Captainstrat

I'm not sure if this is the right forum to ask this question, but I'll ask anyway, is there an accurate way to measure "drill bit depth" from the tip to the "stop line" (that will be marked off by a piece of masking tape)?  Let's just say I've goofed more than once and had to take the neck/body/both to my favorite guitar repairman to fix my mistakes (Hi Brian  )

This time, I'd like to do it right.  As I'm awaiting delivery of the missing pieces of my parts caster (ferrules, strap locks,vintage style tuning pegs), I've been doing a lot of research that's been paying off so far; but the neck is crucial and I'd like to avoid a repeat of the "drill bit straight through the fingerboard" routine!

My likely problems have been

1. improper measurement of the drill bit (0.875" isn't exactly easy to measure, 2.2225 cm is a bit easier, but not by much), because my measuring tape is probably none too accurate...
2. the tape I've been using to mark off the depth limit was likely on the cheap side (it literally would wiggle loose and out of place, to the point I'm no longer sure where the depth limit is)...
3. I don't own a drill press, I probably get impatient when drilling through maple and apply too much pressure
4. I've had a few cases where the drill bit gets loose in the chuck and goes in the chuck rather than in the wood!

So I throw it to the experts, any tips to accurately measure and mark the drill bit so I do an accurate job?

Thanks!

Say, this may or may not work, but how about using a piece of wound string (.32 -.42) and use it as a piece of abrasive rope?  Rather than a re-drill, I simply enlarge the bottom part of the hole so it reaches the centre of the ferrule hole?  Since pine is a soft wood I might be able to get away with it?

Never mind, I've found a local supplier who carries actual abrasive cords & tapes!

6 minutes ago, Norris said:

I think curtisa meant to drill through from the ferrule side, loosely fitting the ferrule as a guide for your drill bit (use a bit that is smaller than the ferrule hole). Thin drill bits can wander a bit when going through fairly thick wood - which looks like what has happened. First of all check that the exit hole is in the correct place on the bridge side. Then drill through from the ferrule side so that the entrance hole is in the correct place - this will probably wander into the existing hole somewhere in the middle of the body, so stop at that point. You might then need to use a needle file to smooth the path between the two, so that the string has a reasonably straight path.

By the way there is a Quote button under each reply to your thread which might be easier to use than copying and pasting. You can hit that button on several replies to add them to your reply. The added bonus is the person you quote gets notified that you've quoted them

D'Oh! I'll know for next time! looks like the exit holes all line up with the respective string holes on the bridge plate, agreed, the holes for the wound strings may need to be enlarged a bit.  As soon as the damn ferrules are delivered, I'll try to use one as a guide and hope that it does in fact wander into the existing hole somewhere in the middle of the body as you say...knock on wood!

So what do you think?  With or without Bettie? I've been a Bettie Page fan for a long time, and that decal would cover the knot nicely and give it a cool Rockabilly vibe, whadya think?

"In the photo the low-E ferrule hole looks equally spaced compared to the others. Is the string hole on the top lined up correctly with the bridge plate? Could it be that all the holes are actually correctly aligned and spaced relative to the face they were drilled from, and the string hole has wandered off centre as it's been drilled and exited slightly to one side inside the ferrule hole?"

You know, I never even thought of that! I'm still awaiting some parts to be delivered, (the ferrules being part of them)...at first glance the string holes all seem to match the bridge plate, but it might be worth it to remove the saddle and have a good look.  if all I need to do is re drill the low E string hole from the bridge plate and it realigns it to the ferrule hole's centre, then great!

I've thought of shorter neck screws but wasn't sure if they all come standard length for Fender? If shorter ones exist I'm all for it!

"f you have to use the tape round the drill bit method as a depth guide, leave a flap of tape sticking out. You'll find this will clear the waste away from the hole so you can see when to stop a little easier"

I never even thought of that, thanks for the tip!

