Xanthus

That has got to be the neatest wiring job I've ever seen Come to my place! I've got a project for you.

I'll definitely examine the switch some more before I trash/buy a new one. It's made by Schaller, so I don't expect any shoddy quality, but I'll check it out. ::EDIT:: Took out the switch and connected the neck pickup straight to hot, grounded the green and bare, and taped off the black and white. Still humming. I'll check out the bridge pickup next, but I doubt the pickup is faulty because the noise happened even when only the bridge pickup was disconnected. And it wouldn't be the jack because I switched out the jack and the noise persists. Hooo boy is this fun ::EDIT 2:: It's not the bridge pickup either. Probing with my alligator clip attached to ground has revealed no improper grounds. Nothing alleviates this hum. I give up.

Man, this is great! I'd have nix'd the monkey grip, but it's just me. Those little touches, the decals and knobs, make this more than just a blue Strat. It's so simple and it REALLY works. What's the choice in an Agathis body? You don't see much of that wood anywhere.

So a bit of an update. Back home from the Cape, picked up the axe at guitar center. Plays beautifully. Still no sound. I soldered a leftover jack in place of the one I bought for the project. Still hum, so that means there's no jack issue. Just for refreshers, this is what we're looking at. No volume/tone/killswitch. All hots to hot and grounds to ground. If I don't get any brilliant ideas, or come up with any myself in the next few days, I'm ordering a new switch. As much as it kills...... I want to have this DONE when I move back into school next month. ::EDIT:: I just bridged the neck hot with the hot from the jack, via tiny alligator clips. The hum definitely reduced, furthering my hunch that a bad switch is to blame.

I'll trade, Pete. No guarantees, though I don't see how the rest of the electronics could be connected to hot... I checked the schematics more times than I can count. I could get a multimeter from my grandfather to check continuity, once I get back from the Cape. But yeah, the reason there hasn't been any updates is because I've been on vacation. I'm slated to return this weekend, either Saturday night or Sunday afternoon. I left the V to get work done at Guitar Center, so I'll pick it up the day I get back to start work again. The guy at GC filed down my nut slots, rounded the fret ends, and hammered down a few loose frets, as well as adjusted the truss rod and set up intonation. All for less than $100. I'm pleased He seems like a good guy, builds basses in his spare time; For my next build, I might send it to him to fret and dress, because I'm not going through that hassle again Back to topic....... The hum doesn't alleviate itself when I switch settings. It just sounds different. I did shield the cavity, and the pickups are a Tone Zone bridge and a PAF Pro. I doubt the hot and grounds are reversed; the wires are color-coordinated The bare and ground from the neck pickup are connected, due to the way the switch is set up. The P Switch has its own separate lug, which according to the instructions says: "On the switch there is a large silver lug attached with a screw. This is not one if the seven numbered lugs and is not used." Should I ground it? I'm thinking, since I pulled out all the electronics except for the jack and switch. Either that, or the switch is defective. I'm working through the other mystery thread slowly, as the interweb is sparse down these parts and I'm borrowing my cousin's computer. Thanks for the advice Pete, I'll check back when I can.

aaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha Pro, you have won the internets! In other news, I approve greatly of the changes you're making, but I'd even go so far as to make it a full tilt-back headstock. Just feels "safer" that way, as far as break angle, string tension goes. If you lose the neck heel, I'd make it a longer tenon to compensate. You can still get Tri-Sonics. Why not go with them? Or is this really just an aesthetic-based project?

Man, I just cannot win here. I disconnected the volume, tone, and killswitch and just plain ripped them out. Now the only thing left inside the electronics cavity is the switch. I took the ground from the bridge and tacked the other grounds and shields to it. I sent the hot and ground straight to the jack. I know this is a bad idea setup-wise, what with the painful amp popping on connect and disconnect. But I wanted to go bare bones and check EVERYTHING front-to-back. Well, I think I might need a new (read: $21 ) P switch. And I'm kinda disappointed about that. Because the hum/buzz/static hasn't stopped. In fact, I might go so far as to say that it's worse than ever now. I triple-checked to make sure there were no crossed/touching wires, no exposed wire, and there' can't possibly be any ground loops, because it's the simplest wiring setup ever. I bought the pickups new, so it's not that (I sincerely doubt). The only electronics left are the jack and switch, so it's either one of them. I'm thinking it's the switch, but I'll probably end up ordering both of them since I'm paying a ton for shipping one piece from StewMac anyways.

