Sethmetal

Dumb question, but being that it is shaped like an AK-47....would it be possible that the switch is actually the trigger. Give it a shot (No pun intended) but I bet that is a switch. I can't see why you would put more than one pickup without switching options.

I think most of us have been generalizing our comments about humbuckers. Single coils are usually not very hot, and therefore the winding difference between a neck and bridge single coil is very little. I'm also willing to bet that for production costs, the singles on a squier or similarly price guitar uses the same exact pickup in all 3 positions. I wouldn't expect to much of a change when switching positions. Except of course for the fact that the middle pickup is reverse wound usually.

I've found that if I want to use a really hot pickup in the neck, wiring it in parallel makes a more desirabel sound. Just a suggestion.

The tutorial here says to avoid the Testors brand paints because they tend to skin over. This is true, but I feel that I can get the effect I want as long as I work quickly. I may try plasticote in the future. But I am happy thus far. I mixed them at the same time. I'll keep this post alive with pics. How large are the plasticote bottles, how much and where did you get them?

I would definitely go with the concentric pots, maybe one pot can ahve volume and tone for the bridge and the other will have volume and tone for the neck. Just a suggestion, but do you actually use your tone knob??? I know most people (myself include) usually leave the tone knob at 10. This is basically the same as not having a tone knob. Unless you use your tone knob, I would just turn your tone knob into the other volume control.

Spacing can be a bit important. I have noticed that non-fspaced pickups put where an f-spaced pickup should be will produce un wanted effects. When the string is merely plucked, things will work ok, but especially on bending, you can experience slight dropouts in the out put. Nothing major, but it is a little noticable. More important than a weak neck pickup in the bridge is a hot bridge pickup in the neck. A neck in the bridge may yield a cleaner sound, but is still useable. A bridge in the neck often yields a muddy ugly sound which is nasty as a clean tone and unclear as a dirty tone. Just my observations.

Awesome, I'm glad it's not just me. I've never actually had the pleasure of holding one of Darren or Herc's swirls up close, so I never knew if they get these in there finishes. My pitting isn't very deep, I don't think I will have to fill them with clearcoat, although that is a good idea. So, does the clearcoat hide the visualization of the pits at all, I imagine not. Oh well, they aren't bad. There are a couple of small bumps from the paint being a little thick. I guess I will deal with it in the same way. I'll just build up the clearcoats. Too much fun! I'll post pics when I'm done. It's a green multi color swir, by the way.

So I did my first swirl today and it worked out pretty well. I like the pattern quite a lot. I read the tutorial and it mentioned spinning the guitar and blowing the drops of water off with heat-lamps, etc. I used spinning, shaking, blowing, a heat lamp, a hairdryer....and a good deal of those drops were still hanging on for dear life. So is there anything else I can do in the future to get these drops off? Or is water droplet pitting just a part of the process that has to be dealt with. Should I sand the pits down? I'd hate to go through the paint. Thanks for any help.

I know this has been asked a million times and believe me......I have searched the forum. WHAT KIND OF PAINT IS BEST FOR SWIRLING? BRAND? How about oil based house paint like you get at home depot? They'll mix any color. It is fairly liquid in form, and it is inexpensive for a pint. Would these bleed together? Would they take too long to dry? Would they even look good? How about interaction with spray on poly clear?

I have always used dimarzio pickups and they post the pickups output in milivolts. I have found this to be a fairly accurate representaion of the pickup's output. I have owned about 15 different dimarzio models to compare this imformation against. If you haven't already thought of it, lower your neck pickup to level out the volume.

The on/off/on switch you have is basically two switches wired together. Think of each row of three as a 2 seperate circuits. when the switch is in the middle is does nothing(off) when it is up it connects the upper lug to the middle lug, when it is down it connects the lower lug to the middle lug. To connect a pickup to it, you want to run a hot wire to the middle lug and the upper lug to your pickup hot. Then simply ground the ground on your pickup. You could hook a different pickups hot wire to the lower lug if you want it to operate like this: up: pickup 1 mid: off Down: pickup2 Without the 2nd pickup it will operate like this up: pickup 1 mid: off down: off

the most versatile option i can think of is this bridge- emg 81 mid - emg sa neck emg 89 options on a 5 way switch 1 bridge 2 bridge and mid 3 mid 4mid and sa in the 89 5 85 in the 89 1 and 5 would be hot metal settings and 3 and 4 would offer nice cleans, selection 2 would be in between

I know...I checked smallbear and all I saw was the actuator....which is the mechanical device that, when depressed, presses the seperate electric switch. Where do you see the switches on the page? Thanks -Seth

Yes, those actuators are used on the line 6 pedal board, but the part I need is THE BUTTON that the actuator depresses. I tried pressing the button without the actuators and it works intermittently. Does anyone know where to get these buttons?

