Dub's Wacky Project Guitars Thread--we're baaaaaack

[dubkitty]

sorry…when i see anything “#3” i automatically think of gybe!.

[dubkitty]

i got the pickups in, which was simple, and installed the Tonestyler which was not. the wiring in the Strat didn’t match the wiring diagram, because the positions of the tone pots was reversed. after puzzling it over for awhile i finally decided to just rewire it to match the diagram. so far, so good. but i can’t test it yet because the soldering iron battery ran out before i could connect the jack and the ground wire to the tremolo claw. when the battery’s live it’ll only take a few minutes to solder 3 wires. then i’ll tap-test the pickups to see if everything’s properly connected, and then string it up. assuming everything’s kosher i’ll move on to the bridge adjustments. i want it done by tomorrow night because i’m taking the as-yet-unaltered Supro and the Wandré to Charlie’s house so he can check them out…he says he’s been tempted by both but hadn’t gotten to play them, and i know the Tonestyler is going to blow his mind. it seems possible from here. i’ll see how it goes.

you can see here how much better the covers for the CS69 pickups match the pickguard. unfortunately the Tonestyler doesn’t work with Strat knobs because its shaft is D-shaped and requires set-screw knobs. i chucked a white MXR knob on there for now and it’s not awful, but i prefer matching knobs. there don’t seem to be set-screw Strat knobs available other than metal ones in various anodized colors that look weird. maybe i’ll paint some metal ones with the Vintage White nitro i got for the Jetstar. or maybe i’ll take the easy route and just get more MXR knobs. i’ll probably do another pass on the Jetstar before i switch over to the M-77T because i’m tired of these long-term unfinished projects.

[dubkitty]

the wiring appears to be finished. i missed a couple of switch connections on the diagram so the first pass failed, but when i sorted them all 3 pickups worked in a tap test so i put the pickguard back on. by the time i finished it was pushing 10 so i stopped in order to wind down before going to bed. tomorrow i’ll re-mount the tremolo and string it up, after which will be another round or three of trem and string height adjustments. hopefully it should be pretty well done after that except for what to do about the knobs. i’m not celebrating yet, but i’m getting excited.

[dubkitty]

it's done other than final adjustments to truss rod/string height/tremolo springs to get things just as i like them. the Tonestyler is just as good as i remember it being; it's particularly nice that i can make the CS69 pickups sound like the CS 54 pickups in my sunburst Strat by using the first active position (the first two positions are true bypass and simulated load of a wide-open pot). it's much more versatile than a varitone, with only the most capacitor-ized position of the eight being too muffled to use.

i'm probably going to order two more matching MXR knobs for the volume and tone pots, though i could go for three of the chrome Goldo knobs if i want to be chromed out.

it's rather amazing to be done with a project so quickly, though i should know better than to declare anything 100% done after some of the shit i've been through.

goldo knobs.jpg (65.86 KiB) Viewed 1378 times

[dubkitty]

the Squier Sherwood Green Esquire Custom ships today. there isn’t a ton of stuff to do with it other than mounting the neck, getting the modern bridge i prefer, ordering the pickups and a prewired Goldo control plate with a Gibson-style toggle switch, and driving a whole lot of screws. i’ll keep the strap buttons it comes with and have a neck plate ready. the hangup will be tariff problems…Royal Mail and DHL currently are not accepting shipments to the US so i can’t order the pickups till that’s sorted out. anyone in the UK want to trans-ship for me?

surprisingly, it’s supposed to arrive on Thursday. the pace is picking up.

