avengers63

I got a set of TV Jones "scratch & dent" 'Trons last year. They're both perfect, so I just got a great deal. Anyway, I was planning on getting a Chinese Gretsch White Falcon clone to put them into. The build quality on the Chibson SG I got for Christmas was damn good, so I figure it's worth another go. 

When this one is done, ya gotta post some sound samples of the Artecs. I have a set of Artec 1/4 pound Tele pups that sound pretty decent.

I love me some P90s also. They live in a sweet spot between a HB and a SC - a little beef and a little twang. In fact, I recently bought a custom Chibson SG with 3 P90s. In the near future, I'll be getting a set of Lindy Fralins to put in there.

I'm sure this was covered early in the thread. Not that this has ever made anyone go back and look for the info. That's just not what we do.

Why did you go for a P90 in the neck instead of a Tele neck pup?

9 hours ago, machinebrain said:

the sound clips are not working... I trust they sound well. I just got the same guitar and inspired by your setup, the pick ups as well. As for the tuners, where did you find those and what model will fit and for a good price? Interested to know.

thanks

I got the Wilkinson tuners on Amazon. They're inexpensive, but definitely not junk. They turn smooth enough and hold the string in tune. IDK what more you really need.

The green tint coat did wonders to bring out the color. 

Also, I'm glad the initial green/sandback on the limba vastly improved with the clear coat. It faded way back to become a subtle undertone.

Wow. 8 months. I didn't realize it'd been that long.

I stopped working on this one because I'm a little terrified that I might have screwed up the shell binding. I'm afraid I left it too proud, and when I sand it flat I'll go right through the pretty part. So fear led to inaction.

In the meantime.... (Beverly Hillbillies theme) Tax man said "Boy, I'm gonna take your dough!" So we're loading up the truck and moving to Tupelo. Mississippi, that is. Elvis's home, low taxes.

We just can't afford to live in Illinois any longer. Wifey works out of the home, and I drive linehaul for FedEx, so I can work almost anywhere. Property taxes are about 15% of what we're paying here. Cost of living is about 25% below us, gas is $1/gal less, and you get a lot more bang for your housing buck.

Once we're fully moved in and the shop is set up, I've dedicated myself to getting over my self doubt and finishing up this one, the Kelly, the StraTele, the church guitar, and the Aelita. It prolly won't be until the Fall. We're hoping to put our house up for same May1 and be in Tupelo a couple of weeks after. Our realtor is confident that with the upgrades wifey made to the interior, it'll sell for top dollar and give her a $50K profit over what she paid for it.

In any event, I'm likely to continue to be mostly absent for the next few months.

I'd not have considered the clamping notch on the inside piece of the mold. Rather obvious in hindsight.

You sound a lot like me. 

A random, likely bad , certainly bizarre ides wandered into your head.

It's so "out there" that you are now you are obligated to make it into reality.

On 12/9/2023 at 7:29 PM, woodfab said:

Do you feel the new pickups sounded better?

So far on my last three guitars I am putting it the (Epiphone Classic Pro Alnico Classic) pickups $50 for the pair..

They are from China so they might be fakes. I can always change them later if I hate them.

Well, we have the sound clips here, soooooo.......

I think they sound 10X better. To my ear, the stock pups were completely unusable. The bridge was bland & dead, and the neck was even tinnier than the bridge.

7 hours ago, henrim said:

Any reason why not make that hole bigger? I understand it’s not always straightforward but there’s usually a way around it.

2 reasons

1) I'd have to undo all of the wiring going through the hole already. Not that it can't me done, but it'd be a huge PITA.

2) Since I moved here 4 years ago, I haven't been able to find the long drill bits I'd use to do this, and I currently refuse to buy another. 

3) If I'm gonna just make another body next year, I don't wanna put any more effort into it. If I don't make another body, I can get a Gretsch White Falcon copy on AliExpress for <$300 and do some upgrades, including these pups. Honestly, this is the most likely option.

