Pickup Purgatory

 At the end of each of these posts, I have spontaneously thought up the title for the next post, without giving it much thought. Just typing it hot off the mind-press. Some intuition must have been at play when I ended the Pickguard Hell post, because purgatory is exactly what I got from the pickup situation.

I should wrap up the pickguard thing though.

It worked! I basically went conservative when cutting out the pickup holes, then slowly and carefully hand filed and sanded them to fit. I was in the other room hitting the drums in celebration when I heard a strange noise. It was Rye plucking the low E with his one good tooth. He's a thorough supervisor. If I ever catch him with his paw hovering over the 12th fret checking intonation, I'm filing a complaint with HR. Speaking of, despite having no way to adjust it, the intonation is pretty spot on.

Although it did come out quite a bit better, I should probably apologize to the creator of the pickguard that was on when I bought the Harmony. It ain't easy. I had a few slips of the Dremel around the neck. I put some black tape on the body so the white wouldn't show through.

Ok. So. The original pickups, I have read, were described as "darker and warmer" than your typical single coil Strat-types. When I brought the Harmony home and plugged it in, it made some noise.

What I discovered upon testing them, however, is that only the neck pickup was working, and since they were wired parallel but with no pickup selector switch, I had assumed both were ok. The bridge, or what is really more like a Strat middle pickup, however, had issues.

Even after soldering the hot back in place, I couldn't get a peep out of the pickup. Upon further inspection (in which I probably did further damage) I found some of the winding to be mushed and broken. 

Initially I thought the purgatory I would be in would be deciding how to wire the original pickups. Series? Parallel? Go nuts and add a pickup selector switch, or a blend knob? The new reality was that I was either going to have to wire it with just one single original pickup, which I didn't want to do, since I'd already cut two pickup holes, combine one original with one replacement, or replace them both.

My first electric guitar (prior to that I just had a bass) was a Squier Strat I had purchased for $99 in 2008 or so from the Langhorne, PA Guitar Center. Years later, I saw a loaded 3-ply pickguard from a Fender Player Series Strat on Craigslist. When I met the guy in a parking lot, it turned out to be one of the techs from Russo's in Trenton, NJ. He sold me the thing for $30! I still have that Strat, and, like most tinkerers do, I kept the old Squier pickguard, still loaded with the original pickups. As luck would have it, they were a perfect fit. 

So, the title of the post takes on a new meaning. It is the original pickups that are now in purgatory, waiting for a future where they end up in someone else's hands or I take up pickup winding. But based on my fly-tying skills, I don't see that happening! Guess I'll let Rye hang onto them.

The original pickups, as I said earlier, were reputed to have a little darker, low-end sound, so I chose to wire the Squiers in series, which is supposed to do the same. Here's a link to someone that describes it in detail.

https://theguitargearguru.com/series-vs-parallel-guitar-wiring/

Here's everything loaded and ready. I chose not to go crazy with shielding the body until I heard how noisy things are, so I merely shielded the pickguard at the pots and jack.

I kept the white pickup covers on, just to remind myself, should senility creep in, that they aren't the OG pickups. Plus I think it looks pretty darn spiffy. And all of a sudden I was...finished?

Fellow Tinkerers, guitar nerds, and folks who feel obligated to read these posts due to past affiliations, I present the Harmony H 804.

Next (and final Harmony) Post: Should It Stay Or Should It Go Now?