psiico

I'd be leery of building an amp without electronics experiance, you can easily be killed by the voltages in even a small 20 watt amp. If you want something cheap and easy to build with no risk of electric shock go over to www.runoffgroove.com and have a look at the Little Gem and Ruby schematics. They are tiny amps, only 1/2 watt to 1 watt but they have a great sound with the right speakers. Not something you can jam along with a drummer with but for sitting around your apartment you can get loud enough to annoy your neighbors. I built one with tone controls and a distortion channel, sounds great.

I don't know about that particular brand but I shielded my Epiphone with aluminium tape, works fine. Checked it with a multimeter in random spots, the pieces connect even though they have a glue backing. I heard from somewhere if you press it down really hard you squish the glue enough to make electrical contact. I don't know if that's why it worked but it worked for me. The only downside is the smell from the adhesive but the stuff they use on the far more expensive copper tape smells the same so no bother. That and you can't solder to it.

Thanks!

What do I do with the other 4? Isolate them from each other and everything else? Snip them off? Connect them together? Just let them flap in the breeze? Lol, I have no idea what I'm doing, hahaha. This is one way to learn though, dive in headfirst and try to swim.

Here's a more important question, what do these materials sound like? How does a lucite guitar or an acrylic guitar sound? I've always thought they looked cool but never had a chance to play one so I have no idea.

I got my order from Mouser today, no problems with customs. Cost at the door was nothing, the postman just dropped it off. I wouldn't hesitate to deal with them again. I did find another Canadian component supplier though: http://www.e-sonic.com/acc/home.aspx

Has anyone done the midrange mod shown on this webpage before? http://www.jpbourgeois.org/guitar/micos1.htm I bought a couple of those TL021 inductors but I'm not sure how to wire them. In the pics on the webpage it only shows 2 of the leads from the inductor being used. Which 2? They have 6 leads, 3 on a side.

I'm new to this electronics thing, I rewired a few guitar switches in the past but lately decided to take a shot at pedal building. Stumbled across this thread and I'm glad I did, hopefully someone here can answer a couple of questions on scrounging for me. I tore apart an old (1976) stereo for parts. Got the usual haul, pots, jacks, tons of multicolored wire, resistors, etc.. There are things that I know what they are but don't know what value. There are quite a few diodes, not one has a label, just a red stripe to mark the anode. Is there a way to test them? Can I safely experiment with them, just dropping different ones into different circuits to see how they affect the sound? There are some what appear to be tantalum capacitors, how can I veryify this? They are unlabeled.

I saw one here: http://www.tonepad.com/ but it wasn't all that simple, lol. Don't get so worked up about PCB's. They're easy enough to make, Radio Shack has that kit, comes with two small boards, etchant, a pen for marking the parts of the board not being etched, drill bit and something else I can't remember. It won't look as pretty as the ones you order since you'll be hand drawing it but you could do it without much trouble. I've seen this kit at my local The Source for $20 Cdn. Another option is that blue stuff, I forget what it's called. Basically you print on it with your printer then iron it onto your PCB, peel off the backing and etch.

Found a couple of Canadian suppliers: http://www.active-tech.ca/b2c/redirect.cfm?pn=2 http://www.sayal.com/index.asp http://www.rpelectronics.com/

Just go to Radio Shack (The Source). They have those resistors.

You can get all of that except the switch and the transistors at Radio Shack although I think they are all Circuit City now instead of Radio Shack. This is the transitor you need: http://www.mouser.com/index.cfm?handler=di...e_pcodeid=51258 Or I'm an idiot, lol. I'm new at this too.

I'm also in Canada, I just made an order with Mouser. https://www.mouser.com/ They allow shipping by USPS so there shouldn't be any problems at the border with that. UPS and FedEx kill you with fees, a $1 order can have a $45 brokerage fee on it, the post office only charges $5 for brokerage no matter what the value of the item. There might be some NAFTA issues since I doubt all the components I ordered where made in the US or Mexico but for small parts I'm not anticipating much of a cost if any. We'll see. I'll let you know when it arrives if I get dinged for something but I doubt it, I use USPS for shipping from the states all the time, never had a problem before.

I'm a total newb at this but I thought I read somewhere the other day that you can put a resistor across the outer lugs of a 500k pot and make it like a 250k. I forget which value though, someone who knows more can chime in.

