Mr Alex

I've made 3, not too hard, just keep ENOUGH tension on the wire! that said, not too much either. I keep my first on the shelf to remind me, it's sagged in the middle and looks like it came from my dogs ass. those pickup kits stewmac sell I feel are rather expensive(that said they do have very quick shipping so come in use), I have no memory of what it was called, but there is an online shop that sells stuff for making pickups, even kitsets as memory recalls.(I found it on google a while back while looking for P90 kits if that helps)

as far as a winder goes, well it's not hard, if you wanna make heaps, make a motorised winder. but a 3:1 hand drill does a good job and quickly too.

ooh and I forgot, next time use search!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

, but I use mine as a feedback sustainer mostly, once I've found the sweet spot I get screaming infinite sustain.

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Oh NO!!!!!!!!!...you mean all my sustainer experiments are obsolete...all I needed was a Wha...

Maybe I just don't have a "sweet spot"....

pete

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no they're not obselete, people(read *alex*) want globs of sustain without the overdriven scream sometimes. Im gonna put a sustainer in my current project with some piezo coax in the bridge.

I wouldn't call myself too experienced, but I would stain before fretting. you can rub the stain better, and probably get a less patchchy result. and the stain probably wouldn't soak under the frets too well, so if you change to smaller frets some day it will have bits with out stain. also I cant see why you would stain after fretting anyway, just doesn't seem right to me.

lovecraft, thats the best info I've probably been given in my life! seriously.

some of those things I've already thought about, I'm gonna remove the fence from my weeping demon and copy it so if I give the pedal the same range then within reason I should get a good taper going. My dads got some lensed leds in stock, so I'll have to experiment with those, and I understand ldrs to be far from linear, Is that correct?

thats ok bout the kid thing too.

psw, this is for more than just welding, my prototypes will be active volume and tone pedals so I can keep my lap steels without controls(cept pickup switches, and maybe some masters for preamps).

as I dont own any other wahs at the moment, I'm not sure if this is limited to weeping demon's, but I use mine as a feedback sustainer mostly, once I've found the sweet spot I get screaming infinite sustain.

...and I doubt your site has ANYTHING that they wouldn't know already...

...nobody needs to post anything else, you've all helped, but obviously nobody has tried making optical pedals before...

Notice anything about these quotes? It's just my personal observation, but if you ask for help, it's less than gracious to complain about the quality of said free help, and really bad form to imply that those trying to help aren't bright enough to do you any good. You sound like a bright kid - you might want to work on those social skills a bit so people will listen long enough to find that out.

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sorry to come across that way, I haven't slept much recently(mother VERY sick) and I'm beginning to get grouchy.

that first quote, I'm serious, they are the spot welding experts for New Zealand, and there isn't much they can't do, usually just case repairs that I do for them when I'm around.one dude through his welder when it was faulty!!!!

and the second one, you have all definetly helped, I'm not denying that, but from what I can tell, nobody has actually made something like I'm trying to do, they have offered alternatives, which I will keep in mind, as I may find that making the fence is too diffucult, and I may find future uses for them too. so thankyou.

I didn't mean to come across as complaining either. and if I implied that others weren't bright enough to do any good, woah, sorry, I'll just have too be less grouchy and re-read things more often.

sorry for any offense I have caused

and please dont call me a kid, and I'm hardly bright, I dropped out with 4 hours school work left to finish 6th form. I'm just incredibly practical,e.g. my first guitar body(practise) I cut with a hatchet, as my tools were in storage. If I cant get something, I make it. simple as that.

Lord, forgive me! I must be the Michael Jordan of forum posters! I shall try to adjust my input to those of you who know basketball!

Optical pedal control is not only old tech but is is in revision because of it's shortcomings. I should have and shall in the future leave the improvements to the "pros".

