I just took off the pickguard and it is labled inside "345 12 S" both in pencil in small writing and in black marker. So it really did have 3 pickups originally. This is a very rare guitar if I am not mistaken. Does the "S" stand for special order by any chance? The wiring is interesting. Since it had a humbucker in it at one time in the middle position, which has since been restored with a toaster, the wiring looks partially original and partially new. It does not have a .0047 anywhere in the circuit, although it does have the original .047 tone caps.
I guess the extra bottom end from the bridge pickup is due to the hotter output, being that this is a 3 pickup guitar originally. The lack of .0047 is obviously a factor as well. The middle position on this guitar sounds like I would expect. The blend knob goes between the bridge sound and mixing a little bit of that "stratty" neck/middle combo. There are some great sounds to be found in this position. The up position is weird though. By tapping with a screwdriver, I have determined that this position does indeed engage the neck and middle pickups as expected. They don't have the characteristic sound of those two pickups together really though. I wonder if maybe the outputs of those two pickups is not matched very closely, since one is original and one added later. I am thinking that the middle may be a louder pickup, since in the middle position it sounds "stratty" and then in the up position the neck pickup isn't that noticeable. I still find if surprising that this position doesn't sound "deeper". Maybe it is because I have the amp set for the hotter bridge pickup that by comparison they sound different. I'm sure installing a .0047 would change that a little.
In my 1997 I ended up loving the .0047, but that is mainly because I can get a great sounds mixing in the low end of the neck pickup with the bridge. With this guitar I'm not sure if that would work as well. I may try it anyhow. Regardless the guitar does sound really great. It is surprising how different the 2 and 3 pickup guitars sound (the old ones at least). They didn't just throw on another pickup, the pickup balance makes it pretty different.
Here are a couple of pics of the wiring. One with flash one without. Sorry I'm not a great photographer
http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/5959/p6250061.jpg
http://yfrog.com/jpp6250062j
)... the harness looks normal /beside obvious lack of bright cap/ installing the bright cap will change the sound a lot, give it a go if you like it, you can take it out again if you don't like it...from looking at those pics it looks like the cap was once there and was replaced with chunk of wire ....the easiest way of checking polarity of the pickups would be magnetic pole tester.. on standard 60's pickups all 3 should have the same polarity but who knows what could have happened monday morning 45 years ago after lot of drinking ...
