>Do you have to have a middle pick up?? If so, maybe a departure to L-609L, L-200M and L-200N may be in the cards. H-S-S is extremely aesthetic, to my eyes.

Hi Anthony- thanks for the ideas! I always file this stuff away so I can use it later if not straight away.

This guitar is going to look rather Gibsonesque- or rather Yamaha SG2000-esque. I wanted to try the "big brother to the 280" pickups because they LOOK like humbuckers and will fit the look of the guitar, but will still sound like single coils with lots of harmonic content. I wanted a middle pickup so I can get the Strat options even though it won't look anything like a Strat. I quite like the sound of middle pickups sometimes- I think they are a much misunderstood species! I will use the H-S-S look but on something that is already made that way, probably a mid-level Pacifica- they are so low-priced that I cannot justify not owning one much longer.

[BTW I still have the original set of two L-495s that I was originally going to use in this guitar. Now I can put them in something else that may work well- a mahogany ESP EC-400 AT, which is one of ESP's few non-24-fret guitars and looks very like a Les Paul- it currently has the SD JB/59 combination which are quite nice but not necessarily the best option for me and my strange preferences.]