Post by macphyst on Jul 25, 2008 16:42:27 GMT -5
Hello all. I've been a reader of this site for a little while now and finally decided to bite the bullet and create an account. I've recently somewhat completed my own QTB project and feel that I've got good results with a few questions/comments. Before I go any further, I want to mention that I'm in no way any sort of electronics person.
Many years ago I had a cheap guitar I would experiment on and one thing I remember doing then was making a drawing of the connections and wiring before I took anything apart. I did sort of the same thing this time, only I was able to borrow a digital camera and took a picture. I did however, create a wiring diagram I intended to go by after doing some research on strat wiring and the QTB pages. I didn't have access to the camera for long so I only took a few shots. I plan to get more at a later date. Anyway, here's a pic of my Strat...
It is a Made in Japan Fender Strat. It was very noisy and all around sounded bad. I thought that some new pickups might help so I purchased some Fender Texas Specials to put in it. And since i was doing this, I figured I should give shielding and star grounding a try so I ordered the copper shielding tape that I've read so much about as well as a few capacitors. I then sat down and drew out my wiring diagram. After everything arrived, the first thing I did was shield my guitar. I shielded the pick guard as well but did it another day and didn't have the camera. I ran a bead of solder over every seam by touching the overlapped tape with my iron and following closely behind with my solder. This may have been overkill since I was using the conductive adhesive tape but I was actually having fun with it so I kept going. Here's a pic of my guitar after I finished...
One thing that I went back and did after the pic was taken was to run a 1/4" strip of the copper shielding tape out to a few of the screw holes for the pick guard (shown in the 2nd pic with the green areas being where I ran the copper foil). I also connected the main cavity and the jack cavity with the copper foil tape as well. My Xacto blade handle was small enough that it just did go through the hole connecting the two with a touch of wiggle room. I reverse wrapped the handle tightly so that the sticky side of the foil was on the outside and then slowly worked it through the hole. once through, there was enough sticking out both ends that I was able to make a few slits on each end of the foil tape tube to flare them out and stick to the shielded cavity.
Next, I got my pickups and soldering items out and went to town. As I mentioned, I took a pic of the stock wiring first...
I then removed everything, grabbed my capacitors, new pickups and wiring diagram and went at it. Here's the diagram that I made...
Please note that my diagram may be wrong. In fact, I'm hoping that some of you can point out to me what IS wrong with it so that I may correct what I've done if that is the case! As I eluded to before, I know nothing of electronics other than what I read and often, what I do read is over my head. For example, I read where I needed a .33uf 400V cap so I went online and pretty much bought what I found. I may very well be wrong but it seemed as I could get these in various material, shapes, and sizes (physical size is what I mean here). After seeing a picture of one I thought, "That looks about like what I saw in another wiring photo" so I purchased it. I ordered it from Mouser and I believe it's a polyester type. It looks like a dark orange piece of Chicklet gum with 2 wires coming out of it.
Now, at this point, if you have survived the huge wall of text, here are my thoughts, experiences, and a few questions about my project.
1 - Although I do not have recorded proof from before diving into the inerds of my guitar, I can tell a nice decrease in the noise. I still get some noise in the 1, 3, and 5 switch positions but not like before. I assumed that this wouldn't take out all the noise due to being single coils as well as Texas Specials. Also, this noise is much more noticeable when playing at home in my apartment than when I play over at a friends house or when playing at our practice location. If you can imagine, I was quite bummed when I first heard my results until I went to the other locations and got more of what I was after. At that point, I was quite excited about this project. Again, I assume that this must have something to do with my apartment wiring or something about the apartment in general. Anyone have any suggestions as why this would or could be? I don't have any dimmer switches or neon signs in my apartment. I believe they were built back in the 50's though. Not sure if that hurts, helps, or what.
