Melvyn Hiscock

Melvyn Hiscock, NBS Publications and the Independent Publishers Group of Chicago (US Distributor), are pleased to announce the imminent arrival of an e-book version of ‘Make Your Own Electric Guitar’ in addition to the already announced print version. ISBN 978-0-9531049-4-9 Actual release date is still to be set, but it will be soon. All distribution for the e-book will be handled by IPG in the United States. IPG.ComIndependent Publishers Group814 N. Franklin StreetChicago, IL 60610

Thanks for the review. Copies are available direct. Email me on melvyn(at)melvynhiscock.com. Prices are £22 plus £5 postage in the UK, £10 in Europe and £15 for the rest of the world. You can paypal me on that address

Well, 18 pieces is now the most I have heard of one one guitar. However, I have seen a Les Paul with a lot. It was a 20th anniversary model and that had a fourteen piece body. One across the back, a veneer between that and the next lot of mahogany which was 7 piece, another veneer and then a fiver piece top. I read a lot of people's opinons on lamination, some of which is couched in pseudo science, but I have yet to see any properly researched work on it. There may be some, I have just not seen any. I agree with the other people though, if you are going to do that much work to a guitar........

I never use locking nuts, they are emprorers new clothes. Cut the nut correctly, use locking tuners and take out al the backlash. AND stretch your strings properly. Standard Strat trems will stay in tune will all sorts of abuse if you sent them up properly.

Standard Fender routs are 5/8 inch for the neck and the pickups on most models

Just to let you all know the stock arrived and I am shipping. I don't know when Amazon will have it as I don't actually supply them (they undercut me too much) but my American distributor is IPG in Chicago. You can order the book through any bookstore using the ISBN no which is 9780953104925, the publisher is NBS Publications In the UK you can order direct. Contact me on sales@melvynhiscock.com Sorry if this counts as a commercial ad.

Hi all, Thanks for the comments. Firstly the book is 288 pages, all in colour and has been delayed a few times due to things like becoming single and stuff. Also since i am the publisher as well as the author I have to find al the money and time to do everything. BUT It is finished, there is a chapter on a Martin Factory visit that is at Martin for approval (only fair really, they were very helpful) and I am waiting colour proofs before the whole thing goes to print. This should be all done in a week or so and then about four weeks until I see copies. Don't believe what you read on Amazon, I have no contact with them whatsoever and so have no idea where they get their information! Thanks for your patience those of you that have been waiting Melvyn

Thanks for that. You could try contacting the distributor directly (try this link http://www.trafalgarsquarebooks.com/TSP/?C...4A1A509DD639BE) and you shuold be able to get it from them Regards

yes

It is certainly NOT out of print. Amazon do not buy direct and Barnes and Noble sohuld not need to sell you a used one. Where in the world are you? If you are in the US then contact the importer or otherwise email me. Melvyn Hiscock

Not all Fender-style switches have the contacts in the same order. There is a 'sweeper' that is constantly connected and this mates with each other other three contacts in turn. These is one switch like this on each side of the switch so the switch is two switches in one. ON a standard strat, one side is used to select the pickups and the other to send the signal to the chosen tone controls. Use a meter to find which contact is which. I have seen far-eastern switches that are built the exact opposite of American ones. Use a standard wiring diagram with them and nothing works! Hope that helps Melvyn Hiscock

Sounds good, thanks! Make your own dowels from the same wood as the body, that will help too. Make up a block with the hole in the right place and drill through that into the body to stop the bit trying to wander into the glue join on the dowel.

As far as I remember, 1/2 in diameter for the aduster lugs and 1/4 in diameter for the corners Hope that helps Melvyn Hiscock

You wire it exactly the same as the three way. The switch does the work, not the wiring.

It is not clear exactly what you are trying to do. If you want to have the humbucker in series/parallel or splittable as a single coil you may be disappointed with the result as the single coil is not going to sound that much different to the humbucker in paralell. You can have the humbucker either series/parallel or coil tapped on a push pull and then have the output of that wired into a standard five-way strat switch. Which contacts are which on your five way depends on the make as they are not always the same. You say it is not five in a line but two-sided so I presume it is open and you can see the contacts. If so then you will see that one is connected to the sweeper and the other three are connected in turn. Each side is separate from the other, it is effectively two switches on te same lever. One side of the switch, on a Strat, selects the pickups, the 'sweeper' is connected ot the output, ie the volume pot, and the pickup hot wires are connected to the tabs so that the sweeper is connected to the pickup for that position. The other side of the switch, on a strat, connects the pickups to the tone pots. A bridging wire is added from the sweeper on one side to the sweeper on the other and then the tone controls are connected to the tags. You will see on a standard Strat wiring diagram that the bridge pickup is not connected to a tone control. So, Wire your humbucker, according to the maker's instructions, to the push/pull to give series/parallel. Take one output and attach this to the tag on the five way that is connected to the sweeper when the swich is in the position for that pickup. Take the other wire from the switch to the back of a pot with the screen wire from the humbucker. Wire the other pickups to the five way and take their black wires to the back of a pot. Take the connection from the five way that is the 'feed' for the humbucker to one tone pot and bridge the two contacts for the single coils and take them to the other tone pot. That'd work.

