otgordin

One more question before i run off to that evil shack of radios.... Assuming that i am crazy-gluing the piezo to the back of the pickup, do i glue the copper or the ceramic side to the pickup (should i even take it out of its casing) Of course, I will post pics of everything as soon as its installed and ready to go. That should be around sunday.

I think i figured this out. I don't know if my revelation is gonna be news to anyone but i figured i'd post it just in case people like me were wondering what this circuit does. Pretty much it takes the signal from your pickups, amplifies it, and then sends it to a piezo element glued to the underside of the bridge pickup. Does anyone have any idea how well this will work? Cause I have no idea without trying it. -Vadim

I just checked the stock of my local radio-shack on their website and they have the lm 386 in stock. So i think i am gonna prototype it out this weekend. I should be fine if I just hook onto my pickup leads with aligator clips and do the prototying on a breadboard. I am still a little confused as to the purpose and placement of the piezo tho. -Vadim

Thanks johnyg, Let me know how the trial goes. Do you think that RS would have the chip cause then I could try it out this weekend. I wish I had brought my electric to college, cause then I would be able to try it out tonight in the circuits lab. By my estimation this would be a <$10 mod, which would be friggin' awesome if it works. -Vadim

I think the next mod I am gonna do is the sustainer. I had no idea it was so simple. Couple of questions tho. 1. What is the rating of the cap? 2. Does the Op-Amp need -9V to come to one of the pins? 3. How, where and to what is the piezo connected? 4. What model of small RS piezo buzzer is it... Radioshack Piezo Buzzers 5. What kind of switch is this and how is it wired? Sorry about asking so many questions, I just wanna be sure before I go ahead and do this. Thanks for posting what looks to be an awesome mod. -Vadim

how much did that cost?

had to go with tokai at least for what they used to be. As far as current guitars my vote is dillion. I have yet to play anything under 700 that beats my $390 500x. Can't beat it if you wanna rock out with a good lookin axe for cheap. I figure that with enough money, any company can build an amazing guitar, what gets me is when companies put together sweet axes without breaking the bank... my 2 cents. -Vadim

so are you saying its better not to have my clamps really tight when laminating pieces of a body, neck, etc together? -Vadim

BLS, I thought about. But I use the wah as a level controller for auto-wah on my distorted patches. It makes it really easy to switch the patch from a gritty distortion to a more textured sound for soloing. -Vadim

I just took the cover off the pedal and played with wires for a little bit. Here is what i have come up with. Let me note here that another of my qualms with the 707 is that all of the patch editing and sampling buttons can only be operated with your finger. 1. Twisting the hots from each pedal together means that any time you click either of them, both are sent to ground and the pedal goes into bypass, making it impossible to scroll through patches. 2. I decided to make a "lock" button using a non-momentary switch. I figure i will then be able to have a footswitch to connect and disconnect the two hots... thereby making either of the up/down pedals a dedicated bypass pedal when the "lock" is engaged. 3. The serial mouse that I was planning to canabalize for my cable only has 4 conductors (the connector has nine pins) so I can only bring one other "finger button" out to my external footswitch although i was planning on having all 6 patch editing, sampling and rythem (sp?) buttons be footswitchable. i dunno where that leaves me, I am thinking that I might just use a parallel cable (looks like the computer side of a printer cable) between the external box and the pedal. That would by 25 conductors but it would be leaps and bounds better as far as pedal ease of use goes. -Vadim

THanks guys. Brian, I think i am going to go with your method.

Hey guys, I am flying out to cali for the new year and plan to bring my acoustic. I heard somewhere that you need to take the strings off before you fly. Can anyone clarify for me? THanks. -Vadim

hey guys, I have a question... I have a zoom 707 multi effects pedal and hate having to hit both buttons to put it into bypass mode. (in case you were wondering, on the cheap zoom pedals you have to hit the up and down pedals to bypass whatever effect you are using and just get a clean sound. THis is very tough to do on stage with an amount of certainty). I have a bunch of spst momentary switches laying around. I was wondering how I would hook together the two hots from each pedal and the ground to a single spst switch in an external box. Can i just connect both hots to one lead and the ground to the other? Thanks -Vadim

how bout them new birds?

I was on Harmony Central and saw an article on the new PRS 513. The article Large Pic. It says the neck joint is redesigned, maybe Ed Roman can stop his bitching. Looks like this could be an rockin model. One thing i noticed that looks kinda cool is the tuners are not the standard prs lockers. I read somewhere that when John Mann designed the original prs locking tuners they were made with a slit at the top so you could lock em with a quarter. What a sweet lookin guitar. I wonder what the retail price is gonna look like. -Vadim p.s. what kind of wood is that top?

Is the thread on this board?

I should probably add that yes, I am building a copy-carver so it will be possible to "shave" off relatively thin layers.

I was looking at the copy-carver website, and they recomended this router. Am I just gonna tear it apart doing a body (even if I go a little at a time)? and for the price should i even care? -Vadim

I like the floating tune-o-matic bridges. I threw one on a Harmony Rocket hollowbody that I have and have no complaints. Can't vouch for whatever brand Stew Mac is selling tho. -Vadim btw.... I am done with finals today. Will be rebuilding my strat in at most two days

I am gonna have to agree with litchfield and say that a veneer is probably your best bet. I was thinking about thinking about the whole arched top thing, and if you are willing to paint it or some other opaque finish i guess you could arch your existing body leaving the bridge/pickups/neck area the way it was and then if you need add thickness by glueing mahogany to the back and re-routing your control cavities. Just an idea, i have no idea if its useful or not tho :-/. -Vadim

I have a question... what are you going to do about the fact that your neck is set for a given body thickness. After you add an arched maple cap to the body wouldn't the fretboard be way below the new level of the bridge and make the angle at the tune-o-matic unusable. Am i missing something? Just a though. -Vadim

i found these instructions for the pickup at harmony central. Here. Rock on. -Vadim

Along the same lines, I have an old harmony rocket that needs to have one of the pots replaced... But i can't figure out how to desolder it and put in a new one without having to take off the top. Thanks -Vadim

Thats awesome, would i be able to add one to an already finished solid color guitar and then jsut spray some extra coats of clear over top? -Vadim

I found this on the same site: mahogany body, maple neck, grover tuners, and what i am assuming to be gibson 490 and 498 pickups. 350 bucks? Kramer SG