Some Assembly Required.

[avengers63]

or - I need a Partscaster.

 

Some of you may be familiar with GuitarFetish. Or not. They retail Chinese guitar parts & pickups. I've seen several youtube reviews, and the pups, though cheap, actually have individual character. So they have a sale every month which takes off 25% from the clearance section. I decided to pull the trigger on a finished poplar Strat body and an unfinished Strat neck. The neck ($26) had a little glue residue at the nut, while the body ($54) had a scuff that I can't find.  The finish prolly isn't that thick, and has a little orange peel in places, but for a normally priced $80 finished sunburst Strat body, ya gotta expect these things. Overall, I have no complaints. The neck just got a light coat of linseed oil, so it's a little shiny.

I said I have no complaints, but that's with the quality. GF's customer service is another story. They initially sent it to the wrong address because, despite changing my address in their system and checking the address before I placed the order. They were really reluctant to contact UPS to change the address mid-shipment, and then complained to me that they had to pay $17 to change it. Sometimes, that's just the cost of doing business. In any event, you NEVER complain to the customer that you had to correct a problem you are responsible for.

Anyway.....

The rest of the parts I got on Amazon - mostly Wilkinson. They're definitely NOT high end parts, but this isn't a high end Partscaster, so it's only appropriate.

My original plan was to use a set of Peavey Super Ferrite blade single coils. The center route won't accommodate them, and I'm not gonna route it out, so there goes that.

A few hours of deliberation landed me on these. I had them lying around in my drawer of pickups. It feels decadent to have several drawers full of old guitar parts, just lying around. 

One reason I landed on them is that they're different (mini-HBs), and they're 4-conductor. But I don't know how to identify the leads. They're currently reading about 4.25K, so I suspect they're currently wired parallel. That being said, if anyone can point me to a resource on how to properly identify the leads on a mystery pickup, I'd greatly appreciate it.

So why was 4-conductor important? Cuz you can do some weird wiring options with 2 4/c HBs and a 5-way blade switch. But wait-  there's more!  This afternoon, I ordered a Wilkinson Tele neck pickup. That's going in the middle with an on/off switch. IDK if anyone has used a Tele neck in the middle before. They have a unique character/twang that should make for some interesting combinations. When I first thought of it, I was gonna do the normal Ibanez HSH wiring. Then I thought about this and the Ibanez thing suddenly became boring. Truth be told, i was looking for a chrome single to match the minis when I saw the Tele neck pup. Given that it's mini-HBs, and the T neck is smaller than "normal", it all seemed to want to come together like this.

So again, help identifying the leads is officially requested.

[mistermikev]

2 hours ago, avengers63 said:

or - I need a Partscaster.

 

Some of you may be familiar with GuitarFetish. Or not. They retail Chinese guitar parts & pickups. I've seen several youtube reviews, and the pups, though cheap, actually have individual character. So they have a sale every month which takes off 25% from the clearance section. I decided to pull the trigger on a finished poplar Strat body and an unfinished Strat neck. The neck ($26) had a little glue residue at the nut, while the body ($54) had a scuff that I can't find.  The finish prolly isn't that thick, and has a little orange peel in places, but for a normally priced $80 finished sunburst Strat body, ya gotta expect these things. Overall, I have no complaints. The neck just got a light coat of linseed oil, so it's a little shiny.

I said I have no complaints, but that's with the quality. GF's customer service is another story. They initially sent it to the wrong address because, despite changing my address in their system and checking the address before I placed the order. They were really reluctant to contact UPS to change the address mid-shipment, and then complained to me that they had to pay $17 to change it. Sometimes, that's just the cost of doing business. In any event, you NEVER complain to the customer that you had to correct a problem you are responsible for.

Anyway.....

The rest of the parts I got on Amazon - mostly Wilkinson. They're definitely NOT high end parts, but this isn't a high end Partscaster, so it's only appropriate.

My original plan was to use a set of Peavey Super Ferrite blade single coils. The center route won't accommodate them, and I'm not gonna route it out, so there goes that.

A few hours of deliberation landed me on these. I had them lying around in my drawer of pickups. It feels decadent to have several drawers full of old guitar parts, just lying around. 

One reason I landed on them is that they're different (mini-HBs), and they're 4-conductor. But I don't know how to identify the leads. They're currently reading about 4.25K, so I suspect they're currently wired parallel. That being said, if anyone can point me to a resource on how to properly identify the leads on a mystery pickup, I'd greatly appreciate it.

So why was 4-conductor important? Cuz you can do some weird wiring options with 2 4/c HBs and a 5-way blade switch. But wait-  there's more!  This afternoon, I ordered a Wilkinson Tele neck pickup. That's going in the middle with an on/off switch. IDK if anyone has used a Tele neck in the middle before. They have a unique character/twang that should make for some interesting combinations. When I first thought of it, I was gonna do the normal Ibanez HSH wiring. Then I thought about this and the Ibanez thing suddenly became boring. Truth be told, i was looking for a chrome single to match the minis when I saw the Tele neck pup. Given that it's mini-HBs, and the T neck is smaller than "normal", it all seemed to want to come together like this.

So again, help identifying the leads is officially requested.

well the red and white wires twisted together there is a clue.  it likely means they are wired in series and very low output pickups.  I wouldn't fret... on chinese pickups that's a good thing because typically they are mud so low output is likely going to mean brighter.  they also look like filtertron clones - filtertrons are very low output pickups.  that said I'd bet money your wilkinson tele pickup is going to overpower the heck out of your knockoff filtertrons.  I suggest you re-think that combo and get a lipstick tube - also a very low output pickup but chrome cover (just ensure you get a strat one, not a dano one - the dano style ones are longer and thinner and mount dif).  gfs has some lipsticks but they are really just artec and you'll prob save $10 buying artec off evilbay.

afa leads... black is likely live,  green and bare are likely ground.  if you put it on a multimeter, and tap the coils... and it goes neg - then you have them backwards.

