Opencan

Hi, I've wrote some diagram that I'd like someone to varify. I've made that scheme because my last (working) circuiting used a DPDT, and too badly I've ran out of thoes, and buying them involves 5 hours of driving each direction with a car I do not have. (actually I've just found one for free, and a great brand too in my city, yet this new scheme seem better than my last hum faking – blend potting – universal tone circuit) The problem that I know about this circuit (and I know how to bypass it with a 3DPT, with costs just too much to spend on a Squier) is that while the swith is up the second volume knob has to be turned all the way down and when the swith is down the first volume has to be turned all the way down. I don't really mind it as I think it worth it that way. I'm not going off trying it out because i've re-did this guitars wiring too much already and parts are start to really wearing out. The outputs as I've ment them to be are: Switch up - Position 1 – Neck Position 2 – Neck II Bridge Position 3 – Bridge Position 4 – Bridge II Middle Position 5 – Middle Switch down - Position 1 – Neck + Middle Position 2 – (Neck II Bridge) + Middle Position 3 – Bridge + Middle Position 4 – None Position 5 – None Any correction and upgrading ideas will be great Thanks to anyone who's kind enough to help me (and sorry for my English and for taking a lot of time to apply)

just to add, you can change the capasitor value in order to have a greater effect or higher range of tone to the tone knob. you can check ANY simple 2 himbuckers schematics to find common values of caps for that purpose.

very nice built as for the scrapped guitar. I think you better continue it with cheap materials. just get some really cheap wood for the fretboard, whatever is local there and have the grain you want. get the cheapest bridge, like a wrap-around bridge, used tuners or so, and then see if you like the results. its a good train of barely paid materials, and you get a guitar with a unique sound. at least you'll know how a birch guitar sounds I would spend the other 50-100 euros for the materials and have a guitar, that maybe will last only a year and break, but will give me the experience or working with different woods than normaly used. just seem wrong to me. its not like you've done any fatal mistakes on it that makes you unsetisfied with your work. anyhow, that "new" guitar is looking great. love the headstock for some off reason

i know only 2 kinds of bridges for that porpose: Tuno-O-Matic and fender strat-style. with the fender you need more curving and hardware, and you don't really see the strings, but they are through the body. the only bridge i can think of is tune-o-matic. as for brands, you have tons, in any price range. loved my gotoh on my SG-like guitar, loved even more the tone-pros on my new Schecter. as for the optimal distance from the bridge, i don't really know, but i don't think its really matters as long as you don't bend the string too much. the factor of bridge hight is a subject to change, so i don't think there is an optimal distance. you could either copy that distance from another guitar, or just do it as it seems right, then it probably will. i don't really have a clue about it, but you can shorten the distance by putting the rullers in angle, so the string will go stright down, and there will be less interumpment in its way. the only thing you should comsider is to keep the string as straight as you can. the more it bends, greater the chance it will snap.

i'd recomand that you won't split your pickups, but make them go parallel and series by switch. as for practicly doing it, you need to get a DPDT switch (or a push pull, same thing schematicly), get the hot wire of the the first coil to the middle right terminal, the hot wire of the second coil to the upper right terminal, the ground wire of the first coil to the ground, the ground wire of the second coil to the middle left terminal, ground the upper left terminal and short out the lower left and lower right terminals, then the hot wire of the second pickup goes to the selector switch. the conflict about push pulls \ DPDTs (double pole double throw) should be just for asthetic reasons. i'd go for the push pulls if i had the money, because its more handy to use in my opinion. (used dpdts on my project only because i didn't felt like spending the money of push pulls + shipping for my Squier) good luck

I wonder if you can use this weird trend of LEDs fret markers (the side dots using leds) as a tuner. wiring it should be really easy. THAT could be cool i barely use tuners actually, so i can't think of myself trying to think about doing this in my project. also, its a lot of work for a complete guitar.

aside that, using two capacitors let you define the tone range for each tone potentionmetter. its a quite common mod for strats.

found a shop that got 2n5458 and got two of them. they should function the very same to the 2n5457, right? it was about 75 cents each. and another thing. i bought a soldering wire, half a kilo, for 10 bucks. is it a fair price? because it seems like a major rip to me x_x and its from one of the cheapest stores in the country.. (i've been asked for 18 bucks for the same thing in another store..)

i think its more of a undesired handshake. its called twitching. never got a real good zap from an amplifier (yet), but i've got not-that-a-few shocks from engines, computers, and what not. and here its 230VAC... its a bit more annoying. i got to a point that the thing i hate the most about getting shocked is going all the way to the raise the switch...

