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When you build what do you use pickup and pot-wise? do you favor the LP style with 2 humbuckers with 2 tone and volume?

I use a three way Les Paul style toggle, master volume and tone, series/parallel mini-toggle per pickup, 500K audio taper pots with a 22mF orange drop capacitor.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I prefer 2 humbuckers, 1 volume, 1 tone and a 3 way Gibson type toggle. No series, parallel, coil cut, or anything else. Just 2 humbuckers, straight up. This is the combo I've played for most of the 25+ years I've played guitar. It's dead simple, and I can get a lot of different tones out of it.
However, I'm financially challenged( read: mostly broke), so i will build with whatever I can find that's cheap or free.
My first build was a body built from an old cutting board and a neck that used to be the center leaf of a table. Got another neck blank from that wood, and another old cutting board. That'll be number two, i think.
For pickups, i have a set of really cheap, no name single coils that were given to me. If they work(haven't tested them yet) I suppose I'll use them.
My first one used GFS humbuckers, and sounds great. I don't know what my next one will sound like with these cheap pickups in it, but I'm not worried. It'll only be #2. I'll worry about spending more for wood, pickups, and hardware after I've done about 10. Too much to learn about construction to stress over cheap pickups/parts. I need the build experience right now more than using "the good stuff". One piece of advice I'll give you, though. Don't buy cheap pots or switches. Good ones are not very expensive, and well worth it in the long run, whatever type of pickups you use.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

I usually do 2 humbuckers with some sort of coil split, either the PRS 5-way or a 5 way wired with just straight coil split. I also usually use 250k pots with the humbuckers, a little different, but it seems to make the coil splits sound more like single coil, although I am thinking about playing with wiring to use 500k pots and have a capacitor change it to 250k only in single coil mode. I also have toyed with treble bleed circuits. I like to have a versatile wiring without having too many choices or being complicated to operate

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John Thiessen
http://www.iszacguitars.com

2 single coil pick-ups, 1 tone, 1 vol, 3 way switch.
i like simplicity, without having to figure out what choice while playing.
i also prefer the fb pick-up,
even for lead work.
john, thanks for the idea about using 250 pots for the hummers.
going to try that on one that's done already, but needs some electrical tweeking.

I always use 250k pots with humbuckers. Most of the humbuckers made, even the ones touted as having "extended bottom", are too bright for my taste. The 250k, at least to my ears, warms the tone up a bit, and takes some of the "shrill" off of the highs. MHO. There are no hard and fast rules. Use what sounds best to you.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

2 bucker, volum, tone, switch and piezo is what i like... unless i decide to hid led's behind the pickups