Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: edwardofhuncote on October 06, 2020, 08:19:02 AM
-
Thought I'd keep the Dream Thread separate, focused on an eventual Alembic Custom, and let this be a place where I can kick ideas around, solicit expert advice, post a few pictures of this little experiment...
I have already got a pretty good idea of where I'm headed with this one:
Alembic TC-AE-1 activator circuit, with a 3-position Q-switch added. This is a basic 2-knob set for Volume/Filter, a blade selector to switch between the neck and bridge pickups, like any other Telecaster, but adding a Q-switch onto the control plate. The pickups are drop-in replacements for their Fender-shaped counterparts.
The body and neck will be mahogany. Yeah, I know... it's been done. I'm going to tweak it a little more. Top and back laminates, maybe so... headstock veneers... yep, could happen. I might even goof around with scale length and sneak a Gibson *24.75" scale onto a Fender design. Because this is an experiment, anything could go right. ::) *edited for accuracy, with a hat-tip to Bill & Coz
I'm kinda' little-bit geeky about vintage stuff, so there may be some of that element in here. I am just now getting clued-in to the huge world of available hardware that I've never needed before. Really glad to see how modular and interchangeable a lot of it is.
Not much to see yet. Nothing really. What I lack the most right now is flippin' time to piddle in my shop. :P I'll put some stuff up here soon though, links to parts or components I like, and gladly take any sage advice from the guitar mechanics I know hang around here.
~Ed of H.
-
Greg: Gibson uses a 24 3/4” scale. PRS uses 25”.
Bill, tgo
-
Greg: Gibson uses a 24 3/4” scale. PRS uses 25”.
Bill, tgo
Historically, Gibson uses a nominal 24.75"; in practice, over the decades, that has varied between 24.5" & 24.9" (though I believe they have become more locked in to an actual 24.75 in recent years.)
Peter
-
Doh! I had C.F. Martin's 24.9" scale on the brain, from an exchange with Bro. Elwood the other night. ::)
But, yes, one of the things I have learned is that scale converting necks are commercially available.
-
Sounds like fun! I am messing around with a high end Strat copy myself right now (putting in Van Zandt pickups). The body on it is made of ... mahogany! Gawd knows why. It's heavy as all get out and I really can't say that the wood adds to the tone, though it does sound good.
-
Interestingly, though they only sell alder, or ash pre-cut bodies, the Stew-Mac Telecaster kit is mahogany. I don't need or want most of the hardware and electronics that would come with it, so I probably won't go this way, but I would be assured of at least well-cured wood, and crisp routs, and a decent neck pocket fit with their set. https://www.stewmac.com/kits-and-projects/t-style-electric-guitar-kit.html
Reckon I could sell or swap the stuff I don't use...
I've been underwhelmed and a little creeped-out by a few ebay exchanges. There's always Warmoth, and the Stratosphere. I'm resisting that. Dang, they have some purty guitars, but I really want to do this myself.
Filed away for later, (and special thanks to Joey for the tip... ;) ) this place is a pretty good resource for parts. https://www.guitarpartsresource.com
-
Greg, I’ve purchased several custom bodies unfinished from Warmoth. I recently completed my second bass. I got a custom Black Limba (Korina) J Bass shaped body routed for a P Bass split pickup (I used an Alembic, of course!), rear loaded and unfinished for around $275. I filled the grain, sanded, and finished with about 10-15 coats of Tung Oil. Warmoth has a custom generator where you can get just about anything you want. I just tried it for a Mahogany Tele with standard routs and it comes out at $195 unfinished. For $15 more you can add a tummy cut. You can also get it chambered to keep the weight down, or even a carved top.
Bill, tgo
-
USA Custom Guitars (now part of MJT Custom Aged Guitar Finishes (https://www.usacustomguitars.com/) will make you one out of just about anything, with just about any routing & drilling you want, belly & forearm bevels if you want, etc. (or did when they were still USACG; as near as I can tell, they still do).
I have no first-hand experience with them, but have heard good things - and a guy on another forum posted pix of a roasted quarter-sawn maple neck/roasted swamp ash body Tele he'd built with their stuff, and it looked spectacular.
Peter
-
Oh wow, what a fun rabbit-hole I've fallen into... ;D
Thanks again Bill and Coz... this definitely gave me some more options to mull over.
Giving some thought now to an alternate body pattern from the more familiar Fender-shaped guitar. I was talkin' to the Ol' Man about it yesterday... his thought, and I concur - if this one is going to have our name on it, maybe do something different with the design. I could actually come closer to my goal by ordering a maple-topped mahogany slab body blank, and have it top-routed for Tele pickups, a back-routed control cavity, and a standard 4-bolt neck pocket. Hmmmm. ::)
It's going to be crazy-fun mash-up.