Where can I find replacement switches in the back of a Line 6 Pedal Board? They are flat rectangular casings with a circular button. This button is pressed by a spring connected to the footpedal button. I think Digitech uses or has used similar switches. ANyone with Line 6 experience PLEASE HELP. Thanks

Where could a person purchase Lemon oil? That person being me. And that place, hopefully in San Diego. I am very interested.....hmmmmm

When I worked at Guitar Center I ordered a couple of Tremolos for me and other people. It isn't hard, you just need to talk to a salesman who cares to help and knows what they are doing. I worked in Pro Audio, so I wasn't supposed to deal with guitars, but no one else was patient enough or knew **** about Ibanez. I think it took somewhere between 2 weeks and a month to get em. Go on Ibanez's website and they have all of the product names for each item. If you are armed with this when you go, you're way ahead of the game. I recommend getting some of the plastic grommets for the Edge Trem while you're ordering. I seem to go through these like crazy. The bridge should come with 2 sets already, though. If you don't know what these are, they are what keeps the bar tight so it doesn't turn downwards.

I recently put some in a Ibanez Iceman IC400. They sounded killer. As far as wiring to the back of the pot. I simply wired the hot to the pot first. That helped to hold the wire in place as I soldered the ground to the pot. It was very easy and it makes for a cleaner cavity. My pickups came pre stripped. I assumed that they all came that way. Easiest pickup install I've ever done. Aside from the fact that it's active(which isn't the most common wiring setup), I'd say it is the easiest replacement job for a beginner.

That Diagram is right only if you bridge the two oute pins. A simple way to look at a dpdt is to understand a spdt One row of three lugs. The middle lug is always on, and the outer lugs are on when the switch is pointed to them. A DPDT is simply two of these. They are seperate circuits, controled by the same mechanical lever. To make and on/off switch, you need the hot from the device going to the middle lug. Then one lug to connect the rest of your circuit(on) and then the other lug to ground(off) This would leave one side of the switch completely untouched, the other side could be used to turn an led on and off.

Plenty thick for what??? Plenty thick for headaches and nightmares. I'm still avoiding working on that guitar. I have it sanded through the sealer in a couple of spots and am very timid of finishing the sanding(It takes forever). I don't want to sand through the veneer, but I lack the patience right now to sand for 4 hours. THAT SEALER SUCKS

I'm feeling much better about it now. I am basically building it up as you mentioned. I masked off the area surrounding, sprayed a coat of color, then began building up the clear. Luckily I had enough clear coats on already, so I will be able to sand it down without worrying too much about getting into mu stenciled designs. Also, I'm lucky it didn't hit the stenciled area. I'll watch out with my hangers from now on.

Yesterday, I came into the room where I have my bodies hanging to dry.....whoah that sounds pretty criminal. Anyway, I guess one of the coat hangers gave way. I found my Les Paul copy on the floor with two dents. I was so pissed. I was doing everything right. My clear coat was looking killer. I ended up saning the spot down (Re shaping the wood to fit within the profile of the curves. This still left some dent, so I am trying to fill it with clear coat to bringe the profile back in these spots. I think I'll be allright....always looks worse when you first see it. I just wanted to mention that it's a good idea to use really really really really really strong coat hangers. God hates me.

