curtisa

I would imagine it would work. Another alternative is to fix the speaker to the headstock, similar to as was done using the Sustainiac Model C. You may find however that there is a lot of acoustic coupling between the speaker and pickups, masking any sound made by the resonating strings. I'll admit I'm out of my depth here regarding Sitar construction. Maybe the strings are light enough to be tuned with low tension? Maybe the neck is overly-thick to compensate for the extra tension?

Easy way to try that out woud be to replace the B string with the same gauge string as the high E and tune it in unison. To test mid-E for sympathetic vibration just take the D string and tune it up a whole step. I think we're talking about the exact same thing. Another one of Fred's creations along a similar line can be seen in action here.

Just used a small M4 phillips head machine screw from my parts drawers. Doesn't matter that the head is proud of the surface, as long as it holds the caul into the ram.

Actually, after watching a couple of Youtube vids on Sympitars and experimenting a bit at home I found I could get low tuned strings to excite sympathetic vibrations in higher strings. I'm only trying this out on solid body electrics, so it's possible that the characteristic resonances of my instruments are dampening the effect somewhat, leading to my initial conclusion that resonance only occurs harmonically from high strings to low and not the other way around. For whatever reason I find it easy to get sympathetic vibration from the first harmonic of the open 6th string (E) when plucking the 5th string/7th fret (again, E). Plucking the 6th string/3rd fret (G) only just barely causes the open 3rd string to resonate (G +1 octave) - it's there but really faint.

Here's what I did with mine: Remove the vertical ram from the press and mark the centre of the end face. Use a centre punch to locate where the caul will insert into the end of the ram. Use a drill press and table vice to hold the ram vertically and drill vertically down through the end of the shaft, deep enough to take the shank of the caul (3/8" diameter?). Use a low drilling speed, advance slowly, use cutting lube. Remove the ram from the vice and lay it on it's side. On the vetical face that would normally be facing the operator when the ram is in the press mark, drill and tap a hole that passes into the 3/8" hole you just drilled up the end of the ram - this will become the setscrew hole that, when a screw is inserted and tightened, will prevent the caul from falling out. I drilled a 3.5mm hole and tapped it for an M4 thread in mine. I can post some pics if you like if anything isn't clear.

String nension is primarily a function of three things - the mass of the string, the length of the string and the pitch it is tuned to. A heavier (thicker) string tuned to the same pitch as a lighter (skinnier) string over the same length will be under more tension. Increasing the length while maintaining pitch and mass increases tension. Increasing pitch while keeping mass and length constant also increases tension. There are trade-offs in experimenting with varying the three parameters. Too little tension (by way of pitch, length or mass) tends to make the string sound like rubber bands and don't hold pitch when played. Too much tension and you risk breaking the string or damaging the instrument. Steel + steel would have been my choice, but chances are that will require you to construct a neck with a truss rod or similar reinforcement. I am not sure if a genuine sitar uses steel for the plucked and sympathetic strings? Do the sympathetic strings need to be on the neck? What about mounting the sympathetics on the body as was done on the Jerry Jones Coral Sitar? Another idea to look at - the Sympitar. The sympathetics run in parallel with the normal strings and up a hollow tube in the neck under the fretboard. Alex De Grassi played one for a while. You can usually excite sympathetic string vibration by plucking single fretted notes on a guitar while allowing the remaining 5 strings to vibrate freely. The lower strings tend to want to resonate at a harmonic of their natural pitch in sympathy with plucked higher strings (eg, 1 octave higher, 1 octave + 5th, 2 octaves, 2 octaves +maj 3rd etc). IME flipping it around the other way and getting a low string to cause the remaining higher pitched strings to vibrate sympathetically is nigh-impossible. A piano will do a similar thing. For example, hold a low C key down (without allowing it to play - just to get the string damper released) and tap and release a C key one or two octaves above. The undampened low C will continue to resonate in harmonic sympathy with the higher C after the high key has been released.

Wilkinson yellow = Seymour Duncan black. Wilkinson black = Seymour Duncan green (plus shield, marked as "bare" in your diagram) Basically follow the diagram above, substitute Wilkinson yellow for SD black, Wilkinson black for SD green, ignore anything that says "bare" and chances are it will work fine.

Further clues. At the bottom of this post over at the Seymour Duncan forum is a table from someone who got a Wilkinson humbucker to work with a Triple Shot. From his suggestions the Wilkinson wiring colours appear to be: Black = south start White = south finish Yellow = north start Red = north finish For a standard humbucker you'd join Red and White and tape off, Black goes to ground, Yellow is signal output. Seems to match your pic.