-
I'm liking how you're thinking.
Something that's been bouncing around my brainpan for over a year now after playing a couple of Bill's assemblages is a Modulus Strat neck on a maple-on-mahogany USACG "Wolfpack" (based on an EVH Wolfgang) with Alembic guts. I also have the shape for a total roll-your-own in there, but lack the woodworking chops to realize it; may have to one day enlist the aid of my guitarist/carpenter son on that one.
Peter
-
Greg: Gibson uses a 24 3/4” scale. PRS uses 25”.
Bill, tgo
Historically, Gibson uses a nominal 24.75"; in practice, over the decades, that has varied between 24.5" & 24.9" (though I believe they have become more locked in to an actual 24.75 in recent years.)
Peter
I've been reading about 24.594 being exact spec for a vintage gibby, but that's just marketing to some extent I guess.
You would have to put a "Gibson" neck on a Tele body and re measure the bridge placement to make the scale work, right?
Last, I've been building guitars from kits from guitarfetish.com, its the Earl Slick company which I thought was kinda cool. They are cheap Chinese kits and have worked so far. Cutting nut slots is stressful I have learned.
-
Another source (local here in Nashville) is The Guitar Mill in next-door Murfressboro, TN. Run by a great guitar player, these guys tend to have more modest pricing, though not the depth of wood choices or options as a Warmoth, etc. They're next door to a smokehouse, so it's a great combo to stop by, smell sawdust and smoked country ham from next door, and get something to go . . . . at both places ! Great finish work in-house, too.
https://guitarmill.com/guitarmill/
-
You would have to put a "Gibson" neck on a Tele body and re measure the bridge placement to make the scale work, right?
IIRC, USACG sells necks with the frets placed so you can just screw it to an F body & get a G scale without moving the bridge.
Peter
-
You would have to put a "Gibson" neck on a Tele body and re measure the bridge placement to make the scale work, right?
IIRC, USACG sells necks with the frets placed so you can just screw it to an F body & get a G scale without moving the bridge.
Peter
Yes indeed-y. Warmoth offers these 'scale conversion' necks as well; a bolt-on convert your F to a G. No move da' bridge. Amazing. Not really, just math. ;D
It isn't a deal-breaker... but I really like the shorter scale between the two. I am not sure how much effect it will have on pickup placement, but I do know on my '67 Guild Starfire bass, the second octave harmonic (where the 24th fret would be if it had one) is directly over the neck pickup pole-pieces. That can't be an accident. So I have to think how the strings oscillate on the slightly shorter scale is going to make a difference in where the pickups might be best set. I haven't made the jump from 'think about it' into the 'actually do it' phase yet, but there is an option for this. Even a repositioning for 24 frets if you wanted to. Honestly, I'm overwhelmed by the choices. Gotta' be careful and remember what the thing is here.
~Gregory (who confesses to having thought about changing an F to a B once... after being judged completely unfairly on... aww, nevermind. ::) )
-
You might find this tool, which shows the relationships of frequency response, scale length, number of frets, number and volume of pickups, and pickup positions, to be of some interest.
http://www.till.com/articles/PickupResponseDemo/ (http://www.till.com/articles/PickupResponseDemo/)
Oh, and you can change pickup aperture as well.
And relatedly, from the archives: http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=3224 (http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=3224)
-
I have been trying to absorb as much as possible about different types of pickups and the evolution thereof. Especially as applied to a Telecaster. I already know what's going in my project (electronically at least), so my experiment has more to do with other factors. What's most fascinating about this video wasn't so much the pickups being showcased, but the guitar with a quick-release system for showing them. Fascinating! Check this out.
-
Well you can’t really talk Tele without Bill Kirchen.
-
I had an occasion to try out a lot of pickups in a tele I had, as I acquired a big box of guitar parts several years back. In the box were many rare vintage ones too, however I liked a Fender Custom Shop for the neck and a Van Zandt for the bridge the best .
-
Boy there were some heavy threads back in the day, Dave... great read, Thanks!
Well, at long last I finally have some time off coming, and after I get my heart rate back to normal and dial things down to 7, I'll be back in my shop. There are a couple promised jobs for other folks I need to get out the door first, but after that, I'm wide open to get busy on some fun stuff!
I have opted to not use the traditional Fender Telecaster body. It will be a mahogany core with a maple top. It's going to have a control cavity in the back, rather than a top-rout too. I'm going with a mahogany neck, rosewood or ebony board, but still hedging on the scale. That's all I will say for now, because it's all I'm certain of. I'm told, there's a delay in getting a switch (Q-switch I guess?) for the electronics, but I'm going ahead with the build since I know where it will end up. I can always drill that hole last.
