Billy Corgan DiMarzio Fender Strat BC-1, BC-2, Chopper & Harness + extra covers

Description

This is my spare rig, lifted direct from a Corgan strat and featuring the unusual and clever switcher configuration he designed, featuring Billy’s signature BC-1™ pickup in the neck, BC-2™ in the bridge and The Chopper™ in the middle. Billy, whilst working on the sound of his custom Strat, modified the Air Norton S (neck) and the Tone Zone S (bridge) for a deeper sound from the low strings with no loss of punch, and a cleaner sound with high-gain amps.

Through a clean Marshall amp and switching to the first-position, the bridge pickup gives you a real sensation of push. This means that chords and individual notes fall from the guitar with consummate ease, while big, glassy rhythm tones really soar when you let loose. It's one of those rare pups that carries the real acoustic tone of your guitar, with plenty of low-end resonance to mellow out the brightness.

What is quite surprising for humbuckers is that the famous Fender Strat character is retained overall, a hot-rodded one, maybe, but definitely a characterful fingerprint.

With some heavier gain, the bridge pickup starts to reveal an interesting versatility, producing a mid-gain grunge to indie-rock tone. Here it delivers clarity and punch exceptionally well while always sounding edgy.

It's almost like you can't trust it not to fully rock-out, which I hasten to add is massively rewarding. Push the preamp gain up to max and smooth out the mids and this guitar could be on stage with the likes of Iron Maiden, easily producing piercing lead tones and rumbling high-gain rhythms.

Subtracting a little gain and switching to the second or third positions activates DiMarzio's Chopper pickup, which on the whole is voiced slightly differently to the Billy Corgan customs. It has more snap and is much more direct from a 'feel' point of view, great for funky rhythms and biting lead playing. With lots of fuzzy distortion it's also great for grunge chugging.

Finally the neck position; normally an old-school Strat tone would be right on the money, but this can in some circumstances be restrictive. The power, clarity and honky-ness that the neck DiMarzio delivers is highly enjoyable and you can adapt the sound to almost any style of music.

Stevie Ray Vaughan, classic Gilmour and Hendrix can all be found with a bit of experimentation, along with its staple diet of American grunge-rock riffs and indie rhythms that make up a large part of the Smashing Pumpkins' sound. Plus I found it was the best Tony iommi riff machinery I'd found, clearing my SG from the stables with ease.

Oh, and the switching configuration isn't your usual Fender 5 way, it IS 5 way but it does some cool things with the pup order ;)

Love these things.

Comes with a set of new covers in white as the black ones on the pups are used and have some wear.

I'll see if I can find a wiring diagram to include but no guarantees there, sorry!

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