Hi again folks, you know it's been a long time when you forget you used to be a member of this board!   I've dabbled in many projects since, some I've kept up with, some I've abandoned; but the need to put another partscaster together never quite goes away!

What started out as a "I'd like to fit an actual Fender neck in my Affinity Squier" - MIM necks can be found on Ebay - has morphed into "Let's build my dream Telecaster and sell the Squier once I'm done"...

A knotty pine Telecaster body was calling my name on Ebay. Since I wanted a different look from my home made DC Les Paul (Tung oil finish) I decided, after much seeking at the local Rona & Home Depot, to go for Watco clear lacquer, which turns out to be Nitrocellulose based. The finish is far from factory perfect, but after applying 8 coats with foam brushes and letting it dry for 9 days (yep, orange peel and runs in the finish) the wet sanding and buffing did a good job leveling the lacquer and buffing it to a nice gloss!  Not factory perfect, as there are a few spots where I sanded through the finish, but given that this was all done by hand without a spray booth or a power buffer, not bad!  The sanded-through spots? They give it a "road worn look" that won'y clash with the neck...

Found an OEM Fender Telecaster neck through Ebay...I was worried that it might be a forgery (might still be) but the Modern Player Telecasters are "crafted in China", the seller is Chinese...I've compared the headstock logo to that of the Modern Player from the Fender website and it's a match, there is a date stamped in red ink on the heel (2015-07-04)...looks like the serial # and "Crafted in China" were sanded off the back of the headstock (unless that's stamped last at the factory after the guitar has been fully assembled?  I dunno, at any rate, the back of the headstock was sanded off).

Looks like that neck might have been part of a "reject pile" at the factory: the headstock is dinged and chipped as if it had fallen off a pallet (or dropped on a concrete floor) and was later recuperated...whomever did went berserk with a Dremmel  and sandpaper tool to "relic" it...anyway, it was cheap, so I pulled the trigger.

Problem 1 - the string hole on the low E-string isn't aligned with its ferrule hole.  The proper fix would be to dowel the ferrule hole, re-drill a pilot hole from the top (using the bridge as a guide) and then re-drill the ferrule hole with a countersink drill bit.  Problem is all I have is a hand held power drill, and a regular set of drill bits. If I were to get the one countersink drill bit I need, what diameter should I get, and how can I make sure I don't drill too deep?

Problem 2 - the body is based on a thinline body, I'm worried that the lack of thickness might result in the neck bolts going straight through the fingerboard...I was thinking of adding layers of masking tape under the neck plate to add a bit of extra thickness and protect the neck from being drilled through for a tight fit...while we're at it, any tips to prevent accidentally drilling too deep?  I tried the "tape guide", but I find the tape sometimes wiggles loose!

Problem 3 - once all assembled, it will desperately need a fret dress. It looks that some frets were filed at the factory (others are perfectly crowned, others show filing marks) but that the work was abandoned when the headstock got damaged...wither way, there's still plenty of work ahead!

BTW, the camera angle makes it look like the G string is also off-center,and the D string hole is still partly blocked with wax paste (from the wet sanding, to protect the raw wood), the only problematic hole is the low E string (on the right)

I apologise in advance if someone's already said this but...I'm about to take a page from Reeves Gabrels' book! I read that he's used a vibrator to play slide as it increased sustain

I mean, all jokes aside it would vibrate the strings...I've been thinking of a different approach to the sustainer, maybe attach a piezzo buzzer (or the innards of a vibrator? ) to the underside of the Strat's bridge... something tells me that might not work-in order to generate enough vibrations the "buzzer" noise might be amplified by the pickups...not something I'd want!

pete

Put a watch on the auction...are you bidding CS?

[

Indeed! Oh, and I think this is the model in particular:

http://www.musicyo.com/planet/metallist.asp

If I win the auction I'll have to take careful measurements to make sure the routing I've done a few months ago is sufficient. And if it is indeed the same driver/circuit it works with a pair of 9V batteries in series (ouch, more routing? ) but on the plus side it would also work as a neck pickup!

