yetanotherchris

Crafty - The bodies of the switches are plastic, so where do I solder the ground wire? Unk - Alumitone pickups are kind of odd, there's not really a 'coil' or a 'frame' as such, the whole thing kind of is the coil. The weird part is instead of springs on the pickup mounting screws there are rubber sheaths/tubes that slide onto the screws. I think these might be helping to shield the screws from the pickup's magnetic field. Thing is I cut some of those sheaths down so maybe they're not covering the exposed part of the screw and thus creating the squeal. Again, I think the neck pickup may be exempt here... so maybe that's another reason? GregP- The hum is serious. It's a full on buzzing. Nothing like any of my other guitars, including my old Squier tele. At least the hum was continuous, didn't come and go when I moved my hand. Plus, alumitones are meant to be 'silent'... Thanks to all for their advice! Stay with me. Chris

Ok folks, finally got the pickups from the US and put this thing together... I've based it on this diagram, without the phasing switches... I've still got a couple of issues though. Firstly, when I'm not touching the strings/bridge I get a hum/buzz. Secondly, when I touch either the middle or bridge pickup (or their mounting screws) this creates a kind of high pitch squeal like feedback. Neither is great. I have a theory that the neck pickup is exempt from this annoying microphonicness because it's toggle switch is directly grounded to the jack, as in the diagram. Is there a way to ground the other switches without screwing up the circuit? That is, if that is indeed to blame... Any thoughts/advice appreciated! Thanks again, Chris PS The Alumitones sound LOVELY.

Interesting point, made me look at this whole endeavour somewhat differently! Well, in any case I've ordered my components and I'm going to try and piece it all together from a 'Brian May' diagram I found online. I've gone for three SPDT switches for the pickup on/offs, 500k pots and a .47 cap. I'll just see how it goes, I guess!

Unfortunately Lace doesn't have any recommendations on their website, and if they did they'd probably pertain to strat-type parallel wiring setups. Based on that I'd just use the 'Fender' standard pots/caps, as I said above. The reason I mention the red special, and am asking for advice here in general, is that I'm planning on wiring up the pickups in-series, something I've not done before. I know what to expect in terms of sound from these pickups. What I don't know is how much treble I'll lose by wiring in series. I basically want to know if the bleed-off of treble caused by wiring pickups this way warrants using 500k pots and/or brighter sounding caps. I was thinking of compromising and going for a 500k/.47 combination, which in my messed up brain would lead to the ability to roll-off a lot of treble with the tone pot if need-be, but less loss of treble through the pots. Also, what type of switches to use for the circuit is an issue. I could undoubtely stumble on it someplace online, but it's nice to have someone to verify it 'in-person'! Thanks again for any help, Chris

Ok folks, I've got to shoot off to work in a minute so I'll have to keep this brief! I'm planning on putting 3 Lace Alumitone pickups in a guitar, in-series. One volume, one tone. So what I want to have is three individual switches (SPST? SPDT? Help!), each effectively acting as on-off for each pickup. I've read that in-series wiring means a loss (to some extent) of treble frequencies. Should I compensate for this by using 500k pots and .22 caps to brighten the sound instead of the 'usual' 250k/.47 combination for pickups of this type? I'd be interested if anyone knows what values the pots/caps in a Brian May guitar have... Any thoughts will be much appreciated! And before anyone asks, yes I am set on the Alumitones! Either that or I'd be going for Q-Tuners which I really can't afford... Thanks again folks, Chris

Thanks for your post Psyche, I think I'll be putting this one on the back burner for now. If I do plan on continuing I'll pick up the post where I've left off. Cheers, Chris

... Putting worries about the lighting guy and the tolerances aside... any advice?

Ok folks, I'm preparing my second reworking of an old guitar, and I've had a bit of an odd idea for a kind of 'killswitch/tremolo'. Basically what I want to do is have a toggle switch on the guitar where the output goes to the jack. In one position the output just goes to the jack as normal. Consider it the 'off' position for the 'tremolo'. In the other position the output is rerouted through an LDR (Light Dependent Resistor) mounted on the front of the guitar. When there's lots of light hitting the LDR, the signal is unaffected. But if there's little/no light (ie when I pass my hand over the LDR) the volume is reduced/cut. What I really need is some advice on components/wiring. For example, Maplin stocks loads of LDRs, but I don't know which would work for my purposes. http://www.maplin.co.uk/SEODynamicPages/mo...asp?ModNo=35962 Also, how best to wire in the LDR and toggle switch, and whether any other components would be needed... any advice would really be appreciated! Thanks folks! Chris

Because someone was kind enough to link this to the main sustainer thread... It works! The modboard is in, along with the Lace Sensor and the Sustainer, and it works pretty good! I need to make some adjustments to the trimpots to calibrate the Sus with the Lace, but at least nothing has caught fire... Anyway, the modboard is great for it's size, lovely sound and onboard control is handy. My only complaint is that the echo is not quite 'overwhelming' enough even with the level all the way up, and decays a little quickly for my tastes. But as a simple echo, and for the money, amazing! So, my next project is to put a 'proper' delay pedal into my other guitar, a beat up old Aria Cat. I'm thinking a Guyatone Micro Delay, since it's small and if it's anything like my Guyatone Micro Fuzz, should be a doddle to disassemble and rewire. Any thoughts? Should I start a new thread on that one?

