I have a ESP M-350. I really wanted a Floyd Rose guitar again since I kind of miss my Kramer American Pacer from the 80’s. It’s fun to have a reverse headstock shred machine in the arsenal.

Anyhoo I hated the EMG HZ pickups in the ESP. I had a Seymour Duncan JB that I stole from my Korean Kramer for the bridge. I ordered a GFS Crunchy PAF for the neck position from GuitarFetish.com. If you’re not familiar with GFS pickups they are excellent quality pickups at a fraction of the cost of Duncans. I paid $22.95 for the GFS Crunchy PAF and I ordered a set of pickup rings. To my surprise the pickup came with a ring already installed and ready to go for the neck position. I lowered the middle pickup as low as possible to reduce magnetic drag on the strings.

The installation took a bit longer than I expected. I really don’t care for working on guitars anymore. I managed to change the pickups without changing the strings. Try that without a Floyd Rose.

I was little concerned about phasing of the pickups. I think I got it right. It really doesn’t matter though. There is no position on the switch that allows the neck and bridge pickup to be ran together. The guitar sounds in phase in the 2 and 4 position. So that was a relief.

The ESP M-350 has a mahogany body. The JB balances well with the ESP but it still has some nice bite. The GFS Crunchy PAF is not as “woody sounding” as it would be on say a Les Paul. With a 24 fret guitar the neck pickups closer to the bridge pickup than a regular 22 fret guitar. The sound difference is not as dramatic as it is on a standard guitar.

Let’s face it though, the neck pickup will not be getting used much on this guitar.

Here is the finished product.

The guitar next to the ESP is a Kramer (Korean) that I have had since 1983 or so. I have painted it a number of times, one time it was surf green. It has a totally crap plywood body. I had the Duncan JB in this Kramer prior to putiing it in the ESP. Although the Kramer body was totall crap the neck is actually half way decent and it sounded ok with the Duncan in it.