Bizman62

Thanks. I know about the dual gang pots and when searching for information the separate volumes idea was also frequently brought up. But I really just want to use what I have at home, this is for the guitar made of scrap pieces and donationware. And since the Strat works fine with a regular pot I'd like to test that idea with just two pickups.

That's the issue with long haired women, be they wives or dolls. Yesterday I had a strand of female floss in my salad. And pulling a hair from under your foreskin has to be done delicately... Had to check out if that was going to be a headless guitar but by no means no.

No, I'm aware that regular pots leak a bit and I'm fine with that thought. My Strat does just that and it sounds great. Here's how that's wired, the image is grabbed from a Breja ToneWorks video which doesn't seem to be available any longer: Looking at the Strat drawing and omitting the mid pickup it looks like the green wire goes straight to the left lug and the red wire to the middle lug. So the main issue is the purple wire connected to the Volume pot: Where should the other end go? To the right lug of the Blender?

So true! And it's not only about liking, it's also about either forgetting to do something at a convenient stage or fixing a bugging flaw. That said, a checklist in a somewhat chronological order could help at least myself. A week between workshop hours and everything packed for storage and transport doesn't help remembering the next phase. For some tasks multiple locations in the list might make sense, in the style of "If you have bypassed this, how about now?"

Ooh, secret objects! Can't wait!

For my current build I was going to put a standard 3 way switch for the two single coils. The pickups are originally the mid and bridge of a Strat so played together they should sound something like the in between humbucking version. Suddenly I remembered that I was planning to use a regular pot instead of a switch. I have an SSS Strat featuring a standard pot as a blender but I can't figure out how to do the same without a switch and a third pickup. I assume that would be very simple, though, for you guys who know your wires. Here's the basic idea with ground wires. The rest is greek to me.

Oh yes, I found the drawing that explains. Seems solid,

Ahh, didn't realize until now that it's going to be hollow! Now I guess I understand the gluing problem better. Is there going to be a straight piece of acrylic against the wooden body?

Hi and welcome! Most often the routing is done by leaning the router on the top with a tip bearing router bit. Thus the cutting depth depends on the bearing which should be easily swapped to a desired size, the actual bit "can" be of any diameter. The bearing rolls along the side of the guitar and the difference of the diameters between the bearing and the bit defines the depth of the cut. There's also dremel tools that instead of a bearing have a solid depth stop to prevent the router bit to cut too deep, they also lean on the side. And there's Ye Olde Skool method of using hand tools like chisels and marking gauges.

totally nuts!

How about a full length dovetail groove, guess rather in the wood as a wooden slat inside the plastic might swell and crack the plastic.

Funny how I can't remember anything about that! And I sawed, drilled, carved, scraped and sanded my GOTM winner top quite a many months on a weekly basis!

All the above. Plus making a 7 string neck shouldn't be that difficult compared to a 6 string one. It's just a bit wider. Haven't made one by myself, there's too much for me to learn playing a 6 stringed guitar. But there's fellow builders with a similar skillset to mine who've successfully built beautiful 7-stringers. On the positive side the middle string follows the centerline which in my thinking should make things even easier. Some extra attention to stiffness may be required because of the extra string pull but laminated necks and/or carbon fibre rods are common in any necks nowadays.

What's the matter with this world? Basses look like superstrats and have P90 pickups? No wonder an elderly fart like me gets confused. Four strings used to be plenty enough but what do they now have? 36 string basses...

Superstrat, not a bass! I only saw four holes, not figuring out the outermost holes were covered by tuners! Blame (almost) bedtime and Scotch.

Heh, that must be a slayer metal bass! Looks like it has been played with fingernails pulled off and wrists slit.

MDF is porous so most likely it will. My first thought was to suggest using tape to prevent sticking but then I realized that tape is made of plastic film and the glue is intended to melt plastic. No wonder it's sold in metal packages! I wonder what sort of plastic the caps are made of, though. Finding that as tape might work. Then again, metal tapes are widely available in various widths and aluminium tape isn't too expensive. Wax might work as well but it depends on the solvents used and the time of exposure i.e. will the solvent penetrate the wax layer before evaporating. Waxes can be dissolved at least into alcohol and turpentine, never thought about stronger stuff with them but a quick search reveals that many other solvents can be used to remove wax.

