Author Topic: Guitar building question- electronics (Read 261 times)

elwoodblue · « **Reply #30 on:** May 05, 2008, 11:25:06 PM »

The humbuckers I just installed had white for the coil-tap, I just taped it off. They work great.

That gives you a black and red and the shielding...the red being hot ,the one you will attenuate with the volume potentiometer and switch(with the 3way) .
The black and the shielding are connected to the ground (pot chassis usually,which is connected the rest of the grounded parts of the guitar).

caden_vekk · « **Reply #31 on:** May 07, 2008, 04:43:01 PM »

What humbuckers did you buy?

elwoodblue · « **Reply #32 on:** May 07, 2008, 06:58:09 PM »

I just put some 'Velvet Hammers' into a '70 goldtop.
designed by Red Rhodes...seems everything that guy did turned out all right.He also designed the Trio preamp for Groove Tubes,and had a hand in the electronics for the peavey T-60 guitars (just got one...I'm gonna open her up and see how it differs from a 'normal' set-up for humbuckers).

dfung60 · « **Reply #33 on:** May 08, 2008, 02:03:52 PM »

If you want a regular humbucking sound, then you want to connect the red wire to the 3-way switch and the black/bare/shield wire goes to the solder blob on the back of the pots. And you do just tape off the white wire until you want to make a dual-sound arrangement in the future.

This wiring set up is really weird, but the dual sound arrangement will be much easier than with most 4-wire pickups.

David Fung

caden_vekk · « **Reply #34 on:** May 09, 2008, 07:05:34 AM »

Sounds simple, they're going in today. After that, I'm fixing up the nut, and I'm done. Absolute final day is the 15th, my judging is the 16th. I'll be done tomorrow. Thanks alot everyone. And you D, are amazing.

I'll have all the progress pics and a powerpoint of the progress online in the next few days.

caden_vekk · « **Reply #35 on:** May 10, 2008, 08:40:29 AM »

Well, Ladies and Gentlemen. She works. Lee, the first guitar I have built by hand, WORKS! Mind you, she still needs some fine tuning (mainly a buzzing fret board and intonation screws which have worked there way out of the bride) but no matter, she works. I plugged her in at 11am and tuned her up. No shocks or anything. Thanks for all your help. Here's a picture. Please excuse the blurriness, I'm still shaking, haha

Bradley Young · « **Reply #36 on:** May 10, 2008, 11:50:58 AM »

Very nice. How are you thinking of finishing it?

Oil/Wax?

Bradley

caden_vekk · « **Reply #37 on:** May 10, 2008, 03:10:41 PM »

I was thinking about just clear coating it.

caden_vekk · « **Reply #38 on:** May 10, 2008, 03:24:53 PM »

To put a damper on things, It seems i have used the wrong scale for the fretboard. No matter, though, the judges will know that I made an electric guitar that works regardless of the noting problems. I plan to remove the current fretboard and replace it with one that is correctly spaced. Besides that, everything else works just fine.

Thanks everyone for your help.

elwoodblue · « **Reply #39 on:** May 10, 2008, 06:28:17 PM »

congrats...
like making pancakes; the first one isn't always as predicted.
what scale is it now? ...the twelfth fret looks right in the middle...
Once intonated and a few adjustments for the buzz(does the neck have a little relief in the middle?) ...should be a great player for years.

Thanks for taking us along for the ride...success is so nice.

caden_vekk · « **Reply #40 on:** May 10, 2008, 07:09:03 PM »

Honestly i don't know what it is now. I've forgotten i just remember going to my uncle's to work on routing the humbucker cavities and forgeting my fretboard and the measurements of such.
The problem with the buzzing, is this was my first fret job and i bent the fretwire by hand (never again) so they were un-uniform and many of the ends are raised.

I'll use all of this to my advantage, explaining that making a guitar is very measurement oriented and if something is wrong, it can throw off the whole thing.

Either way, i'll fix it later, I'm thinking of switching out the fretboard with a walnut one.

elwoodblue · « **Reply #41 on:** May 12, 2008, 12:03:51 PM »

I did a hand bent fretwire job on a vietnamese acoustic...I know just what you mean.
I used my radius blocks and a little edge file to get it closer and playable.
I found some great NOS martin and gibson fingerboards on ebay for a good price. Are you making yours from scratch?
cheers

caden_vekk · « **Reply #42 on:** May 12, 2008, 03:46:17 PM »

Lee's neck, unfortunately, came out fairly narrow so my only option is to make a fretboard from scratch. There's no big worry actually, it'll be a good learning experience. I plan on continuing this for a good long while now. And when my skills improve I'll talk to Alembic about a job (hehe). If, they see my work as worthy that is.

Either way, does anyone have any idea how to put up a powerpoint for everyone to see?

caden_vekk · « **Reply #43 on:** May 13, 2008, 03:34:43 PM »

Alright guys, Just got done presenting. I had some random guy, a lady, and Mr. Wilkins (the guy who runs the woodshop at school). Well the guy was looking very interested and taking notes, commenting Very impressive, the lady was in complete awe the whole time (and I'm sure some of it went over her head. She's a Towne Lake Mom) and she commented as EXCELLENT. Mr. Wilkins was even impressed (and he watched me build it)

* Towne Lake Mom-the parts around my school tend to be populated with higher end houses and therefore everyone thinks they're part of the OC or Laguna Beach or some sort of crap like that. Women trying to live up to the dumb blonde thing. Disgusting if you ask me

keurosix · « **Reply #44 on:** May 13, 2008, 08:46:31 PM »

So I take it you won't be asking Towne Lake Mom out on a date?