curtisa

The AC voltage check I suggested a bit further up is a good start, but without knowing what the circuit looks like in more detail I can't really say where the wire came from originally. Measuring ohms between the black wire and each of the two yellow wires should yield equal resistance (maybe a few ohms each?) if the wire is what I think it is, but you still need to find out where it came from. Maybe have a close look at the circuit board and search for broken solder joints, or a solder joint with a tuft of strands poking out of it that may have had a wire attached at some point?

Just noticed there is a beige 3-pin plug on the circuit board where you've reattached the two yelow wires. My guess is that the extra wire from the transformer goes to one of the pins on that connector - perhaps the yellow wires came from the two outside pins and the black wire from the centre pin?

The two leads with the ring lugs need to be bonded to the metallic frame of your amp. The extra wire from the transformer is probably the centre tap of the secondary winding (the two yellow leads) and likely needs to go to the frame aong with the two earth leads. A schematic would help though. What kind of amp is it? Quick check - set your meter to AC volts and measure between the extra wire and each of the two yellow wires from the transformer (carefully! The extra lead could be at mains potential). If you get the same voltage between one black/yellow pair and the other black/yellow pair it's probably the centre tap and will need to be grounded.

It's all good. I had tongue firmly planted in cheek. I take it you've gone ahead with the Mera hardware?

Them's fighting words. The age-old comparison of active pickups vs passive pickups mounted in garden tools will be the next battle ground in the Tonewood Debate.

Fankinew, fankinew. I'm here all week. Do try the salad...

Or a ghost? Boo!

A shovel?:

Meanwhile, Plainjane gets underway:

A neck with no headstock means there's nowehere to put the logo in the usual spot. The most common place I've seen them go on headless builds is above the neck where it meets the body, so that's where we'll slap it on. The CNC being too small to accept the full width of the body means I have plan ahead and mill the logo before the top gets glued up: Then rough cut and insert a pair of strategically-placed brads to prevent the top slipping around while gluing: And clamp the bejesus out of it, taking care not to apply pressure over the chambers: Trim the excess on the router table:

The one time I did a French polish I found I got better results using paraffin oil as the lubricating agent. Olive oil worked OK, but the finish build seemed easier to achieve evenly by switching to paraffin.

Assuming the same two pickups were installed at the same distance from the strings, and ignoring the tonal differences of the position of the two pickups (neck = warmer, middle = edgier). I'd expect the neck pickup to be slightly louder than the middle. But you could move one pickup closer to the strings than the other and then it would have more apparent output. Or use a pickup with a hotter output and then it would be the louder of the two. Not too hard. One switch and a couple of wires per pickup is pretty much it. Sounds a little like Brian May's Red Special. I believe he uses one phase switch and one on/off switch for each of the three pickups he has installed.

Good to hear you're finding it useful. There will be further 'episodes' which should provide more detail to the processes involved.

Pickups can be wired in series or parallel if you wish. That's more a decision as to what tonal options you want to include with the switching. For any given set of pickups series wiring will generally give a higher output than parallel. Yes, good point. The last thing you want is to use unseasoned wood in your build only to discover a few months down the track that the body has warped and split

Just had a quick look at your profile. As far as I can tell you have access to upload files directly as attachments in each of your replies. I've had issues with certain versions of Internet Explorer. Try uploading images using Firefox or Chrome.

Provided you have somewhere to host the pictures (eg, Photobucket, Imgur, Flickr etc) you should be able to insert the picture by clicking the 'Insert other Media' button at the bottom-right of the reply window, and then clicking 'Insert Image From URL'. Paste the web link to your picture into the field that pops up and it should display on screen.

Yes. What about making the body thinner? Assuming you're not building a historically accurate Les Paul (which your initial enquiries seem to suggest), there's no reason a mahogany bodied instrument needs to be 2" thick. Your question is too vague. How does a 4-cylinder engine drive? There's too many variables that determine how an instrument made of a particular timber will sound once you plug it in. Perhaps the questions you could be asking are along the lines of 'what differences are there between mahogany and basswood', or 'what's available for me to purchase'. Basswood is softer than Mahogany by about half, and about two-thirds the weight. Some people suggest that Basswood being softer may impart a warmer tone (warmer than what?), but that could be all thrown out the window if you decide to install some bright, high-output pickups. Most pickup manufacturer's will categorise thier pickups by output and magnet type, so that gives you something useful to start with. Maybe something like a Seymour Duncan JB or Alternative 8, or Dimarzio Breed or Gravity Storm? If we're talking passive pickups the resistance will generally be higher for a higher output. More turns of wire = greater output = more length of wire wound on the pickup = higher resistance of coil. EMGs and other active pickups utilise built-in circuitry which boosts pickup output while reducing apparent resistance. Comparing the resistance of pickups as a measure of output can be misleading Very. If you want active pickups you're better off buying a set than trying to out-play EMG at their own game, particuarly if this is your first build. Personally I wouldn't becuase, as you say, it is a lot of work to install just one specific effect (plus batteries) when you could just have the pedal on the floor. Ummm. I dunno. The famous 4-note refrain in 'Shine on you Crazy Diamond' part 1 could be a phaser. I think the solo in 'Any Colour You Like' is a phaser set to a fast speed. The rhythm guitar part in 'Breathe'...I'm not entirely sure he uses a phasor that much, to be honest? I mean, he's known for using one, but not all the time.

