Firefly FF-338 - Mods, Setups, and New Friends

Keith continues the modifications the the latest Firefly FF-338 he started in Part One of this series. He installs new pickups, a new tailpiece, new tuners, and brings the guitar to a new shop in town for a setup.

Pickups used were purchased on eBay and are sold out.

Time Stamps:
Intro - 0:00
New Pickups - 0:17
New Tuners - 3:21
New Tailpiece - 4:14
Checking out the raised fresh - 4:37
ROAD TRIP!! - 5:19
Fixing Wiring Issues - 9:09
Tones - 10:19
Microphonic and High Gain - 14:00
Wrap Up - 15:23

Keith Leedham is an independent recording artists/studio owner/tinkerer.

He owns "The Tape Farm" a recording studio that specializes in transferring "pro-sumer" analog tape formats from manufactures like Tascam and Fostex.

As an independent recording artists Keith has released singles, EPs and full length albums. With styles ranging from Progressive Rock to Country to Singer/Songwriter to Hard Rock to what ever the song dictates.

He also tinkers with various audio equipment such as tape machines, guitars and guitar amps. When he comes across something interesting he posts the progress/results on YouTube.

[shadowghst]

I went with the GFS Nashville hots, and changing out the wiring harness with a 500K setup, also from GFS. I chose to not go with the push-pull pots. This is gonna be fun! I know this isn’t the Malcolm machine thread, but I’ve been following you along on this FF338 build. The tips were def worth it!

[pushingitonme]

What a great color scheme on this FF338! Beautiful!

[briannelms]

Love the zebra pickups! Such a great variety of tones now with the upgrades! Sounds great!

[chancemiller]

That looks and sounds absolutely incredible!

Only $75 for a setup?!?!

Holy smokes!!

[ericlaidlaw]

Ooh cool. I’m a guitar nerd in Lebanon too! Love pulling guitars apart too. Great shout out to Jack!

[somearchitectTX]

Guitarcheology looks like a mighty cool shop!!!

[jimmyz]

Cool guitar. You took some pretty good bones.... and turned the thing into a Beast. it sounds awesome now, and looks like it plays that way too. Killer job! I really like that Firefly.

[oldasrocks]

Did exactly the same, but swapped alnico 2 magnets into to Alnico Classic Pros. Amazing!

[novotiz]

Great job, awesome look and sound very clear

[scottbecker]

Inspirational - much appreciated. Also thankful when you switched of the annoyingly loud background music. Almost made me click the video away. Glad I stayed. Now time to mod my FF 338. 😎

[davidshondee]

I really like the tailpiece i got one for my green one and got some wilkinson tuners . I enjoy the sound of the pickups but do get the microphonics i think i may change out the bridge but that would come later

[donniebrewer]

I will be visiting that guitar shop. I live not to far away. Thanks for sharing. Great video!

[kaptkrunchfpv]

I think I would have just noted the pinout of the connector, then removed the wires from it, insert through hole, reinstall clip. Its very easy to do and doesnt require drilling on your guitar.

[Yougotadollar]

Thats a great looking and sounding guitar.

[rodsmolter]

Guitar looks great. Just ordered this model and thinking of future mods. Not a fan of those pups though, too bright and jangly for my taste. Those are actually the same one's in my Epihone Les Paul. I think I'll get some alnico II humbuckers for the semi hollow, GFS or whatever I can find reasonably priced.

[shadowghst]

Ok, I love the Gretsch V tailpiece! The mods sound great. I’m really surprised you got those split pots in the cavities. I’ve been waiting to see how these new pups were gonna sound, versus the GFS Nashville ones you used to build your “Malcolm machine”. You mentioned they were Nashville pups, but do you recall the sku or model # of them? My FF338 is gonna get those. By the way, thanks for all the effort you put into these great videos!

[lukerabin]

I think my dog went to the same guitar tech school as yours!

[frankfarklesberry]

I just got the Green one yesterday. It needs a good once over with cleaning, new strings, fret work, etc. It was pretty filthy with a lot of dried white polish(?) on some frets and crevices.

Question: Have you settled on the ideal string settings? Mine seems to be a tiny tick over 4/64ths at the 12th of both Es, and I have no idea what I'm going to settle with on the pickups. I'm actually pretty impressed that the action isn't way off out of the box. Looks great!

The gain test was enlightening. If I grow to like it that much, I'll swap out pickups for something else as well. The tuners definitely look like they're going to need to be swapped. Quickly goes out of tune, but I want to stretch the original strings a bit before I make a conclusion on them.

[oldasrocks]

Got the slow selling Al Di Meola-like prism finish 338 during the Xmas sale with a coupon, $137 shipped so I'm disinclined to complain about anything.

I suspect they put a horizontal plek on some of the most recent Gibson copies, they definitely hit the fingerboards/frets with the buffing wheel lately.

Acoustically its bright but not brittle, fat neck, sticky poly but it wet sands down well to a fast satin.

Doing the same upgrades and details I'd to to an Epi at dollars per pound I couldn't have done better, even if I pay somebody to respray the top eventually (or lightly torment myself with the DIY version...)

At retail I might have a little crispier opinion but, never having bought their 335 before, I know what to expect and to wait for a sale...

P90's and a trapeze tail variation woud be a treat.

[Icantdrive]

Just wondering if you ended up changing the bridge as well. FF338 are notorious for noisy bridges. Great mod overall. Nice looking and nice playing Guitar.