1guitarslinger

It's definitely a worthwhile read and interesting stuff that Mick was working with.

I must agree.

Thanks!

You guys helped me quite a bit right there. Thanks for the responses.

And Mick, I will search for that thread. Thank you.

I'm wanting to do up a Tele swamp ash body quickly, and want it to be as glossy as possible, yet do it fast with one of these. Now before anyone goes off about searching etc. I just need some quick advice.

1. Which one would be best, tung or Tru-oil?

2. Best way to apply it?

3. Should I fill first?

4. Best way to buff it out

Any and all tips will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Thanks for your responses.

That was my take on it as well.

Any opinions/observations on the differnces in tone and sustain between ebony and rosewood bridge bases for tuneomatics on electric arch tops? Thanks.

no its somthing they put on when they made it.

True for the Duncan Antiquities...

On all the vintage strats I see there is some kind of black coating over the pole pieces and I was wondering what that is? I see that the Seymour Duncan Antiquity pickups have this too.

guck

Here we go again - you definitely want a NO switch, wired to short to ground when closed - implementing a kill switch by opening the circuit is just inviting noise and RFI (just like when you unplug your guitar from the cable without turning off the amp). Always wire your kill switch to sort the hot lead to ground, unless there's a compelling reason to do otherwise (I can't think of one, but there might theoretically be such a situation). That's why tube amps use shorting jacks on the inputs. It's also exactly what happens on a Gibson-style switch when you turn one volume pot all the way down and use the toggle as a kill switch.

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LK is right! I wasn't thinking it through. My apologies for confusing the issue.

I am way too busy at this time, and should be leaving these things for people who have the where-with-all to pay full attention to them!

Right on again LK.

Happy Holidays!

Thanks for the input.

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You're welcome.

It might be tough to find one that has the right size button, and is not too long under the pickguard for the body route.

If I get it right, you are wanting to be able to push the button off and on really quickly, and go" na na na na na na..." right? It might actually be more difficult to do that really fast with a push button than a toggle, but I don't really know.

Actually, "normally closed" momentary means when nothing is being done to it, it is "closed" which means making contact or, "on". It would go "open" or "off", when the button was pushed. Then "close" or turn "on" when you let go of the button.

"Closed" means making contact, and "open" means not making contact.

You would want a normally closed, momentary SPST for your "kill switch" unless you wanted the guitar to make no sound unless you were depressing the button.

You would use a "normally open" switch for a door bell.

Southpa, quite a bit of what you have posted is correct, however, I must respectfully correct some of your information.

A sure sign of a bridge that is not grounded is humming when not touching the strings.  Place your hand on the strings and the hum stops because you are providing a path to ground with your body.

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Actually, if the humming stops when you touch the strings, it is a almost a sure sign that the bridge IS grounded. Your body is adding additional grounded shielding to the circuit when you touch the grounded strings. Your body would not be providing the path to ground unless you were also touching something that was grounded to the circuit when you touched the strings. If the humming does not change, or gets worse when you touch the strings, that is sign that there is a grounding issue with the bridge.

Humming when you are not touching the strings, may or may not be the sign of a problem. Many guitar/pickup/amp/house wiring combinations hum more than others with the guitar turned up, and not touching the strings, when the shielding and wiring are just fine. Interestingly Fender Noiseless Strat pickups are very bad about this, even on a good day. But, as the majority of us tend to touch the strings when we are playing, this is really not an issue.

Now if your guitar  got a big jolt of 'lectricity from some "other" place the current would go through you rather than that alternate path provided by a grounded bridge.

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Actually it IS because the bridge is grounded (many other factors could apply as well) that you will get shocked if you touch something else that has a difference of potential to your guitar and amp's ground. If the polarity is incorrect between your amp and your PA system, this can cause you to get shocked when you touch something grounded on your guitar, and something metal like a microphone at the same time. Many of us know that wonderful feeling of being shocked on the lips while playing and going up to sing through an SM58, when this difference in ground exists between our amp and the PA.

If I am understanding what you are talking about, then it is just fine for the "axels" (pivots?) to touch. They are both grounded, so it's no different than 2 grounded parts of the same switch touching each other. As long as they don't interfere with each other mechanically, and as long as no contacts are touching each other or ground, it should be fine.