I'm new at this stuff too guys, had the same questions about how exactly everything goes. Found this link: http://www.tonepad.com/project.asp?id=35 Hope it helps, it did for me.

Okay, so I don't want that. Thanks guys. While I'm in there I think I'll rewire that switch as a phase shifter for the bridge pickup. Might as well use it for something since the hole is there.

You know, I stared at this for hours and couldn't figure it out but now it just came to me. When the switch is up the cap is off. When it's down the hot wire signal passes through it to the volume pot. So that means turning it on kills the sound, which means I don't want it on my other guitar. No wonder I didn't see a similar mod on any webpages, it sucks, lol. I'd still like an explanation of what it does and why it affects the tone that way though. And confirmation that I'm right too please.

I have an old Epiphone something or other and it has a DPDT switch that looks like this from behind: Can someone tell me what it's doing? The wire marked from switch is the hot wire from both pickups after the selector switch. The ground wire seen around the sides of it is soldered to the side of the switch box. I know what the throws connect on those switchs and that's about all I know. Looking at that confuses the heck out of me, lol. Sorry, I don't know much about electronics. The effect it has is that when the switch is in the up position I get a full, rich sound, lots of low end and nice highs and when the switch is down I get a much quieter and thinner sound. To be honest I don't even know if up is on or off, lol. Is the cap being engaged then making it sound better or is the cap being engaged and making it sound worse? I want to know because I'm replacing pots on another guitar and while I'm in there I want to install a similar circuit in there if engaging that cap makes it sound all rich and full like that. Any help would be appreciated.

Wow, what a world. I remember the OLGA thing, I wasn't playing at the time but my brother was and he told me about it. I can see the industry getting upset about scans but most of the tabs out there are a joke, poorly done in notepad and often wrong. Quite clearly the interpretation of the person who wrote it out. I do have a ton of Guitar Pro tabs though, while some of them are wrong or at least sound wrong most of those are pretty well done. Still though, I don't see why they might be illegal, they are still someone's interpretation. Whatever, I wouldn't buy tabs anyway, I'd pick up a magazine from time to time (as I do now) but otherwise go back to figuring stuff out by ear. Let them do what they want, they won't get any extra money from me. Same with movies and music, I stopped buying new cd's and going to theatres (I rent or buy the dvd) years before I started downloading, I won't go back.

OKay, here's the pic. Sorry about the blur, I was too lazy to setup my tripod. See, plastic. They don't look worn though.

The bridge is made up of rollers, not wedges. You mean a Les Paul style bridge right? This one is nothing like that. I'll take pic when I get home from work tonight so you can see how it is. The problem might even be wear on the bridge saddles yet, they are plastic. I didn't check that distance to the first fret, I'll add that to my list of things to do when I get home. The nut slots might be rounded, it's old enough. I'll have to look closer I guess. I won't be moving the neck, the guitar will stay as is until I start building a new body for it. I have another guitar now anyway so it's no big deal. It's not like I'm recording or playing live or anything anyway, I went 12 years without a guitar, I have a lot to relearn. Comes back fast but boy am I sloppy when I pick up the speed on some things and because I used to be able to play them I find myself not having the patience to slow down until I can get in the groove again. Having a guitar that has bad intonation is not that big a deal with where I am in my playing.

I like the neck, it's the worn frets I don't like, lol. I picked up a piece of crap Yamaha today as a second guitar so I'll have something to play in the meantime. I still don't plan to start this project for a while though. According to that chart the bridge is in the right place. I guess worn frets are the problem then with the intonation.

Okay, I measured it. I couldn't find my regular tape measure though, I used a tailer's measure, lol. Metric only. It's 31.35 cm (using my uber precision eyeballs) from the neck side of the nut to the middle of the 12th fret. From the 12th fret to the middle of the saddle for the low E (the furthest backed off saddle) it's 31.9 cm. The middle of the range of travel for the saddles looks to be about 31.4 cm. You guys are the experts, is this right or should I be building my new body with the bridge set back a tad further?

