Elf's new S60 pickup..........
These are the options on the guitar:
DC135L
TL
29
BC
HC12
Since I got this guitar used I will convert it into a DiMarzio loaded axe. These are my planned hop ups:
Dunlop Strap Locks
DiMarzio HS-2 in the neck
DiMarzio SDS-1 in the middle
DiMarzio HS-3 at the bridge
Graph Tech String Saver Saddles
Those are in the works. I already have the HS pups but I have only red and black covers; I want blue covers to go with the guitar's Blueburst. I also have the String Savers. I will probably order the strap locks tonight along with a blue DiMarzio guitar strap. I will get blue covers for the DiMarzios when I order my blue SDS-1; these SDS-1s look too cool!
So what do you guys think of my planned mods? Any suggestions?
Here are two shots I took after I cleaned the guitar, lemon oiled the fretboard, and placed new strings. The guitar is really dark so it's kinda tough to get good shots of the blue part of the guitar, lol:
I have prepped two HS pups so far. I have sanded down the flange on both of them and they are awaiting their SDS-1 middle pup. lol
Look at the mess I have! @_@
Notice the flange.
Black HS-3 and Red HS-2 ready! All they need are their blue covers and the SDS-1 to get placed in the DC135!
Even from this crappy cell phone picture one can see just how much darker the blue is on the DC135 compared to my all blue ST.
Here is a pic of the control cavity.
Awesome! Just received the control pots, knobs, and switch tip! All MIJ baby!
The Clip Lock strap ready for mounting....
Parts, parts, and more parts. Thanks a million to MIJ Guitars and BanjoMike!
The SDS-1 is one solid, tall, and heavy beast!
My HS-2 had the red cover while my H-3 had the black cover.
Unfortunately the SDS-1 would have been higher than I would have liked it. I felt it would have affected my picking so I decided to not use it and instead dissect my Strat to get my very first HS-3 pup into the DC135.
The HS-3 was coupled with a Seymour Duncan Cool Rails in the middle and SSL-5L. It's been that way since 2003. No more; the HS-3 has been replaced with a spanking new DiMarzio Cruiser pickup.
Here is the wiring. I kept the stock wiring used by Carvin, I believe it's called Option 29 or 26.
Here is the end result. I went for an Ibanez look and I think the blue plastic accents the effort along with the Clip Lock strap! lol I had to drill the control pot holes with a 5/16" drill bit since the MIJ pots were a tad larger than the stock Carvin pots. Either way the project guitar was a freaking blast; I really enjoyed modifying a Carvin so much. Like stated before this guitar was acquired off Craigslist. I felt I needed to make it my own and since considering to getting the guitar I had already envisioned the mods I performed. I also feel happy (and almost obliged, lol) to share my Carvin story with my fellow Carvinites to hopefully give ideas to others.
A few more shots of my Carvin pups and both guitars together!
I decided to swap out the middle HS-3 since in full humbucker mode it was too weak positioned all the way down. With just the top coil on it did sound better though; much louder and it combined great with the neck and bridge pups. Had minor hum. I replaced it with the original planned pup: the SDS-1. I also removed the Sperzels to clean them and replaced the saddles with Graph Techs.
You can see just how much taller the SDS-1 sits in the body of the DC135 compared to the HS pups. I will keep the SDS-1 in for the time being but I gotta admit I do not like the middle pup so raised. Unfortunately I would have to rout some of the body to lower it. Sonic wise the SDS-1 is very, very loud; we're talking humbucker loud. It totally out muscles my HS pups and it sounds very good actually. It hums like a bee though, lol. The sound is really solid and punchy and quite frankly I am loving it. I ordered some push-pull pots along with another 5 way switch from MIJGuitars again so when I install them I will perhaps install the HS-3 back to run the split neck and bridge pups with the permanently split middle to get hum cancelling in all positions except three.
If I do not like the sound of that I then will purchase either a Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues or a Virtual Solo to slam down to the max just like the HS-3 and just go all three pups series without any splitting or parallel.
I got tired of the way the DC135 was so I decided to get the Virtual Solo and Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues. Also I got rid of my push-pull pots and got a new five-way switch. I also took my guitar to my trusty guitar tech and he made some adjustments as well as a little mod to the guitar. Apparently the neck sits somewhat high in respect to the plane of the bridge so what he did is make a "baseplate" to match the two. You can see the baseplate on the pics.
Those "special order" DiMarzios are just stock pups with no flange; notice what the folks at the company did to the pups. First off the tied the "coil taps" since I guess they read my mind that I would be using these guys at full humbucker mode. Then they apparently just cut the baseplate to make it flush; similar to what I did with my HS pups. Third they put a little "button" to have the wiring a little more tidy as opposed to all over the place. I never expected DiMarzio to do these things but hey it worked out for me. I decided to remove the "buttons" since I had no real need for them, especially on the Virtual Solo since that guy would be mounted as low as possible. I also decided to put springs on the neck and bridge pups to adjust them higher to the strings (or lower) if needed. I have the pups like this:
HS-2 ->neck
Virtual Solo -> middle
Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues 2 -> bridge
Wow! What a difference these pups make! Not so much "better" than the previous HS-3s I had on but so different. Much more "omph" to them. The Virtual Solo was placed in the middle since it is the strongest stacked humbucker DiMarzio makes so it only makes since to put it there where it will be lowered to the max. The VVHB2 was placed in the bridge since I wanted to check out how Alnico II pups would feel and sound at the bridge. Well they certainly sound warmer than Anico Vs, at least the Alnico Vs in the HS-3s. Also, the VVHB2 sounds much heavier. The HS-2 remains in the neck and has captured my admiration since it is a very beautiful sounding pup. It sounds just as loud as the others and I can mess with the tone knob from max to min and get great distinct tones. I also found out it sounds great split; I used it a lot split when I had the push-pull pots before removing them. Anyone that has never tried out the HS-2 should give it a try.
So now I have two HS-3s laying around in need of a home. Looks like I will be needing another Carvin to accommodate them. lol
And yes, it was quite a great deal.
Sorry for the confusion. Nevertheless it was still a great deal. 
dang,that looks new or at least well cared for,wtg!
