Is there anything you clowns need to know about working on guitars?

[tossom]

Bloody annoying eh?  Mine is tuned either to E flat or C#, regardless of tuning and despite the pro set up it is off.  Plays like a pig, high action but by god does it sound good!

[inductorguitars]

Bloody annoying eh?  Mine is tuned either to E flat or C#, regardless of tuning and despite the pro set up it is off.  Plays like a pig, high action but by god does it sound good!

Start over from scratch. Reseat the neck,  set the lowest action on the bridge and if it has the 5th hole use that to adjust the neck angle. then adjust the bridge action. It might take a couple of times to get it correct. Lastly get it it intonated. Hmm you just might need a new nut, depending on how old it is.

If you press harder than the guy who does the intonation it will be off.

[VOLVO)))]

T-40s have nickle nuts.

[Discö Rice]

T-40s have nickle nuts.

Me too. 5¢ a gander.

[Hemisaurus]

T-40s have nickle nuts.

Me too. 5¢ a gander.

How much for a small mallard?

[tossom]

Bloody annoying eh?  Mine is tuned either to E flat or C#, regardless of tuning and despite the pro set up it is off.  Plays like a pig, high action but by god does it sound good!

Start over from scratch. Reseat the neck,  set the lowest action on the bridge and if it has the 5th hole use that to adjust the neck angle. then adjust the bridge action. It might take a couple of times to get it correct. Lastly get it it intonated. Hmm you just might need a new nut, depending on how old it is.

If you press harder than the guy who does the intonation it will be off.

78, it has had a new nut fitted and is playing much better than it has in years.  The neck was reseated too, the neck used to move - the joys of 3 bolt - but is sitting pretty good now.  I think its just a pig of a guitar, kinda matches the owner!   Will have a go at setting my own intonation, I play pretty hard so your point about pressing harder is one that hadn't crossed my mind so ta for that.

[inductorguitars]

You need a strobe tuner to intonate properly. You can get close without one.

[VOLVO)))]

So, apparently, a lot of the upper end Peavey bolt-on's have those built in shims. I set up a Dyna-bass today, and it was a fucking dream working that shim bolt into perfection. Looooveeeee.

[Instant Dan]

Besides you, which sites are reputable from anything such as proper intonation to changing out electronics and nut?

[VOLVO)))]

WHAT? Don't trust us? hater. 





The best 30 dollars you will EVER spend. Straight up, it's got everything in an easy-to-understand format.

Dan's been doing this shit for years. It can walk you through pretty much whatever you want.




Duncan has every damn wiring diagram KNOWN TO MAN, pretty much. EASY to understand and pretty damn straightforward. No smoke, no mirrors.

[Hemisaurus]

I like Guitar Nuts, they're pickup potting article is good too
http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/menu.php

there's a site I'm trying to find, where the guy has every variation, with coil taps, phase reversal switches etc. etc., trying to find the URL.

Found it

http://www.1728.com/guitar.htm

[Lumpy]

I want to recycle these Washburn humbuckers to make a spring machine. Basically, I'll stretch a bunch of springs over the pickups so I can amplify them. It's been a while since I looked at the pickups (I swapped some GFS pickups into a semi-hollow Oscar Schmidt Delta King... badly... a few years ago) so I was surprised that there was only one wire emerging from the casing. Just to be sure I didn't stupidly snip the ground wire off way too close to the casing, I opened it up. Viola!



1. Is that bare wire the ground, and by touching the back plate, it's grounded? If I wanted to hook this up to a 1/4" jack, do I merely attach the main wire (seems too easy).

2. Any reason I would need a pot or a switch in the chain? The spring machine would go into a small mixer, where I can ride the volume and affect the EQ. Am I missing out, or asking for trouble if I skip a volume pot? I'm wondering about uncontrollable feedback or other technical headaches. Maybe the pots do some filtering that I want. Low pass or high pass or something, I don't know - I'm just asking.