[dubkitty]

i decided to go with cream MXR knobs on the BRG Strat to
match the one i used for the Tonestyler. happily, they have ones for knurled shafts so they’ll fit the volume and tone pots without finagling. there were “cooler” options available, but i didn’t want the knobs to call visual attention to themselves.

since i was already on the Small Bear website so i got some other things that’ll come in handy on other projects: a black Russian Big Muff knob for the volume control on the Galaxiemaster to match the synth pointer knobs for the pickup and tone rotary switches, some 1/4” Switchcraft plugs to replace bent ones on my guitar cables, a 250K audio-taper pot for the Supro (Mojo recommends 250K pots for the Bigsby pickups and i already have one that came out of the Strat when the Tonestyler went in), some 1/8” heatshrink tubing, and pot adapter sleeves cos i’m running low. i needed all this stuff, and i didn’t want to buy two $1 knobs and pay $10 for shipping so i ordered deep. the heatshrink will be very handy for shielding splices in wires. so we’re slowly moving forward on multiple fronts, sort of like the winter of 1944-45.

unfortunately they didn’t have some other things i also need, specifically 8-position rotary switches and .022/.047ųF silver-mica capacitors. i guess i’ll look on Amazon for the switches because someone on here reworking a Jazzmaster said they got their 8-way rotary there; i found the caps online before. even people who believe the particular cap doesn’t matter will admit when pressed that silver-mica caps do pass more highs when the pot is wide-open. i put them in the Dyna Jet and Epiphone SG and they really helped both guitars. i reckon i’ll put one in the Supro for sure, and it wouldn’t hurt the Wandré either.

the only thing i’m currently aware of that needs done on the Strat other than changing the knobs is filing the nut slots so the strings don’t play dreadfully sharp on the first fret. the first time i did it i was terrified i’d screw up the nut, but if i go slowly and carefully it’s fairly simple, a couple or three strokes at a time toggling back and forth with the tuner. i wanted to finish it today but i had my post-cataract eye exam today and my eyes were so dilated afterwards that i could barely see. it’ll be nice to see what i’m doing clearly again…i’m surprised i was able to get as much done as I did in the last few weeks.

[dubkitty]

given my predilection for MOTS guitar parts i’m
a bit surprised i didn’t immediately order a pearloid pickguard for the Strat. but that feels a bit show-offy for the deep metallic gleam of the finish. perhaps one of those white guards with art deco-ish accents around the edges and stuff. i don’t know if Strat guards come in a more subtle pearl than typical pearloid/MOTS, so here i go Googling again. if i wanted to lean into the British motorcar vibe a walnut guard would work, but that’s a wee bit too conceptual for me. more likely than not i’ll
just stick with white for now and re-evaluate after i’ve lived with it for awhile and changed to the MXR knobs.

due to expected expenses in September i have to quit ordering parts online for a bit, which isn’t awful because when the Bigsby pickups and yesterday’s parts order arrive i’ll have everything in-house i need to finish the Supro, Double Jet, M-77T, and Jetstar. the drag will be waiting to find out if it’s prohibitive to get the pickups for the Tele which are the whole reason for it, if they get dutied at 50%. i still have a bunch of small parts i need for the Galaxiemaster so i can design the pickguard with accurate measurements and pick away at that list as time and funds allow. it’s already been and obviously will continue to be the heir to the Kondor and Hopf in terms of a horribly protracted acquisitions process. so i won’t be short of things to do. quite the opposite…i’m considering taking a couple of weeks off from project guitars after the M-77T is done because i’m rather burned out on low-rent luthierie. i expect the Supro to pose unforeseen problems so i want to be fresh when going at it.

the Esquire and the Bigsby PUs are due today, a couple of huge steps forward.

[dubkitty]

the Esquire and the Mojo Bigsby pickups both arrived today on schedule. the pickups are huge, impressively heavy, and gorgeous. any worries about the Supro being neck-heavy are completely alleviated…with the pickups and B6 the weight distribution will completely shift.

i’ve only looked the Esquire over a bit because it’s too late to play. i find it remarkable how the definition of “Sherwood Green” shifts from model to model and within a particular model…most of the ones online appear rather dark, but mine is more metallic and closer to the “Caribbean Mist” shade of the Susan Tedeschi signature Tele, which is just what i wanted. the Prince pickguard should be perfect. tomorrow or over the weekend i’ll see what the pickup is like and play it a bit before taking it apart and mounting the mahogany neck. there really isn’t a lot more to do other than waiting out the tariff confusion.

