dalandser

Hello,

I'm confident in my ability to wire up most any guitar without piezo type electronics.  I'm wiring up a 2x12 cabinet and I would like to be able to play through each of the two speakers separately because they have interesting nuances and then play through both of them at the same time.  I know that there are two basic ways that I can make this happen - one way is to have 3 inputs where two go to individual speakers and the third goes to both and the other way is to have an input that goes to one speaker and another input that goes to a switch that toggles between the other speaker by itself and both of them.  

I'd like some advice on which is more durable - my intuition tells me the first method sans switch will be less likely to have an incident over time (breaking or setting my amp resistance setting incorrectly to match the cab), however I'm not sure how to make this wiring happen and I'm also hoping that someone can direct me to where to buy good parts and model numbers for the parts if a website has a huge amount of items.  Thank you in advance.  

Thanks for getting back to me. I had taken it apart to fix the switch that had broken at one of the tabs where the screws hold it in place. It had been making a shorting out sound when strummed which I figured was the lugs on the switch contacting something else and making a ground as it could wiggle around with only one screw holding it.

I super glued the switch back together - just plastic on plastic and taped around the fix a few times with electrical tape to help it endure torsion. I went over the unused jack with the tape and originally thought that was the problem and it was grounding out on the tape, but I cut back the tape and now its only touching plastic on the switch as far as I can tell.

When I had the pickguard flipped around the bridge pickup hot to the switch and the output hot both pulled off due to the guitar's age and the weenie little wires they used in that thing back then. I figured out where the bridge pickup was wired pretty easily, but I was having a hard time as stated finding where to connect the output jack. I noticed that I'd get an output signal when I touched the wire with the soldering iron before it was soldered onto the volume pot, but once I did that, nothing. The guitar worked well besides the cutting out from the switch before I took it apart. Thanks for getting back again. I'll poke around at it a little more tonight.

Hello,

I was working on an old Charvel CX290 and I accidentally broke the connection to the output jack. Can you please help me find where to solder it to the circuit? I tried a couple places with no signal going out to the jack when I tap the pickups with a screwdriver. I currently have it in a place where I thought it should go based on another diagram (middle lug on volume pot), but I'm not getting any output. Here are some pictures. Thank you in advance. Have a good day!

Anthony

Here are some pictures:

Thank you so much. I was getting bummed out about this guitar because of that. I just set it up tonight. It plays really well and doesn't need a truss rod adjustment... yet. It stays in tune really well for having a plastic nut and me not really knowing how to set up a trem bridge really well. I really admire your guys' guitars that you build. I'm pumped up now - I'm going to show a dad and his daughter who has a floyd rose knock off guitar that is actually made well, but who didn't know about all the maintenance required to keep it tuned up and playing well. We'll see what they think. I think this will be a good guitar to start with because it's easy to tune and still has the look of the guitar that his daughter already has (rock n' roll) with the reverse headstock and matching black headstock. Thank you again. Have a great day.

Anthony

Hello,

I was recently fixing up an older Charvel Charvette and found the truss rod too look like nothing I've ever seen before. Is this something broken off in the truss rod or is it supposed to be like this? Thank you for your time.

Have a great day.

Thank you for the response... I guess I'd like to know if anyone has been able to successfully install brass inserts in a maple neck - I imagine that it's fine, but who knows? I had installed some in a couple project guitars a few years ago, but I did a pretty poor job (just learning as I go) so I'm not sure what should be expected. Anyway, not too big a deal. I do like the idea of being able to take my guitar apart and putting it in a backpack when I go home to visit my parents on the east coast. That would be pretty nice and the machine screw connection seems to be a nice way to just have a guitar be like an easy thing to take apart and put back together without pointy wood screws.

I might just go for the stainless steel ones just to be on the safe side - I am hoping that this guitar last me the rest of my life if I end up keeping it - it's got everything I want on it. By the way, I got the body from Ron Lasich at Hot Mod Guitars and he routed out the body so that I can pull up on the whammy bar so I'm really looking forward to playing this guitar - it's kind of like a mix between a Fender Deluxe Strat and a Music Man Petrucci guitar. Thanks again. Have a great day.

