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thedoctor

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Everything posted by thedoctor

  1. thedoctor
    Dude. Wire by these numbers. They are printed on the back of your switch in little tiny letters or on the metal side pieces. Jumper 3 to 5. Out to volume or jack goes on 3 also. One pickup goes to 2. One pickup goes to 4. All done! If you don't find your push-pull wiring, Clarify what you want and I will send that later.
  2. thedoctor
    I built a full stereo 7-string(two seperate soundpaths) and built a tube/SS stereo 2-cab amp to go with it. A real pain to setup and move. When winter hit last year I wanted to play it at home but didn't want that array sitting in my cramped space. Two 1/4" phono female by male RCA adapters later I was playing through my Sony "home theatre" system. All the stupid ambiance functions and stuff (3-d, club, large hall) worked and gave really impressive depth to the playing of a below-average guitar-owner. Beringer has something similar to this built in to their FX series mixers and it really gives a "virtual" 3-D effect, tho rather lame. Worth doing if you ask me and you did.
  3. thedoctor
    I have holes in the isulation on the cieling of our old workshop. They came form 8800mfd 550VDC caps seeing about 1000 VDC. Lots of stink, big fireball, big boom. The new design electolytics for low power filtering and conditioning claim to be built so precise that polarity no longer matters. Those holes in the cieling keep me from ever trying that theory.
  4. thedoctor
    Hey, Bassman! Go to smcelectronics.com/POT.HTM Look at stock# PT25. It's 50k 3-gang but should work beautifully. Sweet price,too. Now, the nut/bushing I use with standard pots are a regular retainer nut like comes with the pots but the threads are inside a thin brass tube that extends from the bottom of the nut about 3/8'. When you fasten the pot from the back with these all you see from the front is the regular hex of the nut bushing. The tube part is inside the guitar. comprede?
  5. thedoctor
    Try duncanamps.com/ and geofex.com/gtramps.htm Score a schematic to match what you are working on. High voltage, hig quality caps and parts can be had at justradios.com. They are in Canada but delivery is excellent.
  6. thedoctor
    Hey, Bassman. I think you want a "concentric" pot. Yhat is, two shafts, one on the outside of the other? If so, you mean you need a long threade bushing, not shaft? When I need a longer bushing, I use a cool little nut/bushing that extends the length of the 3/8" pot bushing by about 3/8". Requires a slightly larger hole(1/2"). Clarify and I will get you part numbers.
  7. thedoctor
    Jesus, if I may call you that, I wouldn't touch that guitar until you have done a couple of $150.00 knockoffs and made some real good mistakes. Seriously. You have a bunch of us out here drooling over your pick of a project guitar; to die for! I will warn you about one thing. I bought a $130.00 used LTD because it had dual humbuckers so I could try my rewinds and exotic signal paths on a piece of inexpensive crap. Turns out, 8 months later it is still intact and gets played more than any other axe I own. Happens more then you'd think. Used to like cheap beer too.
  8. thedoctor
    If you can take another story, here is mine. I started building instruments in shop class when I was 13 (yeah, I'm that old) and had fun making balaliakas and stuff. The real world took me to places that didn't allow such pursuits so I lived the daily grind military/corporate-style. Three or four years ago I realized I was a wasted, depressed alchoholic fortunate enough to have aquired my own machine/electronics repair shop. I sobered up through what I call my 12-fret program. Guitar after guitar after guitar. It has changed my life and made a human being out of what was left of me. Now I'm going to listen to the rest of you to see what is next for me.
  9. thedoctor
    Mahogany and walnut are probably the only two woods I use sanding sealer on to keep the damn grain from raising and making a fuzzy mess. I use linseed oil but that is old-school and messy. Maiden69 is problee right about this new stuff. Use some good grain filler, let it dry well and sand to perfection. After all, you are going to solid black aren't you? A little grain-mottle will not show up under black. By the way, when you get ready to rub out the black, let it "cure?" another week and use some of this old automotive compound that is back on the market. It is 3M 051131-05954 silicone-free SuperDuty. You get it at NAPA and it works great with gentle hand rubbing.
  10. thedoctor
    Sweet-spot is between 1/8 and 1/6 of total scale length from bridge depending on how many usable frets you have(or use). If you play mostly toward the nut with a lot of opens go for 1/6. If you are an acrofret, use 1/8. It has to do with string acceleration and excess harmonic nulls at different places at different times in seperate time zones. In other words, I remember but I don't understand. I also have a bass body I can move the pickup on while I try playing. I have found my own preference to be an angled pickup that damn near follows the intonation slant of my bridge. Wouldn't think it would make that much difference but it does.
  11. thedoctor
    StratDude. I repaired an old Hohner 12-string and decided to string it like a Rickenbacher with heavy-gauge first then chorus string. Of course the neck was adjusted to an accoustic relief (bow)of about 1/32" at 12th fret and a new nut to handle the reversed string spacing. A new bridge adjuster and insert should have been all she wrote. Wrong. I ran into the same problem you had and fixed it the same way. The four chorus strings had to have gutters filed in to let them sit on the insert. Acoustics (especially big Gibsons) are not anywhere near as easy to keep an action going as a flat necked bolt-on. Glad to hear I am not alone in my lunacy.
  12. thedoctor
    UncleJ is right. I know from the error part of trial-and -error that it is really difficult to sand below the factory neck sealer. I use my own water-based dye on necks and bodies and cannot get them to enter the wood of any factory-sealed necks. A regular oiling will keep your acidic hand sweat from causing any damage.
  13. thedoctor
    I use a pair of 14" Stanley planes(metal body) to taper wrist/arm flats in the top of all solid bodies and an old Nicholson 18" wood block plane to prepare wings to go on neck-through guitars and basses. I set one Stanley deep for fast stock removal and one shallow to flatten and smooth. Sharp and straight are the keys to clean planing. I sharpen the blade on a fine grit belt sander and finish witn an oilstone, just like a knife or chisel. It doesn't do the work by itself like a power tool but if you keep looking at your progress and take it slow it does the job.
  14. thedoctor
    They are most definately not very HOT and they are not really noiseless in the classic sense. As the other folks in this forum have said proper shielding will quiet single-coils, double-coils, opticals and space-invaders. Go with the hot pickups these other guys love the sound of and shield. Another annoying thing about the Hot Fender Noisless set is the slanted pickup has nonstandard pole piece spacing. Kiss your custom gold or red pickup covers goodbye. Beautiful low distortion clean jazz tone, however. Oops, thats not what you wanted to hear, is it? Sorry.
  15. thedoctor
    I used to be addicted to EMG DC pickups with the VMC control and had no need for two pickups. I grew up and realized what a sterile sound I was putting out and tried several multi-pickup setups (MusicMan rules) until the Anguilar 3-band preamp was dropped on my head. One pickup is fine right in the sweet spot with this preamp. Wish it was as cheap as another pickup.
  16. thedoctor
    I have a 1960's J-45 that was repaired(cracked bridge) about 8 years ago by Gibson. After returning it twice for a buzz on the A string I took a long look at it myself with inspection mirrors. A thin nut with a star lockwasher was loose under the bridge and the buzz went away after I tightened it. My question is, where the heck did these four nuts/bolts come from? Gibson glued all their bridges exclusively didn't they? Not that it matters because the bridge cracked again in the same place this year so I am replacing it with a handmade duplicate. Still, I would like to know if those nuts belong.
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