Help me decide on a colour scheme for my Marauder II/Coronado neck build

[Futuron]

Your blue burst with the black border (ie 3 colour) idea is along the lines of what I'd go for, but I'd personally open it up to any colour burst with a black edge, be the colour metallic, flat or translucent. I think with the black head, pickguard & body edge that just about any colour would be fantastic!

[s_mcsleazy]

im gonna say LPB

[Embenny]

Wow, thank you everybody for your thoughts!

The thought of a black edge burst over something like LPB did occur to me actually, but I have literally never seen such a thing attempted, which makes me wonder if there's a reason for that. Then again, the faux "target" bursts look fine with solid colours in the middle, so maybe it would work out. Or even LPB with a little translucent purple for that "purpleburst" Mustang effect, followed by a black edge? Just thought of that.

I do also kinda like the unconventional look of a very saturated colour with the black guard and headstock, like will suggested. I forgot to post the seafoam green one I mocked up. It's definitely unconventional.

I'm feeling unusually indecisive on this one. My usual approach of "just pick a traditional blue or green because that's what I like on Offsets" just doesn't seem right for this project. I think it's going to end up being something a bit weirder.

[bacca51]

I feel like the silverburst really works with all the black/cream thats going on. Between the blocks, binding and pickups it just matches so well.

All are good options but the black pickguard looks a little off with the blue, red, green custom colors imo

[Deed_Poll]

Thought I'd share these renders here as well! I threw a Sunburst / Tort option in there too

[Embenny]

Beat me to it!

For anyone wondering, that's an "H"-S-"H" made of Burns Mini Tri-Sonics and Telecaster neck pickups. Planning to wire it up to the 5 rocker switches for individual coil control in order to have access to Burns and Fender neck and bridge tones, plus the combo of the two coils (possibly with push-pull V/T for series-parallel).

Will probably flip the Tele and trisonic coils the other way around though.

Talked to rexter about doing a G&L style blue burst (blue to black edges) as was suggested here...am strongly leaning toward that direction, though CFM always looks great...

[Gordon]

If possible, I'd advise you to use regular Tri-Sonic pickups. From my experience, Mini TS lack the personnality and punchiness of the regular ones.

[Embenny]

If possible, I'd advise you to use regular Tri-Sonic pickups. From my experience, Mini TS lack the personnality and punchiness of the regular ones.

Thanks for the advice.

I actually have a set of the minis on hand that I picked up used on Reverb, that I'm about to wire up in one of my guitars as a test run. I've heard conflicting stories about how they sound.

They sound pretty darn good in https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q0Hq4Pvoxwkthis video, for example.

They do sound brighter and a bit more strat-like than the full-size ones, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I prefer bright pickups (not generally a fan of HBs or P90's, for example). My TV Classic filtertrons are as far into HB territory as I usually go.

By going with the minis and then some Wilde (Bill Lawrence) Tele neck pickups, which are also way snappier and brighter than the average Tele neck pickup, I'm hoping to have two variations of a relatively bright single coil tone at each position, that could then be combined in series if I want a more HB-like tone. If the individual coils are too hot or full-sounding, the series/HB mode turns into a literal hot mess.

In essence, I'm copping the general idea behind the Duncan P-rails with the triple-shot rings...two single coil tones that are meant to be bright enough that series mode isn't too hot and muddy, but full enough that the coil split modes and parallel modes are usable as primary tones.

But that's why I picked up a set of the minis used. I'm going to give them a try, and worst case scenario, should be able to sell them for around what I paid if I don't like them.

I do have a vintage mod-60's tri-sonic that reads an uncharacteristically high resistance (14k, IIRC) that I picked up off a board member in order to do a direct comparison with the minis.

[Gordon]

I prefer bright pickups (not generally a fan of HBs or P90's, for example).

Alright then. People usually get them for the convenience of not having to route anything, and often expect to sound the same as the regular ones... But if you like the sound, look no further. The best pickup is the one that sounds right.

[Embenny]

I prefer bright pickups (not generally a fan of HBs or P90's, for example).

Alright then. People usually get them for the convenience of not having to route anything, and often expect to sound the same as the regular ones... But if you like the sound, look no further. The best pickup is the one that sounds right.

Yeah, for me it's more a matter of not wanting to do the traditional 3 Jag pickups in the Marauder, because I have that tone covered already (jag pickups in actual jags, and SSS with a 25.5" scale in a strat).

The minis jumped out because they're unique...bar magnet and air coil, so a different sound from alnico-poled SCs, but hopefully still bright enough to be the right fit for this project. Also, the full-size trisonics might look a little silly next to the tiny Tele pickups. Don't want aesthetics to drive pickup choice, but cramming 5 pickups in between that bridge plate and the neck does mean that smaller/narrower pickups physically fit the space better. If I did 3 trisonics and two strat-sized minis, it would probably be a solid block of chrome from the bridge plate all the way to the neck, if it fit at all

I did seem to get the impression that many of the disappointed/negative reviews of these pickups came from people who dropped them into 25.5" maple/alder strats and were upset that they weren't getting 24" mahogany Red Special tones (and in some cases didn't even realize that their strat needed modifying for series and phase switching to attempt that). The "Red Special into AC30 with treble booster" is so far from my ideal tone that I'm not even worrying about that.

I'm just in it because I like experimenting with pickups and electronics...in recent mods, I've put filtertrons, Guyatone goldfoils and Electric XII pickups into Jags, telecaster pickups and a vintage tri-sonic into JMs, and am testing out this idea of telecaster neck pickups in the middle and bridge of this build, because why not? Dan's putting a swimming pool rout in this guitar to accommodate my penchant for experimentation. I'll just be a pickguard away from the next crazy idea...

[Embenny]

Alright then. People usually get them for the convenience of not having to route anything, and often expect to sound the same as the regular ones... But if you like the sound, look no further. The best pickup is the one that sounds right.

Test complete. Absolutely love these pickups. Stuck them ghetto-style into a Jaguar HH using some GFS humbucker-to-strat adapter rings:



They're exactly what I imagined...bassier than strat pickups with a certain "chime" to them that's different, but still plenty bright. I think I'd be able to combine them in series with the tele neck pickups and get a usable series tone, too. And they're extremely low-noise for true singles...quieter than any pickup I own that isn't hum-canceling!

I'm considering having a guard made up to put these in this guitar permanently...

[Mechanical Birds]

Based on those dressing room mockups oh god you HAVE to go with silverburst

[Embenny]

Based on those dressing room mockups oh god you HAVE to go with silverburst

Did you see dan's renders of the blueburst on the second page, though? The black-to-blue, rather than blue-to-blue like the Dressing Room. Am seriously leaning that way, since I've never seen a "Fender" with that finish...plenty of G&L's, which is where I drew the inspiration from, so it seems fitting somehow.

Or I could split the difference and do a Charcoal Frost Burst...black-to-CFM.

I have a feeling I can't go wrong between those options...

[Gordon]

Looks good!

[Witchburner]

At the start of the thread I was all for the blue burst

Second renderings defintly lean me towards that silverburst,

Good luck, it'll be a beautiful guitar