This tutorial on the Project Guitar website shows you how to do it. Did this pickup come from a working guitar? At a guess from your pic I'd say Yellow is hot, Black is ground and Red/White is the mid point of the two coils in the humbucker, but the tutorial link would confirm your colour coding more accurately.

If both pickups work direct to the output jack the fault has to be in the volume or tone pot. Visually it looks OK, gotta be something sneaky. From your pic it's a bit hard to tell, but is the top lug of the middle volume pot (with the black wire soldered to it) also soldered to the case? Are the pots valued at 25K (not 250 ohms or something unusual)? If you're happy to try another stab in the dark, you can also try removing the tone pot from the equation by disconnecting the two white wires from the middle lug of the tone pot (leave the two wires connected together but hanging in mid air). The remainder of the battery and pickup wiring can remain as-is. If there's still no sound the fault must be in the volume pot.

You still need the braid from the pickup lead to go to ground via the Sleeve tab on the output jack - the ground connection is missing in that 2nd pic. Unless EMG changed their wiring colour scheme over the years, I'd say yes - all reds joined to the red (positive) of the battery clip. If you could get some buzzing with the pickup direct to the output jack, and nothing at all with the original circuit, you most likely have a short between the signal wire and ground somewhere in the original wiring (buzzing is a good thing - proves it's possible to get some kind of signal out of the bass).

Few things you can check: Is the battery and/or battery clip known good? Are the pots known good? Were/are the pickups known good? Are there any shorts between the white signal wires daisy-chained to the output jack and the cases of the pots? Is the jack wired correctly (signal output from tone pot to Tip, battery negative wire to Ring, ground from pots to Sleeve)? Could you have applied too much heat to the braid of the pickup wires when attaching them to the pot shells and melted the insulation around the inner signal conductor? With the bass plugged in and a battery fitted can you generate any buzzing noises if you touch the wiring with your fingers? If still no joy, try unsoldering one of the pickup signal wires (eg middle lug of left pot in pic above) and temporarily connect it to the Tip of the output jack. This connects the pickup directly to the output, bypassing the volume and tone pots. Plug the bass in and see if the directly-connect pickup works. If it works the fault is likely in or near the volume pot that pickup was previously connected to and/or the tone pot. Repeat for the other pickup. You'll probably need a multimeter if you're still having trouble beyond the above suggestions.

Is the LG/SG anything like the LJ/SJ pickups? At the bottom of this page is something that sounds roughly like what you're after. Pots would be 25K log taper, tone capacitor 0.1uF or to taste. Are you after a diagram to roll your own, a kit or a pre-assembled module? Lots of schematics floating around for low battery monitors. The ones that are the most useful to you will be circuits advertising low battery consumption, like this or that (click on "figure 1" to see the diagram). The second one actually sounds enough like the module you linked to above for it to be fundamentally the same, except for the massive price mark-up. Your local electronics DIY/hobby store may have kits or pre-assembled modules for sale that will work, but size and/or power consumption may be limiting factors. Other pre-assembled modules exist but IMO are all overpriced for what they do.

Attaching the ground wire to the threaded insert usually just involves a well-placed hole drilled from the control cavity to the the nearest stud hole. The wire is bared off, passed through the hole and the stud insert is pushed into the hole from the top as per normal installation methods. The wire is compressed against the stud insert and the walls of the hole as the insert is pushed in. The stud screw/height adjuster should then give you enough conductivity just by the action of being threaded into the insert. The next trick is working out how to get conductivity between the stud screw and TOM frame, and then to the strings, but is usually just a case of carefully removing the powdercoating in such a way that is hidden from view - small conical and spherical grinding attachments for Dremels will probably be your best bet.

With passive pickups - quite necessary. Buzz abounds if the ground is left off, and you will generally have no choice but to find a way of getting the strings electrically connected to the guitars' ground point. With active pickups - not so much. I can't remember whether it's EMG or Seymour Duncan, but one of them explicitly tells you to not ground the strings in their installation instructions (granted it's somewhat dubioulsy citing it as a safety hazard rather than a noise reduction method). I've tried it with EMGs and SDs and there was no appreciable difference in noise level when the ground was attached to the strings or left disconnected. If you exercise each screw thread in the bridge it will generally remove enough powdercoating to make at least some contact for each string. The string breakpoint at the top of each saddle can be gently polished with a needle file to remove some of the coating. Other points of contact (eg underside of Tune-o-matic bridge frame and top of height adjustment screws) may need some sneaky paint removal to maintain conductivity between the metallic parts and your ground wire.