Pickguardian has a “White Pearl” acrylic single layer material that could be perfect for the green Strat. it’s much less jumbled than even nice MOTS. i still need to look into those deco guards.

it’s a bit confusing to be zipping through projects that have been on my list for years. i’m not sure how i feel about it; happy because things are finally getting done, stressed because it’s more fucking stuff to do. but there really is a finish line a couple or three corners away. like i said the other day, when everything i’m working on now is left there’ll be 2 electric guitars left, only one of which is really necessary. i could buy acoustic guitars then, but there’s only a few styles i like and it’s not like i ever play acoustic any more.

[dubkitty]

i decided to get a Decoboom pickguard for the Strat. the plain white guard is kind of boring with the deep green. unfortunately the back plate is out of stock so that’ll have to wait. i think this should work well.

the remaining MXR knobs are surprisingly being prepared for delivery and should be here today. the knobs and pickguard should be the final additions other than the back plate.

[dubkitty]

having adjusted the nut slots on the green guitars i’ve packed the files away for a bit. the various parts i’m waiting on for the Strat—the Decoboom pickguard, a flat nickel-finish jack plate, another batch of 1/4” saddle height screws—are due on Monday and it’ll be fairly short work putting it together.

i sanded the areas on the Jetstar that need paint, but i need to do more CA fill work along the upper edge of the fingerboard before trying to paint next to it. i’ll put glue on today and file/sand it once it’s good and set. so realistically painting isn’t going to happen for probably another week.

<edited>it has come to my attention that the Gemini pickups for the Tele are not in fact made in the UK but rather in New Jersey, which changes things considerably. the other stuff for the Tele and the pickups is about $300 in toto, which moves this up the batting order considerably. i might buy a Squier CV bound body and marry it to the Esquire stuff. </edits> whether i keep the resultant Esquire remains to be seen; i like the new Esquire quite a lot, but wonder how well one would fit into various situations. if i ever wound up in a country band it’d do just fine. i will need to change the capacitor on switch position 1 because the stock cap essentially 90% silences the signal. i’m not potty about the Eldred mod which is a bit too honky for me, but will try altering it with a slightly lower cap value and a silver-mica cap which Small Bear has in the .0022μF range required (no, that’s not a typo) since they pass more treble with the pot on full.

i’ve made it down the list to seriously testing the Jazzmaster in B standard baritone tuning to decide whether the bari JM is something i want to pursue. currently leaning positive, but do i really need yet another long, complicated project that comes with an indeterminate learning curve? testing it with effects will be determinative. i’m using the Normie Board because it includes most of the fx i’d use in a non-abstract setting: envelope filter, 3 flavors of dirt->fuzz, multi-modulation unit with multiple chorus, flange, rotary, and other functions, tremolo, and reverb. probably stick a delay in at the end. the main problem other than “do i want this?” is that everything is spendy: the Musikraft neck and second Jazzmaster body are each over $300, and that’s before the WRHBs in JM shells enter the frame. this is going to be another drawn-out process like the Double Jet and Galaxiemaster, but with added expense even with recycling the loaded body’s tremolo, pickguard, and bridge onto the baritone.

the M-77T is waiting for pickup adjustment screws because either option for reworking the pickup mounts will require longer screws.

everything is here for the Supro and Double Jet, but i want to finish the M-77T and do another pass at the Jetstar first.

[dubkitty]

out of curiosity i did a list of major purchases necessary for my current gaggle of projects and was surprised to see how few there are. everything else to put the Tele together is about $320, while there are 3 $300+ purchases to put the Jazzmasters together: the loaded body, the custom neck, and the MOJO WRHB’s in metal JM shells. perforce the baritone, if it’s happening and it probably will, is going to get pushed down the list and could possibly be incomplete when the Galaxiemaster, which is more a case of needing smaller parts and putting them together, is done. but the queue is getting shorter, things are gradually getting done, and the amount of ass-pain per project is gradually being reduced. the Double Jet and Galaxiemaster are toughest now, and i’ll be as relieved as happy when either is done.

