Geo

Yep, play a guitar with P-90's. Make sure you play through an amp that is voiced similarly to your amp. Play clean (NOT distorted!) if you really want to hear "the sound" of P-90's. To my ears... P-90's have a sound that is warm and full (not super bright like Strat pickups), but there IS that "spank" or "quack" in the bass strings like there is with Strat pickups. To my ears, humbuckers don't have that "quack" on the bass strings. FWIW, here's some music I recorded. The guitar has homemade P-90's. http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?PID=1090234&t=2068 http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?PID=1081529&t=5437

Exactly. Dude, I hope you don't quit this forum. I think you've contributed alot. So some toes were stepped on and feelings got hurt. Well, it happens. You still crank out some sweet guitars and I bet you learn from every mistake. Personally, I would not react the way you have to the criticism. The criticism is very harsh and sometimes inappropriate (being mean instead of helpful), but I would just take that in stride. It's not a big deal. Keep rockin'.

It's some kind of feedback. If you can stop the feedback by muting the strings, it's "normal" feedback. If muting the strings doesn't kill it, it's microphonic feedback, meaning the windings in your pickup are acting like a dynamic microphone. Pot the pickup in hot wax if it isn't potted.

Well, I would check the wiring around the pots next. I don't know much about solid state electronics, but I'll take a shot.... Echo sustain pot: The "sound on sound" (SOS in schematic) switch might be the problem. If I read the diagram right, that switch turns on the multiple delays. Echo volume pot: It looks like the dry signal is mixed around the pot with the wet signal. There is no amplification after the pot, just the output jack. Try wiring a jumper across this pot to take it out of the circuit. If you still got problems, it's not the pot. But this.... "it currently stays at a constant very quiet volume from 1-8 and just after 8 the volume of the echo gets a bit louder bit your guitar volume rolls off completely" ... really sounds like a bad pot (one in which the wiper is breaking away from the track at full volume). But, you changed the pots. My next guess is that a transistor before that pot needs replacing. Then there's the usual... look for cold solder joints, loose connections, burned up resistors, blown caps, etc. Sorry I can't offer you any real advice.

Darn. I thought I had another bloodwood convert.

I LOVE this guitar. The understated design is FABULOUS. Beautiful work man.

I seem to remember paying about $15 for a set of X-acto files, something like this. http://www.acehardwaresuperstore.com/xacto...848.html?ref=42 I have an X-acto saw with a kerf of .012" that works for the thinner strings.

Agreed. Have not built either, but the V is just the classic slab with a neck glued in. The ES335 is more like an acoustic (bent sides, etc.)

I think you'll have an out-of-phase sound. To cancel hum without cancelling signal, you need opposite MAGNETIC polarity between the coils and the coils must be wired electrically out of phase (start-to-start, finish-to-finish). If you reverse one of these factors (in this case, the wiring) you will have a sum sound that sounds out of phase and does not cancel hum. That's my understanding, could be wrong.

That's what I thought... My take on it: the myth is that overwound pickups sound good!

That looks FABULOUS with the hardware installed!!! I definitely hear a massive, heavy sound when I see that thing! Bloodwood fingerboard?

I agree with orgmorg. People should stop mocking the poor kid. He shows more maturity than some of the posters here. Don't be discouraged, Zeb. Not that it matters... but I if you say you built the neck, I believe you. I'd like to see some close-up pictures of the neck and the neck joint--not to decide whether you're lying, but just to see your work.

Carve, replane the top of the neck if necessary, then attach fingerboard and fret. That's what I do.

Whoa, that's not even a Champ any more! But it looks like a cool amp. It looks like they've tried to reduce the highs and lows so the heavy distortion won't sound muddy and/or spikey. I would definitely use that circuit rather than putting a solid-state pedal in the amp, but to each his own. Since you have an extra triode, you could use it drive the tone stack with a cathode follower, like the classic Marshall tone stack. You could also wire that extra triode in parallel with the other section of the tube (just connect grid to grid, cathode to cathode, plate to plate). This gives you some extra gain I think but also fattens up the sound. Of course, you don't really need any extra gain with that beast.