Anthony

Hello,

I am building a Stratocaster from parts. It's got the contoured neck heel like the Deluxe models. I'd like to use threaded neck inserts because I want them. I can't really justify it any more than I'd like to have the mechanical connection between the screw and the insert even though I've read a lot of reasonable arguments that this doesn't improve the tone and wooden screw holes don't strip that easily. Still since I'm building this guitar I'd like to have them put on (by a respected luthier - unfortunately I'm too busy and I don't have a drill press to work with at the moment). My question is to spend about $6 and get the brass inserts or $15 and get the stainless steel inserts. I read that the brass inserts may be too soft for maple and that could be an issue. I'd like to hear from people who have done this technique and see what they have to say about that. I've read a lot of conjecture, but it's one of those things where it's probably more valuable to hear from people with experience. Of course feel free to offer advice as you see fit whether you've installed these before or not - I'm all ears.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/140956772937?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

http://www.ebay.com/itm/331029419124?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&var=540245559263&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Note: If you know where to find the complete setup for less please let me know - I've sourced these parts separately a few years back and spent at least as much as the set with the brass inserts, so I'm not too interested in getting separate parts and having spares.

Regarding the neck plate - I thought about using ferrules and get rid of the plate, however there are already holes drilled in the body that match up with the plate I have and they are too close to the edge of the body to be used if I go with the ferrules. I'd have to plug the holes and have new holes drilled for the ferrules and the screws.

If it's too much work and I end up keeping the plate and I use those machine screws, then the body and the plate itself will have to be countersunk for the screws to fit flush with the plate. Either way some work is going to have to be done. Any suggestions on that? I'm kind of leaning toward keeping the neckplate and countersinking the body / neck plate to make the screws flush with the neck plate = that is where they'd typically be.

That aside, what do you think of the guitar so far? That's a carvin neck and a swamp ash body. It's pretty light and with pickups and the bridge attached, I think it should feel about the perfect weight. I'm pretty pumped up so far. I'd like to sand down the neck so that it matches the contour of the body where they meet, but besides that it's pretty much ready to be connected with the screws.

One more thing - any suggestions for the pickguard color? I just had the gray pearloid sitting around - it looks interesting. I have cream colored pickups - HSS. What do you think?

Thanks for your advice. Have a great day.

Anthony

Thank you! Great advice.

Sounds good. Thank you for the advice. The fingerboard was glued to the soundboard - they just left a lot of air gaps in there. My main concern is how to clamp the neck to the body while the glue dries. If you look at the photos, I think what you're calling the tenon and the mortise are actually made of two different material. The tenon (male counterpart?) is made of wood and the mortice (female?) is made of plastic. However the tenon broke so that there is a wood on wood connection on the bottom and on one side (the bass side I believe). The other joint between the mortise and the tenon broke cleanly at the wood / plastic connection. There do not appear to be any voids in the joint even though various parts of it are comprised of three different materials - wood, epoxy, plastic. There was a significant amount of epoxy used to seat the bottom of the tenon about 1mm above the bottom of the mortise. You can see it in the pictures of the mortise. The fretboard was glued to the soundboard, but I'm not sure how well - most of the underside seems clean of any glue. So the suggestion is that I remove all of the glue chips from the bottom of the fingerboard rather than using the fragments as references for fitting the neck back on the body?

The guitar played great, but I think it was the heel lifting away from the body that caused the treble side of the fingerboard come unglued from the soundboard. I don't know how this happened - if it was just inevitable or if someone dropped it (it stays at church and there are kids...) however I've heard that this happens on a semi-frequent basis with these guitars, so I'm thinking it's probably just time taking its toll on the guitar.

Questions about glue:

Will hyde glue bond wood and the clearcoat on the sound board? Will it bond the wooden tenon to the plastic body shell part of the mortise? Will epoxy bond these joints?

I see both sides - if I am able to use hyde glue and just heat it up again to reset it, then I can have second chance. If I use epoxy, then I get one shot. I am leaning towards epoxy and multiple dry fits and then just slamming the joints full of epoxy and setting it clamped up for about a month or two. I already bought another guitar since I'm not sure of the results and I need one for work and for church on occasion. I still want to fix this one and maybe give it to someone that wants to learn. I will definitely not be selling it lol. Of course I could always sell my new guitar if this fix goes well also... So my three main questions are:

1. Will hyde glue secure all the joints in this fix well?

2. How should I go about clamping this guitar?

3. If I use epoxy, which kind should I use?

4. In My Media there are no pictures (since I haven't put any in lol), but I also can't find where to upload them. Where should I go to do this? Sorry for not being able to do that - I'm pretty young even lol.

