Snowy Day Chores

This was the view, outside my door, when the long-awaited snow finally started flying. The weather guessers have been telling us horror stories of record snowfall, on the way, for the past week. It was a bit late getting here, but it really started coming down hard, when it arrived.

Once I was home from the coffee shop, this morning, I really didn't feel like going back out. So, I decided that I would hang around the house and take care of some housekeeping, and other chores. First thing on the list was to wash some dishes and put them up. I got that done, and moved on to some more entertaining chores.

I had received a box, from UPS, this morning, before I left for Kaladi Bros. In it, was a new frame bag for the fixed gear mountain bike.

I have one of these bags, already. I have been swapping it back and forth between the blue fat bike and the fixie, depending on which one I was commuting with, on any given day. I finally decided to just get another bag, and save the swapping. At less than $15.00, I didn't mind popping for a second bag. It's nothing I would use to run the Iditarod race, or anything, but it is an awesome bag for the money, and mighty handy for a commute or trail ride.

I loaded the bag up with a pump, 15mm open-end wrench for the axle nuts, and the charging cable for a USB tail light.  This bike already had a tool kit and tube in a seat bag.

Now, both winter commuters are ready to roll, at any time.

Once that bike was set up, I turned my attention to the Flying V that I bought in Pennsylvania, as I was out there for Christmas. The guitar is a 2005 Faded Cherry, which is one of my favorite finishes on a V, and it has a really nice neck. The neck reminds me of the one on Cooper (my black Les Paul Special), and the V has become my go-to guitar, for the most part.

The sound was good, right out of the box, but I was missing the P-90 snarl that I get from the red BFG Les Paul. I wanted to put a P-90 at the neck, on the V, but the stock routing for the humbucker will not accept a P-90. So, I started looking for a Gibson P-94, which is a P-90 built to the size of a humbucker. Gordie Johnson uses these in his guitars (and Gibson produced a Gordie Johnson model with these pickups), and I love the sound of them.

Eventually, I ordered one up, from Amazon (I had a gift card, and figured I might as well use it). It has set around for a month, waiting for me to get the time and energy to swap it out.

Today, I had both...

Here if the guitar, on the operating table, as I removed the bridge, tailpiece and, ultimately, the pickguard/wiring harness.

Factory markings, inside the pickup cavities. I assume they are the initials of Gibson craftsmen.

The humbucker has a single coaxial wire, where the outer covering is the ground, and the hot is inside. The P-94 has a 4-wire cable, so I had to look on Google to see how to wire it up.

Once I figured that out, I heated up the soldering iron and removed the stock pickup. Then, I hooked the new pickup up (3 grounds and a hot ... why?) and tested the connections to make sure everything was cool, before I reassembled the guitar and strung it up.

 Here it is, with the new pickup in place.

I am excited to have this setup, now. You don't see single-coil equipped Gibson Flying V's, every day.

I spent about an hour adjusting the pickup height, pole pieces and string height to get the tone I was looking for. It is a howling jackhammer, now, for real!

I am really looking forward to tonight's band practice!

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