My Ol' Man asked me the other day, what headstock I was going to use? I've been thinking about a way to adapt our banjo headstock to a flat paddle 6-inline.
Here's the (backside of) headstock of #27:
-
:)
-
YES, the Reverb bots strike again!!! Just the thing for my Telecaster build. https://reverb.com/item/37052376-import-pan-alembic-telecaster-pickguard-1980-s-3-ply-white
I'm imagining the awkwardness of that next phone call to Alembic HQ. ::) Hmmm... maybe not as much. ;D
*Currently no plans for a pickguard on my build... Pan-Alembic or otherwise.
-
Just to update the thread, the carefully packed Box Of Joy from the New Mothership arrived yesterday evening with my Telecaster Activator set. Many, many things have changed since I started toying with this idea, maybe the most fun being that I'm actually working at playing guitar more, now that I have absolutely no reason in the world to, and by golly... starting to hear results. I have sketched and tossed a hundred ideas. I can't possibly build all the ideas I want to... I hardly have time to do this one, but it's about to get moving. Like Mica says, about to make some sawdust. I just haven't warmed the idea of building another Tele-shaped guitar... I have two already. This needs to be something different. But what?
...and there's another situation developing. [tease mode] ;)
-
So here's what's been keeping me occupied, or rather, where I'm headed with this project... I wanted to do something kind of original, but also kinda' throwback, and still build something befitting Alembic electronics.
I'd been thinking about revisiting the Peanut. What about a Single-cut Peanut, with a short-scale, and a standard 4-bolt pattern neck pocket? It wasn't easy. I looked at every Peanut in the Showcase, and elsewhere, and as you'd expect, no two are alike. I borrowed the upper half mostly from #72-05, the lower half is a little bit of free-hand that I tried very hard to make fit stylistically. My Pops had suggested that I redesign our banjo headstock to work for an inline-six but it just never made it offa' the drawing board. I pulled out a dusty old folder of some of my original patterns for inspiration, and sketched out a totally new one. Traditional 3+3, still asymmetrical, lots of negative space to play with. I really hope it isn't something I've seen before and forgot about.
I'll be doing a control cavity in the back, the layout is typical Telecaster, but with a 3-position Q-switch and I slanted the pickup selector. No pickguard, but I may have to fashion a brass mounting ring to mount the neck pickup to.
And a hat-tip to Bro. Elwood for pointing me towards this awesome Tele-type bridge. https://www.schroederguitarhardware.com/collections/flat-mount/products/schroeder-tl-bridge
So here's where I am now- (sketches not necessarily to scale, but not far off either)
-
I love the body shape you have sketched out. Sort of has a Rick Turner guitar vibe to it
-
I love the body shape you have sketched out. Sort of has a Rick Turner guitar vibe to it
Yeah... I stood back and looked at it last night. Well, dammitall... back to the drawing board. I swear it was an accident, but I don't reckon it's totally a coincidence those two patterns resemble each other. I can do something different and still be okay. Just need some more time to scribble. Plenty of eraser left.
-
I love the body shape you have sketched out. Sort of has a Rick Turner guitar vibe to it
Well, the prototype Peanut (the one with the Les Paul Custom neck) was Rick's first-ever build - which besides being the progenitor of the Peanut was the template for the Turner Type 1 (Style 1? Model 1? I forget the exact nomenclature).
Peter
-
Oh, I'm well aware. It'd be funnier if I weren't embarrassed by the slip. Especially here. :-[
I was telling someone earlier though, I already have another idea, even better, more single-cut-ish. I just got off-duty though, and today just fried my brains. Tomorrow ain't gonna' be much better and it starts in 10-1/2 hours.
-
The next draft is more Single-cut, still plenty Peanut. I'm starting to think though... there isn't much new under the sun. I liked how the new lower half, particularly the horn point, lent itself well to the bass side of the headstock. The more I looked at it, the more it looked like a Skylark pattern. :-\
I'll have some more time to scratch and scribble this weekend.
-
Looking a little Les Paulish to me.
Bill, tgo
-
Looking a little Les Paulish to me.
Bill, tgo
Yeah, I see it. Kinda' like the slab-body Melody-Maker had. I'm about to give up and just order a Warmoth body and neck. It ain't like I'm loaded up with time anyway. It felt good to be creative for a minute, but I didn't really create anything. I did send a lotta' water down the pipes this week though. Reckon it's better for everybody if I keep running Water Plants and leave guitarmaking to Elves. ;D
Oh well. Coffee. Then music.
