NGD x 2 Plus Prehistoric and a Little Vintage Content

[Jimmi]

It has been a while since I have been motivated buy a new guitar. Sort of by accident I ended up playing a 2020 historic that I really liked. I was trying out a vintage guitar and saw a historic with the same finish and playing them back to back was really impressed with how close the historics had gotten with the top carve, color and resonance. After bringing it home I liked it enough I bought a second one. While I liked the wood with both I was less happy with the pickups that much and have ended up replacing them. I started to get PAFs or Pat#s but decided to stay with modern replicas to see how close I could get both guitars to the sound of vintage LPs without dipping into vintage stuff. 2018 RO (royal tea finish) which got the Duane Ox4 set and 2020 R0 with v3 neck (dark) which got the ‘58 PAF ReWind set. ReWind covers on both. They pair well with two prehistoric guitars I had (Leo Special and Heritage Award reissue). Also included a group picture with two 50s LPs I have had for a long time.

 

[Cookiee]

Lovely guitars, congrats! How are you liking the ox4s?

 

[1allspub]

Love it! Congrats and HNGD x2!

 

[pondcaster]

Neato!

 

[Jimmi]

Lovely guitars, congrats! How are you liking the ox4s?

They are much better than the stock pickups…especially the neck pickup which I really didn’t like in either guitar. I am still adjusting them a bit but both sets of pickups are in the ballpark of a vintage PAF. I am actually wondering if the pots might the next thing I look at to get them the full distance. Vintage pot values either over time or maybe because of variances in 50s manufacturing, drift above the 500k range sometimes quite a bit. I have seen some tested as high as 800k. The pots in my vintage LPs read around 650-700 (depending on how you test them).

I would say the two sets of pickups are fairly comparable except for the covers. The ReWind covers are better. Otherwise the guitars are fundamentally different in their natural tone so I think it isn’t fair to necessarily compare the two brands…the ReWinds are probably a bit more transparent and have a little more definition. The ox4 are a little more even despite the gap in the setup (the neck is 7.1 and the bridge is 9.1) but that guitar is very even sounding. If I play them alone I would have a hard time telling the ReWinds from vintage but I can hear it when I play them back to back.. mostly there are more higher frequencies which brings me back to the pots. The Ox4 aren’t much different but the guitars are different so I would have to swap them between guitars to really make a solid comparison.

I did this 10 yrs ago with the Leo I have and ended up putting vintage PAFs in it and it transformed that guitar. My goal is to keep these guitars free of vintage parts and see how close I can get. The most I might do is use some 60s pots or maybe try vintage magnets in the pickups (if you want to do a fairly decent vintage clone on the cheap swap a vintage magnet into unpotted burstbuckers or even better 70s ttops) as it sometimes works magic.

 

[StubbyJ]

Beautiful.

 

[searswashere]

Quite the collection, awesome!

 

[Midnight Blues]

Nice! Congrats, HNGD x 2 and play them in good health!

 

[lakeburst]

Man ... all those beautiful guitars ...

very nice ...

congrats and happy new guitar day

 

[mjross]

Very nice, congrats!

 

[Guithartic]

Super.

 

[Oranjeaap]

You have more pictures of the one with the bigsby?

 

[Jimmi]

You have more pictures of the one with the bigsby?

Sure.. here are some I don’t think I have posted recently.

 

[Oranjeaap]

Sure.. here are some I don’t think I have posted recently.

Stellar!

I have been inactive over the past 2 years, sorry if you posted them before, but I don't remember seeing them. Is that some kind of 50's conversion? That maple top just screams former goldtop to me.

 

[Jimmi]

Stellar!

I have been inactive over the past 2 years, sorry if you posted them before, but I don't remember seeing them. Is that some kind of 50's conversion? That maple top just screams former goldtop to me.

Yes. It is a converted ‘54. Guy I bought it from in the late 80s said it was converted in ‘65. All vintage parts including the pickups. Was a main gigging guitar for me for a long time.