MES_C Posted January 25, 2009 Report Share Posted January 25, 2009 Hello PG, I just finished my third build and thought showing it off to Project Guitar would be a good excuse to finally start an account here. I have been looking through these forums for a year or two now, and have learned a great deal. So thanks many times for that, and here is the build. Controls: blender knob instead of a three way selector switch, master volume, bass cut knob, treble cut knob, and a variable coil split for the bridge hum. Next to that is a switch that bypasses all the controls and sends both pups directly to the jack. The pups are from eBay, but so far they have been acceptable. The stop bar and tune-o-matic are both recessed. I made the body and pickguard, but purchased the neck. Did some steel wool-ing on it, which improved the feel a bit. I drew the template for the body by hand from a small snap shot of a firebird. It seems to have come out somewhat ... different, I'm still getting used to it. The finish came out good. Started with wood filler, then primer, then paint(three coats each I think), with wet sanding between paint coats. The paint came out glossy and durable enough not to require a clear coat. Brand was rustoleum glossy enamel, same for the primer. As can be expected it still needs plenty of little adjustments, but it is basically done. Thanks for looking! I only have a few progress pics, but I'll throw them up here is anyone is interested. I also want to get some good outdoor shots of it the next time there is a sunny day where I live. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chops1983 Posted January 25, 2009 Report Share Posted January 25, 2009 Looks good. The shape is a little different but that just means its more original! Good work. Hope to see some more projects from you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al heeley Posted January 26, 2009 Report Share Posted January 26, 2009 very interstiing range of tone controls but maybe a bit too complicated for me in a gig - I like a simpler system all bunched together in one place, but Kudos to you for an original concept. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zaiger Posted January 26, 2009 Report Share Posted January 26, 2009 Sort of a combination of a Telecaster and a Firebird. Not bad, very surf looking. Great work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ae3 Posted January 26, 2009 Report Share Posted January 26, 2009 Yeah very rockabilly/surf looking, I really like the vibe it gives off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IWishICouldShred Posted January 26, 2009 Report Share Posted January 26, 2009 I really like that electronics setup... the blend pot and passive bass cut are wild! You don't happen to have a diagram for any of that do you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MES_C Posted January 26, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2009 (edited) Thanks for the replies. ^I got the blender pot wiring strait from stewmac's free information section. Works like a charm. Here is a link:http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/Electronics/Pots/i-4137.html The bass cut is one of those things that still needs work. It is a capacitor across the first two lugs of a pot, a hot wire is attached to one of those lugs, and the other is attached to the jack tip. The pot and cap I am using now are 250K and 0.02uF, and I can't easily hear any effect. Next is to change them to a 1 meg and a 0.002uF. I found those values somewhere on the internet recently, but can't remember where. I'll post an update when I make those changes. And here's a diagram. EDIT: the first one had an error Edited January 27, 2009 by MES_C Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MES_C Posted March 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2009 I wasn't nearly as "done" with this guitar as I thought. I took it apart again and did additional routing so the pickguard would fit better, and shielded it. The wiring got a great deal of attention, redid a bunch of joints, switched out pots, switched out several connection, and generally cleaned up under there. I also shimmed the neck a little, and set the intonation. Now that I have it the way I like it I can say that the blender knob and lead switch are very cool features. The variable coil split doesn't give as wide a variety of tones like I was hoping for, so I'll probably stick to switches in the future, but this one can stay. Someone asked about the bass cut. The meg pot and 0.001uf cap did end up working, but they also cut the output by a quarter or so. Its handy when you want to take a little muddy-ness out of your tone. I had a load of fun this morning playing with all the tones that this thing can give(so many). I love guitars with lots of options. Maybe someday I'll do a one pickup/one killswitch guitar just for the hell of it... Anyway here are some nicer outdoor pics I took today: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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