![Rig Rundown: Living Colour's Vernon Reid and Doug Wimbish [2016]](https://www.premierguitar.com/media-library/rig-rundown-living-colour-vernon-reid-doug-wimbish-2016.jpg?id=31803272&width=1245&height=700&quality=85&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C90)
Reid’s muse has recently brought him to work with PRS to create his No.1, a 2015 S2 Vela VR prototype with EMG 57/66 pickups and a Roland GK synth pickup. The somewhat complicated controls allow Reid to mix, match, and blend all the pickups together.
This 2015 PRS Custom 24 serves as Reid’s backup. Paul Smith himself reshaped the neck into a deep-V contour. It houses a set of PRS 85/85 pickups and a Roland GK pickup. Both guitars are strung with D’Addario NYXL .011–.049 strings and travel in a Mono M80 Dual Electric Guitar Case.
Reid runs two Mesa/Boogie heads: a Dual Rectifier from the early nineties and a slightly younger Trem-O-Verb. Each amp runs into a dedicated Mesa Rectifier cabinet.
In addition to the mighty Boogies, Reid uses a super-cool 50-watt Supro Titan 1x12.
Reid’s amp arsenal is rounded out with a Kemper Profiling Amplifier.
Reid’s post-guitar signal chain is notoriously complex, but he’s essentially using parallel signal paths to feed four different sub rigs. His main board features a Line 6 M9 modded by JVH3 Audio, Eventide H9 and PitchFactor stomps, a Roland FC-300 MIDI foot controller that governs a Roland VG-99 (not shown), an AMT EX-50 mini expression pedal, and a Mission Engineering Expressionator that allows the AMT to control up to three separate devices.
From there, it goes to two DOD AC 240 Resistance Mixers that feed the Kemper.
This board is in line with Reid’s Supro Titan combo and features Pigtronix Echolution 2 Ultra Pro and Philosopher’s Tone pedals, another Eventide H9, a TC Electronic Flashback X4, a Red Panda Particle, Moore Black Secret and Ultra Drive stomps, a Zoom G3X, a Source Audio Soundblox Pro Classic Distortion, three Roland EV-5 expression pedals, and another Mission Engineering Expressionator.
On Reid’s right sits this table full of technology. The centerpiece is the Roland VG-99 synth that sits next to a Focusrite iTrack Dock. The Edirol M-10MX 10-channel mixer receives signals from various sources including the iPad, Red Witch Synthotron, and Electro-Harmonix Mel9.
Since 1987, Wimbish has played his ’87 NS2 Spector signature model prototype bass that features an EMG PJ Pickup set wired into a Spector preamp section and strung with Rotosound .040-.100 strings.
When Wimbish needs that low B, he uses his 1987 NS2 Spector 5-string. It’s also loaded with a set of EMG Jazz pickups and Spector preamp. He also uses Rotosound strings (.040–.120) and Mono cases with Moody straps.
Wimbish runs two Trace Elliot AH 1200-12 heads. The amps run into a pair of Trace Elliot cabs (4x10 and 1x15) that are loaded with Celestion speakers.
The signal path on bassist Doug Wimbish’s main board begins at a Tech 21 SansAmp Bass Driver DI, and then proceeds to an older Pigtronix Disnortion and a Danelectro Daddy O. Also featured are three Bosses—a BF-2 flanger, a Slicer and a DD-3 delay (the SD-1 Super OverDrive housing actually holds an 800-ms digital delay/sampler)—DigiTech Whammy and Synth Wah stomps, a Dunlop Cry Baby wah, a vintage DOD FX25 envelope filter, and a Way Huge Ring Worm. Wimbish stays in tune with a Peterson StroboPlus HD.
A secondary board houses yet another pair of Eventide H9 units, a Pigtronix Infinity looper, and a Beat Buddy (which Wimbish demonstrates to Billy Cox in the video).
Special thanks to the band’s extremely hard-working tech, Jeff Cummings.
Peterson StroboStomp Mini Pedal Tuner
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Cory Wong—a funky player with his own signature-model Strat wiring.