The dude emailed me a pic of what hes selling...

For under a hundred, seems ok. Don't know much about it, I suspect it won't work as a pickup. definitely not in the mid-position either. These things cost a lot of a reason, you pay as much for a pickup which is known and relatively simple technology without any of the circuitry or innovation required of a sustainer. It is closing this gap that was the aim of my commercial ambitions, by combining an existing pickup with simple coils and circuits I hoped to make it more affordable, versatile and flexible while still giving a good performance, if not for the switch noise and the complications of installations, I would have done it too...

On that last point, make sure there are instructions with the floyd version. It is not a copy of the sustainiac and if simply ripped out of a guitar (usually a kramer) then you may have problems. If you really want to be sure, I think musician's friend were doing a deal on a kramer barretta sustainer entire guitar pretty cheap...or someone like that, you may want to consider this, I think it worked out similar to a fernandes system or sustainiac with installation with the guitar thrown in for free!

With anything eBay, it's buyer beware and no use asking for help from the seller, it may be the lack of knowledge or problems that is why it is being sold. Or, it could be a bargain. On the other hand, this was a very early model and may have it's own problems inherent in the design. Also, no one has experience with this so although we might try, we can hardly "fix" it without having hands on with it I suspect...being in Oz makes it pretty difficult in that regard!

good luck... pete

pete

It is not a sustainiac, but the same idea. Floyd claims to have come up with it on his own with no reference to the Micheal Brooks' infinite guitar or any other source (sure, and his fine tuners aren't the exact same mechanism used on violins and cellos...hmmm). He has his own patent. The device being hawked by EVH in the day. It is an early version of the technology but does work I am sure although I have heard that many early commercial units from all manufacturers suffered switch noise.

Well...seeing that my handiwork isn't doing any better, I'm tempted to go for it: at the very least the driver part will be covered, and I'm sure the solder work on that circuit is cleaner than what I can accomplish...and seeing the seller's asking under $100.00 for it (have you seen how much the Fernandes kits cost?)...I'm very, very tempted! Since my current setup also has the switch noise well...

Do you know if Floyd's version of the driver also works as a regular pickup?

Is anyone familiar with the "original" Sustainiac circuit, the one co-designed by Floyd Rose? Just saw one in the classifieds, the seller states "with Floyd Rose's signature at the back of the circuit"...?

Well, I've been enjoying my newly acquired Fender Champion 600 reissue. Other than what my pals at the FDP Forum refer to as "Mains Mantra" (a.k.a. transformer hum) it's a nice, quiet amp (noise-wise) that can get pretty loud for a 5-watter!

It seems to agree with all my guitars (Strat, Tele, home made Les Paul and Variax) and with most of my pedals.

Problem 1: the more pedals, the more hiss is induced. I might have a fix for that, either in the form of a Hush pedal or MXR Smart Gate.

Problem 2: My Dano Surf & Turf compressor (which I use as a clean boost) actually picks up radio signals when the sensitivity knob is set at a certain point (2 -3 o'clock), and that's one thing I'm not so sure the Hush or Smart Gate can handle...I've heard of RF filters added to older amps to filter out radio stations, but in this case it's only the one pedal when pushed past a certain level.

I guess the simplest solution would be to back off the sensitivity knob until the radio interference disappears and to compensate with the level knob, but...enquiring minds want to know: could a RF filter allow me to crank up the compressor without the radio signal?

Ok...can you tell me where on ebay you saw it because other than guitar fetish who has some of this stuff relabeled as SRV, etc, I don't know where to get it, they have quite a big range. Also, I got a mini-amp from GF with a JRC2073 2.5 watt BTL chip in it...very neat but have not got to doing anything with it. I am interested in higher power for clean headroom. This amp will require a buffer or preamp for this application though. Also, there are no fancy AGC's or anything...just a raw poweramp. It is small, but slightly larger than my present circuit design

Right here, the seller's called GuitarHeads : http://stores.ebay.ca/GuitarHeads

The circuit in itself has lots of possibilities. As far as my DIY Sustainer goes...I'm this close to throwing in the towel. I tried it again through the J-Station last night and guess what? The controlled feedback is more evident when using a dirty, heavily compressed patch. Through a clean patch: same results as through the Fender Champion; which is no "in your face" controlled feedback.

