TParker2 Posted April 16, 2020 Report Share Posted April 16, 2020 Finished designing what I hope will be my dream guitar. Body is Ash and chambered. F hole is there for looks, but might help give some feedback. Neck is a shallow U shape with a Gretsch style headstock. Used that shape instead of the standard fender design in that.... well I'm kind of bitter that I spent my younger years trying to get my fingers to fit in the narrow spacing of a Strat neck. I smaller fingers or much more talent! I don't like having the jack in the front of the guitar. Going to mount it in the bottom. Pickups- the front is a TV Jones P90 and the back is a TV Jones hum-bucker. Controls- yeah weird I know. My plan is to set it up more like a Gibson. Top dials will control the neck. First two knobs on bottom will control the bridge. Not sure what I'll do with third knob. Switches- The top has on and off switches for tone on each pickup. I'm not going to go with a normal three way selector switch in that I have a hard time slapping the switch to the middle position when playing. What I'm thinking is make the first switch a selector between the two pickups. The second switch would be a on and off for selecting both pickups. I'm putting flat paddle switches on the guitar to help me catch them with the guitar pick. Think I got this crazy wiring figured out..... but will post pictures of the schematic to get some feedback. And yes I'm worried all the wiring will rob the think of tone. Maybe the third knob could be a bypass switch that runs the pickups without tone and volume controls? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TParker2 Posted April 16, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2020 Mmm pictures didn't post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TParker2 Posted April 16, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2020 3rd picture Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted April 16, 2020 Report Share Posted April 16, 2020 This will be fun! SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted April 16, 2020 Report Share Posted April 16, 2020 9 hours ago, TParker2 said: Maybe the third knob could be a bypass switch that runs the pickups without tone and volume controls? Or a blender? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted April 16, 2020 Report Share Posted April 16, 2020 right on. some interesting drawings. here's a few observations. you have one humbucker and one single coil... no mention of splitting... which means when they are both on you will get some hum... perhaps you've considered that and it doesn't bother you. second observation is: while the switches are organized by what makes sense to you visually from the top of the guitar... there is going to be a lot of extra wire going back and forth across the guitar to accomplish. again, perhaps this doesn't bother you. lots of options... I like that in a guitar... but lots of switches... ime can become hard to remember what combination of switches is the tone you like, but if you organize it well... it'll be fine. rock on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TParker2 Posted April 16, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2020 Joensuu.... by blender do you mean a blender of the two pickups. Yeah, I got thinking about that last night. That would make sense for when I select both pickups! Think that is a definite go. Yeah mistermekev, it is going to be a ton of wire in the guitar. The drawing I've worked up looks is kind of nuts. Plenty of room and I'm not worried about confusion since I plan to just keep it mine. Should I consider a different arrangement too keep things shorter on the runs?Maybe both tone controls at the top and both volumes at the bottom? What do you mean by slitting. Sorry very new to this. Is this splitting the coils thing? Or coil tapping? Just to hear how it sounds I put the p90 in another guitar that has cheap pickups. Doesn't have much hum. Guess the house is grounded very well and no 60 cycle lighting. But, that guitar does have a strange sound when I switch to both p90. Is that an out of phase thing? Got one flipped wrong? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gogzs Posted April 16, 2020 Report Share Posted April 16, 2020 30 minutes ago, TParker2 said: But, that guitar does have a strange sound when I switch to both p90. Is that an out of phase thing? Got one flipped wrong? I'm pretty sure P90s can't be flipped wrong so it'll be something else. I love this build, I usually go like "this is what I wanna be able to do" and then use the minimum amount of parts possible to achieve that (be it home automation projects, software projects or now, guitar building). And you went the complete opposite way, threw in a handful of pots and switches on it and went like "let's see what I'll use these for" haha, mad scientist, godspeed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted April 16, 2020 Report Share Posted April 16, 2020 1 hour ago, TParker2 said: by blender do you mean a blender of the two pickups. Exactly. I've got one on my Strat and it just adds that little extra twang to the neck or some warmth to the bridge pickup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted April 16, 2020 Report Share Posted April 16, 2020 6 hours ago, TParker2 said: Joensuu.... by blender do you mean a blender of the two pickups. Yeah, I got thinking about that last night. That would make sense for when I select both pickups! Think that is a definite go. Yeah mistermekev, it is going to be a ton of wire in the guitar. The drawing I've worked up looks is kind of nuts. Plenty of room and I'm not worried about confusion since I plan to just keep it mine. Should I consider a different arrangement too keep things shorter on the runs?Maybe both tone controls at the top and both volumes at the bottom? What do you mean by slitting. Sorry very new to this. Is this splitting the coils thing? Or coil tapping? Just to hear how it sounds I put the p90 in another guitar that has cheap pickups. Doesn't have much hum. Guess the house is grounded very well and no 60 cycle lighting. But, that guitar does have a strange sound when I switch to both p90. Is that an out of phase thing? Got one flipped wrong? well... you might want to use shielded wire wherever you can... and wouldn't want to have to troubleshoot it... but you'll be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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