Ok, someone may want to lock/delete this thread... Visualise this: the guitar's entire electronics (bar the pickups) are mounted in/on a plastic take-away tray taped to the top of the guitar, with the wires feeding through the volume pot hole to the pups. Testing out the electrics before I start routing; I thought this was a farily intelligent solution. And it is. But plastic takeaway trays have a lot of 'give' in them. So when you push a plug into a jack mounted on it the whole thing bends, giving the impression that the jack is all the way in... when it isn't quite. Hence the above symptoms. So yeah, it works fine. I've fitted the Lace Sensor Red/Red Dually in the place of the frankly crap Fernandez pickup. There's probably some trimpot tweaking needed to smooth things out but it works, certainly. So, next step, wire in the Delay modboard. Woo! Anyway, just came online to check all the festive emails and thought I'd put you all out of your misery! Merry Christmas everyone! Chris

Hi Folks, those of you who read my earlier post know I'm trying to set up a sustainer guitar with built in delay... Anyway, my plan was install the sustainer kit as-is first, then swap out the pickup, then install the delay. So guess what... Phase 1: straight out of the box, and my sustainer kit is displaying some really odd behaviour! With the sustainer engaged, I'm getting plenty of sustain on the strings, just as I had expected. The harmonics/mix/normal modes are all working as I expected they would EXCEPT that I only get an output through the jack with the volume turned to full, otherwise the signal literally just cuts out. What output I am getting is really loud and heavily distorted. Even stanger is that there is no output at all with the Sustainer in the 'off' position, effectively no 'normal' guitar output at all. The only sound I can get from it is a clicking/crackling/scratching noise when I turn the volume pot past certain positions. I thought this was a sign that the volume pot was broken, so I replaced it with a new one and still have the exact same results. I haven't touched the mini pots on the back of the board as none of these seems to relate to my problem as far as I can tell. I've emailed Fernandes but I just thought I'd check with you lot too as one of you may have encountered this problem before... I'll have another search of the forum in case I've missed something. Thanks folks, and Merry Christmas! Chris

Hi Pete, cheers for the interest! You smacked the nail right on the head with the onboard delay... it's all about the onboard controls. I already have a seperate delay pedal which, as you say, is right at the end of my currently rather short chain. The benefit of the onboard control will hopefully be to pitchshift the sustained note in real time with the original note playing in the background, not to mention being able to wiggle the sound around with one hand whilst fretting with the other... Couple that with a further echo down the line and, well, I probably won't get invited back to a lot of venues... Yeah... the diagram is purely theoretical at this stage, although I have plenty of faith in what S's saying. If it doesn't work or something blows up then I'll let you know! Same goes for if it does work; I'm sure I'll find a way to record some noises and post them on the sustainer thread. With the above in mind, if someone can confirm my thoughts on the wiring that'd be great. I'll be off to buy spare wire and solder in the morning and unless I hear otherwise, it'll be getting the go ahead... Cheers folks, I'll keep you posted! Chris

Ok, so wires A and B are soldered to the input and input ground on the Modboard. Wires C and D are just left as per this diagram, yeah? I just want to be sure on this before I crack out the solder! Thanks, Chris

Just what I was thinkin, but it helps to have someone with half a clue say it! Cheers! Chris

Hi Folks! Starting a bit of a manic project on a Squier Affinity Tele soon, looking for some advice on how to work round the bridge. I'm putting in a Dually Red-Red Lace Sensor (humbucker sized) pickup in the bridge position. Obviously the stock bridge won't accomodate the pickup, so I'm considering a couple of options. 1. Replace the bridge completely with a seperate hardtail and humbucker ring. 2. Cut away the stock bridge's 'ashtray' to within 10mm or so of the saddles and add a humbucker ring. The only reason I even ask is that I worry about the tension on the bridge and the position of the screws holding it in place if I cut it down... Am I likely to ruin the tuning stability, or worse yet loosen the bridge to the point it might (over time) come clean off? On a side note, if I am replacing the bridge, does anyone know the correct string spacing on the Affinity Tele? Thanks for your time everyone! Chris