4) Frustration leads to rage quitting.

7 hours ago, killemall8 said:

how big is the hole? Must be super small if that wire wont fit

It has to accommodate 2 4-conductor pickup wires, 2 wires going from the individual volume pots to the switch, and another coming back from the master volume. The original HBs were single conductor, so this explains the lack of space.

Before i get going.... I like to put a towel down onto the table before I worn on my guitars. There are several reasons, all of which you can realize for yourself. Tonight I just grabbed the next one out of the cabinet without a second thought. After laying it out on the table....  I don't know what those kids did to it, and I'm better off not knowing. All I know is that it's going straight into the "rags" pile, and that I don't really want to touch it again.  

So does anyone remember this one? Only the old heads have a chance. 

It's a copy of the Gretsch Thunderbird. Mahogany body, thin maple cap, chechen neck, cocobolo fretboard, Gretsch humbuckers, There's a 3-way toggle, 2V, 1T, and master V. I was still buying the cheapest hardware available, so it all tarnished from sitting out for prolly 10+ years.

A few weeks ago, TV Jones had a sale on their blemished pickups. The TV Classics are normally about @$160. These were @$100. Like any sensible guitar addict, I realized this was finally the time to get the real thing and put them into the Thunderbird.

TRUTH: If there was a blemish of any type on either pickup, I couldn't find it.

They both came with foam spacers and wood screws for direct mounting, and a pair of tabs and necessary screws for PG/ring mounting. In case y'all were wondering how they worked, here's a couple of pictuires.

I also got a pair of rings for them. @$&.00 is highway robbery for pickup rings, but these are the only ones with the opening sized for TV Jones, so I went for it.

I made some sound samples of the Gretsch HBs, but they won't be making an appearance today.

I haven't picked this guitar up in a while. Like, in several years. Honestly, I'm embarassed by it. It's not that I didn't know what I was doing when I made it, it's that it's REALLY sloppy. I can't believe I had the balls to enter it into GOTM. It was on this first-in-years handling that I decided I was going to have to make another body for it next year. The neck is fine, so it can be kept. Everything else screwed to the body except the jack, switch, neck screws/bushings, and strap pins had to go.

So I got the old pups out and put in the new neck. I tested it without strings, and it worked. That's the beauty of a straight pup swap - it's just 2 hot & 2 ground. All the rest already works. When I tried to put in the bridge, it all ground to a halt.

The hole going from the bridge pup cavity to the control cavity is just too small. The wire will NOT go through no matter what I tried. Believe me, I tried everything. I've done this dance before and I know all the moves. So f* it. I took the pups and salvageable parts, put them into a box, and closed the door on the whole thing. The body & all the crap screwed to it can go into the burn pile. The rest sits on a shelf, probably until after we move next year.

How thick is the body? It looks like it'll weigh more than a LP.

I actually bought these on Amazon "used". That means they were a return. IIRC, they retailed for over $70, but I got these for around $50. $70 may or may not be right, but we all know Hipshots aren't cheap, so $50ish for a gold set is pretty damn good.

At least now I know not to waste the extra money on staggered tuners.

4 hours ago, killemall8 said:

Ive tried those staggered tuners before and the longer strings will still need a string tree unfortunately

That's what it's looking like to me too. 

A NIGHT TO MYSELF!!!!!! Just me and my guitars. I wanna (emotionally) lay them all out and roll around on them.

I don't get out much. Not a lot of human contact. It'll make ya weird.

Hipshot locking tuners. No string lock needed. They're also staggered, so hopefully no trees needed either. I'm going to wait and see on whether I need to cut any relied as the strings cross the end of the fretboard.

Kahler-like trem from Schaller. I'm only guessing, but it can't be any newer than the 90's. Kahler went out of fashion sometime in there, so the market for similar products would also dry up. I didn't get the original screws so I had to improvise. The rear are brass-like construction screws, The front are gold P90 screws. Use what ya got.

