GregP

What the hell? The ONLY button I ever use is "View New Posts"... there's something broken with the forum. Why on earth would it appear in my new posts list?

Smokin'! I can only echo the compliments already given here. Great work! A pair of questions: 1. Why are the pickups so deep into the mounting rings? Or is it that the pickups are the right height and the mounting rings need to be "lowered" (sandpaper, a flat surface, and a scraper to touch up the "wooly" edges left by sanding will do it)? 2. Was it a conscious choice to wrap the strings around the tailpiece? I know Zakk Wylde does that, but I've always thought that the wear and tear on the tailpiece doesn't justify any perceived differences in tone or appearance. That's just me, though. Greg

FIRE! Hi, Hyunsu!

Hrm. Once you start loading up qualifiers, the advice becomes watered-down and meaningless. "IF" you buy your equipment over time, "IF" you have access to a workspace, "IF" you can get time on the right powertools, "IF" you are deliberate and calculating, "IF" you scour eBay patiently for months waiting for a miracle buy, "IF"... etc... etc.. etc... then the end result is, "Well, anything's possible." Not very concrete or usable advice. In addition to the "1st time success stories" (primarily by older dudes who have already learned the virtues of craftsmanship through their other pursuits) here, there are "1st time disaster" stories, which are far more common. Luckily, the dominant theme in those "disaster" stories is, "Man, that was fun and I can't wait to have another crack at it and make improvements." THAT is the spirit I'm suggesting. Greg

"center (Centre in Canada!) detent" is the most commonly used term. Make sure your replacement pots are the right value. Active EMGs tend to use 25K pots if I remember correctly-- it should be stamped right on your old pots.

I used a "rails" style router jig.

Skelf-tastic. That's all I gotta say.

Any electronics store will have a similar switch. It's also sometimes called a "momentary switch, normally on" (not to be confused with normally off, which would mean you'd have to press it to complete the circuit and hear anything!) Greg

Heh, it's a mini-debate, because we're the only ones here and bored. <chuckle> 90 degree angle on edges IS ugly... but easily cured with sandpaper. Scraper might work, too, though I'd personally just stick to the sandpaper. Cove bit = curved bottom. Bottom of these little "dimples" and the bottom of any knob I've ever seen = flat. Less ugly a problem than the 90-degree edges, but still not ideal for this kind of indentation.

Yeah... with thin enough passes it might work. A new point, though-- cove bit = $50 (or whatever), Forstner bit = $8.

I dunno... I can't imagine you'd get the kind of torque and speed needed to use one of those... and the predrilled hole is supposed to be just large enough for the shaft of the pot... those bearings are generally a greater diameter than the hole you'll need.

My thoughts exactly. I know how to make a template, and have used them to great success. But when I've been podering a tele build, I've considered cutting out the hassle of that step and just ordering a template. If I order a template, I want it accurate... that's the whole point, as you say!

? Joking, right?

None of the ground are touching other ground? Is the lug for the ground wiper on the pot (with the blue wire on) desoldered from the pot casing? Not that it strictly needs to be, but because I don't completely understand how current works, I just slavishly isolate absolutely everything... so if you haven't already done so, I would unbend the lug from the casing (desoldering first, of course), and then send a wire from that lug to the ground (as per your blue wire) and add an additional wire from the pot casing to ground. Take care not to let any of those grounds touch each other or other conductive material though could potentially create a continuous cycle. Another possibility is that the wires don't match up the way you thought they did. Different companies use different wire colouring schemes. I STILL don't know what my Yamaha wires are, exactly, I just mucked around until it worked. And yet another possibility is simply defective parts, most likely the pot. Sorry that wasn't more helpful. Hard to know exactly what's going on there.

I dunno what's typically done other than CNC, but I seem to recall (and I would do it this way intuitively, 'conventional' or not) the use of forstner bits followed by sanding the edges to smooth them out. As for veneering, dunno. really really thin veneer and a vacuum press? I don't know much about veneering. The guitar in that pic, and many of the guitars like PRS that use this technique, are actually maple tops rather than veneer. Though, of course there are hundreds of veneered guitars with the feature, too. Greg

