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Post by genmce on Oct 2, 2011 14:16:10 GMT -5
Cyn1 - alas this was not my first mod. I did the 3 switches (in place of the 5 way) on the old harmony. I should have known better.
4real -
That guitar is looking SWEET! You are going to put a piezio into it? Will you need any sort of preamp for it? Did you already start a thread on that one? I should comment there.
I just spent an hour just having fun! Playing the guitar and exploring.
As for next, the white one, I did pick up a few of those caps .001. Might go in next string change and put in caps on the tone and spin.
In ll (aka parallel) - position 1 n and 2 n+b seem pretty loud in comparison to 4 b+m and 5 B... Any advice on that or is that just the nature of the beast?
Next - I suppose - is quiet the beast on the austin bazaar, trimming some material off the headstock - it looks a bit like a spear and the neck is too heavy. Oh yeah - lowering the action on my sigma martin dm-1. Unfortunately - it has a glued in saddle. So removing saddle material from the top. I did some already - the action was way high.
Replacing the small speaker in the microcube.
*Figuring out how to wire a crossover in a small, cheap a pa speaker with a woofer and a horn tweeter. Should I ask in the amps section on that? When I got them the tweeter was not connected, but it is there, don't they need a crossover? I don't want to steal the thread into my todo list.
Setting up a jam/recording space in my out building.
Next ... how about some sleep. LOL Have a great day, all.
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Post by 4real on Oct 2, 2011 17:23:08 GMT -5
Yes, piezo (built in tuner, can see it in the side there) and HB neck mag, will be relying on johnH's preamps and GN2 advice and encouragement on this one... guitarnuts2.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=wiring&thread=5970&page=1in II? Do you mean volume pulled...that would be series mode. with volume pot down, this is the normal fender parallel mode, pickups decide the balance really, but the spin-select can give the bridge more power as required to be equal to the singles. With the volume pulled, things are in series except for position 5 (or is that back to front numbering?) which is all three pups in parallel and can give a softer strummy kind of sound. Pos 1 (previously neck) is all three in series, like a giant 4 coil HB...loud powerful and dark...but can be quite good for a jazz like sound if you turn down the volume a touch..also good modes to test the neck phase which will tame it and add some treble. Don't recall mxb being softer, but you may find with the full HB one of the coils is out of phase or something...might not be electrically, but with so many sensors along a length of string like that, there is a good chance that the string will physically be going up over one coil, down over another. This is how the 'out of phase' sound or quack' is created generally on a strat. All the sounds are fairly distinct, but not all are going to be usable all the time. I personally hardly ever use the series things, but they would be good to have when doing something like recording where you want a unique sound. For me the big bonus sounds, and a large part of doing this, was for the great Neck and bridge sounds...I used these a lot on my tele and is a great sound (the middle alone is a bit of a waste in comparison) and the ability to split and balance the HB so that it makes more typical strat sounds (quack. etc) without dramatic tone and volume changes when the neck pup is in play. It's great to see a scheme replicated and work for them, The original Mike Richardson thing is a very clever design while the spin-select makes it sing. I could not have done it of course without the support of the GN2 forum and support!
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Post by genmce on Oct 10, 2011 17:16:03 GMT -5
Sorry - No by ll aka pair of L's or parallel.
I believe I have my middle pickup wired out of phase. It just does not sound right in position 4, it just sounds wrong (too hollow). I really missed the sound of the stock #4's quack. It it totally lacking.
So I tested with reaper, by recording the tap test on each pickup and sure enough M is out of phase. With B.
Which pickups will be in phase on parallel mode? Seems like they should all be in phase unless the tone pot is pulled to up the n out of phase, right?
I guess it's time to heat up the iron and switch the M+ and M- wires and insert the caps on the push pulls.
After some extensive phase testing with pickup tapping with small allen wrench. I discover many items out of phase when the phasing knob is NOT pulled. I believe I have wired my N pickup reversed and also my M reversed. If I changed those, then all would be in phase unless the N phase is pulled. I bet it will sound a lot different with stuff in phase. Time to tear it open again.
Another lesson to learn #6 Check the phases of the pickup combos before putting it all back together.
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Post by 4real on Oct 10, 2011 20:13:20 GMT -5
sent an email, sorry was away from computer there
to me sounds like the bridge HB is OoP and would try that if the neck and bridge are OoP in pos 3.
Yep...another reason that I test everything on cardboard out of the guitar before I install things. I will always make multiple mistakes, probably a lot more than I recall as now I can correct things as I go like reversed volume pots and such. It is possible to do this with strats, just poke wires out from under the guard loosely screwed down and shorten the pickup wires and neaten everything up when you install. It's the only way I know that things are going to work.