Thanks for the replies guys. The first thing I did was fix the bow with a truss rod adjustment. I read somewhere that if you fret the first and last frets the gap at the 7th fret should be somewhere between 1 and 3 playing cards in height so I set it at just over 1. I also put a straight edge along the neck and it was the same fit. I can't do much about leveling the frets right now, just don't have the knowledge or the tools. It's the first 5 that are dented and they are dented from playing. Visually the 12th fret looks fine although I assume that really doesn't mean much. A couple of the dented frets are pretty bad, leveling them might make the frets too small, likely it would be too small for my taste if not for playing in general. I set the action to what was comfortable and doesn't buzz. It buzzes slightly when I play really hard with open strings in a chord but it's not noticeable through an amp, just when not plugged in. I don't know what the string height is but it works for me, it's pretty low. Yes, they are brand new strings. The problem I have is the saddles are adjusted as far back as they can go and the notes are still sharp. I'm guessing how much the bridge might be off based on how far I had to move them to get what I have now and what I figure it would take to get it intonated properly. Looks like 1/8" or more. I also have a problem accepting Epiphone made a mistake, that's why I'm here! I figured you guys would know more about this then me. It is a cheap guitar, what was the quality control like on such a cheap instrument? I was going to make a new body for it for fun and practice so I was asking about this intonation problem wondering if I should mount the bridge where it is again or mount it further back. I likely won't even use that bridge in the new body anyway but I still need to know where to put the bridge centerline. Sorry if that's not the correct terminology, like I said, I'm a newb here, lol. Is there a formula for this? Can I measure the frets and work out where the bridge should be? It's usually done the other way, right? First figure out where the bridge goes (ie. scale length) then work out how to space the frets. First I guess I'll measure from the nut to 12th then 12th to bridge, I never even though of that. I knew coming here was a good idea. Someone mentioned buy a new neck. Eventually I might have to, lol, I plan to refret this one as a way to learn how. If I wreck this one it's no big deal because it's basically wrecked now anyway. I'm going to pick up another guitar just to bang away on while I work on this one. I'm not expecting to have an awesome guitar when I'm done messing with it, I just want to learn something about building before I try one from scratch. I don't plan to start for months yet, I like to research a lot before I do anything. Or is what I'm considering sacrilege? I don't consider this a vintage guitar even though it's old because it's both cheap and uninteresting. In another of my hobbies there's a segment of people that frown upon modifying certain old equipment just because it's old and no longer being made. I wouldn't refret a 57' Strat neck as my first try and I wouldn't build a body replacement for and old Les Paul either. This thing on the other hand .... Opinions? Thanks again.

Hi all, I'm new here so bear with me. I've been playing for 20 years or so but had a break of 12 years where I didn't own a guitar and rarely played, now I'm getting back into it, don't know what the hell I was thinking when I stopped. I've got a beat up (very beat up) Epiphone piece of crap I got from a friend for literally next to nothing that needs a lot of work. I couldn't tell you what it is because it doesn't have a name, Epiphone sent me an email telling me what it was called and it was basically just a number. Really it's little better then a Harmony Sears guitar, I used to have one of those (my first guitar) so I know how bad they are, this one is better then that but not by much. The Epiphone retailed for $80 US when new many years ago. It's got dents and dings galore and had a nasty bow in the neck when I got it. Unpotted soapbar pickups, some strange tremolo style bridge that I've never seen before, dented frets and cheap-o tuners. Sounds like a perfect "project guitar" to me! So here's my long term plan. I'll get to the intonation question, trust me. First, replace the body. I've always wanted to build a guitar but never had the nerve to do it. I figure here's a good excuse to start small and I won't worry too much if I make a mess of things. The body now isn't plywood, but it's nothing fancy either, also, it's thin, about 1.25 -1.5 inches, I didn't measure it. I figure I'll make a new body from a blank closer to 1.75-2 inches thick. After that I'll sand and refinish the neck hopefully removing the majority of the dings and dents and then refret it. Replace some hardware, pot the pickups and hopefully have a half decent guitar. Maybe then I'll be ready (or prove to myself that I'm not) to try building one from scratch. Here's my question, I fixed the bow no problem and then proceded to set the intonation but I can't, it seems the bridge is mounted too far forward by 1/8-1/4 of an inch or so. Could this be because of the string gauge I used? I used .009-.042 strings. I haven't setup a guitar in years, this is my first guitar I've owned in 12 years so I'm a little rusty and can't remember if string gauge matters that much. Would heavier strings make enough difference to set it up right? Or would they make any difference at all? Back when I used to play I always used .009's so I went with those again although I won't mind going up a size or two, none of that SRV .013's me me though! Thanks for your help. Edited in: I dug through my emails, it's an 1802-T. Here's some of what Epiphone sent me. The guitar I have is missing the tremolo arm and the metal cover that sits over the backplate of the bridge.