A 'Frank Zappa Roxy SG' for peanuts

funny_polymath

Fractal Fanatic
So, I really didn't have the money (or inclination) to pony up mega bucks for Gibson's limited edition Roxy SG. However, I did have a hankering for its tonal variety. What to do?

1) Take my Epiphone Custom Shop 1962 SG Reissue ($350.00 off of Ebay)
2) Buy two genuine Gibson 57/57+ pickups (four conductor) for $125.00 off of Ebay - Gibson would NOT sell me the exact ones used in the Zappa SG - and they would have cost lots more - these are reputed to be very close. They may even be identical - Gibson has not made a lot of 4 conducter humbuckers, so who knows?
3) Get ahold of Gibson's two wiring diagrams for the Roxy SG
4) Have the most righteous Matt at 30th st. guitars rewire the pups (and flip the magnets on the 57+ as the scheme requires that to be reverse polarity).
5) Brainstorm with Matt on the location of the toggle switches, as Zappa had 'em right where I'd strum, which would obviously be a problem. He suggests we change the two tone pots to push-pull (I like push-push but have found them to be much less reliable). Lower one splits the coils, upper one puts pups out of phase for that gnarly nasal zappa lead tone. Matt does the whole job for circa $200.00 dollars, including new capacitors, wiring!
6) VOILA! Amazing (and NOISE CANCELING when using both pickups) quacky single-coil strat-like sound! Big thick humbucker sound, crazy-ass out of phase sound (which needs a boost in DBs, as it's quite a bit lower in output when you're in single coil mode). This thing WORKS! Along with my S-1 Burton Strat-0-Tele wired Strat, this thing is now one of my most versatile guitars! I Fu$#ing love it! And I think Matt's idea of replacing the toggle switches with the push-pulls was genius.

Total outlay under $700.00.

And... I think my Epiphone actually plays BETTER than recent-vintage Gibson SG's I've played. In fact, I had to get the action raised a touch - it was too low!
 
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The pics will show a stock-looking SG (although the new pups don't have covers on them). I could, I guess, show the push-pull pots. Otherwise, it's pretty indistinguishable!
 
Well, I finally got around to recording something with it.

This is off my upcoming album on True Groove Records, "Love, Lust & Genocide". It's not mastered yet, but you'll get the idea...

The album features songs and spoken word pieces. This is a moody, atmospheric spoken word piece.

So, this features the mighty Bill Laswell on Bass (a true honor and dream come true for me), Michael Faulkner on Drums, me on Viola (played through a Morley Volume/Wah/Distortion pedal, the Axe-FX II - not sure which program, and a PCM-70), and me on the Zappa SG, with the Morley and the Axe (on Das Metal). I am using the 'single coil' setting - each pup split, and since they are reverse polarity (flipped magnets on one) from each other, they're also kind of hum-cancelling. But I am not using the out-of-phase switch on this one - I wasn't looking for the more nasal Zappa sound on this, but something maybe slightly more Perfect Circle-ish (tone, not playing; I play like a cave man). Oh, and I'm playing penny whistle and Ecuadorean nose flute, and there's also a massively-processed nature recording too - for those who wanna know everything about a track. Recorded at Sonotrope Sound and Image by moi, and West Orange Sound by james Dellatacoma, mixed at West Orange by James, produced by Tomas Doncker, James, and myself, for True Groove - The Home of Global Soul!

Oh, before they got into Samplitude, my voice, the viola and guitar also went through a Chameleon Labs 7602 MKII X-Mod pre-amp, for a little final eq touch-up and big-iron warm-up. Mic is my Mojave MA-300 - looks ostentatiously pimp-ass tacky, but I love that mic...

The solo's marked on the file, just before the halfway mark...
 
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It's really not a 'strat-like' sound, it's something else, but it DOES have that 'spanky-planky' single coil sound, just a sound all it's own.
 
It's really a great sounding mod. I used the Gibson 57 Classic (neck) & 57 Classic + (bridge) 4 conductor pickups, which appeared to be the same as or very close to what's on the Zappa Roxy Guitar: "The new Zappa SG features two ’57 classic humbuckers that are routed through a pair of mini toggle switches which provide coil splitting and out of phase capabilities for each pickup. This is just like Frank’s original SG." - they don't mention the + version for the bridge, but it's customary to put a slightly hotter one on the bridge, and I found a set like that on ebay for peanuts, so that's what I did. All I can say is it sounds great, in all switch settings!

The quote above is from this article: THE UNIQUE GUITAR BLOG: Frank Zappa's Guitars and the Gibson Frank Zappa Roxy SG

here's a current auction on ebay with the same pups: Genuine Gibson USA Classic 57 57 Plus Guitar Humbucker Pickup Set 2 Nickel | eBay

Now, remember, you need to take at least one cover off to flip the magnets on one pickup: in Frank's guitar they are not reverse-wound, but they are reverse polarity, and that's part of the magic. I had my guy take both covers off so that it looked more like the original, but mostly because it gives a better high frequency response
 
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Update: I forgot to mention: the push/pull pots turned out to be too ungainly to make fast tonal changes. The Zappy Roxy guitar has the mini-toggles in a place I also find ungainly - I am afraid they will interfere with strumming at times. I am thinking of routing the body and putting the mini-toggles on the upper bout, where the pickup selector is on a Les Paul.
 
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I changed it to two mini-toggles, but near the volume and tone controls, rather than routing all the way to the upper bout. The maestro's cool-looking, but not a great trem. I don't use it much. Then again, did Frank ever use his?
 
I changed it to two mini-toggles, but near the volume and tone controls, rather than routing all the way to the upper bout. The maestro's cool-looking, but not a great trem. I don't use it much. Then again, did Frank ever use his?
He retired that Roxy SG from performance and played mostly Strats live in the latter part of his life. ..I need to to do a pro setup and maybe a new nut , mine will not stay in tune ....
 
He retired that Roxy SG from performance and played mostly Strats live in the latter part of his life. ..I need to to do a pro setup and maybe a new nut , mine will not stay in tune ....

Yeah. I love Strats, but hated when FZ changed to 'em. Really liked the Roxy SG sound best of all of his axes. I put locking tuners on mine. Was thinking about a roller bridge and graphtek nut, because it's not perfectly stable, but I had the nut worked on, and with the locking Schallers, she's pretty good now. Was afraid a roller nut and/or roller bridge and/or graphite nut would change the tone too much...
 
Yeah. I love Strats, but hated when FZ changed to 'em. Really liked the Roxy SG sound best of all of his axes. I put locking tuners on mine. Was thinking about a roller bridge and graphtek nut, because it's not perfectly stable, but I had the nut worked on, and with the locking Schallers, she's pretty good now. Was afraid a roller nut and/or roller bridge and/or graphite nut would change the tone too much...
I hope that Dweezil gets his III rig set up soon..(ahem @Admin M@ ) ....would love to hear his Roxy tones ( not to mention that crazy neoStrat thing he’s been playing. ). through the new n improved box....but looks like not on this leg of the tour........
 
Can anyone send me the wiring schematics for the roxy sg? I'm planning on upgrading my 1966 G-400 pro and was planning on basing the electronics off of Frank's Roxy SG then adding tuners (havent figured out which ), a maestro and a string butler to keep it tuned. If anyone's got any suggestions I'm all ears
 
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