Drop the Luxe

Digitech's Drop & Luxe pedals are now available at Swee Lee for those of us who wish for some detuned moments. Prices are to be confirmed. Some great considerations for the year-end bonus, yes?

The Special one

This 5-way switch is dead. Yes, it might look quite presentable but it didn't notch in any positions & was stiff so it was dumped.

These 2 are dead as well. No amount of contact cleaner would provide any salvation- stuck. The orange caps were saved, of course.

The guitar in question is my Fender American Special Strat. I had Beez instal a Fender 5-way pickup selector replacement & a couple of Gotoh pots to replace the dead tone pots. No orange caps were used this time, instead, my Luxe capacitor went in there. Remember, an American Special Strat comes with special wiring- the middle pickup is tone-free, meaning, it's not wired to any tone control ala Eric Johnson. This isn't my option, it's factory default.

Here it is, all cleaned up & ready to play. The American Special does not come with a hardcase. A Deluxe Fender bag is the standard accessory with every purchase. 

The one you see here is an SKB manufactured Fender case. I recently bought one for my Special, it's a good guitar with plenty of good tones for me so it deserves a good resting place. 

Here you go- proof of the SKB manufacturing.

New caps

The MOD cap isn't new in the market, in fact, I bought this one some time in 2012. It's still available at SV Guitars if you wish to try it.

The chaps at Luxe are dedicated at recreating history & that's a good thing for some of us. I'm not too into history because I live in the now. However, if there's any ear candy that happened then & could be re-created today for a reasonable cost (just because it happened doesn't mean it has to be expensive upon recreation), I'd like to give it a go, hence the Luxe purchase. Now this box had been misplaced & only found recently (in fact, it's first featured here: CLICK) because I just checked with Davis GMC; the Luxe stuff had been out of stock for a while now.

Will update which guitars these goodies went into- yes, they've been installed. I'm hearing them in action & trying to justify their true worth. Hmm...

Luxe

This is something I am definitely willing to try- Luxe repro caps. These are now available (including the Bumblebee version for Les Pauls) at Davis GMC, do contact them for price quotes.

The manufacturer aims to offer the user a very close manifestation of the original item so please do not expect an 'upgrade' of any kind but it should be your attempt to experience what Fender/ Gibson went through in their tone history. Also, do look forward to hear a marked difference as these minor components in your guitar only serve to differentiate your current experience.