lovekraft

If you're going to run LEDs (or strings of LEDs) in parallel, the only safe way to do so is to use a separate current limiting resistor for each LED to avoid cascading failure of the whole string. It's probably also a good idea to use a pair of AA cells or similar, since they're smaller, and offer much longer battery life than 9 volts. You'll need to recalculate the resistor(s) for the voltage fo the battery/batteries you choose - Lithium Ion and other long-life cellular batteries could also be used. If nay of that's unclear, feel fre to ask for clarification.

I don't think anybody's been particularly harsh - if I was perceived as harsh or demeaning, I certainly apologize, but I think you guys are still missing the point. Reading the very first post, we find the following: Now, I know that a lot of you adjust your volume from the guitar, but given the intrinsic nature of a passive electric guitar with magnetic pickups, I'd be willing to wager that not one of you regularly plays his guitar with the volume set between 1 and 2 (nor 4 and 5, for that matter), and on the off chance that you do, you're losing enough high end to obscure the actual sound of your pickups - that's a simple fact of life. Everyone is entitled to use his equipment his own way, but some methods cause unintended side-effects that users need to be made aware of. 'Nuff said! Of course, fi you're running EMGs, none of the preceding applies to you, so you can ignore it. The other thing that nobody (including me) has even considered is the fact that if the old pots were linear taper and the replacements are audio taper, the 4-5 range on the new pots is about the same as the 1-2 range on the old ones. Since Gibson is notorious for using linear volume pots, that's a fairly likely scenario. vpcnk, do you know what the taper of those pots is?

Why, yes! Oddly enough, located in the Electronic Tutorials & Reference section. Pinned right up at the top so you can find it without even using the search engine!!! http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=10291 Read the tutorial, decide exactly what you want to do, and there are plenty of people who'll be happy to help you. This project is probably a bit more difficult than you imagine, and might not be the place to start, given your obvious lack of familiarity with general electronics, but if you decide you can handle it, best of luck!

Yep, all you need is a SPDT (single pole double throw) switch (ie, a standard A/B box - this one looks pretty sturdy, and you'll only use half of it) - ground is common, and doesn't need to be switched. If (and only if) you have ground loop noise problems, you'll need an isolated output for the laptop, and an iso box between the laptop and the amp, but don't burn that bridge until you come to it. And not for nothin', but a plastic box that you step on has never sounded like a good idea to me - even my Mom's sewing machine had a metal foot controller. Maplins carries several metal enclosures that are ideal for small projects; this one is not very expensive, and it's probably big enough to get a switch and 3 jacks into without any problems.

"Noiseless" pickups or stacked humbuckers will also help, but as Pete said, using shielded cable (or shielding the cavities) will make the most difference. Even simply twisting the pickup leads together neatly in an even spiral and keeping all the leads as short as possible will probably be an improvement over a stock Tele! Don't forget to ground the control plate - it'll shield the pots and the switch fairly effectively.

Seriously, have you tried playing with the guitar wide open? That's the only way you'll ever know what your pickups sound like - turn your amp down if it's too loud. I've been playing for over thirty years, and I can count the times I turned my volume below 7 or so (while playing) on one hand. besides, since the noise level of your cables, pedals and amp is fixed (for any given situation), turning down the guitar is tantamount to turning the noise level up. Just my take on this - as always, YMMV.

Well, if you're gonna separate the two functions, there's no need to use the TBX - a pair of pots, or one dual concentric pot, makes more sense if it's going to be switched.

Well, at least he's not pulling a Smaul Peed Rith. Of course, I really can't see Tom being Chairman of the Board, with limited access to the factory floor. Best o' luck to him, and thanks for raising the bar for production guitars!!

Here's a simple one using an LTC1440, uses about 4uA in standby: http://www.discovercircuits.com/DJ-Circuits/9vbatmon1.htm Here's a really flea-powered example, from EDN: http://www.edn.com/article/CA318716.html HTH

Use whatever is most comfortable for you - there is no audible difference between 26 AWG and 10 AWG Romex (not recommended, for obvious reasons), nor is there any between stranded and solid hookup wire for our purposes. As for solder, 63/37 rosin core is the easiest to use, unless you're in the EU, California or some other "enlightened" jurisdiction, in which case you'll be forced by law to use lead-free solder, which I have no love for and very little experience with - never use plumbing (acid core) solder (instant corrosion!), or jeweler's silver solder (if you do manage to get it to flow, you'll have cooked your pots and caps, more than likely).

That all sounds good, except that using 20% tolerance pots (the"standard"), the 300K pots could easily be lower resistance than the 250Ks. I'd try switching the volume to a 500K and leaving the rest alone (but thats just me...). The tone caps are a personal choice, as Robert mentioned, and the treble bleed will probably work nicely with the lipsticks. Give 'er a shot, and let us know how it works out!