-
Looks nice :)
-
Nothing wrong with going the Warmoth route. You really can’t beat it unless you have a CNC machine in your garage, especially if you can do the finish yourself. I received my latest Warmoth body yesterday. Vintage 50’s Strat in Swamp Ash for my next Alligator. I ordered it as a custom body about a month ago. They are fairly quick if you don’t need them to do the finish. $195! Such a deal!
Bill, tgo
-
Nothing wrong with going the Warmoth route. You really can’t beat it unless you have a CNC machine in your garage....
Bill, tgo
While I do tend to agree with you there, Bill, I can't help but flash to that Fender factory video from 1959, watching them bandsaw Strat bodies free-hand. Those folks might have not been as steeped in traditional luthiery as Gibson's staff, but no one can tell me
they didn't have mad skillz.
And I think Greg's last sketch is a tad more akin to a Guild Bluesbird/Aristocrat than a LP. There's something else with the cutaway even closer to Greg's, but I'm drawing a blank right now.
Peter
-
There is a resemblance with the St. Blues guitars that are a bit of a mashup of LP and Tele...
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/58/StBlues1980sRed.jpg)
-
I've had a whole day to decompress and think, and play, and catch my breath. I'm simply too busy and too tired to be creative. There's no end in sight, so my Pea-nutty plans are going to the backburner. It's been fun. I have a set of electronics from a late-60's Gibson Kalamazoo that may end up in a Honeytone guitar one day. Always said if I got around to it those things would end up being useful.
Back to the original plan though; I'll just put these Alembic activators in one or the other of my Fenders. Yeah, I could have Warmoth do a body and neck, but why - when I already have a couple? Just need to figure out which one to mod. The plain Butterscotch one would be easy, but I kinda' don't wanna' mess with it. The Sunburst HH would be a little tricky, but fun. I also like that tummy-cut body. I don't particularly love the bridge. So I'd swap it out anyway. There would be obstacles. Maybe not big ones. Plastic pickguards and mounting rings hide a multitude of sins.
-
Jack-pot. I have discovered there are adapter rings available to convert the Fender humbucker bridge pickup rout to accept a standard Telecaster bridge pickup. I should be able to swap out the pickguard for the correct cut for the neck pickup too. In fact, (not that it's hard to source one) but I already have a couple. So yeah... I think the Telecaster HH is going to get Alembicized. Bridge will get replaced with a Schroeder hardtail mentioned upthread. I'll go ahead and order a new control plate with a slanted switch slot (I like those), and drill for the Q-switch between the Filter and Volume pots. I may upgrade the tuning machines too.
-
Based on playing Bill's Alembecized Tele, I predict large smiles coming.
Peter
-
Gregory, before you pull the trigger, you might want to check out the Babicz Full Contact bridge. Personally I believe it to be HUGE improvement over the standard Tele bridge and others based in the Tele concept of each pair of strings sharing a single saddle. The Babicz allows you to set height and intonation of each string individually. Add to this that it will literally double the acoustic volume of your guitar - which translates to improved tone and sustain. Here’s my Alembicized Tele with the Babicz bridge. It is the more expensive of the Babicz Tele bridges. Since then, I discovered the Babicz Z Series which, IMHO looks better and doesn’t have the big “Babicz” emblazoned on it.
Bill, tgo
http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=16543.0 (http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=16543.0)
-
I was supposed to be going in for another one of those miserable ESI's right between C7-T1 today... had the whole day off. And tomorrow too, so the anesthesia could de-pissitate. (yeah... )
But an ice storm cancelled me... and 23 more unlucky souls.
So I made another pot of coffee and ordered all the hardware and parts needed to finish out Telecaster Two, the sunburst Player Series HH. Other than the Alembic Activators, it's getting gold hardware; half-bridge from Schroeder, a control plate with a custom slanted switch slot, gold Kluson tuning machines and a vintage-style string tree too. This nifty black anodized aluminum adapter that will allow the Alembic pickup in the standard Fender Telecaster singlecoil shape to go in that existing rout is pretty cool too. Then, to top things off right, I went to alembic.com, and ordered a pair of classic witch-hat knobs.
I'm leaning towards a black/white/black pickguard. I'll repurpose the aged pearl one on something else. Just consider this a 'before' shot.
Hopefully by the time I assemble all that, they'll have rescheduled the injection and shot me full of whatever that juice is that makes it possible to feel my hands and thus, play guitar. :P
-
The compensation on those saddles scares me. None of my guitars have string to string differences nearly that drastic once the intonation is set.