If I just need to solder a jack to this wire, I think I can handle this project.  Maybe

[inductorguitars]

Unless you want a tone or vol knob there isn't any reason to wire in a pot if you are going into a mixer. Tho you might want to someday put it through an amp...

Anyway. It's pretty easy.  I'm guessing you're only using one humbucker for the spring machine. Do I hear KMFDM or Einstürzende Neubauten??

Wire the yellow wire to hot(tip) of the jack and then solder the ground coming out of the PU to the base plate plus an extra wire (from the solder point on the base plate) going to the ground (sleeve) of the jack.

[Lumpy]

Unless you want a tone or vol knob there isn't any reason to wire in a pot if you are going into a mixer. Tho you might want to someday put it through an amp...

Anyway. It's pretty easy.  I'm guessing you're only using one humbucker for the spring machine. Do I hear KMFDM or Einstürzende Neubauten??

Wire the yellow wire to hot(tip) of the jack and then solder the ground coming out of the PU to the base plate plus an extra wire (from the solder point on the base plate) going to the ground (sleeve) of the jack.

Cool! Thanks.

[zachoff]

Where do you get and what are the best nut flies?

[VOLVO)))]

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Nuts,_saddles/Special_tools_for:_Nuts_and_saddles/Double-edge_Nut_Files.html

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Nuts,_saddles/Special_tools_for:_Nuts_and_saddles/Mitchell_Abrasive_Cord.html

http://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/thirdproducts.asp?CategoryName=Nuts+%26+Saddles&NameProdHeader=Nut+%26+Saddle+Files

[Lumpy]

Unless you want a tone or vol knob there isn't any reason to wire in a pot if you are going into a mixer. Tho you might want to someday put it through an amp...

Anyway. It's pretty easy.  I'm guessing you're only using one humbucker for the spring machine. Do I hear KMFDM or Einstürzende Neubauten??

Wire the yellow wire to hot(tip) of the jack and then solder the ground coming out of the PU to the base plate plus an extra wire (from the solder point on the base plate) going to the ground (sleeve) of the jack.

The solder won't adhere to the base plate so I'm just going to thread the ground wires through the screwhole of the base plate... when I screw the pickup into the board, that should keep them in place. Also, the white wire runs up through the core of the yellow wire... do I strip the white wire's tip, and twine white/yellow together, or keep them apart?

:confused:

Also, I recycled the input jacks from a broken amp... they have 3 spades. Any reason I shouldn't use these jacks?

I could experiment and try hooking the wires up in various ways, but the wires are so short, I'm skeered. God dammit.

[Hemisaurus]

The solder won't adhere to the base plate so I'm just going to thread the ground wires through the screwhole of the base plate... when I screw the pickup into the board, that should keep them in place. Also, the white wire runs up through the core of the yellow wire... do I strip the white wire's tip, and twine white/yellow together, or keep them apart?

No, the white wire is the signal, the surrounding braid is ground. Use the white wire.

:confused:

Also, I recycled the input jacks from a broken amp... they have 3 spades. Any reason I shouldn't use these jacks?

Go ahead, just figure out which is tip, and which is sleeve, the third spade is either ring, or a switch

[Lumpy]

No, the white wire is the signal, the surrounding braid is ground. Use the white wire.

What do I do with the surrounding wire?

If I had lots of leeway, I wouldn't mind experimenting but I'm working with a short leash...

[Hemisaurus]

It's the ground, rather than trusting the groundbthrough chassis idea, just connect to the ground on yourbjack.

[inductorguitars]

It's the ground, rather than trusting the groundbthrough chassis idea, just connect to the ground on yourbjack.

Yea what Hemi said. I figured he might want to extend the wire it would be an easy way to do it if you had a good soldering iron...

[Lumpy]

Double grounded, to make extra sure.

"Tone is in the 2nd ground"

[Hemisaurus]

That should be OK in this instance, but be careful two ground paths is how you get ground loops and hum