GregP

Actually, what would be more helpful would be to use different settings for your limiter (AKA maximizing compressor or simply maximizer) for the quiet part. Because the music is less dense at that part, the remaining audio has increased perceived loudness, which isn't what you want. I didn't notice the rhythm player 'losing' the rhythm per se. He seemed to be keeping the right rhythm for this kind of song, and doing a pretty good job of it. The "fills" being played had less rhythm than the rhythm player, and the tone was too 'present' for the little lick-like things to be anything but distracting. This is of higher quality than the tracks I was recording when I first started on a Tascam portastudio. I didn't know what the heck I was doing back then, and at least you guys have something going on here! That said, I'm not sure if any criticisms I could give should be aimed at the songwriting, etc., or if I should be giving you tips on production values. (ie. balancing the mix, using panning and reverb or other effects). Greg

Oh, I should mention-- If it's more convenient to solder the braid (bare) wire to the back of a pot, that's fine, too. Remember that the pots are now considered just another part of the foil. I mainly said "to foil" because that's how it was more conveniently done for both of the guitars I shielded. Greg

[edit: cross-posted with LK! His advice stands, this is just detailed and shows an alternate method of wiring, considering that you've already shielded] OK, dude, here's a bit of help. I'll post the diagram first, and then an explanation of what's going on: 1. EVERY part of the foil-covered part of the cavity must be electrically continuous with itself. I should be able to send a current from one end of the foil to the other. If you need to test this, you could get yourself a cheap multimeter. Otherwise you can just trust yourself or do some tom-foolery with a battery and a small bulb. 2. For the following diagram to work, the pots' shells MUST touch the foil shielding. This "adds" them to the continuous shielded circuit. What's more, the 'bare' wire from the pickups isn't actually a true conducting ground, it's just more 'shielding', so you can solder it directly to the foil and thereby "add" it to the foil shielding. So in theory, I should be able to touch the back of one pot with one multimeter probe, and the braided wire of either pickup with the other, and get a circuit. 3. The switch isn't really all that important in terms of grounding, but if its shell is touching the foil, you're set. If it's made so that it's NOT grounded directly to the foil, and there's a special "lug" for the ground, then just solder one end of a short wire to the lug and the other end to any handy space on the foil. 4. No matter what diagram you look at, the fact is that all grounds will end up at one place-- ground. Any fancy ground wiring like from pot-to-pot or whatever is just a way of getting them all to ground. Done wrong, though, it can create ground loops. So instead of wiring a bunch of wires to the pots, you will treat each ground as a separate "path". Even the lugs on your volume knobs that are bent back to touch the pots, DE-solder them and bend them away from the pot. They will eventually have wires on them, too. 5. In the diagram, all grounds are indicated by that funny arrow. True ground and the "cavity ground" are not the same thing. Assume that the cavity foil + the pot shells + the switch are just one giant "object", and they too must be grounded. That's the wire coming off the Bridge Volume pot. It's the only solitary wire that comes "out" of the cavity shielding, and it also has to go to ground. This is the step I forgot when I did it. Adding this wire in cleared everything up. 6. So, the bottom left "ground" arrow symbol represents all the grounds coming off the 4 pots' lugs, the 1 pot's shell, and the 2 pickups. I then show all 7 wires attaching to a central spot-- this can be a washer or an O-terminal or a copper penny or whatever you want. Then the final wire attaches to the output jack's ground lug. The one and only true ground point. 7. That O-ring or washer is called the "star" for obvious reasons. ALL of your grounds go here! Once you've soldered them all in place, wrap some electrical tape around the star and make sure no bare wires are touching the foil shielding. Why? Then you have ground loops all over again!

If your cavity is shielded with foil, then according to the diagram you are littered with ground loops. As long as you have ONE wire going from either a pot or the foil itself to ground, that's all you need. Those ground wires connecting the pots are ALL ground loops. On the vol pots where you have the tab bent back to its own pot casing and soldered in place, even those are mini ground-loops. If LK hasn't done the deed by the time I get back around to this tonight or tomorrow, I'll throw a pic into the mix for you. Greg

My guess: Your "cavity" ground isn't making it to the real ground at the jack. When I shielded my last guitar, the same thing happened to me. I had everything grounded to star, or so I thought. Then I scratched my head and looked again. "Well heck," I finally noticed, "My cavity is now one continuous circuit, but there's nothing sending it to ground!" Since my pots were as convenient a spot as any, I took a single piece of wire, soldered one end to the shell of a pot (pick a pot, any pot), and the other to star (which then leads to ground). Hum gone. A quick way to test this is to take a spare length of wire and just manually hold it in the right spot without soldering. If the hum disappears, solder it in place. What's happening right now, if I'm a guessing man, is that you are either littered with ground loops, or have one continuous circuit in your cavities (which is good! You're almost there!) which doesn't make it to ground (which is bad-- very bad). Greg

I'm amazed your guitar had a 3-way switch to begin with, if it's a Strat! They have 5 switches by default. Is the Ynwie one a custom 3-position switch only? In any case, you MAY find yourself needing some extra wire to "jumper" a few of the lugs, but it's not strictly necessary. In any case, you won't be able to change it at all unless you have a soldering iron and some solder. A desoldering braid could come in handy, too. Total cost of soldering tools and materials needed: $20US. Greg