Bill, tgo
-
The compensation on those saddles scares me. None of my guitars have string to string differences nearly that drastic once the intonation is set.
Bill, tgo
Yeah, I dunno Bill. They get pretty good reviews. But they also offer an upgraded set of saddles. I reckon I'll find out in a little bit.
-
Nothing wrong with going the Warmoth route. You really can’t beat it unless you have a CNC machine in your garage, especially if you can do the finish yourself. I received my latest Warmoth body yesterday. Vintage 50’s Strat in Swamp Ash for my next Alligator. I ordered it as a custom body about a month ago. They are fairly quick if you don’t need them to do the finish. $195! Such a deal!o
Bill, tgo
Bill,
Where did you find the $195 Strat bodies on the Warmoth site? I can only find in stock $425 to >$500, or custom build >$500.
Thanks, Rob
-
Bill tgo may know some shortcuts that I don't (he is the guitar one, after all... ;D ) but there is one on this page Rob.
https://www.warmoth.com/Pages/ClassicShowcase.aspx?Body=2&Shape=1&Path=Stratocaster
-
Thanks, Greg!
I won’t derail the thread, I’ll check it out and follow up with Bill on the side.
Rob
-
I use their custom body builder, not the showcase in-stock bodies. For some reason I am unable to fathom, a showcase in-stock unfinished body in Swamp Ash (if you can find one) is more expensive than a custom ordered one! Go figure! Sorry for the derailment, but this may also apply to your Warmoth considerations, Gregory.
Bill, tgo
-
Thanks, Bill :)
-
Ha! I don't mind a derail... I kinda' like where they go sometimes, and I sorta' derailed my own thread a good while back, came full-circle and ended up back almost where I started - Alembicize a Tele. Super-Tele. I had two. I didn't really want to mess with the traditional Butterscotch Blonde one. I didn't really love the HH beyond the awesome sunburst and cutaway body. I had in the back of my mind maybe to trade it for a Les Paul Goldtop. Then I rescued a Les Paul Special from the local Craigslist and it totally suckered me. Ugly but stable headstock break. Another story. I got it, I fixt it, I love it. There, done. So then my plan of designing a guitar for Alembic Telecaster Activators got embarrassing. For the record, I can do it, and I will one day. Just plain don't have time right now.
Since we're on the subject this morning; some of the parts came in yesterday, a little bit earlier than I expected. So Telecaster Two (the Player Series HH) has now been completely disassembled and stripped of all its old hardware and electronics. So far, I have installed the new gold Klusons on the neck, and dry-fit the pickguard and gold control plate. Went ahead and installed gold strap buttons. The bridge should arrive tomorrow, the gold string tree, ferrules, neckplate, mounting screws, and jack plate will be here tomorrow or Tuesday. The knobs are coming Priority Mail from Alembic, so probably tomorrow or Tuesday on them too. The adapter plate for the bridge pickup has shipped, but I don't know when it'll get here from San Diego. Might be a while. I'll start putting it all together when it gets here, as that'll be the last piece, probably.
I like the aesthetic so far... it has this bling-y black and gold 70's look. Those Alembic witch-hats are going to be perfect on here. Like a big ol' exclamation point. ;D
That's where things are.
-
Looks nice, should be cool when you have it all finished! Just wondering why is there a hole routed in the neck pocket?
-
There is another one like it under the pickguard. I have read before that the Mexico factory CNC machines use these holes for aligning the billets for shaping. Or something like that. Don't quote me, but it sounds good. ;)
-
Don't forget the shielding!
And the CNC indexing is what I've heard, too.
Peter
-
Don't forget the shielding!
And the CNC indexing is what I've heard, too.
Peter
Yes, absolutely. I still have a can of Stew-Mac paint, and a roll of copper tape. I was surprised at how much shielding it already had.
-
Shielding of the cavities is done. I got three good coats of Stew-Mac Black in there. What do you guys think on the control plate and pickguard though? Copper tape? Should I mainly be concerned about coverage just around the neck pickup cutout, and the wiring channel to the control cavity? I can do either one...
I still have to drill the control plate for the Q-switch. Probably do that before I sheild it. I will dry fit all the electronics first, after the adapter plate arrives. Still need to plot where the battery ends up too.
I went to a lot of careful measurement locating the new bridge. Then I ran three screws into the vacant mounting holes for the old one. Could have plugged them. Might want to switch to a different bridge that uses that screw pattern though. Just leaving the option there. I love the way this one went on; Solid. Lines up perfectly with the string-thru holes.
