MCH

quote 'sheesh, less than 24 hours from the original post, and already we're feeling neglected.' I apologize if I seemed short. But since I my other post didn't get any replies after 3days I thought I might have worn out my welcome. quote ' your parallel connection is just going to short out each coil, and leave the output open. not good.' I see my error now. I'm not familiar with electronic circuits. quote 'having a middle off position on the switches isn't great, it will leave unused coils hanging from hot. this will be a bit noisier than disconnection them. but if you are determined to do that, so be it.' The reason I want to do this was so that I could have a variety of switching capabilities. My plan was to use 3 HB with 3 DPDT (on/off/on) and 3 volume pots. No tone controls. I wanted a clean look. But I may have to rethink my whole scenario now. Thankyou very much for your reply. will try to be more patient

Ok what gives. I must have BO. I find it pretty disheartening that with all the capable people here that there is no response to my diagram. I suppose I'll find out when I wire it according to my diagram to see if it works. Oh well, I tried getting some help. I notice my other wiring inquiry got no response. Hmmmm! I apologize if I'm asking very stupid questions. But building guitars is a new thing for me.

I agree Dave. I would think time is of the essence in this project. I build furniture as a hobby. Mostly for friends and family. I found that in most projects I learned something new everytime and I could probably have done something better in that particular piece. You probably have to constantly build the same piece over and over again before you could possibly reach perfection. Now if I were building guitars for a living I would certainly invest in appropriate tools and have an array of jigs and templates. This would definitely increase the measure of perfection. But I'm a dabbler and move on to other things. This guy building his first guitar is going to learn a huge amount. Is he going to build a perfect guitar, no. I also say forward and onward. If there is a next time, the knowledge will have increased to get closer to perfection.

I think may want to try a series/parallel wiring. I want to use a DPDT (on/off/on) style switch and a volume control for each humbucker. I wrestled with the wiring scenario and came up with this. Is this possibly correct? Electronics is not my forte. thx

Seymour Duncan wiring diagrams. http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/schematics.shtml Note: I'm not saying the "star ground" wiring system doesn't work as suggested by guitarnuts.com. It didn't work for me. It could have been a bad connection or something I did on my part. But when I re-wired with the SD scheme it worked. So I let sleeping dogs lie.

I just did a humbucker style in this star grounding (guitarnuts.com) and had failure. I tore it all apart and ended up doing a Seymour Duncan wiring scheme. I also isolated my pots from the shield; by cutting the shielding back so that the shafts do not contact the shield. The only contact with the shield was the output jack (this effectively grounded the shield, plus the output jack ground and the selector switch ground are directly connected). The tone control was a puzzler. Again, the one that worked was the SD wiring style. Even then the tone control seems very minimal, it seemed to be either off or on; no gradual change. I tried other various ways I found on the web and they were worse. On my rewiring I checked for continuity throughout the whole system to make sure all was kosher. When I finally gave it a whirl it was dead quiet. My previous attempt was noisier and only quieted when I touched something metal on the guitar. I find electronics very frustrating. good luck

My next guitar I want to utilize 3 Lil Killers (GFS) humbucker strat syle. I want to use a 5-way switch with 3 volume controls. I don't want a tone control(s). Plus I want a switch to split the humbuckers into 3 singles. The only diagram I came across so far is the SD wire diagram that has one volume and 2 tone controls and the 3splits. http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/schem...5w_3splits.html I don't know how to dispense with the 2 tone controls in that diagram and substitute 2 volume controls. Any help or web direction would greatly be appreciated.

Well I just finished rewiring as a Seymour Duncan style wiring and have success. No NOISE!! Whew that takes a load off my mind. Now I can enjoy the woodworking of my other guitar in progress. It's all a learning process. cheers

Have been to Guitarnuts and read their material. I had all the pot casings grounded individually in my previous star ground attempt plus the casings were grounding to the shield. Still had the hum problem. Hence I'm going to try the Seymour Duncan wiring scheme. I've looked at my other cheapie guitar and it follows the SD configuration and it is dead quiet. Of course I could have done something wrong in my previous attempt. If you don't succeed the first time, try and try again.

Well I had some ground hum. Whenever I touched something metal it was quiet. I think my problem was that the pots were in contact with the shielding. I stripped everything and isolated the pots from the shielding. I dispensed with the star grounding and am following the Seymour Duncan wire diagram (they should know what they're doing). Haven't had a chance to give it a whirl; need some more shielded wire to go from the selector switch to output jack and volume controls. Hopefully this will work. It's not rocket science, but sure can be frustrating. I enjoy the woodworking much more.

I'm setting up a 2 humbucker - 2 volume - 2 tone. I'm using the star ground wiring. From the leg of all my pots, p/u, input jack and selector switch I have all the ground wires meet in one spot. The control cavity and humbucker cavities are lined with aluminum tape. Do I need to ground the pot cases to the star point also (via the ground wire coming off of each pot leg)? I understand the pot cases will be commonly connected to the cavity shield by the contact of the stem. From what I read it seems the shielding should not be connected to the circuitry ground. So if I connect the pot cases to the star ground this will combine the shielding and circuitry ground, apparently not good. I would have to isolate the pots from contacting the shield. Am I over thinking this? Is my wiring so far correct without grounding the pot cases to the star ground? any thoughts would be appreciated

Well I just tried this and there certainly is an increase in volume. But for added sustain duration I'm not so sure. You would have to do more critical measuring. What basically is happening I believe is that the touched object is acting like a speaker, just amplifying the sound. The bigger the object (plus physical attributions) that is touched the more volume. It's like playing unplugged compared to plugged. You will hear the sustain longer amped because of the volume. But the duration of the sustain has not really changed. I would like to see more controlled testing before accepting this. This is something for the Myth Buster gang.