A push-pull knob is just a switch cleverly hidden in the shape of a knob. It won't act as both a volume and a tone, and *couldn't*, for logical reasons. That's the answer you need. What you really want, to have the appearance of 2 knobs, is a "cocentric" knob, which is 2 stacked knobs occupying roughly the same physical space. You could use the diagram you showed, since a dual cocentric pot is still literally 2 separate potentiometers, for 3 in total-- like the diagram. --- But, it's prompting me to think a bit outside of the box. Off to dreamland we go: Imagine, a knob like some of us have on car stereos, in which there is "friction" when in the "down" position for adjusting the pot. The range wouldn't have to be infinitely rotatable-- it'd still have a set range that you could feel by turning all the way down or up. But when you lift, it engages an independent shaft and releases the "volume" shaft. Turn the knob to set the tone you want. Press down again to change volume. In such a knob, it'd actually be the SHAFT that determines the position of the wiper for each independent potentiometer. The knob itself would just engage one shaft or the other. So, the shafts would be cocentric, but the up/down position of the knob would allow you to adjust one or the other. Not so sure it's an improvement over dual-cocentric, but I'm just thinking aloud... Greg

Kewl!

The odds of you building a guitar in the league of ESP right from the starting blocks is very slim. But I've seen it done here before, so don't let anyone discourage you IF-- and this is an important "if"-- learning to build a guitar is more important to you than getting that quality of guitar. Also, all said and done... you will spend more on building the guitar than buying it. So, to recap-- it would be a surprise if you could build something better than ESP, but it's not an impossible dream. But do it because you want to learn how to build a guitar and think you will enjoy the process. Don't do it for the sake of getting the guitar. You'd be much better off buying one, otherwise.

So... cool...!

How the heck didn't I see that? <laff> A sure sign of the times (even though I'm not a young dude) that the attention span wasn't even such that I read such a short post letter-by-letter. And yet, I foist epic-lengthed drivel on people. Shame on me.

wth? Most surreal thread of the year award... My comment was directed at killemall8's comment. Furthermore, it doesn't matter how long a ruler is... it's still got the numbers labelled <chuckle>. Hence, I assumed the other dude (not the one with the Fender/Jackson comment) was kidding...! Such a weird thread.

This thread seems so... weird... to me. ;-) Fender and Jackson 25.5" instruments are certainly NOT 12" from nut to 12th fret. Dunno if the maths would even hold up to this theory, but: are you sure you're not measuring only to the 11th?

I have the TonePort-- it is pretty wicked-awesome. Even just as an I/O device, it's quite good, and when you add the amp modeling to that, you're in good shape. Which brings me to my next point-- lately I've been playing more with the new Revalver Mk II, which is a software plug-in, rather than a software-based interface (like the TonePort), which makes it independent of the hardware. I can use whatever hardware I like (I tend to use the TonePort anyhow!). I find the tones in the Revalver are a bit trickier to dial in (you can really muck it up if you go overboard) and there are less community-made presets, but the harmonic content seems richer, and I get more string attack with Revalver. In other words... I definitely recommend the TonePort, but I think that you should look for a good I/O device (which TonePort is... not so sure about Black Box) first and foremost, and then consider software plug-ins for the amp and FX emulation. Greg

I'm TOTALLY just projecting my own fears out there-- after "quieting the beast" and taking other precautions on my p90 guitar, I still hate the hum levels I get. It's really just my crap apartment, but if you have a less than ideal environment, you might be in the same boat as me. So, anyhow, what I'm wondering is if you've considered the Lace 900 or 905, or something like the Wilkinson stacked p90's, or even a Gibson P100. I think P90s rule, but I can't handle true single-coils anymore. Speaking to the guitar itself: I love your design. It's got enough tips of the hat to classic design that you're not creating something wonky; however, it's got its own distinct flavour to it that I really like. As others have stated, your soundhole thingies are cool, too. I like the almost "folk" vibe they impart. It keeps the design new yet somehow rootsy... had to describe. Greg

A Hot Rails is a full-on humbucker in a smaller shape. It can't replace just one of the "coils" in that ibanez... it would replace the whole humbucker. And end up looking silly, unfortunately. Electronically, it's absolutely possible without even any muss... but aesthetically, not so much. You'd be better off shopping for an upgraded full-sized humbucker if you decide to replace the pickups. But as you suspect-- it's jumping the gun a bit. The pickups in there might be great. Don't let your brain and marketing hype fool you the way I've done in the past. I got a budget-level guitar (a Cort Pagelli model) recently, and had convinced myself that I'd be better off replacing the stock pickups (Mighty Mite PAF-style pickups) with known "legends" (Seymour Duncan Jazz and JB combo) that I happened to have in my parts drawer waiting for me to ever get back to my project. So I replaced them. Y'know? The stock pickups were just as good, and I think I even preferred the stock neck. The bridge was a bit of an upgrade, but not to the level where I was absolutely over the moon about having done the mod. It gave me a chance to clean up the wiring and shielding, too, but at the end of the day the pickup replacement wasn't the silver bullet you might think it to be. Greg