2 - So, I have to say, I was proud of my connection work between the main body cavity and the jack cavity. However, after all is said and done, I ended up taking the shielding out of the jack cavity. The reason for it was because once everything was screwed back into place, I got no sound at all. Not even a buzz or hum. The first thing I tried was unscrewing the jack plate with the guitar cable in, all wires still connected, and everything on, then removing the plate from the body. TADA! I got sound. Place it back in and nothing...remove it again and sound. So, I assumed something was touching something that it shouldn't and thus removed the shielding. I truly don't believe my actual wires soldered to the jack were touching the shielding and touching the plate to the shielding didn't seem to have any affect on it. I do know that the fit is a little snug with the jack and feel that it could have been the positive side of the jack that makes physical connection with the tip of the instrument cable actually touching the shielding. If this is what was happening, would it give me dead silence when powered up and turned on?
UPDATE: Upon further inspection, it was in fact the tip of my jack hitting the back of the shielded cavity. I created an illustration to show what was going on.
3 - Once I got the above problem worked out and got into enjoying what sounded like a new guitar to me, I realized I didn't really like what the capacitor that I added to the volume switch was doing. It's supposed to keep the highs in the sound as you turn the volume down. My personal preference about this is that with the guitar volume low and the amp at a bedroom volume, it was very "tin" sounding. With my guitar volume low and my amp at practice or gig volume, it was eardrum piercing. So I removed it. Again, I may have done something wrong but I just didn't care for it. Obviously others like it or I would have never read about it on the intarweb.
4 - Finally (I know, right?!?!), after removing the treble bleed capacitor from the volume pot and putting everything back together, I'm getting something funky happening. Every so often I may get this "thud" sound and my tone changes just a bit. It seems to mainly affect the middle pickup and more specifically, the 2,3 and 4 switch position. Could this be a result of one of the following?
- Maybe I pulled a wire loose enough to make a weak joint?
- Something is touching the shielding when I put everything back together after removing the capacitor? (this is what I think it may be)
- Something isn't wired correctly? Using the wrong capacitor, capacitor is dead or fried somehow, or capacitor is soldered in the wrong spot?
- Need a new 5-way switch? (Also think this may be a culprit. It does crackle some when using it and it's one of the sealed types)
If you've read all of this then I thank you very much and you are quite a brave soul. Please comment, answer, curse, or point and laugh at me. Whatever you feel like. I'm glad I've found this forum and have read many interesting things here. Seems like there are a lot of knowledgeable folks here on this site and I hope I can learn a thing or two. I plan to add more findings and hopefully more photos as I continue along with my work in progress.
Macphyst
Many years ago I had a cheap guitar I would experiment on and one thing I remember doing then was making a drawing of the connections and wiring before I took anything apart. I did sort of the same thing this time, only I was able to borrow a digital camera and took a picture. I did however, create a wiring diagram I intended to go by after doing some research on strat wiring and the QTB pages. I didn't have access to the camera for long so I only took a few shots. I plan to get more at a later date. Anyway, here's a pic of my Strat...
It is a Made in Japan Fender Strat. It was very noisy and all around sounded bad. I thought that some new pickups might help so I purchased some Fender Texas Specials to put in it. And since i was doing this, I figured I should give shielding and star grounding a try so I ordered the copper shielding tape that I've read so much about as well as a few capacitors. I then sat down and drew out my wiring diagram. After everything arrived, the first thing I did was shield my guitar. I shielded the pick guard as well but did it another day and didn't have the camera. I ran a bead of solder over every seam by touching the overlapped tape with my iron and following closely behind with my solder. This may have been overkill since I was using the conductive adhesive tape but I was actually having fun with it so I kept going. Here's a pic of my guitar after I finished...
One thing that I went back and did after the pic was taken was to run a 1/4" strip of the copper shielding tape out to a few of the screw holes for the pick guard (shown in the 2nd pic with the green areas being where I ran the copper foil). I also connected the main cavity and the jack cavity with the copper foil tape as well. My Xacto blade handle was small enough that it just did go through the hole connecting the two with a touch of wiggle room. I reverse wrapped the handle tightly so that the sticky side of the foil was on the outside and then slowly worked it through the hole. once through, there was enough sticking out both ends that I was able to make a few slits on each end of the foil tape tube to flare them out and stick to the shielded cavity.
Next, I got my pickups and soldering items out and went to town. As I mentioned, I took a pic of the stock wiring first...
I then removed everything, grabbed my capacitors, new pickups and wiring diagram and went at it. Here's the diagram that I made...
