Pacifica 112M

Wow! That looked like quite an undertaking.

It looks like you're still including the ground wires from pot casing to pot casing-- am I just blind? The conductive tape should be able to do that job, so you're setting up the potential for ground loops if you duplicate the ground path.

But if it's all wired up and you're not hearing any obnoxious hum, probably best to leave well enough alone! Don't fix something that ain't broke, and all that stuff. Hats off to you for this wiring job. I feel co-frustration at soldering fiddly wiring, though perhaps you didn't find yourself frustrated at all. All those lugs, all those wires... I've done it, and I'll do it again... but it really starts to do a number on my hand-eye coordination and my concentration.

Going back to the ground loop issue... I went back and looked at the stock pots and they were connected together by a ground wire as well as sharing the connection I assume was created by the stock aluminum shielding. Is it common to leave off the pot casing ground wires when you have the conductive shielding?

Wow! That looked like quite an undertaking.

It looks like you're still including the ground wires from pot casing to pot casing-- am I just blind? The conductive tape should be able to do that job, so you're setting up the potential for ground loops if you duplicate the ground path.

But if it's all wired up and you're not hearing any obnoxious hum, probably best to leave well enough alone! Don't fix something that ain't broke, and all that stuff. Hats off to you for this wiring job. I feel co-frustration at soldering fiddly wiring, though perhaps you didn't find yourself frustrated at all. All those lugs, all those wires... I've done it, and I'll do it again... but it really starts to do a number on my hand-eye coordination and my concentration.

I see what you're saying about ground loops. You're right, I didn't really think about that. It does not hum, however. It's definitely quieter than the other stock 112 my son has. Still, I may need to revisit that issue.

As far as being fiddly, it helps when you have two pairs of hands. There was a lot of four-handed soldering going on, this being a father-son project.

pretty sweet i worked on one of there older models the eg112c what kind of wood was yours made of i have been thinking about working on one but was not sure how different it was from the eg. You guys did a great job i wish my wiring looked half as good lol.

Thanks. According to the specs, the body is Alder.

I'd be curious to see your diagram!

As for the 4-lugs thing... the odds of accidentally touching the exposed wire with another wrong lead are pretty slim in most cavities... I wouldn't personally bother with 3 little loops. I can say that having already done the "bazillions of little loops" thing. I find it really fiddly and annoying to do all that claustrophobic work for no actual benefit. Remember, you will have to solder *2* wires at once doing it the "little loops" way. Once you've soldered one little loop and you go to add the next one in the series, the heat on the lug will melt the original loop's connection... so you're re-soldering it at the very least, and having to fart around holding it in place at the most.

There's probably a better technique for doing the "little loops" thing than I used, but even if there is... I can't imagine it being as easy and straight forward as one bare wire across the 4 lugs.

Covering it with electrical tape isn't a bad idea at all, though. The way it was worded made it sound like a "hack" or whatever, but that's what the tape is for. By all means, cover the bare wire with electrical tape if you decide to go with the 1 bare wire method.

Greg

Here's the finished product in the In Progress forum.

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=30588

Thanks to all for the advice and help.

Well, here it is, our father-son project. My son's first guitar was a Pacifica 112J and I been a fan of these since. We wanted to do a project guitar, so when I found this black 112M sans tremolo on ebay, it seemed to be the perfect choice. I first thought we would just scrounge used parts on ebay, but I ended up buying all new. The guitar itself was almost brand new. Sigler Music (super nice people, by the way) here in AR had it as part of the inventory purchased from another music shop closing out. Apparently someone needed the vintage trem, scavenged it and never replaced it. The plastic protective film was still on the pickguard.

BEFORE

And the original guts...

AFTER

Here's what it has:

GFS Strat Vintage Alnico Stagger pickups in the neck & mid positions

GFS Dream 180 in the bridge

250k Alpha push/pull pots at volume and tone controls

.022uf Sprague Orange Drop tone capacitor

Stainless steel trem with brass block from Dancing Dragon (thanks for recommending this one lowbrow!). I think this is a Mighty Mite part, but I can't be sure.

5-position 4-pole lever switch from Guitar Electronics. I bought my copper shielding tape and wiring from these folks as well.

We decided that the black & white scheme would look cool, so I bought the knobs and switch. The 15 tone wiring scheme was done for my son by Deaf Eddie. Deaf Eddie is just about the nicest and most informative guy I've ever encountered on the net.

Fitment issues were minimal. Like lowbrow mentioned about the trem, I did take a router and made an ever-so-slight relief in the trem rout for the nut that secures the tremolo arm.

The Dream 180 was just a smidge too big to go into the hole that housed the original Yamaha humbucker, so I made a small router jig and took another 1/32" or so off one long edge of the opening.

The GFS black pickup covers did not exactly fit their Vintage set, but it didn't take much to make them work. I had a fresh set of drills, and fortunately I was able to gently twist a new 7/32" bit by hand in the holes and it fit just fine. The black covers were just a smidge taller than the white ones that came with the set, but I just trimmed a bit of thickness from the flange and this worked out fine as well.

The copper tape for guitarelectronics works great. It adheres well and is conductive without soldering the laps.

It sounds great. Maybe I can convince my son to post some clips. He's the player. I'm just a wannabe.

Revealing my inexperience again. How do you use the shielded wire that is typically connected to the output jack? I have some shielded wire that came with a kit, braided outer with a single conductor inner. Can someone explain to me how and where the braided shielding is to be connected?

If its just a single wire inside a shielded braid the inner wire is your signal or hot wire and is connected to your volume pot center tab and jack tip lug and the shield is the earth which is connected to the earth point in the control cavity, normaly the Volume pot casing , and the other lug for the casing of the jack.

