Steve Luke

Can anyone recommend the best pots and cap for a LP Jnr type guitar with 1 x P90 and 1 each x Vol and Tone?

Many thanks

Personally, I like you original drawing better. but I'd go for the 3-a-side headstock rather than the 6-a-side.

This guy gives the specs to his 56 reissue LP --

4-500K Ohm Control Pots CTS

1-Switchcraft Straight Toggle Switch

2-.022 Mfd 400V Bumble Bee Capacitors(Replica)

But the site's in Japanese, I have no idea if he modded this himself, or if he's just proud of the guitar or what.

I thought that since P90s are single coils, they used 250k pots...nice to know!

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250K for singles, 500K for buckers, that's what I thought, too. Is it true that using a lower value (say 250K rather thatn 500K) will give you a warmer tone? so 250K could give the thing a warnmer sound? In any case I like the sound just as it coomes, so if 500K is what's recommended, that's what I'll stick with.

Thanks, both

Can anyone advise on the electrics I'll need to get that LP Jnr vibe (mellow and woody down one end, screaming up the other end) on a 1 x P90 guitar?

What value and/or type of pots and all-important cap for that tone control?

Thanks for your help

Whereabouts are you? Brandoni in the UK does LP necks (unfinished I believe) for aboout £75

Can anyone give me any info on walnut for a solid body, namely tone, weight, workability. Also, as it's a fairly dense wood I presume it doesn't need grainfilling, is this right? Any suggestions for finishing?

Thanks

If it's for scratch-built, you have the luxury of making the pickup cavity exactly the right size for the P90s, which will reduce the 'wobbly' effect I mentioned.  Can't wobble if there's no wiggle room to do so. 

Greg

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Yep, if my routing's OK! THese will be my first guitar projects, so I hope I can get the cavities just right. I've got some experience with routing, and I've had pretty clean results so far, so hopefully I'll have no problems routing the cavities to the exact size of the P90's, but as ever I'll practice on some scrap first - better to nalls up a scrap of pine than a £40 slab of mahogany!

Thanks for the help.

Yes, I've got 2 ideas on the go. One's a mahogany tele with P90's, the other's a shape I've designed myself based loosely on a Mosrite shape with a few changes. They'll both use pickguards, but obviously the pups will be mounted into the body.

Thanks to everyone for all your v helpful advice.

Ayup.

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So if I understand OK, the fact that the pup is only coming into contact with the pads and not the wood won't make much difference to the sound. In the same way that the pups on a strat are mounted onto the pickguard and are basically suspended inside the pup cavity without touching the wood - is this the same sort of idea?

Steve-

PUP height is variable- I start at about 1/4 and lower if I get 'stratitis' (wobeling sound if pup is too close) or move up if I need more power-

I use a piece of foam under my p90s but the rubber pads will do the same thing-

EVH made a big deal about mounting pup directly to wood but most have since conculded that it had no effect-

Cheers

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So the rubber pads will act as spacers and allow some "springiness" to move the pups higher or lower?

I've got a set of P90 soapbars to fit into a solid body. Can anyone give me advice on how best to do this?

Obviously the depth of the pup cavity will dictate the distance of the gap between the pup and the strings - what is the ideal distance for this gap?

Also, should teh P90 be bolted flat right up against the bottom of the pup cavity? My P90's came with a pair of rubber pads each, so I'm wondering if these should act as spacers between teh pup and the bottom of teh pup cavity, i.e. pup not bolted straight up against the wood.

Many thanks

http://www.feederweb.com/photos/new_photos/index.php?img=127

http://www.feederweb.com/photos/photos/index.php?img=8

well to be honest I just like the body style and the balance of the firebird. I detest mini-buckers. They look like bucker wannabes (looks, not tone mind you). i could put a humbucker in the bridge that I took out of my LP goth (like '57 classic plus) but i have no neck pickup that's not an EMG other than SCs and a cheap old stock bucker.  THat LP goth lead pup is the best OEM pup I've ever heard. Anyway back the subject, Green is my favorite color and if I bought the Epi firebird, I'd want different pups in it and there's not much selection as far as minibuckers go. I put the neck on it with the pickguard in place and I believe it creates a simple but striking look. THe control cavity is like the explorer, three in a row but there's a three way toggle inthe middle (again nonfirebirdesque with it not being on the pickguard). I may put and afterburner in the their too. If not, it will probably be a tone. enough rambling. again any advise, criticism, terrorist threats, or tips are welcome.

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The guy from the band Feeder plays some custom guitar with a Firebird body and a Strat neck (actually it's more like a Jaguar neck with block inlays), and I have to say it works (IMHO) and it's a design I've considered myself. Maybe you could Google an image search and see if you can find a pic of him to assess what the finished article might look like.

Re the pickups, if you don't want mini-humbuckers and humbuckers just don't seem to look right, have you thought of P90's?

Ditto on the MDF workability.  It's awesome stuff for templates.  You must have used old, water damaged rotting stuff.