Sooo...I might as well admit that my stubbornness isn't enough to see this through. My electronics knowledge is spotty at best and my soldering technique is severely lacking. I'm seriously considering to restore my Stratocaster to its former glory: 3 Dimarzio Virtual Vintage pickups and the standard switches and knobs. I might add the expander circuit out of curiosity, but as far as my version of the DIY sustainer goes...it doesn't cut it, plain and simple.

Still, it was fun to give it a shot!

Do you mean that the basic guitar sound is not as good since installing the sustainer?

Or just that you are not happy with your sound?

Neither, I fixed the fizzies 6 weeks ago, that's not the issue.

I don't think the circuit I originally built has enough gain. To save space I ended up using fixed resistors rather than pots - well I did use a trimpot for the volume, in retrospect I should have done this for both the gain and volume functions, it might have saved me this headache...

What I don't get is that I was getting good controlled feedback when playing through my J-Station some 6 weeks ago...I tried the same thing through my newly acquired Fender Champion...the notes won't feedback, they just decay much too fast. And it's not a matter of weak batteries either as I've figured out a way to use my Variax's power supply to power up the diy sustainer (Yes I own a Variax, no I didn't mount the sustainer in the Variax, I mounted it in my Stratocaster and I replaced the standard jack with a stereo jack to supply power to the circuit- just take my word for it, it works! ).

I was perusing Ebay and came across the expander circuit, and I liked the space-saving design, mounted at the back of a push-pull pot, in a circuit much more compact than my all-thumbs soldering capabilities could accomplish...

If a power amp section could be attached to the Expander circuit I could avoid the current tangled mess of wires under the Strat's pickguard and feed a hot enough signal to the driver.

Because I'm pretty sure that's the problem right now: not enough juice going through the driver...

Is anyone familiar with the Artec tone expander? http://www.artecsound.com/exp.html

What sounded fine a while back is lacking oompf after putting the home made sustainer down for a few months...the circuit needs more gain than what I currently have, and I wonder if one of the above expanders might accomplish that?

Hi captain!

Glad to hear it is starting to fit together for you...no one said it would be easy and many have given up. I hope you took my comments to encourage you...I am feeling a little harsh lately...

A lot of people have become hooked over the years with this stuff and I am sure that, even when you succeed, you will want to keep developing the thing more. It would be great for others to hear some clips, also to see the device and such.

Unfortunately, and I know people will cringe, a lot of my present work is commercially confidential. I miss being able to freely share developments and my own trials and many errors along the way.

A hint of what I am working on is a bass sustainer. As in previous posts, it is possible to do this on a bass, sustainiac even had such a model. I increased my output cap to 470uF (though perhaps I went too far with this) and built a driver with very strong neodyminium magnets set a fair way back from the strings in the neck position using a coil of about 8 ohms but of a very thin design. The whole "assembly" for testing surface mounted (in fact it needed to be raised) using plasticene (oily modeling clay) for testing.

I got some "interesting" results! For all the time I have worked with this (I think the thread is over 5 years old now) I still keep finding new things in the "failures". The device worked, but there is a noticeable difference between the sensitivity in harmonic and non-harmonic modes. This applies equally to the guitar of course, but is more noticeable and able to be played with in various ways in this test mode. For instance, the magnets and or the coil can be flipped over! It is still somewhat of a mystery to me.