Thank you for the advice. I look forward to hearing about more ideas! Take care.

Anthony

Hello,

I found my guitar with the treble side of the fingerboard lifting at the neck joint and the heel lifting away from the body. I figured I'd have to take off the neck for any kind of quality repair so here are pictures of what I have so far:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BzZWtk8LPXU1OF9CNm9DNjlpNlk&usp=sharing

Sorry for not being able to post the pictures themselves here - the system wouldn't let me do it.

What should I do next to go about resetting this neck? Should I leave everything as is, or should I sand everything on the fretboard underside, the soundboard, or even the neck heel (not where the wood broke, but where the epoxy makes a ridge on the outside of the plastic body shell)? What glue(s) or epoxy should I use to reset it. How should I clamp it? Do I need to make a jig (I hope not - at least not a well crafted wooden one - no tools for that unless a dremel counts...).

I'm looking preferably for someone to answer who has worked on this type of guitar before. I've heard that people have a hard time getting glues to stick to the epoxy. It seems like I might have gotten lucky that the wood actually broke giving me some good wood surfaces to glue. Also, the fretboard didn't have much glue holding it to the soundboard. Is this the way it should be or will I perhaps even be able to improve the connection between the soundboard and the fretboard with closer attention to detail?

I'd like to save this guitar - it's the only acoustic I've ever owned besides a little nylon string small scale guitar. It's also the guitar I've owned the longest out of any guitars I've owned. Hopefully I'll be able to save it with your advice.

Thank you in advance for your advice. Have a great day.

Sorry, yes the pickups send signal through the jack. They sound normal, but just with a lot of static, especially with gain, but even on clean tone settings.

Hello,

I plugged in a guitar I use at work to teach lessons with and it started cutting out on me. No problem, I brought it home and found the ground wire was hanging on by a thread to the output jack. I resoldered it and then there was a loud hum that I had noticed from before I had fixed the guitar when I plugged it into my computer. I cut the wire back for both the ground and the hot (it's a combo wire with the ground wrapped around the inside insulated wire) and resoldered both. Still hummed when I plugged it back into my computer. I plugged in a similar guitar (both hh setups) and no such hum. I had already sprayed the output jack with contact cleaner. It was a little corroded, but it didn't seem like it needed to be replaced. I tried touching different parts of the wiring and I found that when I touch the knobs the hum would be reduced and when I touched the input jack where the cable came in and made contact with it, the hum completely went away. I'm not sure what to do and I don't want to start buying new components unnecessarily like a new output jack if it turns out that this won't fix my problem anyway. Any suggestions? Thank you for your advice. Have a great day.

Sounds like solid advice all around. Thank you everyone. Have a great day. God Bless you!

I think I'm going to try raising the studs a little, it seems like the only thing I can do at this point. I guess my biggest concern was loading the inserts with too much of a moment by raising the studs and having the inserts press into the wood, tilting forward toward the neck, but at this point I can't do much else unless I'm missing something. I'm sure there may be some situation in which sustain would decrease because the studs are not screwed all the way into the inserts, but I'm not sure if they are already to begin with, and it's not going to be noticeable I'd imagine, even if there is some loss of sustain. I wish there were maybe some longer studs available for recessed guitars, but c'est la vie. If anyone has some info please let me know. Thank you and have a great day.

Anthony

I read about people doing that. Thank you. Unfortunately it's a neck-through.

Hello,

I have a guitar with a recessed wilkinson vs100 and it's giving me a bit of a headache in terms of setup options. The guitar is intonated, but the E, A, and D strings are too low and ringing on the frets for most of the neck. I've raised the saddles to the point where it looks like they're at the top of their set screws and there's not much more they can go before it slips out of the bottom. The neck relief is pretty generous - I don't know that straightening it any would help, but it started quite straight, back bow actually since the person I bought it from hadn't played it in the years since he bought it new. So my question is what do I do? Can I raise the two posts higher so I can reduce the amount of height needed for the set screws? If so, how high should I go? Are there taller posts specifically made for people with guitars that have recessed tremolos? I know I can experiment, but I'd rather ask before I get around to doing something that might make something strip or worse on the guitar. Attached is a link to some pictures. Thank you and have a great day. Blessings.