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Yes, I've noticed a number of posts from users who have good results from MDF. I found it OK for machining (it takes a router cutter and leaves a smooth finish) but when I tried to sand it it just went fuzzy and soft, and when I later tested out the template on scrap the guide bearing just sank into it.

The MDF I used was not brand new, I salvaged it - it looked and felt solid enough, but even so maybe it could have been damp. Or maybe MDF is good for many things but sanding it is a no-no? Like one of the earlier posts that said it's not a good idea to use a rasp.

Anyway, having read all these helpful posts I'll give MDF another chance - with some brand new stuff fresh out of the wood-shop!

I'm only a Newbie, just started my first project, but after having made my first couple of routing templates I would give this advice:

STAY AWAY FROM MDF!!

I tried to make a routing template for a neck pocket, and found the stuff totally unworkable. Try to shape it with surform and/or sandpaper, and it just turns into mush. The best surface I could achieve was fuzzy and unreliable - the bearing of the guided router cutter just sank into it. Lucky I was only practicing on scrap!

Later I tried it with a nice sheet of ply-wood, with much more pleasing results - easy to rout and sand, with a nice finish. Now I've got a nice neck pocket template - it's a perfect fit for the neck heel and the surface that will contact the router cutter bearing is nice and solid. I'm v pleased with it as a first attempt, I just wish I hadn't waster an evening messing about with MDF - but as this thread is all about, mistakes are part of the learning process.

It's true - mistakes are another way of saying "I am wiser today than I was yesterday!"

Further to this thread I started a while ago, would it be possible to simply leave the existing holes in the neck where they are and work around them? Could I simply re-position the neck plate and make 4 new holes in the neck heel that are out of the way of the existing holes?

Thanks again

I fear the cutaways don't look quite right.

I think I'm right in saying that the cutaways of the single-cut are shaped more or less like a regular LP body, while on the double-cut the cutaways are shaped completely differently. So just removing the top cutaway of a double-cut won't make it look like a double-cut. Maybe a bit of re-shaping to the cutaways would give you what you want.

Still, it looks pretty nice as it is - great job!

I'll make it easy on ya.

Typical Fender neck pocket is 5/8" deep.

Finally an easy one!

Yes, fine if you're using a "typical" strat/tele-type neck and a "typical" strat/tele - type bridge, then it's a simple matter of 5/8".

But what if your neck and bridge aren't typical, and you can't rely on the published Fender measurements? There must be a simple way to calculate the best neck pocket depth for any neck and any bridge?

Is my first post pretty much correct (perhaps with one modification - set the saddles not quite as low as they will go, but just above)?

Is this the right way to calculate the depth of the neck pocket? It's for a Fender-type construction, with no neck angle.

I'm using a a hard-tail string-through-body strat-type bridge, but as it's non-standard so I can't rely on published specs and need to calculate specifically for this bridge.

Here goes -

1. Measure the height of the bridge saddles at their lowest point

2. Subtract this value from the depth of the neck heel.

3. The remainder is the depth to which the neck pocket should be routed.

That way the fretboard protrudes from the top of the body at the same height as the saddles at their lowest point (i.e. the strings would also run along the fretboard at the same height) thus the saddles can be raised to give the desired action.

Thanks for any advice.

Well I've done some more fiddling and I came up with this and I think it's alot beter

then my other one and i like it alot more but what do you think?

!!METAL MATT!!

Reverse the top & bottom horns, like the Explorer "long opposite corners" style

Not to change the subject too much, I hope, I'm interested to know what is that V-shaped guitar in your avatar? A very nice variation on the V theme. Looks like a V designed by Gene Roddenberry!

Thanks - I checked the Warmoth specs. These are fine if the neck I'm using is a Warmoth, but what if it's not? I can't just copy Warmoth specs if the neck is by a different manufacturer. Is there a general method of calculating neck pocket depth that's the same regardless of make of neck?

And I thought I was "asking someone who knows."

Is this the right way to calculate the depth of the neck pocket? It's for a Fender-type construction, with no neck angle and using a hard-tail string-through-body strat-type bridge.

1. Measure the height of the bridge saddles at their lowest point

2. Subtract this value from the depth of the neck heel.

3. The remainder is the depth to which the neck pocket should be routed.

That way the fretboard protrudes from the top of the body at the same height as the saddles at their lowest point (i.e. the strings would also run along the fretboard at the same height) thus the saddles can be raised to give the desired action.

Thanks for any advice.

I'll have a pint of whatever you've been drinking. And - your guitars are ugly. Please stop making them immediately.

I've noticed these, too.

I'm aware Mighty Mite have a good reputation, but the low price puts me off - does it suggest that these pickups can't be much good?

Obviously the impedance (or other values quoted) give the real clue to a pickup's performance (or its power, at least) - can anyone help me to understand these values? What values should I typically be looking for in a H/bucker and a P90?