Another cringing bit of news is that, in playing with the bass, I set up the driver on the bridge, just in front of the saddles (this was something I tried with the guitar with very limited success with the HEX designs...the idea was to have a device so efficient and small it could be mounted at the bridge and allow all pickup combos to work, surface mounting of the circuit, battery and switching (in a tail piece design...see the mid 30 pages of this thread). A guitar pickup is very close to the bridge and it is unlikely we will see this anytime soon. However, on a bass there is usually (certainly on my MM copy) significant space between the pickup and bridge.

It worked better than in the neck position...on the bass! However, it reminded me of the HEX technology, and so I fosicked around for the parts I had left over from this and built an 8 element "octo" driver for a 4 string bass. This is the cringing part, because the HEX technology was never revealed, with only hints and verification through the late LK to whom I sent one for testing.

It is too early to tell how well this will work but this technology has no direct magnetic pull on the string and very little longtitudinal EMI. I am hoping with the space available on a bass between the pickup and the bridge and with the bridge itself creating a kind of magnetic "sink" this will work even better.

Despite my "secret technology" that will frustrate many, it did work with a conventional coil and could also work well with perhaps 4 series coils too...I may even return to that scheme, but I am intrigued by the prospect of revisiting the HEX designs for this one off project because it had so many good features to it, including no coil winding...plus, I have the parts and nothing to use them on!!!

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I am working on a whole host of other projects, some of which feature sustainer technology, most not. These will be the subject of other threads elsewhere in the near future.

One that is relevant is a telecaster I am doing. I am making a one off telecaster sized driver for a new SCN pickup (hopefully ariving soon). The circuit will be housed under the bridge pickup. The guitar will be fitted with a kahler hybrid tremolo. This unit is really good, and will suit the chrome look of this guitar beautifully, and is a really fantastically engineered product. One particularly neat thing about the kahler is that it shares qualities with a number of trems, fine tuners and extreme action like a floyd for instance but with a cam like action in ways similar to a fender or perhaps even more...a bigsby...and no back routing! It has 6 way adjustability of the bridge saddles which is particularly clever too.

In relation to the sustainer, it bends the strings via a cam and has roller saddles just ahead of this. This means that, although it can bend both up and down like a dive bomb, the strings, although going slack, do not change their angle to the neck or pickups in doing that. This could be a good, or a bad thing (too much slack and the strings may "stick to the pickup magnets, fenders raise the strings as they slacken)...but it is one of the few modern tremolos that allow for an even space between the driver and the string while in use.

This model is a "hybrid" because it can be locked to a fixed bridge with a rear Allen bolt. A trem is not necessary for a sustainer guitar but personally, I find the ability to bend those long notes both up and down and several tones to be of great musical benefit...something to consider.

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Meanwhile , the search is still on for a compact and reliable switching circuit. I am playing around a little with the 4053 multiplexer but have yet to play with audio signals...there could be a bit of clicking and stuff to overcome. Neither the bass which has no bypass circuitry or the telecaster, which only has two pickups, will require switching more powerful that a 4pdt, but a strat, which will be the next one and the "standard" may cause some problems...I'd also like to account for "fat strats with coil splitting which is another element yet again. It may take two 4053's chained together or some other means to get enough switching power...that is a lot of chips size wise, but still smaller and cheaper than a 4pdt toggle as far as I can tell. The aim is not to compromise the standard strat switching or the passive nature of the guitar when off, also it could be triggered by any kind of switch which is cool.

Wish1527 has been giving me a lot of help behind the scenes with some of this...thanks E...and certainly given me some avenues to look into further with it. He still likes the idea of Jfet switching and he may be right with that too...a lot of work to be done to even get close...

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later...

pete

About the clicking...this may or may not apply to a circuit such as the Sustainer, but Guitar Player columnist Craig Anderton had a fix for cheap pedal switch popping (this is from like 1983 I'm working from memory here): patching a 1 meg restistor to ground from the pedal's input and (if I recall) a 100K resistor from the pedal's output to ground...whether or not this could be applied to sustainer I haven't a clue...

