unklmickey

i dunno JoJo, my question is: if that thing really is point to point wired, what kind of mess would you expect to see inside?

the pots are tightened down to the metal plate, then pushed through. they prolly weren't aligned right, and then just jammed into the holes. before you take the assembly out, you'll hafta unsolder all the wires from the pickups, switch, and string ground. do you really need to take the pots out, or can you just clean up the mess with everything in place?

so it's the control in the bottom right of the picture that's giving you trouble? see how the right hand terminal has a glob of paint bridging to the side? i think that's where the problem is....................clean that up!

okay, so my work table is about 3' off the ground, so my feet are safe. my hands are both on the router handles so they should be safe, as long as i hang on. so what other appendage(s) would be 3' off the ground.................................................... ..............................................................OMG, holy shiznit! I ain't NEVER gonna use it like that!.....I PROMISE!

hi Stan, that sure sounds more likely than what i thought!

hi Jon, the buzz you are talking about is pretty common even for HBs in places where the AC fields are strong. even little things like flourescent lights can be wicked. it's probably worse when you are near the guitar, but not touching it. touching the strings grounds your body, so it helps shield the pickups and wiring, instead of coupling the hum into the pickups and wiring. so, that part sounds normal. someone may have mis-wired your neck tone control. remove the control cavity cover. if you look at the tone pots with the terminals pointed "up", there should only be connections to the left and middle terminals. if there IS a connection to the right terminal, or if it's touching the shielding paint, fix that. otherwise, your pot itself might be stuffed. cheers, unk

Kramer Voyager Star?

hi Calavera, if i had to GUESS, i'd say the early part of the winding is too loose, and the later winding is causing the wire that's already wound to shift. it seems like having the tension fairly high in the beginning, and decreasing as you go, would probably minimize this. but as i said at the outset, this is just a guess. unk

they used to be................ but, Black and Decker bought both of them, and DeVilbiss Air Power too. (the consumer line, spun off years ago from DeVilbiss)

hi Primal, it's not so much the 2 pots making a voltage divider, it's the internal resistance of the pickup that's at max volume that makes the lower portion of the divider, and the resistance (from high terminal to wiper) of the turned down pot, that makes the upper portion. you probably will like a log taper better for a single control. it will act more like what one expects of a volume control. i have a chinese Epiphone LPjr that came with a linear for a volume control. don't ask me WHY they would put one in a single pickup guitar. it is kinda nice, if you want to 'just take the edge off', but gets sorta stupid when you try to turn the volume seriously down.

Robert, bridges and hardware are not my strong suit, so i'll mostly defer to your judgement on that. one thing i did want to point out, that supports the suspicion the bridge is the wrong way round... look how tall the low strings sit in the saddle grooves. and how deep the high strings sit. that would probably be less than ideal for sustain on the high strings too? unk

thanks for the kind, welcoming words, Al. before anyone accuses you of sacrilege: i want to point out the 'god' thing is a rank -- related to post count. and that's just what's built in to the BB system they are using. i don't have a choice of what the rank is called. Al, there's something to be said about personal taste, but in this case, i was taking wwwdotcomdotnet's original post verbatim: so going by that, definitely audio taper pots for the tone controls, and probably linears for the volumes. Primal, what you've said seems very logical. any time you are using a single volume control, audio taper pots are a much better choice. but, there is one more bit of information that will help in understanding why Gibson uses linear pots for volume. in guitars with separate volume controls for each pickup, when BOTH pickups are on, the resistance that is introduced when one control is turned down a little is in series with the output. since the other pickup is in parallel with the output, this creates a voltage divider. with a moderate amount of resistance (about 21~22k) introduced by the volume control (from the high terminal to the wiper), and 10k for the pickups, that will make the contribution of the reduced volume pickup about half of what the other pickup contributes. even with a 500k linear, that's still pretty high on the dial. with a log taper pot, that becomes very hard to dial in. so it's all about mixing the pickups when they are used together. and you're right, linears aren't nearly as good for controlling overall volume. hope this helps, unk

hi Primal, i don't think Gibson ever used linear taper pots for the tone controls. BTW, i DO like your middle name. unk

Robert has the right info for values on this.... 0.02uF is standard fare for most all Gibson tone controls. 500k pots. Al, that's correct on the Tone pots... (A) log taper....A is for Audio, (at least this is true for the past couple of decades.) usually linear taper for the volumes, but on a few models they use audio taper instead. Gibson has a few (hard to read) diagrams on their site. http://www.gibson.com/Service/Tech/Schematics/ the final piece of the puzzle: wire the volume controls "normal" or 'backward' (independent) ? both styles were seen, at different times, on the SG.

hi Lovekraft, i'll concede those style points, and add an apology, i didn't mean to sell you short. i did those searches and got even more pages than you said, but there were an awful lot of links to other sites and diagrams outside PG. i'm sure there must be plenty of good original stuff you guys have done, but even with that search there is too much other stuff to wade through. i'd be grateful, i you could tell me of a way to refine the search so i can see just the wiring that you guys have designed here. or even just point to a couple of the threads. i enjoy seeing the exotic, innovative, and overly ambitious stuff, so you've really got me interested now! well, that's not entirely true either. there have been a few custom builds posted on GN2 that would fit right in with what's on PG. but admittedly, the upper eschelon of the builds on PG have no rivals, and there's seemingly no limit to the amount of gorgeous guitar 'eye candy' here. cheers, unk