I'm in the process of finishing up a mocking bird with walnut/purpleheart. http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=27631 I used Behr Tung Oil. Off the shelf tung oils have a little poly in them, this gives a very nice finish. You can get a very nice silky smooth finish if you use a scothguard pad (I used the grey coloured) and rub the final couple coats. I think I had three or four coats max. For more lustre you can finish off with a quality paste wax. But let the tung oil dry for at least a week or so.

Nice looking guitars. I think I'm noticing that you don't seem to be using Tone controls on some or all of those builds. LP4.jpg doesn't appear to have a tone control. Correct? Have you had to compensate the Volume control values? The reason I ask is because in my next build I was thinking of dispensing with the Tone control. I'm planning on using 2 Humbuckers with Volume pots of 500K; should I go to the 250K? When playing the guitars without the Tone control to you wish you had the Tone control for more flexibility? very curious thx

The guitar will be using humbuckers. I don't understand the 'plenty of tones in the volume'? Only thing I can think of is different pots may have a slightly different sound or tone. On the Tone control all that is happening is treble frequencies are being bled off to ground (that is my understanding). So when the tone control is all the way up, you're basically hear the total tone of the humbuckers combined with the wood. With an equalizer you have much more control on what frequencies you want to alter, not just take away treble. Or even most amps have 3 frequency ranges Bass, Mid and Treble to alter the tone. So bypassing a Tone control, a 250K pot should be used? I didn't know that. I guess a little experimenting is in order. thx

I was wondering about tone controls for my next build. How many builders by pass the need for tone controls? Personally I would think the tone controls on the amp or the equalizer is all you need. I find most of the time I don't even touch the tone control on the guitar and usually it is set to bypass (max treble side). So my way of thinking is why bother with cluttering up the guitar face with these. Or am I missing something in regards to their requirements on the guitar? any thoughts?

Nice job. Nothing like building something with your own hands. I also just got into building guitars. Very addictive. Haven't finished my first and am already drawing up another design for another build. I don't use templates (store bought) other than the ones I create myself. On my first build I'm using tung oil and find the finish very attractive for the natural look. I'm not into the high gloss plastic look. I've built a lot furniture over the past few years; so guitar building is an extension of this madness. Hopefully I'll be able to start selling some guitars. I'll start with the 3 electrics I bought. Hard to let go of the ones you build. Anyhow I don't know how easy it is to sell custom made guitars, if there is any viable market. happy designer sawdusting making

I think I came across something that may interest the casual user for tweaking the nut for string height adjustment and slot thickness. Luthier files can be quite expensive and harder to acquire locally so I tried a set of files for cleaning welding tips. Very available and the package comes in a large assortment of diameter sizes; more than you would need for the various string sizes. I file adjusted the nut on my neck for my build and it worked great. I paid $7 for the whole set. I don't think they could be used to cut totally new slots; but for adjustment they work well. just a thought.

Just an update: I 've got the neck on and stringed (waiting for string trees) to double check the placing of the Schaller TOM bridge. I think I have it well placed now (tunes well in open and 12th fret) and will mark and drill the post holes. My bridge tail piece is working well indeed. May trim it down a bit to get a little more angle to the bridge; but will wait until final setup. The nut definitely needs to be worked on to get the proper height. I don't have nut files so I'll have to improvise or take it in to have it done (may get Tusq, I think it's plastic on there now). Any secrets in filing without proper files? I made up a new set of walnut knobs for volume and tone; I like these much better. The process continues. A closer shot shows the control knobs. http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/8123/mo...rolknobsnt5.jpg

The neck pocket fits the neck that I purchased. It's already been dry fitted. I'm using large headed cab bolts that utilize hidden barrel nuts in the base of the neck (I'm using 3 bolts). I think this will give a much tighter fit than the usual threaded screw assembly. Plus I can remove the neck as many times as I want without fear of stripping the screw holes or splitting the maple neck because of too much torque. The neck pocket at the base is about 2 3/16". I measured my Godin Exit22 that has a bolt on neck, that is very similar, and its neck pocket is also 2 3/16". So all is good so far. I'm designing another set of control knobs. I'm not too happy with the current design that is in the photo. That's what I love about making your own guitar. Customization. off to make some more designer sawdust.

As to the walnut tailpiece I think it should be okay. I may use a brass washer in front of the string ring to help premature wear. I also have a purple heart tailpiece finished; which would hold up to pressure wear. Haven't decided which one to use.

This is my first guitar build. Great learning experience. I bought a made neck maple/rosewood in 25 1/2 scale. I don't have enough tools yet to get into the making of a neck. I'm loving the look of the walnut with the purple heart. I think purple heart would make a great neck. It very hard; probably harder than maple. At one time time purple heart was used for flooring in train boxcars. here are a couple of pics so far. http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/8379/mo...irdback3pp1.jpg

If you are using the lipped ferrels on the back, I would flush mount. This way, there would be no protrusion. In fact I would do the same for the front also. I think asthetically it would be more pleasing. just a thought.