I got the new vintage style string tree mounted on the headstock, and twiddled with these high-falutin locking tuners, trying to understand them. I really didn't care about locking tuners, but they were gold, and Klusons used to be nice, plus Stew-Mac had them on a closeout sale. They are smooth, I'll say that. Wish I knew what the ham-sandwich they did.
Installing the new string ferrules was scary. These things are splined. I had the required 5/16 - 8mm mounting holes, but pressing those things into a poly-finished body is just asking for sadness. I did it. Used my drill press and a wood dowel. Took a handheld countersink and took the edge off the bore first too. One by one, I pressed them into the back, just expecting a mess. Didn't happen. My nerves were shot after that, so I took some pictures and quit for the night.
Sure was nice being in my shop again. :)
-
Lookin’ good! I’ve certainly messed up a ferrule installation. It’s nice when it’s done without issue. As for shielding, I come from the “can’t be too much” school. I’d cover the underside of the pick-guard with copper tape over the entire run of the rout. Also, I run a little copper tape from within the shielded cavity and up over the edge so the cavity and under pick-guard shielding electrically connects. I like to be able to touch the probes on my meter to any shielded points on the guitar and have continuity.
Bill, tgo
-
Today's work; loaded the electronics onto the copper shielded control plate. It's now been drilled for the 3-position Q-switch, to be mounted between the Volume and Filter pots.
I've 'dry-fit' the output jack to the 7/8" bore, and set the depth for the gold electro-socket, but haven't drilled the set-screw holes yet. Just test-fitting, I think the battery should have room to lay flat in the bottom of the electronics cavity here, with room to spare. I'll do something to secure it... foam, adhesive, something. It's all looking pretty good so far. Waiting for witch-hat knobs and the adapter plate. I figure probably in tomorrow's mail.
Up next, mount the pickups. ;)
-
I use these for mounting 9v batteries.
Bill, tgo
https://www.stewmac.com/electronics/components-and-parts/battery-clips-and-holders/9-volt-battery-mounting-clip.html (https://www.stewmac.com/electronics/components-and-parts/battery-clips-and-holders/9-volt-battery-mounting-clip.html)
-
Yessir, something like that would be perfect if I can make the space for it. Where did the battery in your "Telembic" end up located, Bill? Extra routing, or just in the stock tray? I still have options at this point... could even extend the battery leads and hide under the pickguard. (at risk of voiding my Wire-Dunce status, I could probably splice two wires without setting the shop on fire) ::)
It would be much better under the control plate I think... just two screws to take out...
-
Looks like it's progressing nicely. I have two Strats that I have alembicised a USA maple necked Strat and a self build partscaster with a baseball bat neck with ebony finger board. I'd love to shave it down but i have no idea how close the truss rod is to the back of the neck so wary of doing it.
-
Yessir, something like that would be perfect if I can make the space for it. Where did the battery in your "Telembic" end up located, Bill? Extra routing, or just in the stock tray?
In the control cavity with no additional routing. I don’t remember if I used the battery clip in it. I’ve also used a foam block sliced down the middle to hold 9v batteries.
Bill, tgo
-
Yessir, something like that would be perfect if I can make the space for it. Where did the battery in your "Telembic" end up located, Bill? Extra routing, or just in the stock tray?
In the control cavity with no additional routing. I don’t remember if I used the battery clip in it. I’ve also used a foam block sliced down the middle to hold 9v batteries.
Bill, tgo
Wow - all I did was upgrade my MII Tele to MIA electronics, and I had to take a chisel to the cavity to make them fit in!
Peter
-
Getting closer on the Super-Tele...
The bridge pickup adapter ring finally came, but once I had the pickup mounted to it, and slipped it into the humbucker rout... it fitn-dit. Had to trim just a little bit of wood from the front and back of that rout to allow for the "single-coil slant". I did it freehand, with a Dremel and cutting drum, and checked at intervals. Once it fit just right, I dabbed a few good coats of shielding paint in, and worked on the neck pickup mount while it dried.
(I'll do a little plug for the guy who makes these parts; they are very, very nice. Machined from billet aluminum, not a plastic mold. I ordered mine in black anodized, just to go with the other decor. Here's his Reverb store. https://reverb.com/shop/jbe)
I quit for the night once satisfied the pickups were installed for good. Getting closer... stay on target!
-
... all I did was upgrade my MII Tele ...
If I previously knew this, I couldn't recall; so I had to look it up. Indonesia.
-
Final assembly of the Super-Tele was yesterday evening. Got the electronics installed, put the neck in, new gold plate and screws, set up the action and roughly intonated by ear. All good. Went in the house and plugged in... and... nothing. Very, very faint intermittent signal. So I started checking the obvious stuff. As soon as I loosened the screws to the control cavity it crackled to life. So I've got something shorting out either against the shielding or more likely, the battery. It was such a tight squeeze I really didn't think it was going to go. Sure enough, there looks to be a little scrubbed place on it. I made a small adjustment to the filter pot too, to make sure it wasn't contacting the side of the cavity.