It is a single action rod but needs a straight channel. It is based on the Rockenbigger style with one rod acting against the other to bend it. Not as effective as a normal bent rod but much easier to fit. Looking at the rods on there, only the last one is doube acting. Whether there is a single rod or two working together is not imporant. You can have a single curved truss rod acting as a double action if the the adjustment nut can push (to increase the bend in the rod) as well as pull (to decrease the bow as normal) MH

In the UK there is a small fund made available from the government that is divided up between all the book laons with the upper limit capped so that JK Rowling doesn't get all the money. My yearly amound from libraries in the UK for MYOEG and the two aviation books I wrote would just about pay for a good Indian meal and a few beers for four people! I ain't getting rich. MH

It has come to my attention that copies of my book are being made available as an e-book. Some people may not see why this is an issue but let me explain. There were no books available when I learned to make guitars and so I had to learn the hard way. I have spent huge amounts of money learning to do what I do and the results were published first in 1986. It first came out on Blandford Press in 1986 and my yearly royalty was not enough to buy a decent guitar and was never more than £1,000 despite the book selling in huge numbers. I have also answered hundreds, if not thousands, of questions from people who have read the book and none of that time was paid for by anyone other than me. However, I do this happily as I can remember when I was in exactly the same position but with no one to ask. In 1998 the current edition came out and I am the publisher. For me to set this up I had to get a major loan and put my house as security. I have so far spent several years actually working on the book, invested a huge amount of money and my returns are still not exactly huge. I have considered selling NBS Publications a few times as it is not a profitable business. I am now having to invest money again (money I don't have and have to borrow) to build the company up. There will be some more books out on NBS Publications next year but in the meantime I am having to work very long hours which I am not, at the moment, getting paid for. Make Your Own Electric Guitar costs about the same as a pretty average guitar pickup. If you are going to make a guitar it is about the cheapest part of the whole process, and the cost of the book has not gone up since it was released. All the increases in paper costs, transport (which I have to cover for trade orders) and storage have all been absorbed by me. It also has thirty years of my life, from learning what I do to te present, wrapped up in it and all the information you need to stop you making some of the mistakes I did in my early years, each one of which will have cost you more than the cost of the book. If you do not think that an investment like that deserves the small return I get then you are not living in the real world. E-copies are illegal and I will take action against anyone selling or offering them. They are a breach of copyright which is covered in most countries. If you have any information on copies that may be for sale please do not hesitate to contact me with the details. Melvyn Hiscock melvyn@melvynhiscock.com

So Melvyn, You cut to the Mustard, LOL:)))) Nice to hear from ya. MK Look at all Fenders. They are masterpieces in economical design. Why are most made to 1/7/8 or thereabouts body thickness? It is because Leo bought his wood in 2 in planks and that was left after planing. Whjy use alder and ash? because it was cheap. Same with maple - cheap. Count hte number of manufacturing steps in a Fender neck and then in a Gibson, Fender is way more sconomic. The guy was a total genius.

Forget all the 'tone' arguments and even the aesthetics. The reason Fender necks have skunk stripes whether they had a separate fingerboard or not is down to economics. It means they factory does not have to reset to make rosewood or maple necks, they all get done on the same machines. Economics, that is all.

51mm is a bit marginal if you are going to rout the bridge into the body. A Fender neck sticks 3/8in (10mm) out of the body and my Strat (I just measured it) is 44mm deep. If you drop the bridge into the body too far it will stick out of the back or the block will foul the cover plate. Get a large sheet of paper and sharpen your pencil! Regards Melvyn Hiscock

Quite possibly, it all depends on where your house is! France...between Poitiers and La Rochelle... Wouldn't be the first time the Brits flew over my house (no foolin--during the war, there was a pretty massive bombing raid on the railroad on the opposite face of the valley). Oh yeah: location of my office: about five meters from my house...

Hmmm...that wouldn't be you buzzing my house now, would it? Quite possibly, it all depends on where your house is!

When I first wrote MYOEG the publisher was dead against me using both imperial and metric on the same guitar. I ignored him of course and had ato write a little paragraph explaining why I used both. Here in the UK we all tend to use both for whatever is easier. We use miles on the road, miles per hour, we put litres of fuel into cars but still think miles per gallon. We buy food in kilos but still think in pounds and most people cook in poounds and ounces. An egg, for example, weighs roughly two ounces - handy in cooking. When I go flying heights are in feet about sea level or airfield level and that transfers over to when I fly in France, the airspace limits around Paris are listed on the French maps in feet. I fly in miles per hour, the GPS reads in knots (both o the airspeed dial) and I buy fuel in litres are estimate fuel burn in litres per hour as the data on the aeroplane is in American gallons per hour and an American gallon is smaller than a UK one (based on a 16oz pint when we have a 20oz pint). In the hardware store I have to buy metric drill bits usually but can still buy imperial bolts and AN stuff. So for me using both is almost second nature. Scale lengths are easy in metric as Mattia says divide a nut width in imperial and you can get all sorts of problems. Divide a 1 11/16 nut in two to see how much is either side of the centre line and it can be fun do it as 42mm and it is easy, 21mm - even I can do that in my head. But that is digressing from the original thread. I am in the south of England, about 35 miles south west of London. Workshop about 15 miles away and aeroplane about ten. Guess which one I prefer to go to!?

Did you use a schematic/diagram or just unsolder/solder as you went along? I did use a schematic that came with the switch. I also checked Specialty Guitars LLC and their schematic was the same for the 4 position switch. get a meter inside there and check that all that should be connected is. Also check the output from both pickups and make sure you have not damaged anything.