For lack of a decent digital camera; my driver is a butchered Fender Single coil pickup (which was already busted), using popsicle sticks as spacers (to assure the winding remained in the top 3 mm's) and so much Carpenter's Glue for potting the windings look uneven and messy. The wiring under the pickguard would give any qualified guitar tech a nervous breakdown (wanna talk tangles?) ... but it's working so I won't complain! Er..how does one post a sound clip on this board?

Okay, so here's an update! I performed a few pickup swaps and I'd say I'm 90% of the way there.

I'm getting the best results on the wound strings (to be expected) and I know I should use heavier strings for better results and I might consider a different driver prototype: as it stands, setting the driver as little as 1/16" too close to the strings generates too many false harmonics and wolfe-tones...but at a "safe" distance from the strings I'm getting decent performance from he E-A-D and G strings. I'm not sure how strong the magnets used by Fender are, but that driver's magnetism is definitely stronger than the Dimarzio VV's.

The pickup swaps: (bear in mind that I own a few guitars) I had a pair of Kent Armstrong PAF's which have a nice jazzy tone, I installed them in my home made Les Paul. Said Les Paul was equiped with a Dimarzio PAF Joe and a Tone Zone...I installed the Tone Zone in the bridge position of the Strat ... a perfect fit for the DIY Sustainer, plus the Tone Zone is F-spaced, a better fit for the Strat. So I'm 90% there...all I might need is a few minor tweaks for it to be at 100%!

Tried to record a few clips...wouldn't you know that once I have it working decently I can't figure out what to play Other than a few Tony Iomi-esque "fun with feedback" wankings I can't think of anything tasteful to play...oh well...

At least I'm on the right track!

All right! After two driver prototypes, two amp prototypes; one mega mistake in trying to boost the sustainer output and fixing a major grounding problem; I've got the darned thing at a stage where I can hear it trying to sustain and not quite cutting it ... I think string pull's an issue here. I can definitely hear the screwy harmonics and distorted sound past the 15th fret.

I might be stating something that's already been said (or that is an already well-known fact) but string pull and sustain don't work well together ... the clean tone is there in non sustainer mode, now I need to fix pickup height and see if it makes a difference...

What makes you think string pull is the culprit ?

If the string pull from your pickup is enough to have a significant effect on sustainer functionality, then your tone (without sustainer) would have been terrible !

As long as your pickups aren't close enough to the strings to give you 'wolf tones', you should be OK.

There are lots of things that can cause 'screwy harmonics' and 'distorted sound'.

Screwy harmonics:

coil potting not sufficient

parasitic oscillations... caused by

bad circuit design

faulty component(s)

poor layout of system

squealing feedback caused by interference between driver and pickup (most likely)

Distorted sound:

too much gain in the pre amp

too much gain in the power amp

circuit is heavily distorting the signal in some other way

poor layout - e.g. components/cable carrying large signal is close to pickup

driver and pickup combining to form an unintended transformer causing voltage multiplication and clipping

feedback loop between driver and pickup (as above - before the squealing kicks in, you will get a nasty distortion)

These are just the things that come to mind right now. If your system is 'nearly' working, but you're getting squeals and distortion kicking in before there is any decent sustain, then look to your driver and circuit.

Make sure that your circuit is working cleanly by testing with a speaker. When using it with a driver, lower the gain - you might find that you were just trying to use too much?

I remember when I first tried the fetzer/ruby, very low gain settings were required to prevent instability. In my later circuits, I used minimum gain on the poweramp side at all times!

As far as the driver goes, be prepared to build a few!

There are so many driver variables - even if you use the 'standard' specs for wire gauge and turns, you should still try different core materials magnets etc. and also remember that better quality construction will make a big difference.

cheers

Col

At this stage I'm tempted to say that either the driver circuit isn't powerful enough or that the bridge pickup's output is too weak, likely why Fernandes uses an actual humbucker in bridge position. The Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues was giving me some sustain, but as soon as I tried to wire it in series with a HS2 (don't ask) the sustain was gone. I tried to blame string pull, but I think I screwed up the "sensor's sensitivity" by wiring a hot pickup with a weaker one.

