JohnnyG Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 I am currentlly in the process of gathering all the parts im going to need for my strat project and its looking pretty good. my friend with an ebay account has bought a neck off their for me and has high bid on a body that ends this evening so its looking good. heres the neck, Neck seems to be a good one and its got a coo skunk stripe in the back so for £35 + p+P im not complaining the body that ive got my eye on is a super strat so its already got the humbucker bridge pup slot routed which is perfect for me. the interesting thing is that its made out of mahogany not alder which is also perfect for me since i dont like overlly bright sounds on guitar. the other amusing thing is the current colour which im tempted to just strip straight off and strat the paint from scratch Body the only other things ive done so far have been to draw up circuit diagrams and design the circuit borad for the Fuzz Face that im going to be having inside the guitar (circuit board is about 5 cm by 6 cm). i figure that if im gonna build a guitar then i should make it my own and built in FX appeals to me lol. so current spec is as thus strat style for trem, scale length, frets etc pups gonna be H-S-S with coil splitting on the hum 1 master volume and 1 tone pot Fuzz Face controls will consist of a micro switch to turn it on and off, a red LED indicator for on/off and then a pot to control the fuzz and a seperate volume control. there will also be a kill switch and as well as that im going to use a stereo jack on the guitar and rig it up so that the power can only be on when a cable is plugged in. only other design features are gonna be a metal pickgaurd which will be anodized a colour so that as well as looking cool it wont corrode or anything. im also thinking of having screw inserts so that the pickgaurd can be taken on and off multiple times without having to worry about the holes in the wood getting eaten away the only thing i cant decide is the colour of the actual guitar body Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jefm Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 I had actually posted some ideas but they didn't submit...I'll try to remember them A suggestion though...I hope nobody here would snipe you but if you're aiming for something it's probably best to wait till the auction closes...best of luck though You mentioned you didn't like on board battery power...are you using an external supply??? it'd be a pain to take off the pickguard just to change the battery A neck on switch is a pretty common and handy mod...and a coil split for the HB could be useful too...you could do these and the fuzz switch as push pulls to keep a stock appearance...A volume knob for the HB might be good to balance with the single coils though... An idea for the indicators...you could have some of those skull knobs and make the eyes light up when the fuzz is on...or have the indicator on the fretboard A solution to the pickguard... You could drill the screw holes out bigger (on the body) and glue in nuts...then you could screw and unscrew as much as you want without hurting threads...it should be easier to get on and off too...as long as the nuts were sunk into the wood enough the pickgurad wouldn't rattle... I've been thinking about cotter pins...kinda like a race car hood...you can get it on and off really quick then...it'd look awesome with a carbon fiber pickguard The paint....Err...any colour but what it is now....Ewwwww Surf green and cream are my favourite solid colours...if it has some nice wood mahogany looks beautiful in transparent red...I've also seen a neat black red clear burst.... and light to dark (inverted) bursts look really cool with the right colors Anyway...just some weird suggestions...meh....do whatever Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyG Posted January 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 those are some really useful ideas man thanks im gonna be watching the auction closelly tonight lol so incase anybody does try to get in at the last minute ill hopefully be able to stop them. given that its quite a nice body id be willing to pay upto about £40 for it so we shall see. eventually when i get round to it i will have a powersupply system that doesnt have the batteries in the guitar. the idea is to use a stereo instrument cable and to make a small box that it plugs into straight out of the guitar. the cable would have the tip as the signal carrier, the second channel as the +9 volt supply and then the ground as ground obviouslly all sorted out by some very simple electronics in the box on the floor. its something that ill do in the future since it'll be an easy mod to do but for the moment ill stick with the onboard battery i see what you mean about the seperate volume knob for the humbucker and thats something that i think i might do since it wont be particularlly hard in some ways i like the push/pull pots since they keep a uniform look to the guitar but i find that trying to turn them on quicklly can be difficult so i might just stick with the normal mini switches. the other thing to bear in mind is cost lol and mini switches i can get for free from school the idea of the skull knobs and the glowing eyes is a damn cool one as is the fretboard tho i dont think theyd be for this guitar. if i make one in future i may have to do that tho (im thinking something ridiculouslly metal and black ) the pickgaurd idea is brilliant and im definatelly gonna use it. since this is my first project i will almost certainlly be changing things with it which is why i wanted the inserts in the first place. the nuts would do the job perfectlly and it