Pal

Hello Everyone, I am rebuilding an old Ibanez V I've had since 1987!! Here is my problem... Instead of one volume and one tone, I will be using an Alps 500/500 stacked dual-concentric knob so the volume and tone can be stacked together. I'm doing this because one the volume knob is too close to the bridge pickup and it gets in my way so i plugged it up! Anyway, it's hard to solder the grounds to the side of the concentric pot due to size issues but mostly due to plastic parts and the delicateness of the pot itself - i don't want to overheat it. I was wondering if i can send all of the grounds, from pots, pickups and switches to some sort of junction and then send a ground from the junction to the output ground terminal and then back out again to the bridge. Is this possible?? It would make my life so much easier. Here is a link to a schematic I made - how does it look?? I used modern wiring.... http://s1311.beta.ph.../photo.jpg.html Thank you, Pal

I completed the project. It works great! My soldering job is a bit clumsey but it was my first time doing this sort of thing. I ordered the components again so I can build another pickguard just like it except the soldering job will be much nicer. I will add some Bareknuckles pickups as well and swap out what's inside now with an improved version. here is a photo of the switch and the new pickguard without that annoying (to me) 3rd knob under the bridge which is typical on strats. http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/62/switchw.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/138/guardd.jpg/ My next project is to refinish two old guitars of mine and put in all new electronics and pickups. Also, rewiring a les paul with "jimmy page" wiring and new pickups from bareknuckles as well. Thanks so to everyone in this forum for their help. I am addicted to fixing and rebuilding my guitars now. It's an obsession! I'm sure I'll have more questions soon and more photos and hopefully I can answer some questions as well. -Pal

Ansil, I've decided to go with a cap switch for my guitar. That is, 2 caps on a push/pull. Here is my diagram. Is it correct?? http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/3212/capswitch.jpg Some else suggested this (see link below) but it seems wrong to me. Then again I'm new to this stuff (but learning soooo much!!) http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/8257/caps2f.jpg Your .1uf cap mod sounds amazing by the way!!!! I am going to try this on my les paul soon. I'll make a cap swtich for it as well and have a "bright cap" and a really "dark" cap. It is a fantastic sound!!!! Thanks, Pal

A .1uf seems like it would take off too much treble. Did you mean .01uf? I read that a .01uf is a good all purpose tone cap but the tone won't be as dark as a .022uf. I was thinking I might try this because I prefer simplicity. I will eventually be putting in some pretty hot Bareknuckles Alnico pickups in the guitar. This is a lonestar strat (hss) that I'm modifying. I'm trying to really hot-rod it up While still sounding nice. By the way, the reason why I'm using only one tone on the strat as opposed to two is because the volume knob is too close To the strings so I'm moving the volume down one hole so there will be just one tone.

I will order some new pots and caps and try this out. I will post my results as soon as I can. You have been very helpful Ansil. I appreciate your feedback very much. This is a great forum. Thanks!! Pal

Would the 1M pot need to be linear as opposed to audio?

this is a very interesting response. I'm reading it over and over and starting to get it (I think). Are u saying I can have two caps on the same 1m pot on opposite ends and past the mid-point in either direction is how I adjust the tone for each cap (in their own respective directions)? And this is done by opening the pot and fixing the mid point so it becomes neutral? Would this mean both pickups would just be their "pure" sound unaffected buy the caps in the middle position? Thanks, Pal

Ok. Thanks very much. I'm learning so much from this forum. I hope I can offer up some good advice in return soon. Pal

Hi Mender, Thanks so very much for the reply. Since I'm using a 250K tone pot for the humbucker (as well as the single-coils), would it be useful to use a .068 cap as opposed to a .047 cap to make up for the loss of treble from not using a 500K tone for a humbucker? The other cap on the switch would be a .022 for the single-coils. Thanks, Pal

I have a Lonestar Strat I'm modifying with a new pickguard that will have only one tone and one volume. I would like an on/on switch with two different caps on it. One cap, .022 for single coils and the other cap, .047 for the humbucker. This way I can switch between caps but use one tone knob (a 250K or 500k?). I was wondering if there was another option where I can put both caps on opposite ends of a 500K pot so if i roll the pot one way it's one cap; roll it the other way and it's the other cap, and in the middle it's pretty much neutral. is that a simpler yet still effective option?? Or maybe even one push/pull tone knob that switches between caps?? What would be my best option? This is a great forum. I just started work on several old guitars of mine and I am learning so much. It's endless work and fun! Thanks, Pal