I like the contrast between the top color and body, it really works. And very nice spraying setup too!

I'd buy it! It looks like a nice project, and a very balanced shape. I would go for a Firebird headstock personally, seeing as it already looks a lot like a Tele. Metallic blue? Channeling Dave Grohl a bit? What pickup are you thinking of putting in?

What is the total thickness of all the bindings/purfling combined? And would you say it's easier to bind without the top glued to the body?

Rosewood is an oily wood to begin with, in my experience. Why would you want to put more oil on top of that....? Did you do tru-oil on the fretboard? If so, how did it come out? If you'll read this thread, REAL tung oil never dries, so I really hope you didn't use that on your board!

Butbutbut.... your avatar is so babyfaced I can't picture it with a full-on beard! Funny that; I just decided to trim the goatee and grow one out myself. I tell people I put in the conscious effort to do it, but it's really just a way to explain away my week+ of being too lazy to shave. This night is just getting weirder and weirder....

There's a car in that picture? har har har har Anyways, I didn't notice there was postage going on on this thread until right now. I'm a bit more content now that I've switched out my PAF Pro bridge for a Tone Zone. The thing is much more smoother, and much ballsier! Now if I could only sort out this hum/noise issue I'll be set! Yep, shameless plug. I'm going to burn in Forum Ettiquite Hell. I can't wait to get a G Major or similar multieffects to finally have some effects. I mean, I have the plug ins in ProTools, but I find the actual equipment much easier to use. I've been looking around at tubes, though, just for kicks and the fact that now I have a real job waiting for me at school. I've heard good things about the guy over at Eurotubes, that if you sit down and discuss what you're looking to get tonally or improve upon he can point you in the right direction. Also, Wes' link had a ton of information that I bookmarked and am working through. On a similar note, the 5150III amp is a MONSTER. The only thing I didn't like is that the clean channel isn't as clean as it could be (I like the JSX's idea of a no-drive clean channel). I can't find any info on what brand tubes are in the 5150, and though I know tubes aren't everything (this thread proved that and more ) did anyone have any information on it? Next time I have a car, I really want to A/B the Carvin and JSX, because every time I sit down and play the Satch amp, I love the hell out of it.....

My other guitars play fine through the amp, so I don't think so. Our phones are known to futz out, quality-wise, from time to time, but I never noticed any issues with my amps.

.......huh. Well, interesting developments in my predicament. For kicks, I disconnected the killswitch from the equation to see what I got. Well, the hum is still there, but here's the thing. It gets quieter when I touch the tuners, bridge, strings and such. It gets LOUDER when I touch any electronics. Knobs, switch screws, and the washer around the killswitch. Even though the killswitch isn't connected. O_o My dad and I are utterly stumped.

I'm thinkin' that's the ground lug. Diagram take 2 makes sense. I'm not so sure about this one..... In all the diagrams I've seen (taking the orientation of the pots in Rob's diagram into account), the "left" lug of the volume is connected to the "right" lug of the tone. Other than that difference (and star grounding) my current wiring setup is the same. I just checked to see if the bridge ground was good. My dad expressed doubts, because the bushings were powder coated. Also, no hissing or tingling fingers, so the jack is wired correctly. Everything is exactly like the diagram. I'll try switching around the tone lug, but I doubt that will do anything. Hoping I have time tomorrow, I'll un-ground everything, get rid of the star setup, and re-ground everything to the pots.

Too bad about the black-ness on the neck, Hoog. I kinda liked that weird occlusion (I really hope that's the right word) on the neck, so long as it was structurally sound. Can't wait to see the hardware on this!

A note on the revised diagram, take 2 Wire from volume to tone should be on the opposite lug of the tone pot..?