Best of luck there, if working on it today, time difference allowed, I will be back in a few hours if you need to email or want encouragement ;-)
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Post by genmce on Oct 10, 2011 21:56:31 GMT -5
Ok This guitarnuts2.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=reference&thread=4938&page=1is an awesome test that helped me determine if my pickups were in phase or out. They were all out of whack... I mapped out the phase differences and found more faulty wiring on my part. Neck and M reversed - probably back to me correctly identifying color codes from pickup. I rewired to add the hb spin cap. I rewired the neck 1/2 phase cap (I had been full out of phase as in top diagram). Testing each step to confirm my phase relationships. Yeah! Parallel (all switches down) Position 4 sounds awesome - just like stock did. I think I am there. Everything is much better. Much closer balance in volume. My out of phase pickups were canceling each other dropping my output considerably... Much new ground to explore with the intended sounds. Thanks again 4real. I will report again in a week.
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Post by 4real on Oct 10, 2011 23:24:24 GMT -5
Ha...well, mistakes are there to be made and should be expected...no harm done. I am surprised that you were so pleased even with such a fault. Bear in mind this is one of the more complex schemes out there but the end result is worth it I think.
It must have all been a bit odd before, but sounds like you have it together now. Pickup wiring is always non-standard and confusing.
Glad you found that test, possibly where I read it. Your idea of recording and comparing was a good one, but could be deceptive as the 'phase' of things can be physically different.
There are lots of good things you can do with something like reaper though...the spectrum analyser is a cool tool too.
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Post by genmce on Oct 11, 2011 8:39:24 GMT -5
Yeah - there were new sounds that interested me, right away. But then I started missing that position 4 alot. As for the test with reaper - I could see the waveform down below the line or above the line. And even with the half phase on the neck pickup it showed up centered. Try it. It is enough to know, hey something is not right, and it is nice to have like a running tape of the waveforms to compare. Tap the neck pickup downside, tap the bridge pickup up side... hmmm... something is not right. After fix, tap n downside, tap b downside... all is right with the universe! And it sounds right now.
Perhaps I should get a few screen shots and post them along with his link on reference.
I may remove the cap on the spin control, it seemed smoother in the original diagram setup on a 250k a pot. That will leave 1 extra spdt switch for something....?
I may remove the 1/2 phase too... and stick with the out of phase neck...
I am getting much better at tearing it open. My son was looking over my shoulder and asking me questions last night, he's 6, and I was not getting frustrated trying to focus on multiple things.
It is nice to back to something expected. The series sounds are nice too...
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Post by 4real on Oct 11, 2011 10:33:58 GMT -5
Cool
I got some locking tuners for my project and thought of you. I've gotten s used to them on my other guitars, I wont do without them these days. I was hanging ut for them because I keep having to remove strings and such in the building now and been putting it off. It is another solution to access in a strat to be able to remove and replace strings painlessly in seconds...and keeps the beast in tune so much better. Pics are on that thread showing that work today.
As always, mod any o these wirings to choice and if you find a different use for tha extra switching power, share that too...but it doesn't hurt to just not use things, just because you can, doesn't mean you should!
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Post by genmce on Oct 11, 2011 11:17:08 GMT -5
Yup. I have to look at that. I hope to settle on some neat sounds and not open it up again. At least for a while. I will check out the thread. Oh - and using tape heads for pickups sound really cool. Will they be adjustable, height wise? Are you going to use 6 heads?
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Post by genmce on Mar 4, 2013 13:06:10 GMT -5
So - it was time for a string change on the White mim strat from above, although I never posted a pic.
While I was there - I notices some frets were worn and a bit flat. leveled the neck and sanded the and crowned the frets. Strung it up - Hey... It feels like a new guitar - did my truss rod adjustment. Things are nice!
Then decided to put a sd (stacked) humbucker in the neck - I had one laying around. Stk1 I think. So now it's a HSH - with this same wiring. I did not split the coil on the on that neck pickup so it's just humbucker.
I must say I like it. I really like that middle position in parallel and series mode. And the spin split on the bridge is really nice. This is really nice when I bring the tone down to like 2 or 3... Wow - a different guitar just like that.
The series position 1 and 2 seem over driven but they have there place. So this is just an FYI of where I am and a new take on this cool wiring.
Thanks again for the post and help.
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Post by genmce on Sept 12, 2013 5:40:07 GMT -5
Hey so I got a great deal on two sets of noiseless pickups, one vintage and one hot for $60us for all! Alas - both bridge pickups were bad - thankfully the guy got them new and was willing to send them fender - I think they will repair and return or replace - I will get them upon return.
So - yeah I really like your scheme here on this on. It continues in my white guitar - the only change is mentioned above.
I thought I would try the SSM2 of John's - it looked interesting with few controls to keep track of.
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