A meticulously modded Ibanez hollow-body now offers a whole new palette of sounds, ready for any genre the player can imagine.
The Project: Unlocking Single-Coil Tones
A customer brought in their beautiful, black-finished hollow-body electric guitar, complete with its classic Bigsby tremolo. They loved the full, warm tone of the dual humbuckers but wanted more versatility—they craved that bright, cutting single-coil sound but didn't want to change guitars.
We proposed a classic mod: rewiring the electronics to include a coil tap (sometimes called a coil split). This would allow the player to 'tap' into just one of the coils on each humbucker, effectively giving them single-coil tones at the pull of a knob.
The Work
The process began with carefully removing the original volume knobs, which would be replaced with push-pull potentiometers. After carefully mapping the guitar’s internal wiring and identifying the precise wires for each pickup, new leads were attached to the 'finish' wire of the humbucker's coils. These leads were then guided back through the guitar's body, a delicate operation in a hollow instrument. The new leads were soldered to the push-pull switches, which were then installed as the new volume controls.
After a thorough clean and a full setup to make sure it played like a dream, the transformation was complete. This Ibanez can still deliver that classic, heavy humbucker sound, but with a quick pull of the knobs, it now sparkles with the crisp clarity of a single-coil. It's truly two guitars in one.
Is your guitar needing a mod to make it uniquely yours? Come talk to us!
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