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Probably just me, but I dont understand a single thing you just said. Don't worry though, I'll figure it out once I've got some sleep.

are you using an undersaddle pickup, cos if you are, I was told you dont need to ground the strings.

lovecraft: I know it isn't beginner friendly, but I have access to the entire farnell and rs catalogs, and some specialist ic makers, so I can get parts, I might forget it for now though. thanks for your help though.

thedoctor: he is pretty busy at the moment(and sees the internet as a alternative to the fax, and little else,so he wouldn't bother with your forum), also they are agents for some spotwelder companies, and the market here is really starting to boom now, as car companies are specifying spot welding only for repairs now, more people need good gear. And as I'm not at school anymore, I have too much time on my hands so I'm always hasseling him for help with stuff.

psw: that was a possibility at one point, but only for my uses in audio. for the welder pedals, the tracks are being ripped up(even on the wire wounds) or the pot shafts are snapped off long before it would be making any noise. so removing the pot is the only way to go, and it needs to really be low maintenance. I will have to remember that circuit for when my friend gets his new crybaby(fool).

any nobody needs to post anything else, you've all helped, but obviously nobody has tried making optical pedals before. once I've got something going, I'll make a tutorial with measurements and everything.

and anyone can please help me with my other question?

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I just go to warmoth and blow up a pic till the neckpocket is the right size(cos there's all fit strat dimensions, so you dont need to already know what that guitar's is).

but heres a better idea, get some wood, and draw your own.

hey,yup,anouther crazy idea by me lol,well,u no how the harder the guitar body,the better the sustain.

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1. its not that crazy.

2. since when was the "harder the guitar body" a factor. you would only be making it more dense. And there is a lot more too it than that.

PSW, I had seen that before, but took no interest at the time, it is interesting though. I will certainly stick with the led/ldr as it is simple and cheap to build(as long as I keep the pedal to the same range, and make the fence the same as the Ibanez one.).The reason I posted this is one, I was hoping somebody had done this before, and could tell me if they had any problems and what to do about fixing them(I'm by NO means and electrical guru, and I think my dad is probably sick of me pestering him for help with my effects pedals)and two, I was hoping somebody had a whammy schematic(even if it requires cmos chips.) or just a schematic for an adjustable pitch pedal for 2 octaves up and also one down.

edit: my zoom pedal had a hall effect sensor.

I'm not sure why it wouldn't work, you mentioned it wouldn't stand up to the welding environment, his boss was VERY impressed by the weeping demon, and the led/fence/ldr setup it uses instead of a pot. Maybe you are referring to photocouplers, we spent a lot of time researching them and they would be to expensive and would waste our time, I want good quality effects, he doesn't want to replace pots, AND he wants happy customers.

and I doubt your site has ANYTHING that they wouldn't know already, one thing my dad does is designs controllers for spot welders so their work is a little more than straight repairs.

it probably wont help, but this page showed me how to do them, but your situation is a little different.

I know about morley they created the optical pedals as I understand, but they just aren't that good in my opinion(compared to a weeping demon, and they cost more)

have you ever seen inside a WD, there are 9 pcb's, it's scary stuff.

My dad repairs welding machines, and one common problem they have is the pots breaking in tig controller pedals, it appears that construction welders aren't easy on their gear, it usually isn't the pot scratching it the gear being ripped off of it from too much pressure. Being a nuisance job, it isn't worth them what they charge to change them. So armed with a new weeping demon I'm gonna be making some pedals based on the optical system in it, because the welding industry hasn't caught on yet. My prototypes will be a dual volume/tone pedal set up, cos the volume pedal is essentially what is needed, but with a different pot and a few other resistors. And I want a volume pedal.

I plan on making a retrofit unit eventually for them to fit be fitting.

I'll be hopefully making the first prototypes this week from some 3mm ply, and later if they are good, I'll do them from aluminium.

If anybody has any experience with optical pedals, I'd be glad to hear about what works and what doesn't.

If it works well I'll make a tutorial, cos optical pedals are way better IMO than pot based pedals, and I'll be designing a superior wah(if things go well) soon. I say superior in the meaning that It'll be the best parts of the crybaby(old skool ones), with the technology of the weeping demon, and my own mods added in for good luck.