Make certain that both switch frames are properly grounded.

There is part of me that wants to know what you are doing with two 5 way super switches, and another part of me that feels it's best that I don't know. ;-)

and anyone here have a scematic for how to do a S-1 Switching? (realized its just one push pull switch, which i'll replace with a DPDT)

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The S1 switch is not just a push/pull pot. And to my knowledge, on all Fender models, is used in conjunction with a 5 way super switch.

http://www.fender.com/support/diagrams/pdf...0101200APg2.pdf

You can not use just your factory switch to do what you want to do.

I hooked this all up and now I have very little volume on the neck pickup in both the neck position and middle position of the switch. Could the pickups be out of phase?

Jay

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Out of phase would explain the middle position, but not the neck. Double check all of your wiring, and if you have an ohm meter (multimeter) check the resistance of your neck pickup and make sure it's ok.

No. Just be sure the connections are all on the same side, with the red and white soldered together on the center leg of one side of the switch, and ground soldered to an outside leg on the same side of the switch. Follow the diagram.

I'm guessing that you're using a pickup selector switch though it was not mentioned?

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/schem...3way-w-spl.html

this is from:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/schematics.shtml

You might also consider a Seymour Duncan Jazz II.  I think is would give you the note definiation you need when playing those chords.

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The Jazz II? Do tell...

Check out what's new for the holiday season at Specialty Guitars

It's not so much the boost part of the SD Booster that does what you want, it's the "resonance" switch.

Can you post some photos of your wiring?

It sounds like something is wired incorrectly.

You will read some resistance between your signal hot and ground, but it should be in the K ohms, unless your volume control(s) were rolled off when you took your reading. If the volume controls are set to zero, you will read ground at the signal hot.

If your volume controls were set at 10, then depending on the selector switch you are using, you may have confused the switch housing ground, with the middle terminal, or have some other wiring problem(s).

Polarity of the pickups is not the only concern with the pickups' wiring. There are many ways to wire a 4 wire pickup incorrectly.

Make certain that your pickup wiring conforms to this: DIAGRAM (disregard the coil split mini switch) Green and Bare are soldered to ground. Red and White soldered together, then insulated with tape or heat shrink. And Black is the signal hot.

If wired correctly, humbucking pickups should be quite noise free regardless of whether one or more is on at the same time.

Edit: From what you have described, it sounds like you may have both pickups wire as single coils. Make certain that the Red and White wire junction is insulated, and not soldered to anything.

Use an ohmeter and check all your shielding back to the ground lug of the input jack to make sure there is continuity. You should see less than 5 ohms in all cases.

Also make sure you have the pickup coils wired correctly as posted above and that the bridge and three way switch are properly grounded.

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echo...

Muffin fans at Maplin

Evidently you call them something else. 

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Crumpet fans?

The SD Alnico 2 Pro pickups should not make any more noise than any other vintage style humbucker.

Sounds like the problem is not the pickups, but the wiring and shielding.

First off, if your shielding is not grounded properly, and that means every bit of it, it will actually generate more noise, as it acts like a noise antenna. ANY ungrounded metal will act as a noise antenna. If cavity shielding is not done so that all of it has perfect continuity to ground, it will cause more harm than good.

Check to make certain that the ground from your output jack is running to all of your pots, and to your bridge or tailpiece. Also, the housing (frame) of the selector switch must be grounded as well. This is usually done by soldering the wire shields to it's housing that are grounded on the other ends to the pots.

Depending on how well your shielding was done, properly grounded pots and selector switch should provide the ground to it because of the physical contact.

The pickup cavities really don't need to be shielded on a humbucker guitar, and really the other cavities typically don't need it either if wired properly with shielded wire.

Any time somone brings a guitar like this to me with noise problems, I rip out all of the home made cavity shielding, wire it properly, and give it back to them. So far with 100% satisfaction.

Edit: Make certain the pickups are wired properly for series, humbucking mode.

Duncan diagram link Disregard the coil split mini switch. Green and Bare are soldered to ground. Red and White soldered together, then insulated with tape or heat shrink. And Black is the signal hot.