BASED IN HOUSTON, Texas, Ellis Guitars offers a series of guitars and basses as well as this novel passive electronics system that is designed to deliver sounds similar to popular Fender and Gibson guitars from any instrument equipped with one, two or three standard humbuckers, as well as single-coils and P90s. The idea behind it is that, instead of hauling multiple guitars to a session or live gig, you can bring just one instrument and have those distinct tones at your fingertips.
The X Series is offered as a kit for DIY retrofitting to a guitar or bass of your choice,hardware (potentiometers, toggle switches and output jack) are removed, requiring a few leads to be cut or unsoldered, so all that’s left inside the control cavity are the wires from the pickups and the bridge-ground wire. Strips of copper-foil tape (included) are used to connect the holes where the original pots went. The install requires two holes drilled for the system’s mini-toggle switches (one for each humbucker), and it may also be necessary to enlarge the holes for the four pots that are included with the system (details are provided in the instructions).