Thanks. I understand about the hot wire. Just to make sure I don't misunderstand, the braided portion serves as the ground (earth), connected to the volume pot body at one end and the ground lug at the output jack? So if I'm using a shielded cable then, this is the only cable to the output and there is no other cable to it?

Revealing my inexperience again. How do you use the shielded wire that is typically connected to the output jack? I have some shielded wire that came with a kit, braided outer with a single conductor inner. Can someone explain to me how and where the braided shielding is to be connected?

I am working on a 15 (or so) tone set up that uses a 5-way 4-position "super switch". The diagram shows the pos. HB lead connecting across 4 of the switch's soldering lugs. Do you strip sufficient jacket from the wire to span all 4 lugs with exposed wire or do you make 3 little "loops"?

Also, what is the procedure for soldering an orange drop cap to the push/pull pot body? I need specific info about how to make this solder connection without damaging the pot or the cap.

Thanks.

I am going to put copper foil shielding in the pickup and control cavity. Right now, the stock pickguard has aluminum shielding in the area of the controls. Is there any problem with leaving the current aluminum shielding in place?

yeah i actually went on that website not long after posting this. The problem is that they have Every diagram available, accept the one i need.

They have a Strat Almost for what i need, but not quite.

It's 2 SC & 1 HB p/u, volume, 2 tones & 5--way selector. You know, a strat setup. I'm actually building it from scratch so nothing has been previously connected.

The other thing is that the HB has 4 wires to it. And since im looking to wire it up Series/Parallel, i would need to use all 4 rather then connecting the white/black wires together.

This complete setup i can't find anywhere and it's beginning to bug me

Thanks for the feedback tho.

Try deaf-eddie.net. He's the one who helped my son with a h/s/s setup the includes a superswithc 5-way 4-pole and two push pulls.

Anybody clips or know where there is a link to sound clips of the GFS Dream 180?

I think it's a MightyMite part, so it's probably good quality.

I found out that it does appear to be a might mite part. I just ordered one from their ebay listing. Another poster on the H-C forum had put this trem in a Yamaha and had rave reviews for it.

If you want to keep the vintage look, the Wilk VSVG is a great piece.

Will the Wilkinson VSVG work with the 2-1/16" hole spacing? It is a good looking trem.

Any opinions on the Dancing Dragon vintage trem? It has 2-1/16" spacing, brass block, and claims to have a stainless steel plate and saddles.

The GFS pickups are of no better quality than what's already in the guitar. I'd go with Duncan, Dimarzio, or EMG. They really don't cost much more and at least you'll get something better than what's in there. A Duncan set like the '59/Classic Stack/Classic Stack would be nice, or DiMarzio Virtual PAF/61/58, or EMG 85/SA/SA would sound very nice in that guitar and get you some of those nice vintage sounds.

As far as the trem goes, anything by Wilkinson, Gotoh, or Hipshot are great bridges. If you want to keep the vintage look, the Wilk VSVG is a great piece.

i know that the Pacifica sounds pretty good right outta the box, but I'm a little surprised that the GFS would not be an improvement. We thought abut the Duncan pickups but the GFS pups are getting such rave reviews that we thought we'd give them a try.

For the trems, unless I want to plug, drill or otherwise modify, I'm stuck with a bridge that offers 2-1/16" spacing. I have wondered if I can use a 2 pt instead of the 6 pt. I have no fear of installing the studs as long as I realize a benefit and that the new bridge will cover the remaining 4 holes. I don't want to get into finishing issues.

Thanks for your input.

I have bought a Yamaha Pacifica 112M that is in almost unplayed condition as a father-son project guitar. The only thing it does not have is a tremolo. Apparently the music shop cannibalized the trem from this guitar and stuck it back in the repair shop. The seller had bought out all the original shop's inventory and sold the Pac for cheap on ebay. The black finish is gorgeous and appears to be very thickly applied. Tthe maple fingerboard has nice grain and so does the neck. No glue-up lines in the headstock- this is all one piece. Other than the missing trem, the only issue appears to be that a couple of the fret ends need to be filed just a smidge, because you can feel an ever-so-slight protrusion at the neck.

First decision we need to make is for the tremolo. I now know that I need a trem with 2-1/16" spacing. So many decisions. Cast saddles vs. stamped steel. Zinc vs brass vs steel blocks. Like everybody else, I want the most bang for my buck.

FWIW, the woodworking end of things is not a problem. I have a fairly well equipped woodworking shop, so drilling, routing, etc. is not a problem.

Once we get our trem issues figured out, here's what we plan to do:

Pickups:

GFS I01 Strat Vintage alnico stagger single coils for neck and middle

GFS Dream 180 Black on Black for Bridge.

We might vary and do a PAF of Cruncy PAF or even their Liverpool Vintage but the dual-purpose promise of chime and PAF sound from the Dream 180 sounds pretty good.

We plan to do some of the creating wiring techniques, add switches for the whole series / parallel/ out of phase / coil tapping stuff.

This is going to be for everything from Beatles to Jimi to later classic rock like Zepellin. Current amp is a Vox Valvetronix AD30VT.

Why a Pacifia, you ask? When we shopped for a first guitar a few years ago, the Pacifica kept coming up as a good first guitar. We ended up with a 112J in Old Violin Sunburst and it has turned out to be just as described. A great guitar for the money and then some. I've come to prefer it's shape as it varies a bit from the Strat. The Pac 112 is just a bit sleeker. The neck is legendary - everyone seems to rave about it. This first Pac 112J has been played so much it's about due for a fret dressing. We want to mod a guitar, but I hate to start on the first guitar. So we decide to get this Pacifica, experiment on it. We feel like the quality of this guitar justifies it's use as a mid-grade modder.

Interest in hearing advice on the trem issues as well as your thoughts on the pickups.