hy_dro66

What is your end goal?

It's good to understand the difference between scale length and actual string length though.

Hey dude. Check this out. I hope it helps. If not, let me know. This is the link to the intro page. The wiring stuff is linked on the left column of the page. Wiring Stuff

I actually wanted to do the same a while back, but I haven't because I usually keep pickups in for a long time before I try something new. I found some great quick connectors at the helicopter squad I worked but never got around to using them. I bet you could find quick connects at radio shack. You could find them cheaper online but then you'd have to ship them. Anyway, I think it's a cool idea and I hope you follow through on it unlike I. Have fun. Peace.

I know that Seymour Duncan makes tapped single coils and I believe that Bartolini makes humbuckers.

When you say coil tap do you mean coil split? A coil tap occurs when a pickup is wound to say 6k, an output wire is created there, then it is wound to 10k and another output wire is created. Then you have a pickup that has to resistances and you can choose either one with the flip of a switch. When you ground out one coil of a humbucker it is called a coil split. You kind of get the same affect as a coil tap but getting there is different. One of the coils is actually shut off when you split a humbucker, basically turning it into a single coil. The nice thing about a coil tap is that it's possible to do with a single coil so you can have a strat wired up with 3 tapable pickups that go from vintage sounding to smokin' hot. You can also try an on-on-on switch and get coil tap, series and parallel all in one switch.

That should be aired on late night tv...on...the guitar channel. FNA Still laughing.

Well the easiest way to tell what it is(aside from reading the side of the pot) is to buy an ohm meter from Radio Shack. If you unsolder the wires from the pots terminals and attach the ohm meter to the outside lugs it'll come up with a reading which is the resistance of the pot. Most of the time there are different resistance settings on the meter(used to measure smaller to larger amounts of resistance). For the knob...just loosen the set screw and pull it off.

Well, one day we were very bored at the shop so we wired up a fulltone strat(cheap strat copy) with Lace Sensor Holy Grails and installed an earvana nut just for fun. We had a '55 Fender Strat and an old old Fender Princeton. We cranked the Fender setup and obviously it is the sound every player would love to have. We then plugged the loaded up Fulltone strat into the same amp, same settings and it was amazingly close. It wasn't the same... but it was very close. I'm not sure if you want single coils or humbuckers but lace has a new humbucker out called the Hemi. I haven't heard them yet but if they perform like the HG's then they'd be great. Seymour Duncan makes a ton of pickups and most of them are very good. A combination that has become very popular is a the '59 model in the neck and JB model in the bridge. The Pearly Gates is also very cool. The single coils to get are the JB jr. and little '59. They aren't as weak as most single coils and they don't hum. They also have 4-conductor cable. Wiring up a the series parallel deal is fairly simple. You can do it with a mega switch or using a dpdt switch. If you need a schematic or something just shoot me an email.

We stock emg's at the store I work at and the HZ are almost as expensive as the active line...but they don't sound near as good. There are a lot of other company's that make better passive pickups.

I also use the table saw method. It works very well and is extremely fast. Building the jig takes an hour or two depending on how in depth you get. Safety is definatly an issue when doing it this way, however I believe it's an issue with whatever tool you use. Most injuries I've seen were caused by the silent tools: chisels, razor blades, etc. When it makes noise and spins like a maddog it gets your attention and your careful. Not to say power tools don't cause injury because I've also seen that side of it. Just be careful not matter what tools you use.

Hey dude here ya go, Just wire one of the pickups(neck or bridge) to a switch that in one position will send it straight to the output jack and in the other to the pickup selector. Basically if you wire the neck pu to that switch you can turn it on no matter what position the pu selector is in. So when the pu selector is in the bridge position then you can flip that switch and turn the neck pu on and you'll have the combo you want. You could also use a dpdt switch and wire both bridge and neck pu's to it so they both come on when you flip the switch. If you wanted to get real serious you could use a tpdt switch and it would turn both bridge and neck pu on and turn off the middle pu so you could get that combo no matter what position your pu selector was in. If you want some more detailed stuff just email me at: hy_dro66@msn.com

Hey Curtis. I'd say that over 80% of the players in las vegas suffer from "great chops, no feeling syndrome" Most of my students also have struggled with this issue. It's fairly easy to learn other peoples tunes and even write tunes...however, playing with conviction is something that comes over time. I bet when you listen to tunes you can feel them without any problem. That is what playing guitar should be like. It's an extension of your soul. I think that just being conscious of it will help. Peace.

I must say. Reading through this topic was very interesting. I get a kick out of everyone having a different take on the scales. It's a subject I love to learn about and chat about. So if I may add a few things... First I think most of the stuff you've read you can count as truth. Memorizing the neck is first. Most guys who memorize scales first, skip this step(like I) and gradually(over years and years)learn the notes. But if you do it initially it's actually less painful. Learning the five major scale positions is great as well. But I would also recommended learning the following info along with those patterns... Each major scale can also be represented using modal harmony...example This is the C major scale: C D E F G A B C major scale written as Chords C E G B (Cmaj7) D F A C (Dminor7) E G B D (Eminor7) F A C E (Fmaj7) G B D F (Gdom7) A C E G (Aminor7) B D F A (Bminor7flat5) Notice that the chords are starting with each degree of the scale and playing every other note from that point. This chord pattern is the same for every major scale. So every chord starting on the 1 of a scale is Major every chord starting on 2 is minor and so on. All that to say that if you memorize the major scale patterns and can arpeggiate each degree of the scale forwards and backwards, you will be a guitar monster. A few had said early in the discussion about notes being unstable and wanting to resolve which is a great reason to know arpeggios. If you know what major scales Dminor7 is in(Cmajor, Bflat Major, Fmajor), then you all the notes in those scales to play and you'll have tons of Dminor7 arpeggios to resolve to. If it doesn't make sense then write out all the major scales as I did with the C major scale and it will click. I know that I'm rambling now but one last thought. If you learn the minor pentatonic scale in it's five positions you will have a great tool for not only playing typical cliche rock and blues riffs but for outstanding outside the box ideas. If you take G7 for example...you can play the typical G minor pentatonic, but you can also move up a half step and play that minor pentatonic or play it a minor third up from G or play it a whole step down from G. You can't stay on them for 2 measures or anything but the are great as extensions and for creating tension that makes resolution so sweet. Try playing a cliche riff in Gm pentatonic move up to G#m pentatonic and play it again, move up to A#m pentatonic play it again, then resolve. If this can be done clean and smooth and the resolve is clever you'll be turnin' heads. I learned from an Indian man once that in vocal yoga they learn that modes do not like sharing notes and that each one has it's own set of notes it calls it's own. So in theory my theory is out the window. Peace.