I have these (uncovered) Birmingham pickups in my Harley Benton TE-20 HH SBK and they are great. They turned a $89 guitar into a $249 Tele-Gib after upgrades! It's the guitar I play the most right now.
As long as your pickup height to the strings was the same that is a significant difference. I have 3 firefly les paul style guitars and all mine were really good instruments and i noticed that when i strummed them acoustically they vibrate really good body and up neck i was happy to feel that. At least theres life in them
The neck pickup wasn't terrible but the bridge was really tinny sounding, and the difference between them was glaring when you switched. I think the pickups are probably one of the places they're saving a little bit of money because the neck was really pretty nice and it was fun to play
I seen a guy cut one of these firely guitars. They glue two or 3 pieces of wood together and place a veneer for the top. I don't mind myself, I'm not going on stage or anything like but as a hobby, playing with friends. These are some great looking guitars. If you do get one of these I would automatically swap out the pickups. I would like a natural wood les paul. This is one beautiful guitar. Love it. Thanks for this awesome video
Hey do u no where u saw that I'm interested. Guitar Max cut a firefly Les Paul style and it was solid mahogany with a thick maple cap. Even he was shocked it was fairly recent with a blue burst
I have one of those new relic'd FFST's and it's phenomenal for the money! It actually has one of the best playing necks I've ever played. It did have a couple flaws such as the output jack had to be screwed in further and the tuners were the worst I've seen in a while but I can't believe how level all the frets are! I pay to get my guitars plek'd and it's just as good as those as far as having low action with no problems!
I have the same guitar. Little different on the body. Though. Love this guitar. Well built. Yes they are heavy too like Les Pauls 😎👍👌🎸🎸Note eventually the only thing i would upgrade would be the pickups. 👍💯
Although your video is not really about the wood, I like the natural finish spalted top on this guitar. I assume it's a veneer, either applied straight to the body or over a plain maple cap. Probably just a veneer considering the price. Nice work on the wiring! I've seen some good reviews of Firefly guitars but never run across one yet at my pawn shops. Will be on the lookout.
Yes it's "darker" and a little bit weaker if I recall. I think the best upgrade to this setup I can think of is adding a phase switch so both pups together in single coil mode would sound like position 2 or 4 on a Strat.
Thx. Could you please tell me what phase switch entails, is it adding a whole new switch on the body? What does the middle position of the 3-way Les paul switch sound like now?
You can use a push pull pot on one of the other 2 tone or volume controls and it has to be wired in between the pickups and their controls. There are diagrams that show the wiring at Guitar electronics and Seymour Duncan I think. The stock middle position is a blend of both, the phase switch helps give that "Strat Quack" when on single coils. Epiphone wires the Muse SG's like this.@@flppr1
They were Bourns 500K push-pull pots, I picked them up from my local electronics part store so no link unfortunately. They come in a "short" thread length and a "long" version but the shorter ones fit through the face of the Firefly. Google "bourns 500k push pull" and they should come up. Good luck!
@@pawnshopguitarguy Thank you so much for your reply. I just ordered both the pups and pots. Pups are backordered but will hopefully arrive for Xmas. Thx again!
I have these (uncovered) Birmingham pickups in my Harley Benton TE-20 HH SBK and they are great. They turned a $89 guitar into a $249 Tele-Gib after upgrades! It's the guitar I play the most right now.
Their pickups are great value for the money, I'm about to put a pair of the Alnico 2's into an upcoming project.
I liked that the video was about a Firefly and that you explained your decision making process with regards to every step on the way. Thanks!
