Mister Miyagi (Alembicized guitar)

[edwardofhuncote]

Hee-hee-hee...  I might get run offa' Broadway with this one Joey. 

Bubba-san is definitely better than stock now. Those EMG's (like we talked about) are silent as a tomb, and while not quite the same experience as, say, the custom alnico Sheptones in my other Fender Telecaster, but when you throw the switch back to the bridge and dial up, it has that unmistakable Telecaster *boing*. Super-Tele by contrast, with her Alembic activators, has this sparkly super-clean-clear high end. She can do Tele-like sounds, but it's like somebody tried to fling a Fender from Corona to Nashville, held on too long in the wind-up and hit Santa Rosa instead. The tone circuit also responds in a kinda' different way with the Filter/Q-boost function, but I think most of it is the ear of the beholder. You just have to understand where you're trying to be, sonically, and know how to find it. I love each off them for what they are, and in a couple cases, for what they aren't.

I've got a couple issues yet to sort out with Mister Miyagi (subject of the original post) but I'm very much looking forward to it. It's such a cool little guitar. 

[gtrguy]

EMGs are great!

[edwardofhuncote]

I had to go looking for this old thread, it had been so long...

I gifted Bubba-san (the EMG'd Telecaster type guitar) to a good friend and former bandmate, who treasures it.

But I kept Mister Miyagi here. In fitting the Alembic electronics into the cavity, and removing, and refitting a few times, I managed to wiggle the wires that connect the Q-switch to the Filter pot until they finally let go. Sadness. So I boxed the little bits up and sent them back with a mea-culpa note. Sure enough, right before I went the the hospital last week, a little box from Mica's Aunt Mary landed on my porch, and in it was my repaired Filter/Q-switch.

So as soon as I trust myself up in the shop, I hope to finish up with this project. I just hope Aglaope doesn't get jealous and use it as a chewy toy. 

In all seriousness, it's the completion of an experiment. I needed to experience these pickups with a simple circuit, in a mahogany body core, with a maple neck-through, and specifically this scale length. There are still a couple variables, but it should still give a good idea of what this combination would sound like and how it will respond. It's a radical departure from the long-scale Lil Darling, different woods, pickups, electronics, scale length, all of it.

More later...

[gtrguy]

Very Nice! I hope all is well after your hospital visit too!

[rv_bass]

All looks great, will be interesting to compare these guitars! 

[edwardofhuncote]

Just double-checking on something here... I should know, and I think I do.

The pots and Q-switch should all contact the shielding directly, right? That's the ground. What about the pickup selector switch and jack? I can't remember if I backed up the switch with a knurled washer or not. I checked the jack, and it's making direct contact. I haven't checked the switch yet. I wouldn't think it mattered unless the washers were non-conductive. Like nylon or slate or something. But I am a card-carrying Wire Dunce.

Anyway, after reinstalling the Filter and Q-switch, and connecting the leads again, something still isn't quite right. I have output, but very, very little. If I dime every thing on the guitar and amp, I can hear the signal coming through the speaker. I can hear that each pickup is working. If I strike very hard, just a distorted pop or two. As if it is trying to work.

So far, I swapped out batteries, twice. Brand new, tested good.

None of the little circuit boards are touching the shielded sidewalls of the electronics cavity.

This has to be a simple one. What else to look for?

[gtrguy]

Some Alembic circuits are not just generally grounded to everything, if I remember right?

[edwardofhuncote]

I ain't smart enough to know the answer to that, David.

I might ease that ball-bat switch loose this afternoon and see if it crackles to life.

I feel like it oughta' make some sound... I do know, if you unplug either of the two connectors that go to the Filter pot and reconnect them, a pretty good boom goes down the line. So this makes me think the preamp is getting powered. The switch is before that, and the pickups are connected to the switch, sooooo... maybe there is something to my observation.

[JimmyJ]

Could you try plugging one pickup at a time directly into the preamp?  If that works then yeah, maybe that switch is the hangup.

Jimmy J

[lbpesq]

Some Alembic circuits are not just generally grounded to everything, if I remember right?

IIRC, Alembic doesn't ground the strings/bridge.

Bill, tgo

[edwardofhuncote]

There is no ground wire from the bridge to anything in this case. (there was, but I removed it with the old electronics...)

[gtrguy]

I have had 2 instruments I worked on over the years (Martin B-18 and Alembic Series one) fail in the way you describe. Both were caused by wires that went into caps or resistors (Not the wiring harness) that had come off or loose. I was able to find the problem by donning close up vision and gently tugging on the wiring with a dental tool or chopstick while examining the components.

[edwardofhuncote]

Okay this is really weird, and goes against everything that I thought I knew about activators. And after I'm done, everybody here, and the entire Wickersham Family included is invited to visit me at the Funny Farm.

With the guitar plugged up to my little toy workbench amp, I began to poke around. When I loosened the knurled fastener, and removed the pickup selector switch from its hole in the electronics cavity, as soon as it broke connection with the shielding, Mister Miyagi crackled to life. Full on, 100%. Switch works, as it should and all. Everything is great. It's even picking up my cell phone now! But if any part of the metal switch touches the shielding, dead short, dead quiet, nothing.

Soooo..... not to put too fine a point on it... what thuh ham-sandwich?! 

I think I got a couple nylon washers around here somewhere. If I'm not nuts, that ought to fix it. Hang on, I'll be back.

[David Houck]

Just wondering; are the pickup cavities shielded, and if so, any chance there might be an issue there?

[JimmyJ]

Can you show us the business side of the switch where the wires are connected?  If I understand that Gibson style switch correctly, i believe the shield of all 3 cables meeting there should attach to the thicker center lug of the row of 3.  Then one pickup + wire to the left of the 3, one to the right of the 3.  Then the upper 2 are connected together and serve as the "output".  At least I think that's how it's supposed to be...  If any of those cables were inadvertently reversed - say as they pass through those connectors - that could ground out the signal.

Jimmy J