biliousfrog

It has been a crazy time for sure! Unfortunately I've had to downsize considerably since my previous activity on here so I haven't got space to build anything except pedals (which is why I stopped coming here). I've done a few repairs and I'm constantly modding but otherwise my apocalypse has been spent writing tunes, entering mix & production competitions, and trying to keep my head above water while running my animation business. I really miss building guitars though. Hopefully I can dig myself out of post-covid debt and get a workshop somewhere to tinker in

It was my mistake, it seems to work fine. The difference between neck and middle in parallel was very subtle at low volume but much more obvious with the amp cranked a bit more. Thank you!

Scrap that, I've just played through my amp at a decent volume and it's much more apparent. Thanks again, I'm really pleased.

Great news - it "mostly" works. For some reason the middle and neck positions in parallel seem to be just the neck? Also, tapping the pole pieces suggests that they might be split rather than in parallel (only North coils active) but that might just be how it works. Either way it sounds so much better and it's much more usable. I ended up getting the Dominion set as Dimarzio pickups are very scarce at the moment and I wanted a white F-spaced set. It was a gamble as they are very much a metal set but reviews suggested that they are much more versatile - and they certainly are! They are amazing clean pickups. This might take over from my strat as my main clean guitar. Thanks again for your help!

OK, switch ordered with shipping costing more than the switch I'll let you know what happens!

Inner or outer coils, either will work. I suppose the outer coils will be more Tele'ish (which ain't a bad thing) and inner coils will be more middle humbucker'ish - either will be more useful than both humbuckers IMO. Guinea pig or not I really appreciate the help

You are a bloody star! Thanks so much for doing that I really appreciate it. There are a few places in Europe that sell the switch so it shouldn't be too difficult to get - it would have been much easier/cheaper pre-Brexit though

Hi, I appreciate that this might be too late but thought I'd introduce myself in case you still need help. Here's something I worked on with my friend Andy Guyton a few years ago (I'm not sure how much more I can show or say about it)

Pickup direction isn't an issue, I'm sticking to the allen head poles that it currently has and Dimarzio's aren't labelled like the SD's. I think the switch might prove difficult to get. There are plenty of the 5-way ones available but no 3-way in the UK so I'll probably have to import from somewhere.

That is exactly what I was thinking. I'm not against having both humbuckers in the middle position but I've never found that position to be very usable on HH guitars. I suppose outer coils would also be preferable if that would make any difference to the ease of wiring.

Forgive me for being that family member who disappears for years and only turns up when they need something (I think it's been about 8 years since I posted here).... I recently bought a Charvel Pro-Mod DK24 HH at a crazy price and it is mostly amazing. Spec-wise it's a really high-end guitar that can be used for pretty much any style without looking out of place but the electronics seriously let it down. The pickups are great for high gain shredding but lack any character and the 10 possible pickup combinations (5 + series/parallel) sound almost identical. Current switching and specs: https://www.charvel.com/gear/shape/dk/pro-mod-dk24-hh-2pt-cm/2969411534 What I'd like to do is swap the pickups for something a little more rounded (Dimarzio super distortion in bridge & PAF Pro or Liquifire in neck), use a 3-way selector and keep the series/parallel. For me that would make the guitar a much more versatile instrument for recording, functions and multi-genre playing. I'd also dump the low-friction volume pot because I'm constantly knocking it off 10! So, my question is - how would I wire that up? Ideally I think I'd like the 3 positions to be: 1)Bridge humbucker - 2) Bridge + Neck (inner coils only) - 3) Neck humbucker. Then the toggle to switch between series & parallel. The current switch is basically two switches in one allowing both pickups to be changed with one switch. Any help is greatly appreciated. I could probably get there on my own but not without losing even more hair than I can afford.

I seem to remember that the slow gear was more or less just an auto-swell pedal? Reverse delays are quite fun for faster playing even if it's just bluesy bends, they do just what they say on the tin...reverse the delay! It's normally quite a short delay which is why slow playing or long notes don't really work. I've wanted a fuzz factory for ages, I could see myself having hours of fun with that but I can't justify paying that much for one yet. Actually I'd quite like a lot of the ZVex pedals.