As long as your pickup height to the strings was the same that is a significant difference. I have 3 firefly les paul style guitars and all mine were really good instruments and i noticed that when i strummed them acoustically they vibrate really good body and up neck i was happy to feel that. At least theres life in them
The neck pickup wasn't terrible but the bridge was really tinny sounding, and the difference between them was glaring when you switched. I think the pickups are probably one of the places they're saving a little bit of money because the neck was really pretty nice and it was fun to play
I seen a guy cut one of these firely guitars. They glue two or 3 pieces of wood together and place a veneer for the top. I don't mind myself, I'm not going on stage or anything like but as a hobby, playing with friends. These are some great looking guitars. If you do get one of these I would automatically swap out the pickups. I would like a natural wood les paul. This is one beautiful guitar. Love it. Thanks for this awesome video
Hey do u no where u saw that I'm interested. Guitar Max cut a firefly Les Paul style and it was solid mahogany with a thick maple cap. Even he was shocked it was fairly recent with a blue burst
@@chucklee347 ruclips.net/video/o0tCx8_nfq4/видео.htmlsi=YIl7ZCtGlyRFSKyR
I agree, Tonerider are great pickups and possibly equal to typical Gibson issue.
On some models the Gibson pickups could very well be Toneriders, I'm pretty sure they are what come on the mid level Epiphones and nicer Squiers.
I have one of those new relic'd FFST's and it's phenomenal for the money! It actually has one of the best playing necks I've ever played. It did have a couple flaws such as the output jack had to be screwed in further and the tuners were the worst I've seen in a while but I can't believe how level all the frets are! I pay to get my guitars plek'd and it's just as good as those as far as having low action with no problems!
I have the same guitar. Little different on the body. Though. Love this guitar. Well built. Yes they are heavy too like Les Pauls 😎👍👌🎸🎸Note eventually the only thing i would upgrade would be the pickups. 👍💯
Although your video is not really about the wood, I like the natural finish spalted top on this guitar. I assume it's a veneer, either applied straight to the body or over a plain maple cap. Probably just a veneer considering the price. Nice work on the wiring! I've seen some good reviews of Firefly guitars but never run across one yet at my pawn shops. Will be on the lookout.
I would have to agree, and it is really pretty nonetheless.
Those Toneriders sound awesome 😎👍.
Nice job, and great looking guitar, especilly for the very low price.
Does the single coil/coil split of the neck pup sound different from the split of the bridge pup?
Yes it's "darker" and a little bit weaker if I recall. I think the best upgrade to this setup I can think of is adding a phase switch so both pups together in single coil mode would sound like position 2 or 4 on a Strat.
Thx. Could you please tell me what phase switch entails, is it adding a whole new switch on the body? What does the middle position of the 3-way Les paul switch sound like now?
You can use a push pull pot on one of the other 2 tone or volume controls and it has to be wired in between the pickups and their controls. There are diagrams that show the wiring at Guitar electronics and Seymour Duncan I think. The stock middle position is a blend of both, the phase switch helps give that "Strat Quack" when on single coils. Epiphone wires the Muse SG's like this.@@flppr1
So that's an additional upgrade besides the Birmingham pickups and push-pull volume pots?
Yes@@flppr1
Nice!
Subscribed. Which specific pots did you use for the upgrade? I want to do exactly the same thing to my fflps. Gotta link? Thanks for the video!
They were Bourns 500K push-pull pots, I picked them up from my local electronics part store so no link unfortunately. They come in a "short" thread length and a "long" version but the shorter ones fit through the face of the Firefly. Google "bourns 500k push pull" and they should come up. Good luck!
@@pawnshopguitarguy Short split shaft, audio taper, 9 places to solder things to?
Those are the ones, I saw where Amazon had them from "the Tone Pros" which are a decent supplier for around 15 bucks@@flppr1
@@pawnshopguitarguy Thank you so much for your reply. I just ordered both the pups and pots. Pups are backordered but will hopefully arrive for Xmas. Thx again!
Did you need to do any fret ends?
No, they were pretty well finished.
She sho is purty
Their customer service never responds if you have a problem. Buy at your own risk.
That's good information to know...
What do you want for $160??? Smh.
1 replacement locking tuner that was broken out of the box. And a reply to my email.