Guitarist, songwriter, and producer Cory Wong is renowned for his solo work, his band Fearless Flyers (with Mark Lettieri, Joe Dart, and Nate Smith), and collaborations with artists such as Vulfpeck, Jon Batiste, and Dave Koz. His playing style is deeply rooted in funk rhythm guitar, with a heavy dose of rock and jazz. Well-known for playing a Stratocaster, his signature model was released in 2021, and it’s a unique offering. If you want to build your personal Cory Wong Strat, here is your shopping list, starting with the primary structure:
• Alder body, scaled down to slightly smaller than a regular Stratocaster, with Fender American Ultra body contours
• Maple neck with a rosewood fretboard with rolled edges, modern Fender American Ultra D neck profile, slightly larger headstock, 25.5" scale, 10" to 14" compound radius, 22 medium jumbo frets
• Locking tuners with all short posts, a bone nut, and two roller string trees
• Vintage-style 6-screw synchronized tremolo
• Hair tie around the tremolo springs (which mutes them to enhance the rhythm tone)
• .010–.046 strings (nickel-plated steel)
“While these are all interesting features, resulting in a very comfortable guitar, you don’t need to copy every detail to transform one of your Stratocasters into a Cory Wong-style Strat.”
For the physical build, as you can see, Wong and Fender created a real signature instrument to his specs and wishes. While these are all interesting features, resulting in a very comfortable guitar, you don’t need to copy every detail to transform one of your Stratocasters into a Cory Wong-style Strat. My personal favorite of these is the hair tie for muting the tremolo springs. A lot of my funk-playing customers are doing similar things on their Strats to get a dry sound, and they’re using all kinds of funny things in there, like foam, rubber bands, and pieces of cotton, as well as hair ties.
Now, let’s have a look at the electronics:
• Seymour Duncan Cory Wong Clean Machine SSS pickup set
• Standard 5-way pickup-selector switch with classic Strat switching matrix
• 250k master volume pot with a 90/10 audio taper and Fender treble-bleed circuit PCB
• 250k tone pot with a 90/10 audio taper and Fender Greasebucket tone control PCB for only the neck pickup
• 250k audio push-push tone pot with Fender Greasebucket tone control PCB for only the bridge pickup; the push-push switch overrides the 5-way switch and defaults to middle + neck pickup (in parallel) as a preset
• Middle pickup is without tone control
Let’s break this down piece-by-piece to decode it:
Pickups
The pickup set is a custom SSS set from the Seymour Duncan company with the following specs:
• Overwound hum-canceling stacked bridge pickup with a 3-conductor wire and shield in permanent hum-canceling mode (red wire taped off), bevelled alnico 5 magnets, approximately 14.5k-ohm DCR
• Overwound middle single-coil, RWRP, beveled alnico 4 magnets, approximately 7.1k-ohm DCR
• Overwound neck single-coil, bevelled alnico 4 magnets, approx. 7.0k-ohm DCR
The pickups are voiced for clear highs, which perfectly suits Wong’s funky playing style and tone. While a lot of pickup companies will have pickups in that ballpark, it will be difficult to put together a full set that really works as intended. The Duncans in the Cory Wong Strat are available as a balanced set, so if you want to get as close as possible, I think this is your best bet.
5-Way Pickup Selector Switch
Nothing special here, just the standard 5-way switch with two switching stages that is wired like a classic Stratocaster:
bridge
bridge + middle in parallel
middle
middle + neck in parallel
neck
The upper tone pot is assigned to the neck pickup, while the lower tone pot is connected to the bridge pickup, leaving the middle pickup without tone control.
Master volume pot and treble-bleed circuit.
The 250k master volume pot is a standard CTS pot with a 90/10 audio taper found in all U.S.-made Fender guitars. The volume pot has the treble-bleed circuit from the Fender American Pro series, but uses a ready-to-solder PCB from Fender instead of individual electronic parts. The PCB is available from Fender individually (part #7711092000), but I have some thoughts about it. While using a PCB makes a lot of sense for mass production, it has some downsides for us mortal human beings:
• Soldering on PCBs requires some training and also special soldering tools.
• The PCB is quite expensive, while the individual electronic parts are only a few cents.
• The PCB uses ultra-tiny surface-mount parts, so it’s very difficult to repair or mod it to your personal taste.
I don’t think we need a PCB for adding a treble-bleed circuit, so let’s do this project using conventional electronic parts. The treble-bleed PCB contains a 1200 pF capacitor with a 150k-ohm resistor in parallel, plus another 20k-ohm resistor in series. Using individual parts, it looks like this:
Courtesy of single-coil.com
In general, a treble-bleed circuit will help you to combat the “volume vs. tone problem” when using passive single-coil pickups. When you turn down the volume (even just a bit), the high end or treble loss is not proportionate. In other words, a small cut in volume creates a far greater loss in your guitar’s treble response. Using a treble-bleed circuit is an easy way to get rid of this problem, as long as it is calculated carefully.
ONLINE ONLY: If you want to find out more about treble bleed circuits please have a look here: https://www.premierguitar.com/diy/mod-garage/treble-bleed-mod
Next month, we will continue with part two of the Cory Wong Stratocaster wiring, bringing it all together, so stay tuned!
Until then ... keep on modding!