You're probably right, just looks small. Carry on!

You sure you're using the right gauge cable on 20A MCBs? That wire looks awfully skinny for power circuits.

I think I've only ever seen it done as the shelf method. Certainly all the Floyd equipped guitars I've ever owned were done like this. Demonx's would be the first time I've seen it done the other way. My current build is getting a Floyd, and I routed the shelf after the fretboard was radiused but before the back of the neck was carved. That way the neck had a flat back to attach to a reference surface that the router was able to follow as well. The trickiest part is setting up all the guides and fences so that the cut is perpendicular to the neck centre line. I imagine if I were to make this more of a regular thing I'd devise some kind of jig to make setup repeatable and easier.

Scott gets my vote this time round. It should be illegal to put as much attention to detail and quality of finish in a build as he does.

Assuming you're not relying on the cavity shielding for connecting the cases of the two pots, you're missing a ground on the rear of the tone pot. Edit: tone pot is wired back-to-front. Swap the connection of the cap from the left lug to right lug. "Ground to bridge" needs to go to the common grounding point on the back of the volume pot, not the middle lug. Also need a ground connection to the shield of the output jack (although your diagram may be simplifying some of these connections for brevity?) I'm not familiar with the colour codes of the pickups you're using, but otherwise it looks good.

I have a friend who steampunked his motorcycle, which included copperplating the exhausts and parts of the frame. He did exactly what Prostheta suggested and asked the electroplating firm who did the work to only go as far as the copper plating stage of the chroming process. Can't remember if the pre-chromed metal had to be stripped back to bare to start with though?

Linky

More likely is that his PC rack is earthed correctly and his body was capacitively charged sufficiently to light the neon. False positive/negative readings (amongst other safety concerns) with neon and non-contact voltage testers is a good reason why they're frowned upon in the electrical industry as reliable methods of detecting the presence of voltage.

Spring cleaning time! Items located in Australia, but will ship internationally at actual cost. PM if interested or for a shipping quote, or email "acurtis <dot> sy7 <at> gmail <dot> com" Gotoh Tune-o-matic tailpiece and bridge in chrome, all inserts and studs included. Near new condition. $40AU: Gotoh 3x3 sealed tuning machines in chrome, small oval buttons, non-locking. Includes all screws, washers and bushings. One treble-side tuner has a very slight flat spot on the mounting screw plate (see 2nd pic), but otherwise all in near-new condition $30AU: Sperzel Trim Lok 3x3 locking tuning machines in satin chrome, large style buttons, in original carton. Includes all washers and bushings. Carton has been opened but everything is complete. As new condition. $50AU: Ibanez 7-string ZR locking trem system in Cosmo black. Includes all screws, springs, 7 string locknut, string retainer bar, complete spring tension assembly, trem arm, intonation adjusting tool and trem arm screwcap. Only thing missing are the trem stud body inserts, however the studs are a M8 thread and will work with any Tune-o-matic M8 threaded inserts that can commonly be purchased from places like StewMac for a few sheckles (hint-hint: that Tune-o-matic bridge for sale just a bit further up!). Some slight plating tarnish on the locknut but otherwise in excellent condition, no rust. $120AU:

I think the "plug in the neck" thing you're referring to are threaded inserts. Basically a cylinder of metal with wood threads on the outside for fitting into timber, and tapped metal threads on the inside for accepting a machine screw. Kitchen cabinet makers use them for bolting melamine carcases together. I like to use the ferrules with regular wood screws. Gives the build a more no-frills look and allows some freeform sculpting of the heel which you simply can't do with a solid metal plate. Ibanez do the same thing with their All Access Neck Joint. Some builders perfer to go the ferrule + threaded insert option. There could be some kind of tonal voodoo associated with the inserts and machine screws - maybe it's due to the finer pitch threads on the screws allowing more clamping pressure between the neck and body than can be achieved with standard wood threads? A threaded insert also allows you to use different styles of bolt that aren't readily available as wood threads - allen heads for example. Up till now I've used Allparts metal ferrules in black or chrome as required. I've just bought a bunch of cheaper no-name ferrules to try out. Given they're not much more than a glorified washer I can't imagine there'll be an awful lot of difference between them in quality.