I hated the idea of taking the whole guitar apart again, and I was just too tired to even think about it last night. Fresh horses today though. Opting on leaving the guitar assembled, I slipped the electronics out, masked up around the cavity and steadied my nerves. I have now routed a tray for the battery to lay a tiny bit deeper in. I think it'll provide just enough clearance. This was not fun... not one bit. How do dentists do it?!
I was able to verify the selector switch function, Filter and Q-switch with the control panel loose last night, and I do think this guitar is going to be a winner! I'm waiting to peel that protective plastic offa' the pickguard though, until the very last thing. Black shows every imperfection.
We'll slip the goodies back in this afternoon and try again. Won't be much longer now.
-
The first freehand pass with the Dremel didn't make enough clearance, and I haven't had time (or nerve) to revisit Super-Tele until this evening. I made up a quick-n-dirty depth gauge to keep me from boring clean through the body, and chucked the cutting bit up again. I have now routed the battery tray another 3/16" deeper than the rest of the electronics cavity, and brushed more shielding paint over the bare wood. If I don't wipe out and go to bed first, (would be a lot smarter) I'll slip the controls back in tonight.
I really hope this duzzit... no more room to rout. Next solution is a dedicated battery box in the back.
*Still got contact problems... something must be touching the shielding somehow. But my, what a pretty guitar. I'll fiddle with it some more another night.
-
*Still got contact problems... something must be touching the shielding somehow.
Might I venture so bold as to suggest electrical tape between the shielding & guts?
But my, what a pretty guitar.
It most soitenly is!
Peter
-
Very elegant looking guitar! What’s the wood on the fretboard, striped Rosewood? Pau Ferro?
Bill, tgo
-
F
Very elegant looking guitar! What’s the wood on the fretboard, striped Rosewood? Pau Ferro?
Bill, tgo
Fender is using something called Indian Laurel in lieu of Rosewood for dark fingerboards on their "Player Series" guitars, and maybe the "Vintera" line as well, but I'm less sure about that one. It's pretty stuff... basically a sustainable non-CITES rosewood substitute.
*Still got contact problems... something must be touching the shielding somehow.
Might I venture so bold as to suggest electrical tape between the shielding & guts?
But my, what a pretty guitar.
It most soitenly is!
Peter
Good idea on the electrical tape, Coz, if only to help me spot out what is touching. Can't possibly be the battery anymore. Might be the board on the Filter pot contacting the sidewall, I just don't see how. As soon as I loosen the screws and gently lift the control plate in the slightest degree though, she roars (and I do mean ROARS) to life. (turn the Volume down Greg...) I just can't seem to fasten it down without shorting something out. I'll get it. I am quite happy with the aesthetics. And the guitar wears well too, with that chest/tummy cut. (I ain't got a lotta' tummy anymore... rib-cage is about all)
-
That is a very nice looking guitar, great job!
Maybe the short has something to do with the area near the metal plate and pick guard.
-
Finally got Super-Tele up and running today. I'll personally guarantee, you couldn't squeeze a gnat's nose into that control cavity now after I finished stuffing all that goodness in there. Still got at least one technical issue to solve. And some more shielding/grounding to do.
First the good part: Wow! Unmistakably Alembic. This thing definitely interprets Fender done Filter-style. And the 3-position Q-switch was a good call. Every note all over the neck, is perfectly balanced, with sting-your-ears clarity. I quickly found the extreme open filter wasn't necessary. 30-45% open was about the range my ears were asking for. The Q response was about what I expected too. The guitar plays and intonates great.
1.) The bridge pickup is dead-quiet, no noise at all. The neck pickup however, whether from a lack of shielding, or from how it's mounted on the plastic pickguard... I got noise there... hum and hiss, and I swear I heard a Spanish language radio station for a minute one time. I just don't know how to shield it any better.
Ignoring the noise issue for a minute.
2.) Each pickup when solo'd, sounds fantastic, very hot signal. But when the selector switch is set in the middle, so that both pickups are on, the signal is buffered so much that it's almost unusable. I tried tweaking the trimpot on the preamp a 1/4 turn clockwise to increase gain. (this may have been wrong) Anyway, it didn't help. Attaching a picture of this trimpot.
And for what it's worth, the noise issue present in the neck pickup is not surprisingly also there in the blended signal. I can grab my cable by the metal jack sheath, and most of the hum goes away. Doesn't that usually mean a ground problem?
