Sonic Youth'n my Cyclone (large pics/lots o' pics)

[luciguci]

So, I was looking through pictures of Sonic Youth's guitars after being on a big SY kick and found these two from Lee's guitars.



I got a candy apple red Squier Cyclone back in December as a gift from my dad and recently, I got started on working on a couple of concepts for it and came up with this.



I already made a flimsy paper template out of paper earlier tonight and I will tape it to a cheap vinyl LP and cut out a pickguard.
For now, till I get a pickguard made, I butchered the original pickguard to hold the humbucker in the middle and will go to get it wired up to my five way switch by my friend soon. Sorry for the crappy late night cellphone pics.


crappy butchered guard

my guitar before chopping the pickguard

template


And here's the 5-way, old 3-way, two singles and humbucker that will go in. I need to that out some wood to put the switch in, though.


Eventually, I plan on putting in higher quality single coils and a GFS Vintage Split Humbucker in the middle. Hopefully, I finish this project before the end of the summer so I can begin on my other guitar project for my girlfriend.

[luciguci]

UPDATE!!! not that anybody is watching
I got some more damage progress done to my guitar, but not much.

I lost the pickup screws for the humbucker, so I got creative and cut off some wood to hold it up. After several pieces of destroyed wood, I found a piece of particle board that was just about the right size and hammered it into my guitar.



It barely missed the trem claw and nearly poked out of the route, so I hammered it to the side.



Then I tried rearranging the pickups under the pickguard to see how it would look, and it's not bad, the humbucker was at the right height.



Then I went on to carve out a couple of tiny little chunks to make the 5 way switch fit in the existing route. It wasn't pretty, as all I had on me was a chisel. But, it also worked well, and there's going to be vinyl covering it regardless.




Unfortunately, I forgot to put a cloth under the guitar as I was hammering and chiseling away and a couple of screws just happened to be under my guitar as I hammered, so...



Oops.

This Sunday, I hope my friend can come over and help me wire up the switch and pickups, then I'll hammer down the humbucker and then try to make the new pickguard after buying some cheap vinyls at the used bookstore.

[paul_]

Don't worry about all the accidental dings and that, just makes it more Sonic Youthful.

[luciguci]

Don't worry about all the accidental dings and that, just makes it more Sonic Youthful.

That's what I was thinking, especially around the switch area.

[Zack]

i dont habeeb it.

[luciguci]

i dont habeeb it.

TWINKIE HOUSE

[othomas2]

Cool I like this idea ... Nice

Accidental dings are cool, intentional ones are not !! Don't sweat.

[luciguci]

Oh my god. This is so frustrating. I've successfully wired up the neck and bridge single coils, but the humbucker is being so difficult It's only a two conductor humbucker, so I assume it's just as easy to hook up as the single coils. Wrong. I'll see if it makes any difference to put the neck single on the middle lug so I can further determine what isn't going right. Damn.

EDIT: Yep, my humbucker is a little bitch. It worked with one of the singles, but it wont work with the humbucker. If anyone can help me, it's a standard cyclone humucker, PCB 5 way switch. If anyone hcan help me ith a diagram for exactly what I need here, I will love you long time would really appreciate it.

EDIT: Okay, I'm fairly sure it's my humbucker. God damn it. I don't have enough money to buy a new one, unless I can find a decent one cheap. Maybe GFS.

Damn, I need a job.

[luciguci]

Fuck it, I'll just buy a GFS Vintage Split Humbucker, keep the current bridge pup, wait for my friend to give me his spare single coil, or save some more and buy a couple of these overwound single coils.

[robroe]

get some of those overwound gfs fatboys

[luciguci]

You mean these?