Firefly upgrade

[avengers63]

At least the first step in the upgrade anyway.

So this past Spring, I got me a metallic pink Firefly LP with the intent of upgrading just everything. Why metallic pink? Because I grew up with HAIR METAL, BABY!!!!!!  

 

So tonight's project was the first step in the upgrade process. I also took this as the opportunity to do an in-depth inspection under the hood. I fully anticipated that the woods were NOT as advertised, the standard LP recipe, and that all of the electronics would need to go straight into the bin. This is a $200 Chinese knockoff afterall, so I'm wasn't expecting much. 

I'm not planning on bothering with the tuners. They turn smoothly and hold tune. So if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I'm positive they're actually crap, but they work, soooo.......

To start with, the thing actually plays really nice. If y'all have looked at reviews of these, I can verify that the fretwork is WAY out of it's price range. It really is better than any factory guitar I've ever seen. IDK if I can believe that the pups are alnico, but I can say that they don't sound like crap. They're not stellar, but I've heard a hellofalot worse - like on the Ibanez AX I got last November. Those were completely useless. 

Anyway, a Hair Metal LP HAS to have a DiMarzio Super Distortion in the bridge. A LP with a SD into a Marshall is the sound of hard rock & first wave metal, end of story.  I went with a DiMarzio PAF Pro in the neck. All of the greats who upgraded their bridge to a SD left the PAF in the neck, so this seemed the logical choice to me. The PAF Pro is a little hotter than standard, so it matches power with the SD. Also, the SD is ceramic, so the A5 neck will make a warm balance.

 

In the semi-disassembly, I saw how cheap the bridge is. I haven't been playing it much - like maybe 3 hours total - and the "gold" is already wearing off of the saddles. A Gotoh is only about $40, so that's next on the list. When I do that,I'm wanting to replace the TP with a fine-tuner setup. I don't really need it, but it's a classic 80's thing. 

 

I was all prepped and ready to replace the whole wiring harness. These $200 cheapies have to cut costs wherever they can, and the pots & switch are always garbage. I was also ready to put a push/pull in it for either coil tap or series/parallel. Much to my surprise, when I got the cavity cover off......

 

FULL SIZED POTS!!!!!!!!  Now I absolutely HAD to check the switch......

 

AND IT'S A GOOD ONE TOO!!!!!!!!! Holy crap on a stick! Not only that, but it's been shielded! This is better than the $150 Kramer VT and the $220 Ibanex AX. They were both dime pots with no shielding. So far, this Firefly is beating the crap out of established name brands of comparable price. So that settles that - I didn't change one single bit of the wiring except for the pickups. Again, if it ain't broke...

After I un-soldered the pups, they came off and gave me more surprises.  The neck is 4 conductor, while the bridge is 2. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but whatever. What impressed me, though, was that they're wax potted. The neck is sloppy and has wax drips, but at this price point, so what.  A great many of the cheapies aren't potted and HIGHLY microphonic.  At this point, I'm starting to believe they might actually be A5, not ceramic.  Even the pickup cavities are shielded!

 

I took a file to the corners of a pup cavity and the control cavity. I wanted to see what the wood looked like. I didn't remove enough to confirm that it's a mahogany body & maple cap, BUT I can confirm that it appears to be the same colors.  It's hard to see in the pics, but here they are anyway.

 

So it might not me maple/mahogany, but it is entirely possible that it is. I can neither confirm not refute, but it appears to be so. WOW!!!! I didn't expect that one either. 

I decided to wire the pups in parallel according to DiMarzio's instructions. These are hot pups, so there's room to lose a little power. What I gain is a little bit of twang. I exchange power for character and brightness.

 

As I was just replacing the pups, the soldering was as smooth and clean as I've ever done. 

 

Now I don't have to tell y'all that the pups sound magnificent. I'll have to play with the height and pole pieces to dial it in, but that's nothing new either. I'm not going to bother with a full setup until I swap the bridge and TP.

So overall, the job is nothing interesting, but I thought the examination might prove useful just in case any of y'all were curious about Firefly. I can testify that it's a wonderful mod platform that punches WAY above it's price point. Seriously - $200 for a finished body & neck with amazing fretwork is well worth it.

Ya know..... technically, GOTM is open to mods, not just scratch builds. Just sayin'.

 

[Crusader]

On 9/28/2023 at 3:54 PM, avengers63 said:

I decided to wire the pups in parallel according to DiMarzio's instructions. These are hot pups, so there's room to lose a little power. What I gain is a little bit of twang. I exchange power for character and brightness.

 

I have thought of doing that with my 59 Reissue and just do away with Single Coil switching

[Bizman62]

On 9/28/2023 at 10:54 AM, avengers63 said:

I got me a metallic pink Firefly LP

It's funny, the day I first read this post I saw a small car of exactly the same colour on my way home! Or at least it looked similar to what I see on my screen, the actual guitar may look totally different. Anyhow, it was a relatively new far-East model in factory paint. Made me chuckle.