Black chrome neck plate and bushing.

Glamour shot before I get into the wiring. IDK if I'll be able to finish it up tonight, so this might be all ya get for another week.

I want to hear a "Strat" with 3 Tele bridge pups. BUT..... as it's the copper base plate that makes the magic, a traditional Strat set with baseplates would be just as interesting. Planet Tone said they would make them for an additional $15/ea. A 1/16" copper sheet is <$10 on Amazon. Makes me wanna try it out.

1 hour ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Yes indeed.  Comparisons of just the various Alnico types (III IV etc) show the HUGE differences in both tone and output.  My favourite for a LP-style layout humbucker arrangement are Alnico IV's (4)

I've come to enjoy Alnico II. V is versatile and a safe go-to, but it's also become generic.

And magnetized rubber magnets like you'll find in the cheap Tiescos. They have a really cool vibe you can't get with anything else. Nobody that I'm aware of will use what is equavalent to a refrigerator magnet to make an accurate reproduction. They'll use A-V, but that sounds completely  different.

I'VE GONE NUTS!!!

More accurately: I've gone string guide.

I use a zero fret, so the nut is reduced to a string guide to hold them in proper position. This allows me to make it from wood matching the fretboard. In this case, cherry. Next is to drill the tuner holes and re-oil some bits. Then I can finally go on to final assembly.

For the past couple of months, I've been going further and further down the rabbit hole of pickup theory and construction. The magnet type comparisons have REALLY opened my eyes... or ears as it were.

These two dudes have been an invaluable source of information:

https://www.youtube.com/@CSGuitars

https://www.youtube.com/@DylanTalksTone

They both cut through the marketing, voodoo, and various other piles of BS and get to the real, unbiased information.

I accidentally said "series" twice. That one is on me.

Just for the sake of being thorough... In order to cancel out the hum of a single coil, you must pair it with another single whose magnetic polarity is opposite of the first. So the middle pickup of a strat set and the second coil of a HB are reverse polarity.

A traditional HB is two coils wired in series. The signal passes through one coil at a time before going out to the amp. This produces a more powerful signal with a beefier low end at the cost of some high frequencies.

Position 2 & 4 on a Strat has the coils in parallel. This runs the signal through both coils at the same time. This is a less powerful signal but retains most of the characteristics of a single coil.

A HB can be wired either in series or parallel. It can also be enacted through a DPDT switch.

21 hours ago, ScottR said:

And I've just heard recordings of your voice and we sound a good deal alike.

That's actually a relief. Based on the lack of responses, I was really wondering if anyone was listening to the sound samples.

9 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Then again, isn't a dual single coil in both pickups mode basically a widespread humbucker?

 

Yes it is. But there are two differences. One, the coils are pretty far apart as compared to a HB. This will detect the vibrations at different points of the string as opposed to the two coils of a HB essentially getting the vibrations from the same point. The second is, IIRC, a HB is in series where positions 2 & 4 on a Strat are in series. It's still hum cancelling, but it's a different way of doing it. 

I now prefer single coils.

I started playing in 1987. I was all abut Hair Metal/hard rock at the time. Hard rock/metal was built on the foundation of a humbucker through a Marshall. This led me to the false mindset that singles had no balls and were the bets-male soy boys of pickups. Teles were for country, which is the antithesis of metal, and were therefore a clearly inferior instrument.

I was still in high school: young, still kinda dumb, and extremely opinionated. I'm still pretty opinionated, but I'm now able to hear other opinions with a critical ear.

So fast forward 35 years and I'm now heavily drawn to the single coil. The Tele bridge is just the neatest thing in the world. The harder the twang, the better. For harder applications, I'm leaning towards the P90. A HB is still great in the right applications, but those are becoming less prominent. 

I'm also leaning more towards overdrive instead of distortion. I'll always love the high gain of my youth, but a nice, warm, saturated OD with a s/c just resonates with me at this point in my life.

So have any of you older players gone through a similar journey?