So I've been playing on it, enjoying what I can... so close, but no cigar yet. I did peel the plastic off though. ;D
-
The 'must-make-things-match' OCD thing took over, and I ordered some gold pickguard screws and gold pickup mount screws from Stew-Mac the other day... I'll post some finished job photos after I change out the last of the chrome bits. ::) In the meantime, I have been spending some time bonding with the Super-Tele. My renewed desire to improve as a guitar player is being rewarded too... in the way an Alembic does, it is showing me exactly what to do.
I still haven't yet solved the noise issue with the neck pickup, or the disparity in volume when both pickups are engaged. I am hoping to have more free time to spend in the shop in a couple weeks, but for now, it's back to the real-gig and some very long days strung together into long weeks.
*I am wondering; that neck pickup is only mounted to the pickguard... should I have screwed it to the wood, thus directly contacting it to the shielding? Would that help? ???
-
Pictures:
*and by the way, it is a radio station my neck pickup is recieving. Pretty sure it's Cuban. I listened in for a while last night after installing the new gold screws... I think the reception improved! ;D
-
Very much enjoyed this thread , dost I Sir !
Always Swell ,is attention to detail .
Such OCD saved,shall not forsake thee !
Always done just right, hast been my Anthem .
An Alembic mind, of such we partake ?
-
Greg,
I noticed that you don’t have the paint extending up on top of the face of the bass and in contact with the copper shielding on the face plate. So, if you don’t have a wire connecting the copper on the top plate to the paint in the cavity, then you don’t have a closed loop. So maybe that is causing the problem. Checkout the video on the attached Stewmac link, which might help.
https://www.stewmac.com/electronics/shielding/conductive-shielding-paint.html
-
Greg,
I noticed that you don’t have the paint extending up on top of the face of the bass and in contact with the copper shielding on the face plate. So, if you don’t have a wire connecting the copper on the top plate to the paint in the cavity, then you don’t have a closed loop. So maybe that is causing the problem. Checkout the video on the attached Stewmac link, which might help.
https://www.stewmac.com/electronics/shielding/conductive-shielding-paint.html
Alternatively if the Cuban station he is picking up is playing some good Samba music... maybe just leave it as is?
-
HA! It's funny, because the station bumper music was my clue it was Cuban-based. That's exactly what they are playing. Until I heard the music though, it was just a Spanish-language radio station, and I could pick up a little of what was going on from my time with Mrs. Lambert, who tried her best to teach me Spanish in High School. ;D
Seriously though, after the earlier pictures, I did do more overlapping shielding so that contact between the taped parts and the painted cavities was maximized.
-
After a short conversation with Mica the other afternoon, I found my trouble... couldn't figure out why the output of each pickup separately was okay, but when the selector switch was set in the middle for both, the output dropped to almost half, and the pickups sounded... well... just... bad. It was the connector to the neck pickup. I had to remove it to fish it through the wiring channel, then reattach it... and I got it backwards, which I reckon caused the pickups to be out of phase with each other when both were enabled, and the 'backward-wired' one to be noise and interference-prone. (I told you guys I was a Wire Dunce... I would fire myself, but then who would sweep the shop up?) Anyway, just swapping the leads around fixed everything at once. Even the Cuban radio station is gone. No noise, no hum, just the sweet and spicy sounds of an Alembicized Telecaster.
So I sent Mica a message confessing my sins and sat down to play Super-Tele... finally done. I'll post something as soon as I have something presentable. It really sounds great. Fun to play too!
-
Congrats on finding the solution, look forward to hearing it! :)
-
Congrats! Too bad about losing the radio station.
-
Great news that you got it all straightened out, Gregory. Welcome to the Telembic club. I love mine.
Bill, tgo
-
Super-Tele gets to meet a predecessor... a mid/late 1980's Squier Stratocaster, by Fender Japan.
I had this guitar loaned out for so long that I had almost forgotten about it. The guitar player in a band I play in had it, and mentioned it a while back. Just so happens yesterday we had a gig, and afterward I brought this one home, and loaned him my MIM Telecaster to play for a while. It just doesn't seem to get as much attention since I finished putting the Alembic activators into the other, but I just couldn't bring myself to mod that little Butterscotch blonde guitar.
Anyway - The Strat Came Back! I had forgotten what a cool guitar this is. Can't say I love that hinky tremolo bridge, but I got enough spings on there to hold the thing still. Could make a little block of wood to fit in behind the swing, I guess. I may eventually look for a reversible hardtail solution. I just don't like it. Love the rest of the guitar though, and tickled to have it back.