A - take a deep breath and relax, it's not that difficult to be safe. B - use an outlet tester (cheap and available at most home centers or hardware stores). lights indicate proper wiring or wiring errors, instructions right on the tester. C - if your amp has a power cable with a 2-prong plug , replace it (or have it replaced by a pro) with a 3-prong cable. D - get a short extension cord for your amp with a built-in GFCI. plug it into the outlet, plug your amp into the cord. do the same for your PA system. ditto for your bass player, etc. E - if you use a tube amp, and are worried about the EXTREMELY RARE possibility of DC shock, read the appropriate sections on the GuitarNuts site. F - FINAL TEST. have your ex-wife hold your guitar, while you hand her the microphone. if she doesn't light up like a Christmas tree, you're safe. if she DOES, just blow off the gig, and wait to play somewhere that doesn't have stuffed wiring. ..........you won't need the money from this gig anyway, you just saved a ton in alimony! bitter, who, me, bitter?

you guys are mostly on the right track here. John's intention for the cap was to protect against an extremely rare failure in a tube amp, that could cause high voltage DC to be present at the shield of the guitar cable. the cap lessens, but won't eliminate the current through your body, for AC voltages. it is in no way a substitute for checking for proper grounding on the AC outlet you plug your amp into. and IMHO GFCIs are a guitarists best friend. Joe, as strange as it might seem, the string ground isn't to use your body to help in the sheilding, but the other way round. it's to ground your body so it's not a 'big ol' bucket o' noise'. it is true that if you have better shielding on your guitar, your body won't be able to couple the hum and noise as effectively to the guitar, but both good shielding and grounding yourself through the strings is better yet. Robert is right about the ball end of the strings contacting the bridge, and there still being the issue of contact through the strings to the fingers. my guess is the capacitive coupling through the insulated strings will definitely be better than nothing, but not nearly as effective as direct coupling to unclad strings. so HB pickups and attention to detail in cavity shielding will be very valuable here. cheers, unk

hi Humbuckr, what i'm about to say, might get me smacked severely about the head, but i think you're looking on the wrong forum. Project Guitar is one of the most awesome sites for builds, when it comes to the artistry and originality in the wood end of things. There are some cutting edge ideas in the realm of sustainers here as well. But when it comes to outrageous wiring schemes, there isn't as much happening here. John Atchley has a site, GuitarNuts worth looking at, with some pretty good ideas. The original forum got hacked, but one of the members started a new forum, with John's blessing: GuitarNuts2 Compared to PG, the guys at GN2 don't have much to offer in the build department, but wiring is what they DO. I generally hang out there, and only come to visit here once in a while. You should definitely check out some of the wiring schemes there, and get your build ideas and advice here at PG if you want the best of both worlds. I hope i haven't over-stepped my bounds here..... unk

i do agree they can be ugly, particularly when on the front. even on the back, which is not visible when playing, they break up what could be a beautiful expanse of gorgeous wood. i'm very impressed with the looks of Setch's cavity covers, and the way the grain matches. instead of the complexity of the plugging and cross drilling that was originally suggested in this thread, i wonder if Setch's approach, might be taken to 'the next level'? what do you think about making the entire rear cap, a detachable cover? that would allow a great deal of freedom in the size shape, and number of rear routs. also, rather than cross-drilling, shallow routs could be used for wire paths between cavities. of course this would mean there would need to be small screws around the perimeter, but that need not look too bad. and also with a bolt plate, some relief would be necessary in that portion of the cap. all in all i imagine it to be a workable idea. then again, sometimes i get these weird ideas, and miss some obvious reason why it wouldn't work.

grow, yes. like yours? yikes!....another thread that needs it's own zip-code? scary thought, that. Robert, that drawing resembles the innards of the 'Sidewinder' bass pickup, used in the neck position, on Gibson EB0s and EB3s.

MAYBE, the important difference between your friend's Marshall rig, and what you are playing through is not the amp, but the speakers. if it was 2 different heads you played through the SAME cabinet, i'd begin to suspect the speakers have very high electromagnetic emission. it wouldn't make much difference for normal settings, but if you use extremely high gain, it might make all the difference.

Why don't you grow up!!! This is the reason so many people from other countries don't "like" the american attitude. And believe me I have been in MANY countries... Keep this one clean, or it will be closed in a second!!! hi Maiden69, i certainly don't want to encourage any abberant behavior from PunkRockerLuke, but i do have to admit, his question did give me a chuckle. and then a second one from NamelessOne

one possibility would be to use stacked coils. the first coil would be just like a standard P-90. the bottom coil would be mounted UNDER the baseplate, connected in series, out of phase with the normal coil. since a p-90 is pretty shallow to start with, the rout probably wouldn't need to be any deeper than a standard HB. oh BTW, in your idea about reversing the winding halfway through.... since the windings would be reversed, but the magnetic polarity is the same, you would get effective hum-canceling.............and equally effective signal canceling.

hey Pete, i just happened to be in the neighborhood, and saw the number of replies you had. since this will be #2001 (a pretty cool number) i thought i'd say hi. cheers, unk

The same reason they use empty cabs on stage. Flash. Icing on the cake. Umph. Whatever you like to call it. hi Jon, there certainly does seem to be a lot of that going around. massive arrays of full Marshall stacks, but only a small combo amp actually being used, then mic'ed and through the mains. i think the Rush approach is funnier. they run everything straight to the mains. instead of stacks on stage, they have household appliances........refrigerators, washers, dryers, ranges, etc.