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the "infamous" monaco III


belgian

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That's an amazing price for that guitar. A new one with those specs would cost well over $1,200 to order.

(Yes, I know, because I have one on order!!)

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I cursed that guitar, and it stuck.

*EDIT*

The owner asked me why the negative attitude. My post was a JOKE. I LOVE gold guitars, and want ALL OF THEM.

Back to my regular boring life of fixing guitars and pretend hexes.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I had to dredge this post back up...I was the original owner of this guitar. Not wanting a super strat, I had them custom wire it with a 3 way toggle and 3rd knob to bleed in the mid p'up. Well, that was a mistake of the highest order. That killed the tone somehow. The reason I resurrected this post is because I just bought a spruce top M3 (helluva of a price so I thought I'd give it another shot). The tone of the spruce version blows away the custom job at half the price. If pickups being equal, it must've been the wiring or maple top that sucked the tone out of the goldtop. Shame too cause that gold finish is stunning. Glad I gave the spruce M3 a shot cause this one sounds great.

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I'd like a MON3 but I can't hang with a 5-way chicken head selector. I'd rather have a 3-way toggle where the up position can be used as a kill switch by turning the volume of the neck pickup down. Anyone have any suggestions? Mike C? Is your 3 P90 Standard that way?

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My three pickup guitars have the regular three way Bridge, Bridge/Neck, Neck,

Pull out the tone control and it brings in the middle pup with the neck to get Bridge, all three, neck/middle.

I have been wiring 3 pup Les Pauls like this for years.

edited bucuz Ah cain't tipe

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Maple top plus P90s? Can you say MIDRANGE!!! And you may be right about the custom wiring doing a tone suck as well, probably depending on the signal bleed and the grounding scheme. I do know that maple's resonant peak plus the midrange strength of P90s could be so midrange-strong that tone controls wouldn't be able to tame it.

I am really glad you got another one in spruce. I'm a big fan of spruce and big single coil PUs, as my undying loyalty for my std. issue Newport attests.

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I am not a big fan of the five-way switch, either, but I really want each pick-up individually and the only way to get that (without a custom switch) is to add another pot - either a concentric design or one that would require another hole. I am probably going to drill another hole in mine, although Greg's wiring scheme sounds intriguing.

mike

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I'd like a MON3 but I can't hang with a 5-way chicken head selector. I'd rather have a 3-way toggle where the up position can be used as a kill switch by turning the volume of the neck pickup down. Anyone have any suggestions? Mike C? Is your 3 P90 Standard that way?

El my Standard custom is wired vol for neck and bridge pickup vol middle only and master tone with a three way toggle switch. The only thing you can't do as Chris Matthes can tell you is jiggle the toggle switch to get that on/off effect. I was willing to give that up for the versatility of getting all the pickup combinations.

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I did feel pretty dorky trying to do that toggle switch "stutter" at the last HFC Jam and the pickups never cut out!

FWIW, I'm taking a gamble on the Monaco 3 thing - I am not 100% sure whether mine will come with a maple or spruce top though. Guess I'll find out soon enough?

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Hamers "custom" wiring can be a little out there, I ordered treble bleed caps in one and they were horrible, I wondered if anyone hooked them up and listened or just picked values and went w/ it, had to remove em, maybe this guitar just needs a rewire

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I am not a big fan of the five-way switch, either, but I really want each pick-up individually and the only way to get that (without a custom switch) is to add another pot - either a concentric design or one that would require another hole.

I've had 3 different G&L 3-pickup guitars in which I've added the capability to get all 7 pickup combinations. For a Strat-type Legacy Special, I added a mini-toggle because G&L makes the S-500 and Commanche that way and their Strat bodies are all routed to accommodate the mini-toggle.

The other two were ASATs -- Tele-style guitars -- and I didn't want to drill into the metal control plate. In those cases I had the guitar tech replace the vol. knob with a push/pull pot. When I pulled it, it activated the bridge pickup, which, when combined with the 5-way, enabled me to get bridge/neck or all 3 pickups at once. The 5-way in default position provided the standard 5 combinations.

The push/pull method is cosmetically kinder as it involves no drilling and is a completely reversible mod.

If you are interested, I know where to get the schematic online. In fact, CajunBoy is the one who worked it out and posted it when he was very active at guitarsbyleo.com.

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In retrospect, after dropping all that money into the custom features (bound f holes ain't cheap!), I could've spent a few more hundred and sent it Greg to install some mini HB's and a rewire....in it's current state, that guitar reminds me of Jessica Simpson....all looks, no substance.

The 5 way chicken head is taking some getting used to, I can't tell what position I'm in half the time! I've also noticed you have to turn the tone down a ways to get any "noticeable" 2 and 4 out of phase variation. Geez...I wish they made the Newport with 25.5 scale. Would've been a no brainer.

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With the stock Duncan pickups on the Monaco III the difference between settings on the pickup selector switch is minimal. When I swapped my pickups for Lollar p-90's I got the full range of different tones, including all of the "inbetween" sounds, without having to mess with the volume. Made a big difference.

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