I see that you want to use bloodwood... This is my favorite wood. It is SO beautiful. I say go for it. It will be difficult to work, very hard and it has a tendency to splinter if you drill it. But the reward is great... and it smells really good too. I'm playing a guitar with bloodwood fingerboard right now... well, I could go on about it all day.

The tone control will definitely improve your Champ. I'm not sure how useful the master volume will be--that's just a guess, I've never tried it. The Champ only has two gain stages (with loss from pot between them), so I don't know if that will give you the sound you seek from a master-volume amp. But if you're building a new home for it, leave room and expiriement.

Love that guitar dude. You have a really good "aesthetic theme" going.

Yes... but you see... one usually includes smileys to show that something is a joke and not an insult. Mr. 6-string did not include smileys. Dude, I think you should leave that guitar with the clear plastic on the front! Can you imagine playing on stage with something like that? That would be so cool!!!

Yeah. Nothing special about originality. That's why we get so many posts about tele's, strat's, PRS's, etc. Why bother with original when you can copy someone else's 50 year old design? Dude! The fact is, more traditional designs LOOK GOOD. I personally would not buy or build a guitar with the shape of Zeb's guitar. That's not a knock against Zeb, just my personal tastes. Also, the 50-year-old designs are still in production for a reason... because they 1) work 2) look good 3) are practical. Here's a guitar I designed and built. http://s134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/Ge...llow%20project/ It's an original design, yeah... but the point is, it looks good. No, it is not a knockoff of a production guitar. It is not a copy of Gibson, Fender or PRS. I actually designed it myself. And no, it ain't finished with nitro. I can't afford that stuff and have nowhere to spray. I use a super secret oil mixture applied by hand. I'll share the super secret recipe with you if you share pictures of all the guitars you've built. Zeb is on the right track. When I was 13, I didn't even play guitar. My woodworking was confined to building little cars and making bows-and-arrows. Kudos to Zeb for taking on what is a pretty daunting project for a 13-yr-old. The comments are directed towards the shape of the body, which is perhaps original, but does not balance well with the neck and headstock shape and may not be practical to play. Zeb will decide this for himself when the guitar is done. Zeb, did you build that neck?

It doesn't matter if you're just using one pickup. But if you have multiple pickups and want a switch setting with both pickups on, you need to get the phase or polarity of the pickups right. Otherwise you get a phase-cancelled sound... which is cool, but not what you're used to. It gets complicated if you want hum cancelling... in which case you need the two coils wired electrically out of phase and magnetically out of phase.

I think you'll get a much lower secondary voltage, since the primary is receiving about half as much voltage as it was designed for. This will drastically change your power amp and I doubt you'll be able to get the full power out of your tubes. If you can, return the PT for a refund and buy the right one.

Could be. My guess is that the maple cap is an evolution from the archtop guitars that Gibson was building when they designed the Les Paul. Melvyn Hiscock brings this up, how the Les Paul is basically a small, solid version of an archtop.

I bet your Champ sounds better than that Carvin. The Carvin may have a wider range of sounds, but the Champ probably has a better clean tone. (I'm just guessing). See, to sell an amp for $400, you have to use PCB's and cheap components. If you build an amp yourself, you can use whatever components you want to shape the sound. If you have room, try adding a tone control to your champ. It makes it much easier to balance out the too-brightness of single coils and the muddiness of humbuckers.

I had to chuckle there... Tube amps generally have the tubes exposed so they don't melt from their own heat. So if you don't see any tubes... You probably won't hear much difference between tube and solid state hi-gain circuits (in my experience). The reason people play tube amps is because they make beautiful clean to distorted sounds. If you want a tube amp, hunt around on eBay for an old off-brand amp. I definitely wouldn't buy an amp from Guitar Center... you'll pay way too much and get a cheapo product. Buy vintage man!

I'd have to agree with Wez. Every time a wave comes down a string, it bounces off that bridge, which is anchored into the maple. So the maple and the bridge determine the way in which that wave is reflected back into the string. Of course you have to consider every other variable too... neck joint, frets, fingerboard, etc. etc.