would be really easy to do. only problem i could see with it is how to secure the nuts well incase they get overtightened but i reckon some superglue should hold them in for the moment im fairlly sure im just going to do solid colours and not bursts tho i have been thinking about putting racing lines on this. atm its either red with yellow lines or vice versa lol many thanks again for the help man. thats really useful JG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyG Posted January 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 mkay it seems that i got sniped by 5 pence inthe last 10 seconds on the body i wanted, however, i did have another backup plan a plain black strat body, being soldby the same guy im getting the neck from so i suspect that they're fom the same guitar Neck Again New Body the body is straight black but that'll be stripped all for exactlly £101.1 not bad going methinks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jefm Posted January 25, 2004 Report Share Posted January 25, 2004 Well at least you got the neck...that's too bad about the body but if they are from the same guitar it'll be a better fit anyway you shouldn't need to overtighten them (the nuts)...but if they pop out glue will put them back in... I'm not quite getting the power cable idea??? do you mean a stereo cable with one hot and one signal and one ground??? weird idea... ever done it before??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyG Posted January 25, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2004 thats exactlly what i mean about the stereo cable. on the stereo cable theres the tip, the midlle channel and then the ground, hang on ill try to draw it +9 Volts Tip/Signal | |~~~~ /:------I-----I------| \:------I-----I------| | |~~~~ Ground so the floor box that id make would do that just using some simple electronics, (i might even build a bit of an effect round it just to make it more useful) then in the guitar there would be another stereo jack: the hot signal wire with the pickup signal would connect straight to the tip, the ground in the guitar would connect straight to the ground on the jack and then whatever active electronics you had in ur guitar (FX like me or active Pups, maybe a sustainer even) would be powered from the second channel on the cable which would be the +9 volts. the good thing about this is that you wouldnt have to keep taking the pickgaurd/panel covers off to change batteries and you wouldnt have to worry about leaving batteries inside the guitar which could run down. infact, by using this you could get rid off batteries al together if you put a power adaptor socket in the floor box. the only real big draw back of this is that you need to make the floor box and you can only play the guitar through that tho you could have a switch on the guitar allowing you to choose between having the ghost power supply or a normal battery inside, wouldnt be that hard. i dont know if anybody has done this before but i remember someone mentioning it on the wireless FX thread, i think it was divided by james and he said it had been done with a Midi FX rack. tho as far as i know it hasnt ben done with a guitar. im probablly not going to do it yet since it'll cost a bit, the stereo cable alone will be a few bob to buy but if i make another guitar thats loaded with FX and stuff i may just have to do it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace Posted January 25, 2004 Report Share Posted January 25, 2004 Umm, I just thought about this for a minute and the first thing that crossed my mind was "hum interference". I mean, cables are shielded pretty big time from the outside to reduce EM interference and you want to send 9 volts, which is considerably larger than your signal current, through a conductor that is right next to your signal conductor? Are we talking AC or DC here? (Pretty ignorant when it comes to sustainers, I apologize) so long ace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john Posted January 25, 2004 Report Share Posted January 25, 2004 it would be 9v dc , interference should not be an issue. the only thing i can think of is that when you plug in the guitar, for a split second you will supply the ground(casing of the jack input) with 9v as the jack is sliding in. so there is the chance of electrical shock(or possibly a short), but 9v only makes you giggle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
renablistic Posted January 25, 2004 Report Share Posted January 25, 2004 the only thing i can think of is that when you plug in the guitar, for a split second you will supply the ground(casing of the jack input) with 9v as the jack is sliding in. so there is the chance of electrical shock(or possibly a short), but 9v only makes you giggle. No, i don't so. I migt be mistaken, but aren't alot of guitars built this way, so the 9v is only supplying battery powere when pluged in? And some famous renablistic common sense: With guitar pedals you have a 9v power supply, and you don't get shocked, or short out anything when you plug into them. But the again, those don't turn on until you step on em... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john Posted January 25, 2004 Report Share Posted January 25, 2004 no, most guitars have the battery inside the guitar, the mono jack inserted into the stereo socket causes the 9v circuit to be grounded, thus allowing current to flow. if you look at the diagram of the jack johnnyg drew, you will see that the 9v portion will touch the casing of the jack b4 it arrives at its own point of contact. if you are holding the jack in your hand(and its metal ended jack)then you are touching ground. if you happen to make contact with the socket on the guitar while the 9v portion is touching it on the way in, well then you have just become a resistor joing 9v to ground.... hence the little shock(just a giggle ). im pretty sure im right on this, either that or the last 4 years of electronic engineering in university have gone to waste just trying to clarify the point i was making. john. