New EVH Striped Guitar and Pickups

[vanhalen5150]

I've been having a blast with the red/white/black striped EVH here. Fun guitar. I have no idea how it compares to other similar guitars.
The Floyd is nice. Only issue with it was setup. It was bottomed out against the body, not floating at all. I couldnt pull the D tuner out at all. Then, after I loosened the springs to float the trem it would go out of tune with the D out.
I think someone more familiar with these should set it up. I haven't used a Floyd since '92. Lol

The pick up is kinda cool, very hot. Lots of mid grind.

Overall, cool guitar. Needed some set up and I don't think the wood is all that special. The finish seems pretty thick, prolly losing some tone there. Regardless, the fun factor makes it worth having around.


George

The D tuna is set up wrong then. It should still work easily when the bridge is against the body. The E fine tuner screw needs to be unscrewed more than the others. Set the E fine tuner high, tuned to E, pull out and tune from the headstock to D. Lock the nut. Push back in and then use the tiny side set allan screw on the the D tuna to get a perfect E. Many guitars have these set up wrong. Even the "tech guys" at the chains have no idea what that little set screw is for. They are rarely set up correct. I've shown about 4 of them how its supposed to be set up as they out of box guitars never have instructions on it. As the strings tend to stretch the fine tuner eventually gets down to the bottom and the DT hits the body. Just reset the whole thing back up.

Fire us a clip VG!

[fivecoyote]

How much of the fun factor (and price( is the paint? Seriously -- would it be as fun if it was purple or whatever? Not raggin' on anyone or anything, I just know that picking up a striped guitar is fun...for some reason

[FormulaET]

I must chime In! I bought a black n white model. The pickup sounds 'ok' but I immediately popped in a 331 ceramic cap; .033uf I think. Made a whole world of difference when backing off the volume to retain that Edward volume down sound. The pickup wide open is alright but I longed for some character.
FYI this isn't the same pickup as the Wolfgang Bridge replacement you buy for 130.00!! The studs are larger in diameter as well as a lot louder than what comes in the striped series. Needless to say I returned to the stock pickup that came in the guitar.

If you want any other pickup with a different base plate, or to Trembucker/F-spaced you will have to modify with router or chisel or whatever to make it fit. The Striped Series are cut precisely to fit the EVH baseplate!!

The good news I discovered is the Baseplate can accommodate a Duncan standard Humbucker size coils. I transferred a Duncan Jazz bridge guts over to the Wolfgang Humbucker I had lying around. I haven't made the choice to try it yet but am confident the sound will be closer to what I want compared to the stock EVH pickup.

I also added the spin a split mod to get nice single coil tones as well.
Adding the capacitor made a huge difference for lower volume, though I could use a pickup with more 'character'.

Not sure which route to take, the coil transfer to the baseplate would be the easiest.