Being that I have great admiration for
Jackson Guitars®, it wasn’t a big jump for me to start with a mahogany
“soloist” style body topped with Hawaiian Koa that has a subtle figuring to it.
The CSC was originally intended to
incorporate a quilt maple top in tribute to the PC-1, we were able to snag a
smokin’ deal on a nearly identical body with a gorgeous Hawaiian Koa top. The body has smooth clear to brown “burst” to
the finish on the top and clear brown stain finish on the back with a nice high
gloss clear coat over the entire body.
We specified for rear routing three humbucking pickups, a Floyd Rose
tremolo and a standard Strat® style control layout using a
five-way switch and three control pots.
We mated that great body to a custom
mahogany neck providing us with a 24.75” scale length. The shorter scale length is somewhat of a
signature for us here at Crucible Guitar Works.
We believe it brings an extra level of playability and tone to our
guitars. We specified the neck to
include a Jackson® style headstock, a thin (but
comfortable) back shape, an ebony fret board, 6105 stainless steel frets and a
precut shelf to mount the Floyd Rose locking nut. It is finished in a silky smooth clear satin
finish that feels very fast. The action
on this guitar is low and fast, with at great feel. A special round of thanks goes out to Mark
Kaiser at Fret Repair by Mark (fretrepairbymark.com) for his normal brilliant
work in the set up and wiring of this piece.
For those of you within driving distance to Centerville, OH, I highly
recommend him for any type of work you may need on your guitars. I would also like to thank him for the many
hours that he has taken with all my instruments over the years.
For pickups and electronics, this time
we wanted to make this a solid, but versatile, rock machine. With this in mind, to me there was only one
place to go to get some of the most revered humbuckers in rock and roll,
DiMarzio. DiMarzio was the first company
to offer replacement pickups and created the first high output humbucker
designed to push an amplifier into overdrive.
I have been a big fan of theirs for years and have had several guitars
where DiMarzio pickups have either come standard or I have upgraded the guitar
to include them.
For the position nearest the neck, we
opted for the PAF Pro. According to
DiMarzio, the PAF Pro was born in the early to mid ‘80’s and was intended as a
bridge position pickup with extra presence to cut through the highly technical
and effects heavy styles that were beginning to develop around that time. I find this pickup is excellent for the neck
position when pairing it with a high output bridge pickup like the Super
3. The lows seem tailored really well
for this position giving a full sound while not being boom-y or muddy as can
happen with a neck position humbucker on a shorter scale guitar. This pickup imparts that nice, smoky jazz
like tone to single note passages played through the clean channel of my Mesa
Stiletto or through my Astroverb. It is
clean and clear enough to use for some open rhythm strumming, as well. The extra boost in the mids and highs from
this pickup speak well and help to balance the more bass heavy tone inherent to
this position.
In the middle position, we decided on
the Air Norton. This is a kind of an
oddball position. It’s not normally in a
sweet spot for a good, hot lead tone like the bridge or a singing, smoky blues
or jazz tone like the neck position and it was hard to choose a pickup for this
spot. It took a lot of research of the DiMarzio website, asking around forums
and a little bit of an educated guess on what we wanted this to sound like when
paired with the other two positions. The
Air Norton was chosen for its EQ which favors more of the bass and midrange
frequencies to create a full, balanced sound when combined with the neck
pickup. This combination creates big
round tone with a nice presence to the open strings when playing first position
chords. Alone, it sounds more like a
traditional PAF style neck pickup with a more rich and complex tone and great
harmonics. When combined with the bridge
pickup, it reminiscent of the middle switch position tone from Gibson’s Les
Paul Custom® with that little bit of phase cancellation that give
that position its trademark sound. The
tone is rich and complex but feels a little thinned out or phase-y sounding.
Finally, in the bridge position, we installed
the Super 3. This is just about as high
output as it gets. Based off the
original Super Distortion, DiMarzio describes this one as “a Super Distortion
with more midrange grind and chopped treble”.
It has become a very popular with players who play their amps with a
scooped midrange. We were almost scared
away from using it because of this reputation, but since it is a central figure
in the PC-1 specifications, we went for it to stay true to our inspiration for
this guitar. Hey, if didn’t work, we
could always try something else. I have
to say that it couldn’t have worked out better.
This pickup does just as advertised through our British themed amplifier
collection. The midrange is strong, and
the bass and treble are dialed back a bit.
Even though it is high output, it cleans up fairly well with a lighter
touch of the guitar pick without getting muddy, just a touch unrefined
sounding. It produces a great crunch
through the amp’s preamp or with a distortion / overdrive pedal like my recent
favorites, the MXR C.B. ’78 Distortion or MXR C.B. Modified Overdrive. This pickup, with the right player, will
grind on chugged power chords, sing on single note passages or even soar on big
string bends with a little hash of attitude through the whole spectrum.
As I previously mentioned, this guitar
was routed for a standard Strat-style control layout. I didn’t want to go overly fancy and
complicate this guitar with all kinds of extra switches or push-pull knobs or
anything like that. I wanted to keep it simple,
but as versatile as possible. Most of
the time in a three humbucker guitar only three choices are available from your
pickup selector, these are normally; only the neck, only the bridge or some
combination of the middle and the bridge.
However, with our five position switch, there are two extra choices; the
combination of the neck and middle and the middle pickup on its own. The volume and tone controls have been modified a bit;
we included a combined volume control for the neck and middle pickups and
separate volume for the bridge pickup.
There is a “master” tone control that is bypassed when using any
combination of the bridge pickup. All
pots are 500k.
This guitar hits
its mark. It’s definitely a strong rock
guitar, but it still has enough inherent versatility to move beyond a single
genre and be a useful tool for almost any situation where a guitarist would
want a guitar with a solid humbucker sound.
In a worship setting, while playing with a second guitar player using a
Strat® or acoustic guitar, this guitar provides an excellent contrast in tone
helping to fill out the overall sound.
1
Corinthians 13:1 – “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and
not have charity (love for my fellow man),
I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.”
God gives us
great gifts through His Holy Spirit.
Honor all of these gifts, but be discerning about their use. If the gift does not edify Christ’s church as
a whole, practice it in private. This
was a hard lesson for the Corinthians to learn (1 Corinthians), that we may
benefit from its teaching. Music is
similar in this respect. Music in
service to the Lord should not be self-indulgent, but open and accessible to
the congregation of believers and seekers alike. Seek to practice this in your public worship.
God Bless,
D.K. Sears
Guitarist / Technical Advisor – Landmark Baptist Worship (www.lbcohio.com)
Founder / Lead Designer / Tone Consultant – Crucible Guitar Works