[mistermikev]

"Filter’Trons typically have a DCR of 3k-5k, which seems very low.

However, due to the size of the magnet and the tall and narrow configuration of the coils, Filter’Trons are considered to be on the louder side of the pickup range. This lower output allows the pickups to keep the single coil clarity, while the construction allows for humbucker warmth."

well I'll be, did not know they were s'posed to sound loud... i guess you'll have to let us know how that works out.

[avengers63]

So I sat down this morning, figured out the leads for the mini-HBs, checked the output on the tele neck pup, and looked up some wiring schematics. As is wont to happen, just everything went sideways.

The schematics I was wanting to use all require a super-5-way switch, not the normal type. As I ain't spending another $15+ for a switch on a budget build, that's out.

The HBs come in at just under 6K. That's well within normal for mini HBs. The tele neck was advertised to be 6.5-7.4K. It's coming in at about 11K.

So it's back into the pickup drawer to see what the options are. I don't wanna have to buy anything, but I don't wanna compromise more than I have to either. This will prolly take a few hours of deliberation.

 

Several hours later: I found a set of alnico II covered HBs and a super 5-way switch. I didn't really wanna get them, but it's the best solution I can find.

[ScottR]

The overcoming of all the little snags, gives the finished guitar a lot of it's character....

But wouldn't it be grand to build a guitar without any of that kind of character, just to see what that's like?

I'm pretty sure that's something I'll never know.

SR

[avengers63]

I realized this afternoon that I was posting these in the wrong thread. 

 

I went out to the garage this morning looking for tuners for the partscaster. I have 6 sets, all of which are 3+3. Looking through the pile for one to disassemble for the tuners, the Westone Dynasty was the only real choice. A maple body with a maple neck is piercingly bright. I don't like it, never play it, it's been gathering dust for several years, so it's doomed to die. While I was at it, I might as well disassemble the Rhythm King as well since it's been sitting at least 6-7 years unfinished.

I good news, the RK's pups ARE real Tiesco HBs. The clock in at just over 20K and are smaller than normal HBs, but not as small as minis. I gotta hold on to them for a bit. Seems like they ought to be worth a few dollars.

For the p/g, I bought another pre-routed for 2 HBs. I needed to put a route for the tele neck in the middle, so I used the aluminum shield as a placement guide, making sure it'd sit properly in the middle pup route. Then I used the template for final placement. The plastic film was still on it at this point, so that;s what was drawn on, not the p/g.

 

 

I took off 2 saddles to line up the bridge with the string holes and saw that it doesn't line up with the p/g. This is the type of thing you have to be prepared for when making a partscaster from Chinese parts coming out of different slave labor camps highly efficient factories of The Glorious People's Republic.

 

All things considered, I think it'll look pretty damn good when it's all done. The HBs are chrome covered, so the middle pup gives a real indicator for the final thing. Allegedly, they should be in today. I might or might not be able to get to the wiring today. If not, I can't touch it 'till Tuesday.

[avengers63]

So.......  I had my multi-meter set wrong. All of my previously described outputs were radically off. Like the tele neck I thought was 12? It's closer t0 5.5. WHOOPSIE! The mini HBs might have been just fine afterall. Too late now!

So here's what we have:

Given that these are Artec, they appear better than I expected. The baseplates are nickle, rather than the cheaper gold-toned bases we usually see in cheap pups. This is a pretty good sign to me as the nickle are a more expensive plate. (I've been doing my research on pickup construction and magnet differences.) They're supposed to be anlico II magnets, which make a more single-coil sounding HB. The listing had them at 7.2K/12K, which is about what my meter reads now that I have it set up right. For the actual sound, I don't have extremely high hopes in a $45 set of HBs, but the Artecs I've had in the past were pretty decent, so we'll wait and see.

[avengers63]

My wiring is always pretty ugly, but always seems to work.

[avengers63]

Final assembly this morning!

This is garbage, even for a Chinese knockoff. These are all done on a CNC machine, and the programmer couldn't be bothered to get the back ferrule holes straight! Will it really effect anything? No. Will I ever be able to let it go? Also no. I mean, there's cheap and there's lazy. I can accept cheap.

Minor fitment issue. To be expected with a cheap partscaster. For all I know, this is normal. Prolly not, but I can't say. In any event, it's covered by the fretboard overhang, so it's not a big deal.

After it was assembled enough to test the wiring, there were a couple of issues. I followed the schematic explicitly, but it had the pups reversed. The neck was in the bridge position on the switch and vice-versa. Simple fix. There were also some loose ground wires. The middle pup was supposed to be into a volume pot, then straight to the output. That didn't work so well, so I tied it to the main volume and it's all happy now.

I also needed to shim the neck a bit to get the angle right. The bridge saddles were up all the way, but there was still fret buzz and a little fretting out. A little angle goes a loooooong way. And you do NOT need to be high-tech with it. Just a staggered thickness of a note card did the trick.

And here she is all done. I didn't put the rest of the p/g screws in yet, but that's not important here.

It sounds basically like I was wanting it to sound. The alnico II HBs are bright, just like I was intending. In full HB mode, they're almost like a s/c but without the twang. Tapping them obviously loses a lot of output and thins them down quite a bit, but that's to be expected.

The tele neck n the middle does amazing things to the sound! I'm extremely pleased and more than a little surprised with how much it alters things. 

The only disappointment I have in the overall sound is that the neck pup alone isn't as warm as I'm used to. I expect that's a product of the alnico II magnets. Perhaps in the future I might want to swap it out with a IV or V.

I'll mess around with a cell phone video and try to post some sound clips later.