I guess you missed what I was saying. All of those options I mentioned are based off of your 2 volume, 2 push/pull tone, and 1 3way switch. I never said that you need to put mini switches in. The switches that I refered to is the push/pull, as it is essentially a mini switch. That being said, no need to drill holes. All of that including the half/half combo which I am about to explain, can be done with the parts you have. Again, I really recommend using the 3 way switch in conjunction with your other controls. It will simplify switching on the fly and maintain the stock look you are going for. I really love push-pull pots. I bought a guitar used that had one and I didn't even figure it out fo a week. I had no need to open the back plate, and even though I have push/pulls on my guitars I never thought that this stock looking guitar would have one. If that isn't a Testament to the stealth powers of a push/pull I don't know what is. Anyway, the Half/Half setup I would recommend the bridge be a coil tap and the neck be series parallel if you plan to go this route, it seems most useful to me. a) Both switches off 1) Bridge Series 2) Both pickups in series, wired together in P 3) Neck Series b)Bridge tap on 1)Bridge Single coil (with 60 cycle hum) 2)Bridge single and Neck Series, wired in P(humcancelling) 3) Neck Series c) Neck switch on, bridge switch off 1) Bridge Series 2) Bridge Series and Neck Parallel, wired in P 3) Neck in Parallel d) Both switches on 1) Bridge Single 2) Bridge Single and Neck Parallel, wired in P(Humcancelling) 3) Neck in Parallel This setup offers 8 options and only one had 60 cycle hum (When the bridge is tapped and alone.) Hope this helps. If I were in you're situation, I'd go with the two series/parallel switches)

As far as using spray cans, The poly that they sell at Home Depot or Lowes works fine. I would get one can of White primer (your color is pretty light so avoid a dark primer) 2 or cans of your color coat to be safe. And then 3 or 4 clear coat cans. I like a thick clear. Rustoleum has a specialty clear that I have been buying at depot. It seems pretty tough. Just allow enough drying time before you wet sand and buff. I hear some people on here waiting 2 weeks for dry time. I'd rather be extra cautious, so I plan to wait a month. If you haven't sprayed before, I'd buy some extra paint and some scrap would to practice first. Drips and runs are gonna piss you off if you don't. Just be patient and don't fart when you're spraying. J/k Ibanez Rules. What year 550 is it? What plans do you have for pickups?

You're going to need your 3 way toggle switch, so don't get too funky yet, between the switch and your two push/pulls, you have enough options to satisfy, check it out. I think you could do it without a switch, but the switch will make things easier. And it will function like you don't have a switch if you keep it in the middle position. In the middle you can blend with your volumes knobs as you suggested. One option is to use one of the push/pulls to coil tap both pickups. A coil tap only requires one pole. A push/pull has two so you could either have two seperate soil taps or one switch that does both. Here are the switching options. 1)Individual taps: a)taps are off 1 Bridge series 2 series bridge and series neck wired in parallel 3 Neck series b)Bridge tap on 1 Bridge single 2 Bridge single and series neck in parallel 3 Series neck c)only neck tap on 1Bridge in series 2 Series Bridge and single neck in parallel 3Neck single d)Both taps on 1Single Bridge 2 both singles in parallel 3neck single This setup gives you 8 uniques combinations With both tapping on one switch, you lose the conmbinations of singles mixed with humbuckers in parallel, so you only get 6 options Or you could have two seperate series/parallel switches (Series parallel requires 2 poles, so they have to be seperate switches) a) both off 1 bridge series 2 neck and bridgein series, wired together in parallel 3 neck series bridge on 1 bridge parallel 2 Bridge P and Neck S, wired in P 3 Neck Series c)Neck on 1 Bridge S 2Bridge S and Neck P, wired in P 3 Neck P d)Both on 1 Bridge P 2 Bridge P and Neck P, wired in P 3 Neck P This option allows for 8 options. Personally I would go for two series/parallel switches for these reasons: All positions are humcancelling, unlike coil taps You get 8 sounds, and utilize all of your parts Although you don't get single coil options, you bypass the noise factor, and get a similar sound in it's place. In my opinion a parallel bucker can be close to a single coils sound. Less output than series, and alot cleaner. Possibly not as bright as a single, but that depends on the pickup. The middle position on a les paul switch only allows to wire the two pickups in parallel. Which is fine, because two series pickups wired in series (A 4 coil series humbucker) might be alittle much on the gain spectrum. If you want you can also wire up one of each switch, maybe a coil tap bridge to get the strat and tele twang tones, and then a series parallel in the neck to get some smooth jazz, or ultra clean tones. You have lots of choices. Hope that my novel helps