Crazy Electronics

[Myrk-]

I was a member here a while back but the forum seems to have deleted my account so I had to re-register. Anyways-

I'm creating my own guitar- but I'm fed up of all these lazy strats and other boring guitars, so I'm going for something different.

So far I'm thinking of a EMG 81- EMG S - EMG 81 setup (H-S-H), but I'm reconsidering the bridge 81 for something else- what, I'm not sure. Also I'm not sure how I'm gunna setup volume and tone settings- I want to be able to control the volumes of them all really, but don't want 3 Volume switches and I don't want 1 (need to be able to silence one of them for the old flick switch soloing).

Also I wanna stick a hell of a load of interesting electronics in it (not so many as the Variax's and stuff, but alot). So far on my list I've only got an EMG Afterburner for a bit more distortion and punch. I wanna try and get some cool effects, but all of it has to be in the guitar body.

Any suggestions on push/pull pots and other crazy electronics to stick inside it for some cool sounds etc?

[westhemann]

i would leave the 81 at the bridge(that's what it is for after all...)but i would put an 85 at the neck...to me the 81 in the neck position sounds very cold and tinny.

the 85 on the other hand is sweet as hell there...

[Myrk-]

Sorry thats what I meant- the neck humbucker is the one under question- I'm maybe looking for something with a completely different sound to it, as I NEVER use both Neck and Bridge on my current dual EMG81 warlock.

Btw it might help people to know that I play heavy metal (Megadeth, Soilwork, In Flames etc) and I want my guitar to have a razor sharp attack with piss easy to do pinch harmonics (kind of like my m8s old un-grounded ibanez- dangerous, but you could do a harmonic on any fret with ease!).

[Mr Alex]

Is there anything special about the afterburner I'm not aware of?

I cant see why a diy stratoblaster can't do the same thing for a couple of dollars and 15 mins work.

[lovekraft]

What's "un-grounded", ...and why is that dangerous?

[crafty]

I've never heard of the Stratoblaster, but with the EMG-AB you can adjust the output +20dB on the fly, it converts the signal to a Low-Z output for going direct, and it is a very low noise design. It also fits into the same space as a push-pull pot. Having said all that, I don't like it and I'll probably put the one I took out of the guitar six months ago up on eBay at some point. Even though the unit itself is low noise, when using it with passive pickups it amplifies the noise coming through them. I also don't like the "front end" distortion through the amp when overdriving with just the guitar. To me, it's better to use pedals or the built-in overdrive channel on the amp rather than riding the clean channel hard.

[Mr Alex]

my stratoblaster does up to 25db gain, and fits in about a 1/2 inch square cavity no problem, and less if I'd used an IC.

And seriously, most people with some kind of electronics hobby would have the parts lying around too.

[psw]

Mr Alex...please post a link to the Stratoblaster...I may have a use for it....

Also...some may be interested in some of the preamps being discussed on the sustainer thread lately including today's post...

psw

[Myrk-]

How much do you want for your old afterburner Crafty?

Anyone else have any suggestions of stuff to put in? That was the original question, not really a debate on which onboard distortion was best- I'm going for EMG AB because its made for EMG really, and I'm sure it will suffice with the 81's... On that note, any suggestions for the bridge humbucker? Any good Seymour ducan active humbuckers worth investigating which have an original tone to them?

I suppose a reworded original question about the crazy electronics would be- do things like 12 string effects pedals etc exist in small pot forms that you can insert in your guitar? Hit me with all the gizmos you've got/know of!

Edited June 16, 2005 by Myrk-

[Myrk-]

Oh and Lovekraft- its when the bridge isn't grounded with the rest of the electronics- in most guitars (if not all I think) the bridge is grounded. Put it this way- when someone was playing it, if you touched them with a piece of metal it would give them a nasty electronic shock- and I've heard of guitarists dying on stage due to the large currents going through thier guitars.

Being a guitarist a dangerous job But someones gotta do it!

[Paul Marossy]

please post a link to the Stratoblaster

I remember seeing that at http://www.blueguitar.org

Look under "schematics and links", in the misc. guitar wiring section.

[jnewman]

Oh and Lovekraft- its when the bridge isn't grounded with the rest of the electronics- in most guitars (if not all I think) the bridge is grounded. Put it this way- when someone was playing it, if you touched them with a piece of metal it would give them a nasty electronic shock- and I've heard of guitarists dying on stage due to the large currents going through thier guitars.

Being a guitarist a dangerous job But someones gotta do it!

←

You've got things messed up. Guitarists dying on stage from being shocked is from guitars with *grounded* strings plugged into an amp that has a ground fault or an amp plugged into a power outlet that has a ground fault. In this instance, voltage goes through the hot "ground" channel to the strings, and if the guitarist grounds himself or herself and touches the strings, they can get the crap shocked out of them. I had this happen with an outlet that ran 60VAC on the ground pin, but fortunately never really got grounded so it just tingled like crazy.

If you have ungrounded strings it just makes the guitar noisier because the strings pickup electromagnetic interference that isn't shunted to ground and that gets picked up by the coils.

Edited June 17, 2005 by jnewman

[lovekraft]

The Stratoblaster is a single JFET preamp that was sold by Alembic back in the day - it's basically the Tillman preamp that's been discussed ad nauseum in this forum, with different drain and source resistors and a cap bypassing the source resistor for more gain. It's simple, quiet (if built well), and can provide more than enough gain to clip with most pickups(with a 9 volt power supply). The schematic is available from GGG, along with a layout and RTS boards, IINM.

[Myrk-]

Well at least I had the bit about dying right jnewman

[lovekraft]

...Well at least I had the bit about dying right...

Well, kinda right - there's no way to miswire a guitar that would make it any more dangerous than it already is (which is why I asked the question in response to your original statement). There is, however, a simple solution - use a wireless instead of a cord.

[Mr Alex]

lovecraft put the link in for the stratoblaster, but heres what I know about them, they were designed for the strat, to fit under the jack plate with it flipped over and then using a push/pull pot to control gain and bypass it(replaced the useless second tone pot so you had master tone and volume pots and one for booster gain), or you use an oval plate that I think came with it that had a stereo jack that was flat mounted, a hole to adjust a trim pot through for gain,and a mini toggle for bypass, under the plate the angled jack cavity was large enough to fit a 9v battery AND the circuit with only minor rewiring for the battery switching.

By changing the fets and capacitors you can tweak the tone a little(only problem is, I can't remember what I changed to what, and its built in to a distortion pedal so compact I can no longer make head and a tail of whats what.

edit : either its my crummy strat copy, or some bad info, but i cant get a 9v in the jack cavity AND the plate, even flipped over. but it goes in the control cavity no problem at all.

Edited June 20, 2005 by Mr Alex

[dachuck]

so whate is it that i hear thate with active picups you dont need to ground the string

[lovekraft]

You don't have to use a bridge groud with EMG active pickups - all active pickups are not necessarily created equal, so always follow the manufacturer's recommendations.

[Myrk-]

Wait, I have a BC Rich platinum pro thats got the bridge grounded, but the whole thing uses EMG 81's, does that mean I can remove the grounded wire? Or is there no real point?

Also I'm having trouble deciding on pickups for this guitar. Everyone always goes on about 81's being so amazing, but I have them, and I ain't so sure. My m8 had some real shitty old guitar, Ibanez GX10 I think, and that screached like hell- I remember if you put up the distortion really high and the trebble it would do harmonics on every note you played! Any suggestions on razor sharp pickups/humbuckers to use? I want something that picks up harmonics really well, cus I find doing harmonics on my EMG's a right pain compared to my crappy squier strat lol!