Anthony

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos?hl=en

My oh my. The neck pickup had staggered poles causing this. Please have mercy on me!

Thanks for the heads up. The frets were amazing on this guitar for what it is, that was another thing that was confusing me. Lol, wow, my bad. Have a great day.

Hello,

I bought a cheap Johnson strat copy for a student. He's left handed so I was pretty happy to find one. The problem is now that I'm trying to set it up is that the strings almost all completely fret out from about the 10th-12th fret and up. The neck adjustment seems OK and I tried shimming the neck end of the neck pocket with a piece of calling card, but then the nut was so high relative to the bridge that the action looked like a cheap acoustic. Does anyone have any advice for me? It will be greatly appreciated. Have a great day. - Anthony

Hello,

It's been awhile since I posted here, but this is what happened:

I bought a used Schecter C-1 E/A semi-hollow (think ES-355 or PRS Semi hollow) on ebay that has two humbuckers and a tonepros / graphtech ghost saddle piezo and a 3 way on-on-on switch to toggle mag only - mag + piezo - piezo only. Here's the wiring diagram: http://schecter.musicianscentre.com/home/schecter-wiring-diagrams - it's the sixth one from the top. The stock pups were swapped with some duncan humbuckers. When I plugged the guitar in with a fresh battery, I got an intermittent thunder sound that sounds like a loose output jack wire or some other grounding issue. I have a feeling that who ever swapped the pickups made a mistake and didn't wire something properly. There's a push-pull coil split on the mag tone pot which I think was an aftermarket mod as well. I have a 14 day return policy and I'm thinking of returning this guitar because it's a semihollow and there's a piezo bridge which I'm not used to dealing with (and which are expensive to replace if it's in fact a faulty bridge - most likely not, but...?) One more thing - I watched a video on youtube that showed how to switch the pickups and I saw that you have to go through the battery compartment to wire them to the three way switch. I wanted to check out the tech's wiring, but the battery compartment is press fit into this guitar so that after removing the screw that 'holds' the compartment into the route, it is as stuck in there as ever. Here's the video:

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I'll be returning this guitar because I don't have time and / or interest for making this guitar into a project and I paid too much for it as well to be spending more on it than I already did in order for it to be worth it. But just incase someone can tell what the easiest way to diagnose this problem may be or how to fix it, please let me know and I can send the information on to the original owner. I wiggled each pot and the output jack and nothing was any more to blame for the thunder sound than anything else. Also, the thunder comes through all three of the positions on the three way on-on-on switch. Turning down volume or tone with the pots didn't fix the problem (unless I turn both volumes off completely - even still there would be some signal making it through intermittently into the input readers on my line 6 toneport when I had the volumes turned down completely). Also, when the piezo is selected, simply running my fingers over the saddles makes a really bad sound. I know that they pick up vibration, but that seemed unreasonable to me. So, if there's anyone out there who has an idea of what could be faulty or how to fix this guitar, please let me know and I can at least pass this on to the original owner when I return it. I'm pretty sure he has little experience with guitars because he said he bought it with the intention of learning, but never got around to it. And FWIW, I realize this may be like asking someone how much spare change I have in my pocket... but I thought I'd ask anyway. I took some pictures from the outside of the guitar, but I know they won't help any unless I tear the guitar apart and take more, which I don't want to do. Have a Blessed day.

Sincerely,

Anthony Mancini

Thanks for the response. I'll give that a try.

Have a great day.

God Bless,

Anthony

Hello,

It's been a while since I posted anything here which probably means I've been doing more work on guitars and playing them than talking about it. Anyway, I have a Schecter 006 Elite with a s/h pickup setup with a Wilde Bill Lawrence L45 in the neck and a L500L in the bridge. I'm getting some hum when using it with my laptop with emulated amplifiers and equipment. Granted the settings are high gain (overdriven marshall with a dirt pedal in front - all emulated). There is usually hum with other guitars I've used with this setup, but the curious thing is that I'm getting more hum (volume) with the humbucker than with the single coil. Shouldn't the humbucker be relatively silent when compared with the "single" coil L45. The humbucker was coil split with the tone pot so I switched the tone pot and the output jack thinking it was something to do with either one of those, but same story afterward. I'm not sure if it's a grounding issue and I'm not sure how a string through guitar is grounded to the bridge (to one of the inserts for the TOM?). Also, when I press down on the strings and contact them to the frets there is more feedback and hum (even when barely touching the string to the fret). Is that supposed to happen? I'm sorry about all these questions. I don't have another guitar to take apart and experiment with right now and I need this one to play at church so I'm hoping someone can give me some good advice.