Couldn't find what that would mean in luthiery. Please?

Knowing that there's aluminium U channel truss rods that are 12 mm wide and commonly used by makers like Martin I wouldn't worry. There seems to be a lot of discussion about that question and for what it's worth there was a dead link to StewMac where they allegedly had told that wood glue would work with carbon fibre rods in a guitar neck. Also it was mentioned in several occasions that sanding the carbon fibre rough improves the grip despite that there's no pores in the carbon. So in any case it seems that Titebond will stick to carbon fibre better than to plastic or metal. And as a final thought, there's wood that is not optimal for wood glues unless treated specially (sanded/planed or wiped with acetone) just before gluing. And of course you can use epoxy if in doubt. Or replace the carbon fibre rods with hard hardwood rods.

There is a theory but does it matter is another question. Take a look at the nodes picture I posted on the previous page. You can play harmonics at about 1½ and 1.75 fret, the tones being a fifth apart. And for some reason that's where the bridge pickup usually sits. Or close enough given how close to each other those nodes are. Also, you can play the 5th fret harmonic on the 22th fret or over the neck pickup as well.

Yikes! That's going to be something amazingly insane!

Progress is progress disregarding speed, And most likely you'll get this project finished before global warming has been stopped by political actions. Your tool set is somewhat puzzling... Yours must be the most professional looking fret organizer block. Not only are the holes perfectly aligned and equally spaced, but you also have taken the time to do the markings with a tool instead of a Sharpie! Lasered or punched? Doesn't matter, they're perfect. And I don't believe you have bought that! Further, what is the function of the metal block with a black grooved top? And finally, the wooden wedge tightened clamp (curious about the real name for that tool), is that a commercial product or a family heirloom?

Hi and welcome! First, I'm not an expert in electronics by any means. However, that looks like a basic wiring, something I've done with my guitars. And the tone works. The selector may look confusing as there's three switchable options and the two center lugs are connected together so in total there's five lugs. Utterly simplified the pickup system is a loop from hot to ground starting and ending at the Output Jack. There's gadgets that let the signal pass, adding some modifications on the route. Take a look at the Pickup Selector: The hot wire from both pickups is connected at the side lugs. There's a common ground going to the top of the Volume pot but for simplicity let's forget any grounding for a second. So, the blue wire continues that path for both pickups either one at a time or simultaneously, then goes to the lug of the Volume pot continuing to the Tone pot. Now we get into the grounding: The signal then goes to the outer lug of the Tone, through the Capacitor to the top of the pot for grounding. From there it continues to the top of the Vol pot which is connected to the sleeve lug of the Jack.

I've said it before but for potential future readers repeating feels just right: Enhancing the figuration with other than black makes the result much more vivid. Clean as opposed to smudgy, also more natural. Coal and some stones are the only black things that come into mind thinking of Nature and even they have depth (chatoyance) and shades of other colours. Plain matte lampblack simply looks like dirt on the surface in my eyes. There's uses for such but it's not the best option for this kind of a job.

As @Prostheta said in another thread So I decided to attack this issue. I could have lived with the cracked seam but the misaligned stripes of the neck and backplate bugged me every time I saw them. Thus I took the sharpest chisel I could find - no sharpeners there other than a grooved Tormek which is a good tool per se but not in the desired condition! Anyhow, I managed to cut the problem piece off and move the seam by a mm, double checking the straightness with a steel ruler. Nobody seemed to know where the small clamps had gone, there used to be a dozen of about 10 cm long ones but after some reorganizing they seem to have vanished. I wouldn't be surprised if a member of another group had left them on their workpiece and took a break for the rest of the year. Arrrgh! Anyhow, this worked. The white mess on the block is due to it cracking which I fixed with Titebond which instead of trying to clamp it I secured with drops of super glue and accelerator at the ends, Much happier now, a little sanding and reoiling and it will look similar to the other side! While the glue was drying there was time to address the other alignment issue, the dreaded backplate. After several iterations I finally cut a slice of the same neck offcut as the backplate of the headstock and expanded it with the birch of the front of the headstock. It's aligned with the centerline, or will be when the shape is finished. I still wonder if the birch should be replaced with the darker wood to copy the backplate of the headstock. Opinions, please. This was the last Saturday this semester, the saga will continue some time in January.