1976 Ibanez...see something different here?

[kennzo5150]

Well this is a coincendence, after having my super70 out of guitar for years I finally put it back in today. Peeyu ! Those fuckin pups suck balls. I don't know how the hell strat78 got ANY good tone out it at all.It's goin back in the shoebox!

[julkke]

Well this is a coincendence, after having my super70 out of guitar for years I finally put it back in today. Peeyu ! Those fuckin pups suck balls. I don't know how the hell strat78 got ANY good tone out it at all.It's goin back in the shoebox!

Did you mess with pickup height? No good tone at all sounds strange.

[vanhalen5150]

I always thought they sucked too.

[Tone Slinger]

I got an old Japanese 'Montaya' labeled strat. The actual body contour is a little off and it is a tad thicker than normal. It is made of multiple pieces of wood that is sanwiched. The wood of that Destroyer posted on the first post of this thread is EXACTLY what this one is made of. I was thinking that it was Sen wood. This guitar is heavy as shit. The production quality isnt very high on this imo. It is obviously before they (Japanese) got good at guitar building. It has the large CBS headstock, so I assume its no earlier than mid to late '60's.

[Bore Em at the Forum]

The earliest prototypes used Schaller "D" logo tuners. Someone had put some Gotoh minis on mine before I bought it on eBay. After some research I realized that the "Star" tuners may look cool, but they suck ass for reliability. I ended up finding some 70s Schaller "D" tuners on eBay...I had my tech fill everything and install the Schallers and they look and work great.

Just a little known fact that the Schallers are actually more "authentic" to the earliest Destroyers than the "Star" tuners and they work better. Save your money on the scarce and expensive, yet unreliable "Star" tuners...

Its important to remember, Eddie didn't like anything he ever owned that was stock. So to take a stock Destroyer at inflated prices right now.....is crazy. He didn't like a stock Destroyer. He hacked it, put different pickups in.

Actually, I think he really liked the Destroyer stock. This is why he borrowed Chris Holmes' Destroyer for Women and Children First. There are some out there, myself and Strat78 included, who still consider it a possibility that he used his Destroyer in more or less stock condition (minus the white paint and strat knobs as you see it in my profile pic) with the original Super 70s and all. Even the Chris Holmes Destroyer had the pickup cover and original black pickup ring on it in the Zlozower WACF session photos-this at least circumstantially points to Ed preferring the stock setup. Also, the only time Ed left the pickup covers on his pickup was in his Destroyer and the Chris Holmes Destroyer (and also on the vintage Flying V from the 1984 sessions). If anything I think it is fairly obvious that Eddie regretted the "Shark" mod and all the pickup changes in the Destroyer after that mod were done to try and get the tone back to what it was when it was stock.

I put a new DSD and wax potted the pickup cover to it in my Destroyer and I'm getting great results, but that may be because the new DSDs work so well with Mod 5 style amps like my Marshall modded by Mark.

You have the right rig with the right guitar, so it's hard for me to disagree on any level. Yeah, Eddie did ruin that guitar by hacking it out - but he was swapping pickups and such trying to find that elusive thing he wanted back then......

Whenever I see the Zloz pix with the Holmes guitar, I always wonder if Eddie's "spare" PAF is in there - cos his 59 burst was always missing the neck pickup - I figured it was "floating" between different guitars when he was recording. Which is brilliant when you think about it -get a burst 59 but get a PAF for other uses as a bargain!

[garbeaj]

You have the right rig with the right guitar, so it's hard for me to disagree on any level. Yeah, Eddie did ruin that guitar by hacking it out - but he was swapping pickups and such trying to find that elusive thing he wanted back then......

Whenever I see the Zloz pix with the Holmes guitar, I always wonder if Eddie's "spare" PAF is in there - cos his 59 burst was always missing the neck pickup - I figured it was "floating" between different guitars when he was recording. Which is brilliant when you think about it -get a burst 59 but get a PAF for other uses as a bargain!

The thing is a Gibson style American made pickup and mounting hardware including the pickup ring and cover will not fit in a metric Ibanez Destroyer. I know this because I tried it myself. You have to refill and drill holes and carefully shave the pickup ring because the pickup with the cover on it will not fit. When he did eventually change the pickup after the Shark mod he completely changed the ring and mounting hardware and he left the pickup cover off.

The same situation occurred with the Holmes Destroyer...original black pickup ring and pickup cover in the WACF session photos and when we see the guitar today in Tom Anderson's Van Halen museum we see the guitar has what appears to be non-original cream pickups surrounded by what are certainly non-original cream pickup rings and mounting hardware without pickup covers... why? Because even if Holmes wanted to keep the pickup covers on, they wouldn't fit in the non-metric pickup rings and mounting hardware. This is all circumstantial evidence, but I know this...the only pictures of Eddie playing a Destroyer with a sound that pleased him was in the Musikfoto.com 1976-1977 club photos with the original non-chainsawed white Destroyer with pickup rings and covers intact and when we see the Holmes Destroyer in the WACF session photos, also with what is likely the original pickup ring and pickup cover intact. All this leads me to believe that Ed actually liked and used the original Super 70s...

[kennzo5150]

You can use a regular paf or any pup in the destroyer.i put just a regular pickup ring on mine, didn't have too drill holes. I had to sand the bottom of the pickup ring. Just goin off some pics doesn't convince me he was using super 70's. Shit, you can mod anything if you really want too.I prefer to use my ears instead of my eyes to tell me things. The super 70 pup is crap, the lows are not tight enough and too woofy, mids aren't tight enough with no punch. The highs, dear god don't get me started. And yes I have tried this pup through everything I own, still same crappy pup.

[garbeaj]

You can use a regular paf or any pup in the destroyer.i put just a regular pickup ring on mine, didn't have too drill holes. I had to sand the bottom of the pickup ring. Just goin off some pics doesn't convince me he was using super 70's. Shit, you can mod anything if you really want too.I prefer to use my ears instead of my eyes to tell me things. The super 70 pup is crap, the lows are not tight enough and too woofy, mids aren't tight enough with no punch. The highs, dear god don't get me started. And yes I have tried this pup through everything I own, still same crappy pup.

I guess we have had two different experiences with our Destroyers because I had to fill and redrill for American made pickup mounting hardware, this is why I had to file the original Ibanez pickup ring to fit an American made pickup with pickup cover in my guitar. I would bet that you left your pickup cover off of your pickup, otherwise you would have had to file the inside of your pickup ring to fit an American pickup with pickup cover.

I don't think Ed gave a shit about sanding the bottom of his pickup rings and I don't think he would have bothered to do that for the sake of cosmetics. His "luthiery" skills have proven that time after time. Plus, you have to file the INSIDE of the pickup ring to get a Gibson style American pickup to fit in an Ibanez pickup ring with a pickup cover, not just sand the bottom.

He never used a guitar with pickup covers except for the two Destroyers and the vintage V. The Super 70 is a great PAF clone and he obviously liked the PAF in his vintage V and the pickup cover on it. I know you have your particular dislike for the Super 70, but I wouldn't count out Ed liking and using it. It is extremely likely that the pickup in the vintage Flying V remained a stock PAF and many people like the tone of "Hot For Teacher", "Drop Dead Legs" and "Girl Gone Bad" even though they are somewhat masked with Harmonizer. The Super 70 is a PAF clone and it will definitely not be to your taste if you are used to high output pickups.