Have a great day,

Anthony

Hello,

I have more experience tinkering, upgrading, setting up, and playing guitars than I do building them. I can get a guitar set up pretty well in terms of low-ish action and correct intonation at the 12th fret. I recently bought a used Schecter 006 Elite that was really beat up cosmetically and that had really old rusty strings with worn down frets. I tuned it up and it had the lowest action of any guitar I've ever had, including an Ernie Ball Music Man JP6 (bought new, then fret leveled), another 006 Elite that I had fret leveled, and a Made in USA Parker MaxxFly. The Ernie Ball and the Parker were disappointments in terms of how high the action ended up being after a setup. Then this Schecter with crusty rusty strings and worn frets had the lowest action of any of them. I changed the strings and unfortunately the action wasn't as good after a setup. The low E is now probably a string width higher than it was before. All this has got me thinking about what really makes a guitar capable of having low low action with no string buzz. Since I've never built a guitar or a neck, I'd like to hear what some builders have to say about this. I'm looking for honest to goodness experience in terms of finding what can really get a guitar to have nice low action. Here's my intuition, please correct me if I'm wrong.

It seems that first of all having level frets and a bridge that is the correct radius for the frets are a must. Secondly it seems that the strength and tolerances of the truss rod threading are important. For instance are there really nice truss rods that have a higher number of turns per bend similar to how nicer tuning keys have higher tuning ratios? Finally it seems that the specific arc that is created from the interaction of the truss rod and the specific neck material and dimensions will create the correct circumstances for the lowest action possible.

From a set up point of view, I had been told in the past to straighten out the neck as much as possible until low E string clamped a the first and last fret will barely vibrate or make a tapping sound when pressed against the middle most frets. I've tried this and consistently had to raise the bridge too high to get rid of string buzz. Only after giving the neck more relief have I found that I can get a moderately low string action again without buzzing strings. It's now my intuition that making really small truss rod adjustments will find the true sweet spot for each guitar during each setup to achieve the lowest possible action and that it's actually a process of trial and error rather than simply dialing some measurements and assuming it's a done deal.

I've read many posts on multiple forums about people getting 'super low' action with no string buzz. Are these statements accurate? I know that 'super low' is a subjective value and I'd say I can get about a little more than two full millimeters away from the last fret with the low E string. I wouldn't call this 'super low' especially compared to how low the action was when tuned up this most recent guitar with crusty strings and the same value was more like 1.5-1.75 mm before I threw on new strings and had to give it a full setup. I like to play moderately technical stuff higher up on the neck and this is why I really like low action, so that I'm not having to really press down on the strings and find the fret at the same time which really slows things down. I'm not obsessing over this, but since I've spent a fair amount of time setting up the guitars I play in the last few years, I'd appreciate any feedback from some people that are more experienced and knowledgable than me.

Thank you and have a great day,

Anthony

Looks like no answer may = too expensive. I'm going to try to lighten the fretboard to look more like maple, we'll see how it comes out.

Thanks for the feedback. Whoever had this guitar did some crazy stuff. There's more pick scratches on it (on both sides of the strings) than any guitar I've ever seen. The frets around 12-19 are pretty flattened down. I had another 006 that I got leveled and crowned and it worked fine after, however these are worn down pretty far. I'll see if I can get some pictures. I'll also bring it by the local shop. Basically my questions is how much more would it be for a new fretboard installed with frets if I end up having to get the guitar refretted. That way I can pick whatever fretboard I would like. The neck wouldn't have to be refinished because I can do that myself / not too concerned with the aesthetics since I usually sand down necks to the sanding sealer. I'm also thinking of staining the fretboard if a new fretboard installation is very expensive, but I'll post that in the appropriate section. Thanks again for the feedback.

Have a great day,

Anthony