More and more I'm tempted to just stick a Kent Armstrong PAF in bridge position and be done with it! I'm just concerned I'll lose the Strat sparkle if I do that!

All right! After two driver prototypes, two amp prototypes; one mega mistake in trying to boost the sustainer output and fixing a major grounding problem; I've got the darned thing at a stage where I can hear it trying to sustain and not quite cutting it ... I think string pull's an issue here. I can definitely hear the screwy harmonics and distorted sound past the 15th fret.

I might be stating something that's already been said (or that is an already well-known fact) but string pull and sustain don't work well together ... the clean tone is there in non sustainer mode, now I need to fix pickup height and see if it makes a difference...

I'm just about to throw in the towel ... the Dimarzio HS2 is a whispy POS compared to the Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues...and I'm still getting a dull, lifeless tone in non sustainer mode...and in spite of rewiring the driver with .2mm (32 AWG) wire and potting with wood working glue ...still no sustain!

Sigh, I'll see if I can't strip things down to the bare bones minimum...I really don't want to have to replace the Heavy Blues with a full sized 'bucker ... see if the driver/VV HB combo on its own yields the anticipated results ...

Questions: the 4PDT switch is used to take the unused pickups (hot & ground) out of the circuit; as well as to disconnect the battery; thus where does the bridge pickup's ground connect to?

I'm just trying to reason through this: if you connect the bridge ground to common ground; in sustainer mode the amp circuit's (-) also connects to the common ground (or is that wrong?); could that explain the load down sound I'm getting?

Would connecting the bridge pickup's ground to the amp circuit only solve that problem?

What I'm currently getting is a dull sould in non sustainer mode (real ugly when you use that tone control); and a lot of radio-like whine in sustainer mode...tap the 4PDT switch a few times and I get a bright humbucking sound and no sustain...

If 'tapping' a switch a few times (I assume you mean physically hitting the switch?) makes a difference, then it sounds like at least some faulty soldering or even bad components.

Maybe the diagram is good, maybe not, until you fix the wonky implementation, you won't know for sure.

wiggling it a bit too ...

If possible, its best IMO to post circuit diagrams in true schematic format rather than the kind of ad-hoc 'easy' wiring diagrams you get with diy kits... otherwise there can be ambiguities about connections (not all functionally equivalent switches are physically the same - sometimes the pins are in different arrangements! sometimes its not obvious what is connected to what e.g. in your pic, the 'hot' wire from the bridge pickup comes in contact with the 'power source', it then goes into the 'amplifier board' and loops back terminating in what looks like a connection to earth... theres a dashed line from the amp board to the mode switch, what doeas that mean - it's certainly not standardized electronics notation )

I'll try ... this was the one schematic simple enough for this simple mind to comprehend ...that being said, the original of that schematic isn't too clear as far as where the bridge pickup's ground is supposed to connect ... me think that's the root of my tone problems.

Have you verified that everything works when you set it up as a basic 1 bridge pickup + sustainer driver system ?

That is the first thing to do.

Yep - with a simple driver / mid pickup / bridge pickup config I got my brights in non sustainer mode and some sustain in sustainer mode ... (not bad considering that my prototype driver was built using too thin a wire - .160 instead of .2 and using hot glue instead of PVC glue for potting) ...I'm taking a second stab at the driver, using .2 mm (32 AWG) wire and carpenter's glue.

If you've done that and also checked that all the other components are functional, one thing you might want to try is 'continuity' testing the circuit while switching between different modes. For each mode, make sure that all parts of the circuit that should be connected are connected, and that parts that should not be connected are not.

A good place to start would be testing the neck and middle pickups. When they are switched out (supposedly), are they really out of circuit?

Is there an unintended connection between their common ground and the ground of the other components ?