Please note that my diagram may be wrong. In fact, I'm hoping that some of you can point out to me what IS wrong with it so that I may correct what I've done if that is the case! As I eluded to before, I know nothing of electronics other than what I read and often, what I do read is over my head. For example, I read where I needed a .33uf 400V cap so I went online and pretty much bought what I found. I may very well be wrong but it seemed as I could get these in various material, shapes, and sizes (physical size is what I mean here). After seeing a picture of one I thought, "That looks about like what I saw in another wiring photo" so I purchased it. I ordered it from Mouser and I believe it's a polyester type. It looks like a dark orange piece of Chicklet gum with 2 wires coming out of it.
Now, at this point, if you have survived the huge wall of text, here are my thoughts, experiences, and a few questions about my project.
1 - Although I do not have recorded proof from before diving into the inerds of my guitar, I can tell a nice decrease in the noise. I still get some noise in the 1, 3, and 5 switch positions but not like before. I assumed that this wouldn't take out all the noise due to being single coils as well as Texas Specials. Also, this noise is much more noticeable when playing at home in my apartment than when I play over at a friends house or when playing at our practice location. If you can imagine, I was quite bummed when I first heard my results until I went to the other locations and got more of what I was after. At that point, I was quite excited about this project. Again, I assume that this must have something to do with my apartment wiring or something about the apartment in general. Anyone have any suggestions as why this would or could be? I don't have any dimmer switches or neon signs in my apartment. I believe they were built back in the 50's though. Not sure if that hurts, helps, or what.
2 - So, I have to say, I was proud of my connection work between the main body cavity and the jack cavity. However, after all is said and done, I ended up taking the shielding out of the jack cavity. The reason for it was because once everything was screwed back into place, I got no sound at all. Not even a buzz or hum. The first thing I tried was unscrewing the jack plate with the guitar cable in, all wires still connected, and everything on, then removing the plate from the body. TADA! I got sound. Place it back in and nothing...remove it again and sound. So, I assumed something was touching something that it shouldn't and thus removed the shielding. I truly don't believe my actual wires soldered to the jack were touching the shielding and touching the plate to the shielding didn't seem to have any affect on it. I do know that the fit is a little snug with the jack and feel that it could have been the positive side of the jack that makes physical connection with the tip of the instrument cable actually touching the shielding. If this is what was happening, would it give me dead silence when powered up and turned on?
UPDATE: Upon further inspection, it was in fact the tip of my jack hitting the back of the shielded cavity. I created an illustration to show what was going on.
3 - Once I got the above problem worked out and got into enjoying what sounded like a new guitar to me, I realized I didn't really like what the capacitor that I added to the volume switch was doing. It's supposed to keep the highs in the sound as you turn the volume down. My personal preference about this is that with the guitar volume low and the amp at a bedroom volume, it was very "tin" sounding. With my guitar volume low and my amp at practice or gig volume, it was eardrum piercing. So I removed it. Again, I may have done something wrong but I just didn't care for it. Obviously others like it or I would have never read about it on the intarweb.
4 - Finally (I know, right?!?!), after removing the treble bleed capacitor from the volume pot and putting everything back together, I'm getting something funky happening. Every so often I may get this "thud" sound and my tone changes just a bit. It seems to mainly affect the middle pickup and more specifically, the 2,3 and 4 switch position. Could this be a result of one of the following?
- Maybe I pulled a wire loose enough to make a weak joint?
- Something is touching the shielding when I put everything back together after removing the capacitor? (this is what I think it may be)
- Something isn't wired correctly? Using the wrong capacitor, capacitor is dead or fried somehow, or capacitor is soldered in the wrong spot?
- Need a new 5-way switch? (Also think this may be a culprit. It does crackle some when using it and it's one of the sealed types)
If you've read all of this then I thank you very much and you are quite a brave soul. Please comment, answer, curse, or point and laugh at me. Whatever you feel like. I'm glad I've found this forum and have read many interesting things here. Seems like there are a lot of knowledgeable folks here on this site and I hope I can learn a thing or two. I plan to add more findings and hopefully more photos as I continue along with my work in progress.
Macphyst