.

This one's pretty quiet so far and I'm not a high gain guy. The mid position sounds funky so might be out of phase. I'll try testing in a higher electrical noise environment to check it out.

What pups did you put on your Soapie?

I was really pleased with the first SE245 and amazed with this one.

 

[Prina]

Wow, that's smoking. I'm no expert and have not seen a one piece neck on an SE. There may be a really well done scarf joint by the headstock. I've got a Vela satin that the scarf joint is undetectable.

It looks like a grain diagonal crosses where that joint would be too. Even if it has a scarf joint I wouldn't mind since that's probably stronger anyway and that's not an issue at all for tone in my S2 594 SC.