I'd love to do that, but on sunday morning i left my home because i should have recruited to the army and ran away. anyhow, left my electronic stuff there (didn't had time to pack them). and at the momnet i don't have a phisical address anyhow, this thing should calm in a few weeks. what i actually wanted to say, is keep me some N24548.... by the way, i love being in a commonistic comunity (e.a. Kibutz)

yeh, wrote them up before, but though there might be a source of info for thoes things i got no clue about NTE, but i'm sure i never came across that name before in here. and about the JFETs.. i got no clue, they gave me a 25V-50V, pretty big ones (SKsomthing i think) that cost alot, probably because they didn't get my needs or just wanted to get a few more dimes. and for example, i got once about 50 resistor and it was about 10 NIS (about 2.2 USD) and thats not all that cheap because i didn't get any discount for buying a bulk.

wiring the humbucker to a parallel \ series is pretty easy. you get a DPDTand wire it as followed: ground--> x x <--coil 2 positive coil 2 negative-->x x <--coil 1 positive x-x seem to me like it will work, but never tried it

yeh, the problem is i know no n-channel JFET models... x_x

actually my Squier have a humbucker - tube body, and was made in 2003 as far as i know. it can go HHS \ HSH \ SSS with the right pickguard. as for finishing it, i got no clue. and for getting a winding machine, if you'r not going to make more than 10-20 pickups a month, i can't see a reason to buy it. instead I think you rather read this : http://galileo.spaceports.com/~fishbake/fpickup/pickup.htm and if you decide to go further on with this idea, try this : http://galileo.spaceports.com/~fishbake/counter/count.htm too. you can check his homepage too for more insipring things. further more, i know of not-so-few people who just use a simple electronic screwdriver (don't know the proper name, sorry) mounted to a table and with one hand leading the wire and with one hand controlling the speed. a bit of a mess, more work, but less money one more great thing to add to a strat guitar (from my expirience on my Squier) is a humbucker mock. never made to much experiment with that, but i know my middle in series with the neck kicks ass. pretty easy to do so as well. I've posted a topic of my Squier wiring mods a few days ago, should be around the second page in the electronics forum. Good luck getting the best result, Ron

Paul, be surprised, but most electronics components are cheaper here than in the US, or at least equal at price. I'm pretty sure you get a way better price than the US for buying in bulk. Its just that there is less (and different) variety of components. JohnH, thank for the information, i will ask for them tomorrow when the shop will open up. And i rather not use a 18V circuits at the moment for the sole reason of comfortness. rather use 1 battery than 2. lovekraft, i'll ask for thoes as well. I did asked for any N-channel Jfet available instead but they stared at me blankly saying they know about values and not about kinds, and told me to ask an electronics expert for this kind of information... While this being my preffered place for asking question, i made you my electronics expert to cover my loss of knowledge thanks you all for the help, i'll write back tomorrow morning when i'll have an answer about thoes components

your decision. i hate to see people giving up so fast, but i guess its a character. i did had some (alot) of defects, and the hard part is debugging, not putting together, but yet i'm satisfied with the results.

Sorry if i was unclear. I need a recomandation on a cheap subtitute to the models mentioned. I can't order from this site for the simple reason i don't pass the minimum req. and the shipping to israel will cost me way too much.... and I need a 4.7M ohm resistor (4M7 = 4.7M). but its fine, i'll use two 2.2M resistors in series.

I wanted to build this circuits : http://www.runoffgroove.com/grace.pdf, so I went to my local (and pretty expensive) electronics store, and bought all the parts needed, exept of the Jfet. They didn't had the exect type of what i've needed, not the 1:1 subtitutes mentioned in their book of semiconductors, and what they did had to offer me cost between 4USD to 8USD (and thoes was the cheap from the bulk). I don't want to spend so much money on thoes thing, mostly because the essay from this author and the essay led me there said i can use any N channel Jfet. So, what CHEAP models can do the work? Oh, and does 4M7 ohm is a common value for resistors? i remember i saw something like that in another electronics store, but I'm not sure about that. (anyhow, i bought 2 2M2 resistors to place each 4M7 resistors) Hope to get some encouraging answer, Ron

telling us what you have there now will help... in basic lines, to put an all-pickups volume potentionmeter you need to solder a wire from the middle terminal to the 5 way selector output (shouldbe the middle two terminals, 4 and 5) then one of the side terminals goes to the output, and the other side terminal goes to the ground. if you can't follow does description, please add a great-quility picture for us to see whats going on, or describe us what you have there right now. hope it will solve your problem, Ron

Seems like you need a 3 way switch actually. putting it upward will make the signal go through capacitor number 1. putting it downward will make the signal go through capacitor number 2 and putting it in the middle position will short it out to the ground without any capacitor.

i know they sell them in here for pinuts. go to your electronics store and describe your need. most electronics shops i know holds a few

Thanks alot for the info Do you happen to have any schematic for a commonly used pre-amp, or common coil resistance, common coil guage or common magnets being used in active pickups? (i guess alnico won't give the best results)

it came reversed, so i wrote the poles of it reversed. the switch puts the middle in series with the neck creating a humbucker mock. the jack is a mistake ^^; i never actually open this chamber so it was a very rough guess...

its a realy cheapo mod, made it on my Squier Bullet to make it more verstile. all it takes is wires, a DPDT, iron and time. sorry for the mess of it, but i guess you can dig it out. what it does: first pot - volume second pot - bridge pup blend pot third pot - overall tone switch - humbucker mock its my first mod and gut-killing of a guitar, and it went pretty well. very pleased with the results, specially with the hum and the blend. just one note, when the DPDT is on, the middle section of the 5 way selector is off.

i know the principles of how active pickups work, but never really seen anyone building them as a hobby. does anyone knows of a source of info about this? such as what gauge of wire to use, what is are the common resistance, any diagrams for the internal pre-amp, types of common used magnets and stuff like that? I've ran a search and all I got was the basic principles of active pickups being built with weaker magnets, thiker gauge and lower coil resistance while compensating the loss of volume by using an internal pre-amp, but haven't got any info about how to actually make them. sorry if it have been covered before. thanks in advanced, Ron