And thanks in advance if anybody can help me out.

ooh, and if anybody has a whammy schematic(I'm not joking either) I'd like to see it

thanks

Mr Alex

lovecraft put the link in for the stratoblaster, but heres what I know about them, they were designed for the strat, to fit under the jack plate with it flipped over and then using a push/pull pot to control gain and bypass it(replaced the useless second tone pot so you had master tone and volume pots and one for booster gain), or you use an oval plate that I think came with it that had a stereo jack that was flat mounted, a hole to adjust a trim pot through for gain,and a mini toggle for bypass, under the plate the angled jack cavity was large enough to fit a 9v battery AND the circuit with only minor rewiring for the battery switching.

By changing the fets and capacitors you can tweak the tone a little(only problem is, I can't remember what I changed to what, and its built in to a distortion pedal so compact I can no longer make head and a tail of whats what.

edit : either its my crummy strat copy, or some bad info, but i cant get a 9v in the jack cavity AND the plate, even flipped over. but it goes in the control cavity no problem at all.

Ok I have no idea how To put a top on A zero angle neck thru

!!METAL MATT!!

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you will need a thicker blank I think, at the point of where the fretboard stops, you have a step down of the same height as your top, then they should match up.

eg, if you have a 1/4" thick top, then at the body end of the blank you take off 1/4" for the top to sit on, the best example of this I've seen online(although not a neckthru) is ormsby's vine guitar, I figured it out from that, but I'm not good at explaining things so here's a budget pic

edit: damn you primal, i was making dodgy pic when you posted!!!!

my stratoblaster does up to 25db gain, and fits in about a 1/2 inch square cavity no problem, and less if I'd used an IC.

And seriously, most people with some kind of electronics hobby would have the parts lying around too.

Paua shell is often referred to as New Zealand Abalone.  Hence the NZ.

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must be an english thing cos I've NEVER heard that before.

Oh and good news for inlay dudes, in about 70 years our country's new hand reared crops of paua should be ready for harvest, which will mean when I'm in my 90's, paua is gonna cost next to nothing!!! yay.

But already its cheap here, or you go snorkeling at the beach and get some that way.

And gsr, your country's rugby team is gonna get wasted!!!

Is there anything special about the afterburner I'm not aware of?

I cant see why a diy stratoblaster can't do the same thing for a couple of dollars and 15 mins work.

the more expensive squiers are alder, but most are plywood, or agathis(crummy asian stuff not the nice pacific stuff)

I noticed you've put in brackets nz abalone below the paua, I'd just change that to abalone, cos nz abalone isn't it's name

he mr alex, sounds like a champion effort 48 hours.... wow, 

got any pics?, im dieing to see this beast, cos i absolutely love kauri, and prs, so sink or swim its gotta be good goin good man

luke

 

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err 48 hour finished last week, I got probably 60% in one day though, so it was more an 8 hour build time. and its fijian kauri not nz kauri, so it looks like some golden coloured maple, I've got a big board thats got like brown and orange stripes, but I'm saving it for my bass.

hopefully I'll get it layable by tonight(no finish, still gotta decide cos I cant really oil with the filled gap at the heel, but I may take the heel off and laminate a bit on, then I could oil it and it would be way better.

What's the purported impact of winding the coil assymetrically that way?  More mellowness on the tone?

Greg

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to tell you the truth, I cant remember, I know I saw it in an interview with seymour duncan though and I remember it sounding like it would be suitable for my preferred tone. As psw said, it's something to do with the coil being more sensitive close to the string.

get some food grade beeswax(kind they sell for butchers blocks and wooden utensils) then you can eat off of it.

dont know why by I have an urge to eat a steak dinner off the back of my guitar now.

and I'm serious about everything I just said too, I'm getting hunger pains now.

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[strong bads voice]What the crap!?[/strong bads voice]

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sorry, but its a high quality wax that is really good for furniture, my tables aren't oily or sticky or anything, and it doesn't seem to leave residues on yer clothes either. And its way cheaper than minwax(certainly in my country, i cant eve nget titebond glue here!) and that sort of stuff, AND you can pot pickups with it!!!

Edit: rereading it the last post did seem a little odd, so I'm sorry for freaking you out.