Yeah the synth-wah is cool too...I have one of those as well. As well as the standard Whammy, there's been a bunch of variations over the years such as the Whammy-Wah and there was another that was a kinda synth/whammy thingy. Digitech also have/had some compact multi-effects such as the RP series which have an expression pedal and some also had MIDI ports. There is also the full MIDI route which is where I spent a lot of time before going back to a combo and compacts.

If you can afford it I highly recommend the trusty ol' Whammy...it does the normal octave stuff and a whole lot more. There's nothing like doing some random squeely bits to get bored metalhead teenagers excited. The Boss OC3 has 3 settings for standard OC2 type octave, octave with distortion and polyoctave mode... if you can get a Pearl one I'd really recommend it but they're getting very collectable now. actually, I think that most octave pedals that incorporate OD have the option of turning it off.

hahaha...yeah, sorry...um...yeah, I'll say no more

YAY!!!...it's finished! That neck looks lovely and so does the blue top The only thing I'm not so keen on is the orangeness of the body with the blue top but I imagine that it's much better in the flesh. Thank the lord for sunny February days, they make for great outdoor guitar pics

Hey all, long time no spe...erm...type Just been sent this link http://www.woodsys.com/coolguitars.html

there's some odd noises when he's muting the strings, they're not in sync with his hands. My initial thought was that it's a fake but then I wondered why anyone would fake something that crap?

Sounds good to me. The software amp sims have actually sounded plenty good enough for a few years, the problem has always been that the home PC's/Mac's haven't been up to the spec's required for decent tracking & low latency. Once the drums, bass & vocals are in the mix no one is going to be scrutinizing the guitar sound unless it's dreadful...& that will be down to the production mostly. That's not to say that any advancements aren't good, for home studios the GTR3 sounds great. What they didn't cover is whether you get the same feeling playing along to some studio monitors as standing in front of a cranked tube amp. That will always be the downfall of any amp sim. I've got my pod pro perminantly setup through my PC & into some studio monitors but no matter how much I crank it up I never get that thrill of rumbling 12" speakers or the sweet ringing sustain as a note goes into feedback.

Wow! I didn't know that this was here...& I'll never think of MiKro the same again (I was sure that you were a teenager!). My name is Steve Bjorck, I'll be 31 in 10 days & I live in the UK's most easterly town - Lowestoft, which has been responsible for The Darkness, Catherine Wheel, "A" & Radio 1's Tim Westwood! I live with my girlfriend of nearly 10yrs Natalie (we've been together 10 years, that's not her age) & our pets, a rabbit, 3 guinea pigs & a tortoise. I run a 3d visualisation business, Eggbox Studios, from my home office & have been self employed now for about 3 months. It was a bit scarey to start with but I made more money on my first job (which lasted 4 days) than I did each month in my last job so I'm much happier now Previous work has included various 3d/graphics/design jobs over the last 7 years, before that I was making furniture & bespoke kitchens. I've probably learnt more about wood working from this site than any of my time doing it as a job. Most of the cabinet making jobs were so automated that it was like assembling something from IKEA...in fact the joints were purposely made loose so that they could be assembled faster! I'm about to rejoin my old band after 9 years (notice the connection with how long I've been with my girlfriend ) which I'm quite excited about. During my time with them we played a lot on the London circuit, round Europe, had radio play & discussed big things with major labels but I couldn't get the other guys to move up a gear. Things have changed a lot now, we're all older, demo tapes have been replaced by CD's which have been replaced by MP3's & for the price of 3 days in a studio you can buy a laptop with protools. My musical influences are varied & often quite odd. I grew up on a mixture of glam (T-Rex, Sweet, Slade etc), disco & Cliff Richard. I got into playing guitar at 14 when I was listening to Poison, Metallica, Faith No More, Billy Joel & Jean Michell Jarre. My music collection now includes SOAD, RATM, Sepultura, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, Primus, various Jazz & ambient & all things in between. I've never had any guitar lessons & I've been both praised & scourned for not playing like a normal guitarist. I'll happily play just one note in an entire song if that's all that's needed or make a godawful racket in a ballad...whatever makes the song better. Johnny Greenwood has a lot to answer for! My favourite guitar project is my blue semi. It still isn't finished, partly because I've been so busy but also because I've had it in my mind for so long that I need to get it just right. I've also built a similar shaped, all mahogany, twin humbucker guitar with steel face plate, sprayed with various primer colours & sanded through. My first project "Aloha" is based on a surf guitar concept with a few modern twists, tele neck p-up, DeArmond 2K at the bridge & MXR EQ built in. I've got quite a few spare's & off-cuts, the next project will either be a shortscale for my girlfriend's niece or a banjo...I've had a damaged one for years which I rescued from an Irish pub that we played at. I've got a large'ish shed to work in but I also share it with my tortoise so I need to be careful what I do in it. I've actually fitted quite a neat air-circulation system to her vivarium which is more than I have. I've got a bandsaw with 10" resaw depth, drill press as well as the usual routers, chisels, saws etc. from my cabinet making days.