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyG Posted January 25, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2004 John actually has a good point. i might have to sort something out to deal with that posabilities could be swapping the +9 volts and the ground of the lead around, that way the 9v channel on the lead would never be able to touch the inside of the guitar but that would pose problems with the box since the opposite would be true i coul;d always have a big capacitor in series with the output but then theres other problems..... im gonna have to give it some thought before i do it lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace Posted January 25, 2004 Report Share Posted January 25, 2004 don't plug the box into mains before you plug the guitar in...easy, huh? so long ace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyG Posted January 26, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2004 lol yes that is easy but my engineering filled head wont let me take the easy option out lol plus id forget to do that one time, do it wrong and fry the electronics in my guitar. this needs to be idiot proof lol but the problem is that idiots are so ingenious Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jefm Posted January 26, 2004 Report Share Posted January 26, 2004 Hmmm...interesting idea... I'd say you should go with a battery clip inside with a power supply switch as well in case you can't use your box for some reason...or even to use while you're building the box...it'd be just another option to make it more bulletproof... You could keep the switch inside...actually inside is a great place to hide switches you only use once and a while...like if you want to have a phase switch to use once in a blue moon but not an extra hole.... If you could pack 3 effects in there you could use a second strat switch to move between them... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace Posted January 26, 2004 Report Share Posted January 26, 2004 this needs to be idiot proof lol but the problem is that idiots are so ingenious Agreed, idiots will always find a way around ANY safety measure. But another idea...because you are the only one who is going to use this appliance and you're making all the connections yourself, why not simply go with the following wiring: Ground Tip/+9V | |~~~~ /:------I-----I------| \:------I-----I------| | |~~~~ Signal that way, you'd only have a cycle between +9 and ground in the final position of the plug (plugged in all the way I mean). And Engineering filled heads are a pain sometimes, but after 5 semesters mine has not yet been pressed into shape completely by university (partly because I skip so many classes ) so long ace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyG Posted January 26, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2004 i realised as i was sitting in maths just now (like f**k id be working) that there is a really really easy way of doing this just put a diode the ground line just before it goes to the ground connection on the jack. that way when you plug the jack into the guitar, for the momentary second when the 9volts channel was touching the ground connection on the jack it wouldnt fry the electronics because the diode would stop it the voltage drop across the diode is negligable so it wouldnt effect the electronics inside and it would be very very cheap. im not planning on putting this into this guitar atm since its going to be my first project and making things too complicated to begin with is normally a bad idea. also i 9 volt battery would be fine since its just one effect i do have other ideas that this would be perfect for (im liking the idea of a big fat baritone scale 7 string with active pickups, some ridiculouslly crunchy distortion and a sustainer built in tho its a long way off) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyG Posted January 26, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2004 bit of info on the actual project stuff lol have contacted the guy selling and given him my mailing address etc. he has actually been kind enough to give me a better quality neck that fits the body better which is really kind of him. his ebay name is ditninze and he's based in the reading so any UK guys looking for guitar parts may want to contact him looking forward to actually being able to start my first project Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyG Posted January 26, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2004 pic of the body and neck, the guy just put them together and took a pic to send me Body and Neck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jefm Posted January 26, 2004 Report Share Posted January 26, 2004 I guess it's good that you didn't get the other body... but that one is SSS didn't you want HSS??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyG Posted January 27, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 27, 2004 yeah the original idea was H-S-S but in retrospect ive decided that itd be quite good fun to have a true single coil only guitar. i need something for my punk and rock playing and the pickups on my kramer (quad rail humbucker in the bridge) is just way to metal for it really Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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