avengers63

So I kinda accidentally bought a thing...;. It's an allegedly fully functional pickup assembly from a 1970's Russian Aelita. I looked up a youtube demo - they sound pretty cool. So I was looking on eBay for weird old pickups when I saw a seller in Russia had several, including 2 loaded p/g assemblies. I put them on my watch list, half hoping I'd get an offer. When I did, I lowballed him just to see what would happen. He accepted the offer. Add $35 shipping from Russia and I paid $100 for the loaded p/g. IDK if this works yet - I haven't done any multimeter testing. It's gonna sit on the shelf until at least Spring. The current thought, presuming that it works, is to try and clone the body shape. We'll see what happens when the time comes.

The pay for driving a semi in America has gone up a LOT in the last 2 years. When I got my license, pay at my level would have been around $50-55K. It's gone up $15-20K since the world went to Hell. Lack of people willing to just go to work is a big part of it.

Today is the last free day I'll have for a while. Tomorrow I start a new job. I'll be out on the road 5 days/week driving a semi, but I'll be getting about a $35K/year raise. This much of a raise is life altering, so I REALLY can't turn it down. I decided to take the opportunity to rip the wiring completely apart and re-assemble the whole thing. IDK what was different about it, but it all worked exactly as it should have this time. But wait.... there's more! The inside 4 strings fret out from about the 3rd to the 20th. The bridge saddles are all the way up, so I'll have to shim up the bridge. To do that, I'll need both warm weather and an entire day to screw with it. But at least the electronics are sorted out.

I got it all together and Christmas went off without a hitch. She was damn near in tears when she got it. That's totally not true. This is me. There's ALWAYS a hitch. Everything behaved as it should have... and then I put the p/g on the body and plugged it in. There is absolutely no sound whatsoever. It's gotta be grounding out somewhere. Ima try and put a layer of blue tape on top of the shielding foil and see if that does it.

I went in for the final assembly this morning. I decided to rout out the area underneath the switch to make room for it. Anyway, there were even more roadblocks. Color me not surprised. It turns out that I do NOT have a black jack plate or strap buttons. With all the crap I have sitting in drawers, I never considered that I wouldn't have them. Then the neck joint is a lot more narrow than that of a standard sized neck, so the neck plate I have is just too wide. Even if I used it anyway, the screws would hit to far out on the neck. I'd be VERY concerned that they'd even pop out the side of the neck if I tried to screw them in. So I ordered buttons, jack plates, and a set of ferrules. Hopefully it'll all be in next week. If not, I could be screwed for timing. At least it looks great. I'm glad I made the p/g imitate the back end of the body. I don't think it's a feature you'd notice right away because it just feels right.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Once I'm done with it, I'm done with it. If it means that much to you.....

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.

The wifey wants me to cut off the f/b and keep it for art purposes. I put a shit-ton of work into it and it completely failed me, so I'm more than a little disgusted with the whole thing. If you or anyone else is interested in the carcass, I'm willing to listen. Other than that, I really have no attachment to it whatsoever. Speaking of which..... before and after 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.

Here's the sad thing with it.... I never finished the guitar. It was a mostly hollow semi-archtop, no cutaway. I was calling it The Rhythm King cuz it stopped at (IIRC) the 15th fret. I tried to get away without a neck angel (and failed), leaving the strings so close to the pups that it was unplayable. It's a set neck, so there's no easy way to come back from that one. I put a pair of (allegedly) Tiesco HBs in it. To date, I've still never heard them. I'm thinking seriously about paring down the guitars I have to what's 1) really good, and 2) not duplicating what another ax does. EG: I don't need 3 strats, regardless of the body shapes. The Rhythm King, along with the Hand Of God inlay, is one of those destined for deconstruction.

Here's the real pisser. The wood I started out with was almost 2" thick. As it's for a girl, I wanted to make it thinner and lighter. So I kinda did this to myself. I also haven't made one in quite some time, so there are things I simply forgot to do... like make sure the cavity is deep enough

CUSS WORDS I got the neck shaped this morning. No problems there. It's currently drying thoroughly from the mineral spirits wipedown before it gets some oil. In the meantime, I did a test fit to see how everything would look. And then things went pear-shaped... again. The control cavity is too shallow for the blade switch by 1/4"-3/16". Were I to rout the cavity deeper, I'd only have about 1/16" left. That's not enough for my comfort. Even if I WERE OK with it, there's great possibility of the wiring at the crest of the blade to contact the foil shielding, possibly grounding it out. I was sooooooo close to being done. more cuss words I have two options that I am aware of: 1) Cut the hole and make another cavity cover for the rear. This would let me save the pickguard, wiring plan, and soldering I've already gone. I REALLY hate both wasting product and re-doing something. This also requires nothing more be bought. 2) Get a basic 3-way switch, a couple of DPDT mini-switches, make a new p/g, and re-wire the whole thing. This is the lease palatable to me, but probably the right move. If anyone else has a better idea, I'm wide open to suggestions.

Scott: I'm honored that you remembered the Hand Of God inlay. MisterMikeV: Will this do?

Oh...... I get it now. I didn't make that Chinese dragon. I bought it from an eBay seller super cheap. Now, had I the raw materials, I prolly could make it, but I can't claim credit for this one. In other news, I habitually have difficulty with the wiring, but I can't stop myself from making it harder than necessary. Everything is all wired up and ready to go (hopefully). I used a 5-way switch and an auto-tap schematic from Seymour Duncan. The Hamer pickups I'm using were previously set up as a plain HB, so it wasn't difficult to figure out what was the start/end of each coil. Also, these pups are HOT. The neck is just under 20K, and the bridge is just over 20K. As singles, they're still clocking around 10. Being that hot, they're prolly ceramic. As ceramics are pretty bright and they're tapped, I used 250K pots to peel a little back off the top end.

That's how I feel when you break out the chisels.

Inlays cleaned up, fretboard sanded, frets installed & beveled (but not dressed).

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.

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.

Not much of an update. I spent all day yesterday inlaying the fretboard. I DID end up going with the Chinese dragon, as well as abalone dots and an abalone lower-case J at the 1st fret. Her name is Josie, so it'll work as both my "logo" and her name. Today I had to do a 2nd round of epoxy to fill in all the holes that remained. I mixed the epoxy with ebony dust. Unless you're right on top of it, you won't be able to see the outrageous gaps. Also, her mom decided the body needed to be turquoise. Good thing ash dyes so extremely well. Bonus shot of the corporate gas card I forgot to turn in before I left work Monday.

Wasted Days and Wasted Nights.mp3 And speaking of the ZOOM 8-track, this is my 1st attempt of MANY to come. It's a far cry from perfect, but for a first try, it ain't too bad!

Neck, out of the clamps, fretboard trimmed. I'm not gonna shape the neck until I get the inlays in, and maybe fretted. It prolly took 2 hours, but I finalized the shape of the pickguard. I also got a big sheet of textured plastic to use as p/g material. It's twice the size as a "real" blank for the same price. I'll prolly look into un-textured pieces in the future. Another 90 minutes and the body is routed. I'm leaving the neck pocket for another day. I need to log some time with my ZOOM 8-track.