[dubkitty]

this week should be eventful. most of my parts for the green Strat will arrive tomorrow, except the tremolo tip. i got the package from Allparts Saturday so i went through the bridge saddle height adjustment screws and changed all the ones i could with 1/4” screws which barely peep out of their sockets at all. now i can palm mute like a pro. tomorrow i’ll swap the pickguards, replace the jack plate, and set it up again. at that point i’m declaring victory and moving on, will add the tremolo arm tip when it arrives, and will start monitoring the Decoboom site for the backplate that matches the guard.

i have the necessary screws for the Firebird pickups, and have decided to use the metal Firebird rings with TV Jones Dynasonic spacers/shims under them. the Epiphone Flamekat rings would work, but have a larger bolt hole pattern than the original pickups and i don’t want to drill anything i don’t absolutely have to. no doubt the wiring will create some complications, but i think i know how to cope with it now. i need to e-mail Pickguardian for a M-77T pickguard template PDF because i want a pickguard, but the Firebird mounts require longer cuts into the guard because they’re wider. hopefully that’ll work out. there will likely be a little aesthetic tinkering to make it feel just right.

which way the Tele/Esquire situation goes depends on how much money i have available after the 15th. if i can afford to order the pickups and other stuff for the Tele i’ll
probably move on that; if not i may order the replacement body and some wee wee capacitors in the .0010μF-.0022μF range to try and tune in a nicer rolloff than the popular mod for the first Esquire position. either way the result is another finished guitar in a week or so.

i’m absolutely going to test the baritone-tuned Jazzmaster with effects this week so i can decide whether i’m doing it and if so where it’ll go in the queue. as previously noted, expense is a serious factor here.

and i have the Hopf back out for evaluation, having not played it much since it was finished. initial noodling felt good…the neck and fingerboard really came out well.

the Double Jet and Galaxiemaster are back-burnered for now, the Supro is up next alongside the Tele-shaped objects, and i’m giving the CA fill on the Jetstar neck more time before filing/sanding it after which i hope the next paint pass gets things sorted or i might just put stickers over the boo-boos on the body and move along.

[dubkitty]

today (monday 9/8)
fix car headlight
take out trash
install new parts on Strat—measure to get pickups back in place
Strat finalization
try filing/sanding down the CA on the Jetstar neck
investigate silver-mica caps for Esquire and guitars generally
BARITONE FX TEST!!!

and i also have to “work 8 hours from home,” nudge nudge wink wink say no more!

[dubkitty]

the tremolo tip i was waiting for arrived, so now the green Strat is done except for the matching back plate which i just have to wait for Decoboom to restock. i'm not entirely thrilled with the MXR knobs, but i haven't seen anything else i like better. but i'm very happy with how it came out. it sounds great, has a broad palette of sounds, and is very comfortable to play. if i was going to go play somewhere and could only bring a limited number of guitars i'd bring this one because it can cover so much territory.

i have the M-77T out because replacing the pickups is near the top of the list, and when i looked at it sitting on the sofa i was suddenly struck by how much the black guitar with its Bigsby and the chromed Firebird rings looks like Old Black. which is funny because i've been a Neil Young guy since 1970 but never noticed it before...i was only seeing it as a Firebird pickup platform. after corresponding with Anthony at Pickguardian i decided to just order a stock M-77T pickguard and file/polish the cutouts as/if necessary; the footprint of the Firebird rings is maybe 1 millimeter wider/taller than the DeArmond pickups they replace so it shouldn't be too terrible. if i fuck it up at least then i'll know how the stock template needs to change. unfortunately he doesn't have an electronic file of the stock template. i'm waiting to order that until i get paid next week, but won't wait to do the pickups.

i should chill on ordering more stuff for the time being...i have a lot of short-term credit shit that needs to get killed off before i go deep on another project. maybe i'll actually get the M-77T and Double Jet done. still waiting to do the Supro till i can take it over to my friends' house for him to check out, but everything is ready for it.

i ordered a .0016μF silver-mica capacitor to use for the first position on the Esquire switch; i read a lot of talk online about variations on the popular mods and it sounded like that value will give me what i want, which is less HONK compared to the popular .0022. i hope i don't have to do capacitor rolling, especially since i don't care all that much, but an improvement over the popular mods would be nice.

[Blackened Soul]

Charp