That's easy. Build an 8 string headless Les Paul.

What about chambering a mahogany body for weight relief? Gibson have been doing that for many years. Heading into controversial territory, but there's some not unreasonable arguments out there that the species of wood used in solid body electric guitars has minimal impact on the plugged-in sound. Choice of pickups, string mounting method (through body, wraparound etc), trem or no trem, scale length, build quality and component fit may (will? could?) mask any residual effects of the choice of timber used. Matt Bellamy isn't afraid to use lots of signal processing on his guitar, so the final product will be determined significantly by what he's plugging in to. Maybe there's some info floating around from Manson Guitars regarding the tonal quality or output of their pickups that can help establishing what a rough equivalent is? He strikes me as the kind of guy who wouldn't be adverse to using high-output, high-clarity pickups, but that's just speculation. The man playing the guitar? Just kiddin'... I usually think of David Gilmour's solo tone as being the Strat neck pickup, but he's been known to use all sorts of stuff over the years and still be completely identifiable as David Gilmour. Mid-80's era Gilmour is (I believe) Strat with EMG SAs and some kind of onboard booster. 90s Gilmour I'm not sure what pickups he would have been using, possibly still the EMGs, but his tone still largely has that Strat neck quality. The 70s albums have more edgy tones which at a guess would be Strat bridge pickup. I guess that more or less ties in with your philosophy of bridge humbucker + neck single coil for your design.

Hadn't heard of Mera. Looks very similar to the T4M stuff. Good find. Maybe you should purchase a set and we can compare notes?

It sounds like you still need to discuss with him what he expects for $1K. Is he a friend or family member, or just someone who has seen your work online? In my experience if the person asking is someone you know they will probably be quite accepting and supportive of the fact you're not running a business and that you have only a small number of builds under your belt. They'll likely be doing it to support your interest in it and will be happy they've got their very own custom made instrument. If it were me feeling uncomfortable about charging commercial rates, I'd have a chat with him to find out what he wants (woods, hardware, body style, electronics etc), price something up based on your easily obtainable parts providers and add, say 50% (eg, if it works out at $500 worth of parts, charge $750 and call the extra $250 labour and consumables). Let him know up front what the cost breakdown is before committing to anything - type up some kind of quote with the prices detailed. Be open about the fact that you are a non-professional builder. If possible meet up with him face to face so he can try out the MesquitoCaster in person. What about if you offer to sell him the MesquitoCaster you finished and use the cash to build yourself a new one to replace it?

May be a little while yet before I get my hands on them, but it will be good to see them both side by side. We're not exactly flush for choices when it comes to headless hardware. With Ola Strandberg halting sales of his headless bridge assemblies late last year, an already sparsely populated area of guitar building is a whole lot smaller.

Yeah, I've never had an issue with clamping by sheer volume of clamps rather than upping the pressure, but I will have a look at those articles.

Ta. Hardware for the first instrument is by Technology For Musicians in Italy. Very much a small scale operation. He makes them as he receives the order, but from all I've read and heard they're about the best value for money headless units you can get your hands on. Number 2 is getting ABM hardware. I've always liked their individual (non-headless) bridges, so I'm keen to see how their headless equivalents stack up. The nut assembly is different to the T4M units, so the headstock will need to be designed differently to accommodate it.

Carbon fibre rods too. I suspect this is largely overkill. The laminated Cheesewood neck is super rigid by itself, but I'd like to go for a slimmer profile, so any weight relief with the added strength of CF will make me feel better at least: Epoxy to keep it all in place. The greaseproof paper is there to stop the epoxy from sticking to the clamps and caul: One thing I will say about a headless neck - having no headstock makes construction a whole lot simpler. No scarf joint to worry about. No headstock to get in the way of clamping or routing operations. The whole neck is essentially just a plank. Fretboard gets pinned in place to assist with aligning it while the glue dries. I added a bit of tape to mask off the headstock-end of the fretboard to aid cleaning the squeeze-out at this end, as it will be on display underneath the string clamps: Must not forget a bit of silicone in the trussrod channel: After the glue dries the excess can get trimmed on the router table. Headstock left purposely oversized until I can verify the size and shape of the string clamps (still waiting on Mr Mailman):