al heeley

Wow, there's some really expensive quilted tops there, big money. Some very nice pieces though.

Do you know the manufacturer? Some have different colour coding on the wires, you need to know which is + and - and earth.

Thats what I always thought too, it made sense in physics classes but I guess it doesn't hold true for guitar resistance, maybe it makes sense for amplifier volumes, decibels are a log scale. If vol changes less quickly at 7-10 and faster at 0-3 for example, then it is easier to back off the vol a bit when its up at 'normal' settings, ie: more accurate. Normal settings for me would be the 7-10 range, so I guess a log pot might be better. I don't think either is wrong, just reporting what others have told me and what is fitted to my HB guitars.

My Epi dot has log (A) pots for tone and linear( for volume. It's a matter of taste isn't it? The argument I heard is that not many people bother using tone settings between 0 and 6, most of the adjustment will be in the 6-10 range so a log pot is better for that spread. BTW, Unkl is god on the guitarnuts forum, anything to do with electronics, never met a more knowldgeable or helpful person, a pleaseure to see you post here. Al (aka Flat Eric)

Nice looking guitar coming along there Danish Oil and Tru-oil are similar in that they are polymers with natural oils like tung and linseed. They can literally be wiped on with a cloth then left to sink into the wood and harden after a few hours. By building up lots of thin layers over a week you can get a really nice natural sheen, or buff to a good gloss. Danish oil is available in B&Q, Homebase, etc. Rustins Danish Oil is really excellent stuff, as is Watco and Colron. Tru-oil is harder to get, you can buy on ebay or websites dealing with shooting accessories, its used to treat gunstocks. I think it hardens faster than danish oil but both will work well on guitar wood: bodies and necks. Oh, you can finish off with 0000 grade wire wool and some natural furniture polish applied with a soft cloth. once applied, no re-oiling is necessary if the wood has had a lot of good coats. Buff up with a little polish once every now and then.

yep, both 500k, normal convention though is 500k log (A) for the tones and 500k linear ( for the volumes. Someone please tell me if I have the A and B the wrong way round! Also cap values: 0.022uf or 0.047uF caps are common in HB guitars.

I've just got a set of those fat paf zebras for my current build. This will be my 6th set of GFS pickups now. I've been through vintage strat s/c's and overwound black hex HB's as well as vintage paf HB's for a 335-type. I think they represent excellent value for money, tone and clarity has been great, not yet wired up the fat paf zebras, but being 4-conductor you can get the best of borht worlds. Good luck with the build!

I think the experience of the successful guitar companies over the past 50 years teaches us the most practical and cost-effective solutions - lets not reinvent the wheel here, or think we can do better than an established or successful company runnig a good track record. The ones that have proven to work well are -the various types of mahogany (or nato) -Basswood -Poplar -Alder What we have is time, innovation, design flair, less stringent budgets to meet, and the luxury of indulging ourselves, in being able to add those little extra exotic touches. I think though for the main guitar body you can't go wrong with the above choices.

If you want to have a go at building a guitar, then this is a good place to start. But if you're main motive is to get a cheap playable electric guitar then I'd spend the money on an ebay squier tele or similar. There's bound to be some extra expense with tools you may need to finish the job properly. Now you've bought the kit, I'm sure you will really enjoy building it and there is something special about playing an instrument you made yourself. There's some real talent and experience on this board so I'm sure you'll get loads of help whenever you need advice.

Looks like a few applications of black dye sanded back and brown dye applied, then about 15 coats of PU lacquer, wet sanded and buffed to a very high gloss. Do you have a similar figured maple top?

I would bet no, some will be coil-tappable. Why all the questions?

I have some capacitors I cannot work out their values, can someone help me please?! Big orange boiled sweet type...225P 100V 473k Yellow cylinder...150M .1UF (the M has a strike-through line thru it) Small ceramic...222K (packet says 2200) Small ceramic...223Z (packet says 22000) Tiny ceramic... B 102 (packet says 1000 on it) Green lozenze type... 2A333J Excuse my ignorance. Intended Uses: 1. For tone pot of 2 HB guitar 2. For vol pot treble bleed in parallel with suitable resistor. Thanks!

That's come out beautifully, very nice work. I have to admit I'm really surprised (in a pleased way!) that such a good looking guitar is possible with a Saga kit. There's a lot of people that just seem to buy the kits and break them up for parts to sell individually on ebay at a small markup. That LP looks very nice indeed.

No, 2 and 4-conductor humbuckers are all interchangeable, only with the loss of functions that lovekraft advised above. (coil split, parallel/series...) Yes

All shiny with some Rustins Plastic Coating, neck and electrics now fixed in place, the cutaways deepened to help better high end access.

Perfect, many thanks! That is exactly what I need.

If I recall correctly the floor finish version has some plasticisers in which help stop scuff marks or cracking if you drop a hammer on it. The furniture one is what you want as it gives harder finish and higher gloss. Plastcisers can act to soften the coating just a little bit. You can apply direct over the dyed wood if it is thoroughly dry. Rustins say no sealer is needed.

I'm struggling to work out the wiring for a blend pot coil tap like the new Vintage Advance guitars have. I'm thinking basically a PRS McCarty style set up, that is master vol, master tone, 3 way toggle switch then instead of the push-pull tone pot an extra pot where coil tap can be blended in from fully on to fully off. Any ideas how the vintage wiring works?

Great work! I love the mix of styles, sort of ricky with a bit of firebird. The body finish is great, really nice job!

brian +1: you don't take the whole thickness off in the first pass, just take little bits off like 2mm at a time till the bearing runs up against the template.

if you turn it upside down so the pole pieces are facing into the body of the guitar and the wires and fixing screws are sticking upwards then it will take a lot of the treble edge off and give a much more bassy, woody sound. People may laugh, though.

why not try with some green food dye?

You mean the ferules? I would ease them out before painting with long nosed pliars and a little patience. They can be heated with the tip of a soldering iron which softens the surrounding wodd a litle to make it easier. Sometimes you can poke them through from the top but be careful! Paint stripper = Nitromorse, brush on then cover overnight with plastic bag to keep the solvents in the area concentrated. If its a polyester finish, sometimes chemical paint strippers won't touch it though. Then you have to sand it all off.

...if its a single pickup guitar there can be no polarity problems anyway. Normal rule is the main polepieces (the adjustable ones) near bridge for bridge pup and near neck for neck pup. Makes sense really.

yep my cu24 is 35mm mahogany and max 12-13 mm on top of that at the base of the bridge for the maple top. The perimeter is 6-7mm.