DragonTronics

DragonHart breathes through two P90 soapbar pickups and has many voices. He is equipped with three-way pickup selection, push-pull tone-Black Ice pot, mini-switch for two levels of Black Ice on board overdrive device and push-pull volume pot for 250K or 450K ohms. P90's run 8.0 ohms in neck and 8.8 ohms in the bridge. Play him straight or pull the tone knob to activate choice of dial-in Warm or Industrial Strength Black Ice. Volume circuit includes treble bypass to help retain highs as volume is lowered.

DragonLinks

Some other links at the Hollow Road Guitar Shop, Chuck's Instrument Website:

Pickup cavitie are shielded with copper foil and foam rubber helps to secure the pick up. I chose P90's because I already have a guitar with humbuckers and because they have enough resistance to push the Black Ice overdrive. If you were to remove the Black Ice and make this a solid body guitar, it would be much like a Fender Tele with P90's. P90's were the first pickups used by the Gibson Les Paul. I am quite pleased with the shielding and lack of hum.

Let's take a look under the DragonHood, from the upper left corner clockwise: output jack, three-way pickup switch (bride, bridge-neck, neck), push-pull volume pot (250K-450K ohms), push-pull tone-Black Ice pot (250K ohms), two position mini-switch (Black Ice Warm or Industrial Strength) and Black Ice device (about the size of a sugar cube). Down the center line from tail to heel and inlaid into the underside of the top we have two posts to support the Bigsby B5 tremolo and two blocks to mount the pickups. Each of these are made from hard maple. The harness is installed through the soundhole after finishing. Make a mockup of the top to ensure that the assembled harness fits through the soundhole and to hold the pieces while soldering. Yellow ground from bridge includes anti-electrocution circuit.

Protect your finish while soldering pickups and bridge ground and installing wiring harness. I used a soft flannel shirt, no seams or butons, with duct tape and then cut to shape.

Variety of stuff you probably will need to do the wiring. Note workboard for harness in the middle.

Circuit diagram for DragonHart. Adapted from various product documentation and articles found across the internet. I did take a year of Electrical Engineering at the United States Air Force Academy. I understand most of what's going on here.

Black Ice piece of circuitry. Leads "1" and "2" deliver Warm. Mini-switch joins "1" with "4" and "2" with "3" to deliver Industrial Strength. Follow Black Ice instructions to use push-pull tone pot. Not complicated if you have ever done anything close to this before. I recommend using pot knobs with set screws if you use the push-pull setup. Pickups should have at least 8ohms if you want to drive on Black Ice.