Yeah, a guy who knows the author and has used the techniques (ie. maybe he WAS the author and didn't want to admit it) popped in here twice and both times was FLAMED by a certain element of the user base. Thing was, he might've been doing a bit of "advertising" for the book... I won't deny it... but the pictures were obviously from a real refinish job and taken with a digital camera in somebody's real house. And the results were really good. He wasn't pimping it hardcore or spamming the forum, so I never saw what the fuss was. Greg

Heyas, I stumbled across this today... from the Line6 forum, I think? Maybe Recording.org? http://www.shredaholic.com/ Click the "Lessons" tab for lots of goodies. Many of the lessons use ASCII tablature and MIDI file sound examples, but that's better than no sound examples at all. Greg

Yup! That's EXACTLY why the fingerboard's curvature is called the radius. If you take the curvature of your fingerboard and CONTINUE with it instead of just stopping at the edge of your fingerboard, eventually you will complete a full circle. The radius measurement is the distance from the surface of your fingerboard to the imaginary centre of the imaginary circle you've created. In other words, imagine your fingerboard as just the shaving from the edge of a (for example) log with a 12" radius cross-section. Greg

If you already have the 16k bridge, then 15k neck and middle won't be TOO out of line. Remember, resistance isn't the only measure of output anyhow. Just a good one for ballpark estimates. Given the existing bridge, I'd stick to the 15 + 15, but that's just me. Come to think of it, though... I might go 10 + 10 instead. That way the 'clean' sounds that I tend to use my neck and middle pickups for would be even cleaner, and then when I flick to the 'bucker, I get the gain kick at the same time as the treble bite. Greg

To each their own. I like medium-output all across the board. 15K isn't the hottest you can get, but it's a lot hotter than my personal taste. The thing about the proposed versatility is that there will be no balance in levels. If you're driving everything anyhow, the natural compression of the tube gain stages will likely even everything out. But in lower-gain settings, the differences are going to be fairly noticeable. Greg

I absolutely hate their current marketing strategy, and ever time that "Jesus of Suburbia" or "Wake Me up When September Ends" song come on the radio, I practically want to puke. But hey, there's no accounting for taste.

Why have the neck so hot compared to the middle? The neck is naturally the hottest location anyhow, so with 2 pickups of the same output, the neck will still end up dominating. Is your middle position meant to be that quiet for a particular reason? Greg

The walnut (I'm guessing, could be wrong, I don't know from wood) SG was gorgeous, the flamed maple one is god-awful. One man's ugly is another man's beautiful, though! And the builder seems like well-cool and well-talented fellow, so proper respect to him, too. Greg

Well, depending on how much experience you have, it's not all that bad, but it's also far from perfect. I don't like the two-dimensionality of the paint job, though that's personal taste. The pickup routing is so-so (again, I'm comparing to 'standard' levels of skill and not saying I could do better), and although the light isn't quite right to tell, I suspect that the finish is uneven and orange-peel-like. But, not bad for a beginner!! I'd be happy with that sort of level for my 1st or 2nd guitar. Greg

Wes was awesome, but even Wes would agree that he's only one man. Hope he's doing well. I haven't even seen you around for a long time, Smitty... pretty hard to judge a forum you neither visit not contribute constructively to, no?

Fair enough; however, the point remains-- the mini-humbucker ring pictured uses a normal mini-humbucker mounting system, not the retrofitted P-90-like system as pictured on that goldtop.

The routed out P90's with 'mini-buckers' looks pretty cool. But, the pickup ring beneath it is just a regular humbucker ring.

Groovy.

Nobody else has a problem with that scale length, or nobody else has a problem with your bass? ;-) 34" scale is pretty standard and should be fine. Yeah, having low action is crucial for slap bass. Fairly light strings doesn't hurt, either.

There are a lot of factors, but without well-adjusted action it's never going to happen. Shorter scale lengths are helpful, IMO, but plenty of people do fine with any old scale length. Greg

[edit: man, I'm the king of hasty typing. Yes, the bridge pickups are normally higher-output to compensate for the physical area generating less motion and therefore output.] Greg

Trem-spacing is more to accomodate the low and high strings at the bridge position, though-- because with a normal-spaced pickup, they might start sneaking out from the narrower magnetic field. The intervening poles are semi-arbitrary, though, since the overall magnetic field is fairly encompassing (which is why we can bend strings without the volume dipping in and out). BUT, if you're putting a trem-spaced bridge pickup in the neck, it'd be less of a problem since the low and high strings will be enveloped by the field. And if your trem isn't widely-spaced (ie. a Floyd Rose), it doesn't matter much anyhow. Greg

Have you already bought the pickups? If so, just show us a pic. You sure they're not humbucker-sized Filtertrons or P90's? Greg

Yup, it's mainly an output level thing. Neck pickups tend to have higher output, but they're generally referred to as "neck pickups" because they're matched to another pickup (the bridge pickup, of course!) and the combination of output levels is balanced. If you're mixing and matching anyhow, you can just give'er until you find something you like. Despite claims to the contrary, there isn't THAT much of a frequency response difference inherent in "neck" or "bridge" pickups. You can't "EQ" a pickup, it's just magnets and wire. However, the different amount of windings and the different magnets used can result in different resonant peaks (ie. dominant frequencies). In other words, a pickup marketed as a "neck pickup" could just as easily have identical magnets and similar windings to one marketed as a "bridge pickup". The truth is that unless you're buying a matched pair, it's all very arbitrary. Greg