yeah I agree, move the wah around. I prefer it in front of any overdrive. I'd also consider moving the dynamic wah right to the front. Envelope filters & auto wah's use the input dynamics as a trigger. Compressor's squish & boost the input signal to keep levels similar & distortions mess with the signal so you won't get a very reliable or controllable signal into the d-wah, same thing applies to pitch shifters such as the super octave.

aaaeeeeeerrrrrgggghhhh!!! I wouldn't reference anything from Crimson Guitars, the guy is a crook & should be closed down...well, as far as I was aware he was bankrupt but I guess he's found some mug to fund his experiments in wood butchery. If you really want to see an example of one of his necks, I'll dig up the photos of the one he made for me. They were on here but one of the conditions of me getting my money back were to remove any reference to him from the site. Here's my latest deep set: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=29399

Your pedal chain is a mess. Every Boss pedal that I've owned, & most other brands too, have incleded a diagram of where they should go in the signal chain, you should really read them. Also look here: http://www.harmony-central.com/articles/ti..._effects_guide/

Thanks for the comments & encouragement. The neck angle looks much steeper because the top of the guitar is sloped from 1" to 1/8" & then there's the neck angle as well. It was very complicated to work out especially as the neck pocket area is at an angle rather than square like a PRS or Gibson. I've got the bridge about 1/8" above the body which will allow me a bit of adjustment. I could have gone less but my last TOM hasn't got quite enough so I didn't want to risk it. If you look at any two pickup P90 equiped guitars, the bridge pickup usually looks too high, probably because they don't have any pickup rings. I had a bit of a panic when I realised that the bridge pickup was going to be raised so high but after a quick google I realised that it's quite normal & isn't really noticable. http://www.prsguitars.com/mccartysoapbar/index.html http://www.prsguitars.com/singlecutstandar...pbar/index.html http://www.guytonguitars.co.uk/images/semi...stic/semi03.jpg The pickups aren't fixed yet...actually nothing's fixed yet, that's going to be the scary part! In order to get the bridge pickup at the "sweet spot" I've routed a deep pickup cavity & will use springs to get the height correct & then add some shims once I'm happy. I could just leave them with springs but I'd rather have them fixed direct to the body. The headstock has a thin sycamore/rosewood headplate. As for the blurry pics...I don't know what's wrong with me. I like photography, I've got a Canon DSLR & a reasonable Sigma lens, I can usually take quite good pics but, for some reason, my guitar pics are always blurry. I expect that it's because it's usually getting late, the lights fading & I'm in a rush.

more inspiration: http://www.simscustom.com/html/guitar_of_the_month.htm BTW, Greg my girlfriend asked me how to spell definite just as I read your post...thanks mate!