Is there an unintended connection between either of their +ve wires and any of the other components ?

once you've fully tested the mid and neck pickups, how about testing that the bridge pickup is connected to what is should be when it should be (and not to anything else)...

You should be able to use any basic multimeter for this task.

Working this way you should help you discover any errors you may have made constructing the thing and also any design errors you might have made. Even if this doesn't get you all the way to a working system, it will certainly allow you to verify which parts of the switching and wiring are functioning correctly.

good luck

Col

I'm giving it all another stab after work ... thx Col!

Help! I know I made several mistakes in wiring up this circuit, could someone please point them out to me and show me the correction? Thanks!

Yep, that's one driver, one neck pickup (Virtual Vintage 2.1), one middle pickup (Virtual Vintage Blues), one bridge pickup (Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues) and an extra pickup (HS2) wired out of phase to the amp circuit so it's in series with the Heavy Blues to provide a hotter signal to the circuit. Looks like a H-S-H configuration, plays like a S-S-S in non sustainer mode and like a Humbucker in sustainer mode ... or at least in should. What I'm currently getting is a dull sould in non sustainer mode (real ugly when you use that tone control); and a lot of radio-like whine in sustainer mode...tap the 4PDT switch a few times and I get a bright humbucking sound and no sustain...

I know that it seems pedantic to say that you must use 0.2mm wire but there is a reason for it...lots of them. I know, because I made probably 40 different drivers before getting the formula right. Including 0.125, so I know it can never work...

And that the bridge pickup has a hot enough output ...for instance, the DiMarzio Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues (output of 170 mv) gave me better results than the DiMarzio HS2 (90 mv output) ... I'll give the electronics suplus store a second look. My mistake was to ask the guy behind the counter for his thinnest magnet wre, in this case 34 gauge (.160 mm). Thicker isn't a problem.... .2mm is 32 AWG, right?

Ok...so, I take it you used a multimeter to get the coil to 8 ohms?

Absolutely!

If you do exactly what you have done, without any shorts, with the correct wire (0.2mm)...not 0.165 or even 0.25 but 0.2mm...and you pot it as you wind with PVA or any water based common craft/woodworking glue...the thing will work. If not it won't!

Common craft glue wil do? And I was about to make a double-boiler to pot the driver the old fashioned way!

I have posted mine...now post yours!!!!

There! I figured out how! I know I must have made several boo-boos in that circuit...how do I correct them?

I think I may have found a solution ... lemme test it out first ... this Strat is going to look like a crazy-ass hot-rod when I'm done wih it!

From the top...I apologise for not giving better details as I can get pretty scatter-brained! Anyway...never mind the rails driver for now as I see it's well above my meager skills ...

• The guitar used: MIM Fender Stratocaster
  
• The current driver: a broken Fender pickup which I've rewired with .160 mm wire...(a bit too thin? I'm kind of limited by local supply you see...) which I've hand-wound as tight as I could and which is held in place with hot glue.
  
• The current circuit: The Ruby amp http://www.runoffgroove.com/ruby.html
  

I got it through my thick skull that in order to forego battery use (I'm not very handy with the router and I wouldn't risk routing for a battery compartment) I could swap the Strat's standard jack with a stereo one and use my Variax's power supply (because I also own a Variax) and cord to provide power to the circuit (tip = hot, ring +, sleeve gnd).

Does that work? Yes, as I was saying I am getting sustain/feedback though the driver height and circuit levels need to be tweeked as the sustain seems to be limited to the D and A strings above the 10th fret.

If I understand this properly, the pickups that aren't in use need to be out of circuit (that's the middle pickup in my case, done that) but also the sustainer circuit needs to be "disconnected" from the output to avoid pickup load down? I really need to rethink my 4PDT switch...better yet, I need to know the proper way to wire it!

PS Dude...I just re-read your tutorial and I finally got it ... d'oh! You made a thin bobbin which sits atop an existing pickup...brain cells just connected ... I'd still like to know how to properly wire that 4PDT switch though!