The Varitone® isn't complicated - it's just an inductor, a rotary switch, a resistor and a handful of caps. Here's a cheap version using parts available from Mouser: It's basically a switchable frequency notch filter, but it works really well with passive pickups, and doesn't require any batteries. Or, if you're not up to building one, Big D sells a really nice ready-to-wire setup on his website. A quick (Electronics) forum search for varitone will get you more info, if you're interested. As for a complex passive EQ circuit, it can be very effective, but it usually attenuates the signal too much for it to be practical as an onboard feature, since it will lower the output level enough to make the signal-to-noise ratio unacceptable. F'rinstance, a standard Fender amp tonestack is going to cut the signal by 10dB or more (that's 66% lower output). Without some gain makeup, that's gonna be pretty weak!

Green wire to switch, solder red and white together and tape 'em off ( or put a bit of heatshrink on the joint). <edit>Sorry, mattia, looks like we were posting at the same time.

Don't let 'em put you off, Sabu2k1 - quite a few of those 80s/early 90s Korean el-cheapos were very nicely made.Their major flaws were usually the appointments, especially the rubbish hardware, like the cast zinc tune-o-matic copies and those wretched machine heads, and the pickups, which almost always left a bit to be desired. I've got an old friend who still plays his Memphis bolt-on SG for bar gigs - it's a beater, but it has a Leo Quan bridge, SD pickups, Schaller keys and a Graphtec nut, and it plays in tune and sounds great. For the couple of hundred bucks he's got invested, it'll smoke any new Epi for twice the price! I say go for it!!

Electric blue, real Ol' Skool Hot Rod flames, hand pinstriped - Dude, you rule!!! That reminds me of an old '39 Merc they used to run on the strip the odd weekend when I was much younger, total class!! Thanks for sharin' this one. BTW, what's in the stompbox? I'm assuming it's a boost/overdrive/distortion - your own design? Really nice work on that, too!!

What do the new pickups sound like with the tone and volume set to 10?

Conventional wisdom says never sand a candy (or other transparent color) coat - the color depth changes with the thickness of the coat, and if you accidently sand through in spots, you'll never be able to match the color (IOW, it'll be blotchy - don't ask how I know that, just take my word for it! ), regardless of how carefully you touch it up. Spray several coats of clear, sand level, and then complete the clear-coating process. It's hard enough to keep the color consistent after several coats - adding sandpaper to the mix is flirting with disaster, IMO.

Try reading past the first page of downloads - there's neck-thru Explorer in both DXF and DWG format (alphabetized under N, for neck-thru).

That what you needed? The link that GGW posted above will explain how the code works.

While that's absolutely true, there's precious little evidence that the resulting non-linearities are audible in a passive guitar circuit. I always use film caps, but that's probably more of a a knee-jerk reaction rather than any percieved tonal improvement - there are those who say they can hear a difference, and I'm not going to call anybody a liar, but if you want your guitar to sound better, use a cheap film cap, and spend the money you saved on better pickups. If you're lookin' for braggin' rights, use the most expensive Hovland Musicap (or similar) you can find!!

You betcha!! but that's not half as bad as quoting every single one of them!!! Oh, BTW, that's the way my Mustang's bridge was set up, but since I didn't buy it new, I can't swear that's what Fender intended - I'll bet the guys at Jag-Stang,Com could tell ya.

Like Maiden said, just order one of these: http://www.emginc.com/displayproducts.asp?...p;categoryid=12 If your Squire has a "bathtub" routed body, it's literally a bolt-in mod - if not, you'll have to carve/rout out enough room for the humbuckers in the pickup cavities (and find a place for the battery - usually not a problem). No tricky work, no wiring, no drama. Easy enough?

Construction-wise, there's no difference whatsoever - a 4-wire pickup simply has all four coil wires available, while a 2-wire has the coils jumpered internally. The extra two wires allow you to have switching options, like series parallel, and coil splits, or they can simply be tied together for standard humbucker functionality. No, they're drop-in replacements - they'll just have to be wired up slightly differently.

Not offended, just setting the record straight - here are a few of mine, from memory: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...mp;#entry204734 http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...mp;#entry202166 (same thread) http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...mp;#entry173771 There's plenty more, but you'll have to look for them - keep in mind, the main reason there's so much to wade through is because so many other people have already posted new threads on topics previously covered rather than using the search engine to find what they needed ( there are at least 5 threads on the Black Ice/ Strawberry Ice passive clipper, for example). Short of implementing draconian measures a la MIMF, all we can do is encourage people to use the archives.

No smack in the head, but you do lose points for style! And while you'll never hear me say a bad word about anything Mr. Atchley's involved with, you're selling us really short! In this forum section alone, the phrase "wiring diagram" brings up 14 pages of hits in the search engine, and "superswitch" gives you two pages all by itself! There's plenty of info here, if you're willing to look for it. Brian has been kind enough to keep archives of every useful post since the first day this forum was operational, and there are a lot of unusual (and even a few ridiculously overambitious) wiring ideas in there (I've drawn up a few myself). That's not to say that the GN2 forums aren't a great place to find this stuff too - after all, all they do is wiring!