THICK!!!!! Sounds really great, Daniel. Why can't MY Pod sound that good? As far as tips go, I don't know if there's much I can offer here. The level was good, loud enough to compete with my music catalog. I might say for demos to add in a backing track just to keep time, but I don't know if that would distract the ear from listening to what it should be listening to. Are you planning on getting together a music sample collection for the website? OH! Know what I like? Rundowns of the guitar's features. You know, "dirty Vox sound, bridge pickup." Stuff like that. Or the guitar's ability to perform different styles of music with the same amp settings.

Why does that schematic look deceptively simple, Rob? Is it because my control cavity is the relative size of a postage stamp? hahahaha If the general consensus is the mixing of hot and ground, I'll switch them before tearing apart my wiring. I had a few questions, though, seeing as questions are the order of the day 'round here. -When grounding the bare and green wire, I wrapped them in electrical tape and grounded them as one wire. Yay or nay? -There's no bridge ground... -Why isn't the hot of the volume attached to the center lug? -Is the hot wire T-junction at the tone pot crucial, or can I run it through the lug like the volume pot? The diagram seems simple enough, if switching the hot and ground doesn't solve the problem. I don't want to burn out the little killswitch with too much heat/repeated soldering though. Such fragile little Radio Shack switches

Thanks for the quick reply, KP! I'm going to make this brief, because work calls at 5:00 tomorrow morning......... No, I had noise the first time I wired it up. That's half the reason I took it apart again, the other half being I got a new pickup. I switched to star grounding after the first time, thinking it would solve any ground loop I might have run into. That's pretty interesting, I never heard that before. My EMG pots came wired with the cap bridged, but I thought the back of the tone pot was the "traditional" place to put it. huh. See, I'm thinking that more and more. I just got finished with sending them an e-mail, hopefully I'll get a response before I get back from work, else I'll call them. ....huh? I'm totally not an electronics guy. How would I go about doing that? I'm pretty positive that the killswitch is fine, because it's brand new, and the star grounding is about as far away as I can put it in the cavity.

What'n'the....... Pete! Damn! This is definitely my new favorite Pete build, above and beyond the PSW Strat with the F-hole. It's totally unbelievable what you did to this build. The demonstration/rundown of the electronics included in it would make a great YouTube video. hint hint nudge nudge. As a side note, though, did you ever think of using the under-pickguard space to store any of the electronics? Not the knobs and switches of course, but the battery, circuit board, stuff like that.

Yeah, so I changed the name of the topic. Why? Because I'm a mother-lovin' moderator. Trying to attract attention from someone other than Robert Onto the issue at hand. I rewired the V yet again, and my diagram now looks like this. Note the star grounding. Well, I'm now getting WORSE hum than before. When I don't touch the strings, when I DO touch the strings, when I play a chord... I even dug out my Pod and used its noise gate with max settings. The major hum goes away, but this high pitched hissing, white noise still comes through. My dad went poking through the cavity with a jumper wire. He found out that when he touched the back of the tone pot to the ground lug on the killswitch, all of the hum went away! He then found out that it was because he was touching the metal part of the jumper wire. So, back to square one. We've come up with these possibilities. -Maybe the new StewMac diagram is right (see the first post) and I need to switch the ground and bare wire from the bridge pickup. -Maybe the lug on the P switch that SM says isn't used needs to be grounded? I did see a diagram, not from SM, that said it does -Moving the tone cap to bridge the tone pot and ground lug of the volume pot (I doubt it, but thought I'd throw it in there) -mixed up the ground and hot coming from the jack (99% unlikely. wouldn't the guitar start to like... smoke or some crap?) -futzed up something with the star grounding? It's securely soldered and wrapped in electrical tape... -Maybe I need that T-junction like in my original diagram for the circuit to work? Again, almost positive this isn't the case. I'm honestly all out of ideas, and running desperately low on patience. It's been nigh a month since it was completed and I still can't play it and it STILL needs nut and fretwork too.......... ::EDIT:: I'm sending StewMac an e-mail with a big "what the?" as we speak.

Oh wow, I just saw you on, Rob! Thanks a lot for the oodles of help!

Wondering if I could bug y'all for one last question. On my diagram, can I just bridge the ground from pot through killswtich to jack, like I did the hot wire? Or does the T-Junction need to be there for it to function properly?