~davie

hey pete, thanks for the reply. i was thinking the same thing. does anyone else have any more input? the main reason why i'm asking this is because i was thinking about getting another mid pickup from ebay to make a neck and mid pair, because the mid pups seem to sell for less. lol

Hey guys, just wondering if anyone knows if there's a "difference" between the neck and middle SCN pickups, in respect to tone/sound http://www.fender.com/products//search.php?partno=0992104000 Because they basically have the same DC resistance and inductance. A while back I bought a middle SCN pickup for my nashville-style telecaster. If they're tested A vs B on the same position, eg. install the mid pup in neck position, will it sound just like the neck pup? Or is the only/main difference or significance is having to do with when they're selected together? (eg. parallel, for that signature strat glassy-tone) Thanks, hopefully I'm being clear, tell me if further explanation is needed.

check for grounding loops, and try star-grounding

hey, try out this program for tuning. it pretty precise, hook up the guitar to your computer and test the pitches of each string and each fret, and see how well the pitch centers www.aptuner.com

yeah, this is kinda weird phenomenum.. its similar to the symptoms of tremolo tuning. lol

yeah, i would do what pete mentioned. just use a standard gauge and transpose the tuning the guitar to nothing that's too firm or loose in terms of string tension, too firm=likely string breakage, too loose=weak tone and fret buzz and as for the truss rod being there or not, it shouldn't really have an effect on tuning. but maybe its more helpful if u mention an example of how it gets detuned and to what degree.. like.. bending strings alot, instantly outta tune, how much outta tune? (like half step or whole step up or down, or a few cents?)

poly? or nitro? if its nitro, u gotta let it cure like a few weeks IMO, the best thing to do is to do thin coats until every spot is covered then just fine sand+buff

8s are kinda too thin, unless you're like tuning it up on octave or something.. cus i'm assuming that this isn't a full-scaled guitar. what is it? like 20" scale? kinda off topic, but i don't suggest a standard E tuning, especially on light gauges. as for the tuning issue, the bridge shouldn't be the problem, cus by the looks of it, its a hardtail bridge. so the other possible cause would be faulty tuners or improper/bad stringing method. and btw, you might want to try a thicker gauge string, similar idea to the 24" jaguar/jazzmasters

in my custom SSS setup, with the 11 different settings, each setting is actually very distinct from each other. like for example. when mid+bridge pups are in series+reverse phase it sounds like a trebley humbucker, kinda like a tele deluxe. whereas the neck+mid pups in series-normal phase sound like some fat-ass bassy pickup. lol. note that these are on overwound single-coils.. like ~9kohms but i was just curious on the interaction of 3 coils (1 single+1humbucker) and the effect it has on tone.

anyone else know anything? or anyone has tried these modes used between a single coil and humbucker pup?

hey, i currently have a SSS (3 single coil) setup and i have a series/parallel switch and phase switching, so i can get 11 DIFFERENT tones from this custom wiring setup (5 strat stock positions, 2 series+reverse phase, 2 parallel+reverse, 2 series+normal phase). so i was wondering.. cus i might change it up to a SSH (2 single coils+1 humbucker) setup. so i was wondering if there is a difference in tone between series S-H and series-reverse S-H? also what about between parallel S-H and parallel-reverse S-H. i'm not an expert on electronics or whatever, i just wanna make sure if any of these pickup settings are redundant or not in terms of sound. i DO enjoy the sonic variability of the SSS with this setup. however i just wanna try to embrace some more flexibility in terms of style with the humbucker sound using the same setup, but just using SSH instead. if there are more tonal options to be offered then i'll invest myself in a good humbucker pickup. note: the phase-reversal is obtained through swapping + and - terminals of the middle pickup using a switch thanks in advance!

apply grain filler along the wood, let it cure or dry, sand it smooth. then you're gonna want to apply sanding sealer and sand it to give it an even surface to finish.

i've heard pretty good things about them though. like good reviews etc. and relatively hot compared in DC resistance compared to most 'real' tele single coils. And a shielding job, no matter how good is it isn't gonna get rid of that 60hz hum. That's not what shielding is used for. Its a basic phenomena solely linked to single coil pups. Trust me, all my electric guitars are shielded with copper tape, and it doesn't eliminate the "single-coil hum", it just grounds/neutralizes all the damn IF or radio, etc.. waves.

its not too bad, I'm in the process of doing the same thing, in total it cost me around $500, a MIM tele is like $450-500, but seriously, they suck. And plus, i have 2-pc swamp ash body, fender brass-saddle bridge, fender vintage noiseless pups, licensed maple neck, and etc (nearly all geniune parts, or very closely matched). And i also did the body in nitro with a yellowish-tint. the money u save on cost isn't bad, but the main idea is that you're building it to your ideal specifications and preference.

hmm i see, maybe i could try that, but it a "tone killer" or anything? and also is there a specific brand or product of it that i should use?

so after i sand it down, should i even bother with the grain filler? or should i just go direct to the sanding sealer? will sanding sealer help with filling what's left of the grain?

This is a common misconception. What you are doing is shortening the length to all frets under the string that is compensated. Even if you capo the first fret, its still flattened the compensated amount for each string. The whole point is to better intonate the frets towards the nut. Open, you can tune the string anyway you like. Compensation doesn't effect that. are you sure? if you actually capo the 1st fret or any other fret you're actually taking the distance of the fret in reference to the saddles, and basically anything before the capo is negated. It's common sense that the compensated nut only affects the open notes. And as for intonation, the nut is made to compensate the tuning of the opened string relative to all the other frets where necessary to balance the intonations of all your frets as close as possible. IMO, the compensated nut is more trouble than its worth.

what about the temperature of a garage with the door closed? I've been doing that for a while. And paint with like garage door 2 feet open. We need some ideas! and yes, i'm also in the northeastern region.

if you want something ideal for a tremolo, try GraphTech's Trem-Nuts, they're suppose to be VERY SLIPPERY. I don't really use tremolos but I do have their string retainers on one of my guitars to lessen my string breakage from tuning. And as for compensated nuts, i'm not sure what effect would they have, besides having an effect on intonation (good or bad, depending on your overall setup). edit: just realized, the compensated nut would only have an effect on your string intonation played open, but in most cases, just the regular intonation treatment (via saddles) should be good enough.

The wood is hard ash. What should I do at this point? If i sand down the body, the grain would still be partially filled by the leftover paint. Maybe I should just add sanding sealer after I sand off most of the paint and use the sealer to level the grain flat?

maybe you could try ebay

yeah, i'm probably gonna sand it down and redo it, but how exactly does sanding sealer work? and where do i get some? and will the sanding sealer help with the covering/filling grain? hmm.. maybe I should check Benjamin Moore's.

you could try to use a multimeter and test for resistance at each terminal for different positions, that might give you an idea which is which. As for the diagram maybe seymour duncan's website has some useful ones.

A while back I bought an unfinished body and filled grained but it didn't work that well, I think I thinned the grain filler too much (shouldn't have thinned it at all, but the instructions said so). Then I proceeded to spray colour paint, and afterwards the grains like sticking out. What should do I? I thought about wiping on clear and leveling it out, but i doubt that's gonna fix it. I also thought about adding on more paint to the parts with grain showing, but that's like hard to do with a spray, the store doesn't have the brushing version either and I might run into trouble sanding it flat. Should I just sand down the paint a bit and repaint it? or should I sand it down completely and try to fill the grain. And also I didn't use any kind of sealer or sanding sealer, should I have? Where would I get some?

no idea!