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You need a fret crowning file. They make fancier ones, but when I was figuring my way around making a cheaper guitar sound better I used this kit and it worked great for my needs.
Also - then buy decent pickups. You can get Wilkinson on Amazon for about $28. These things are notorious for comically bad pickups. When I got a similar build - pu were microphonic and I had to change them out. 15 minutes of youtube soldering videos and I was good.
Have to be careful though - you end up with this as your hobby and you're making guitars for the sake of making guitars.
Guitar Player Repair Guide is top notch.
Also you'll find hundreds of free YouTube videos.
If it's your first time I suggest buying a cheap diy kit and learning how to make it playable. It will help you learn a lot about setting up a guitar and how each part works. Going straight to building a full guitar from scratch is tough and it requires a lot of tools.
Good luck, post some pictures as you progress.
- Hipshot is a good company I’ve liked their products so far, I have no idea how to discovery if the holes are gonna line up, you may even have to rechannel the string holes through the body if need be. I like using this elmer’s wood filler on my projects, the new bridge should cover any old holes so that shouldn’t be an issue.
- No idea why the string holes are so weirdC did you get this guitar secondhand? Either way, you don’t have to worry about the string holes as long as they line up with your new bridge. If they don’t you can wood fill them on the surface to give you a clean entry hole and then just drill at an angle to line it up with your new bridge.
- The bridge ground wire is important for grounding the bridge and strings. If this wire isn’t in place then you’ll get ground noise while you’re not touching anything metal on the guitar (touching it completes the circuit) so you’ll need to solder that wire to the back of the new bridge when you replace it. If you’re not comfortable with a soldering iron but wanna learn this might be a good place to start before diving into coil splits and what have you. Hope this helps!
Should be workable, if a bit more finicky to set up. You basically need to tape a neodymium disc to the shaft and fit the rotary tool close enough to the yellow reed magnet rod so that it trips the counter every rotation. The hand drill should be easier simply because the vise is big and easy to tape to.
The counter's this model on Amazon, and all it does is counts +1 every time the magnet passes close to the yellow rod.
103 might give you something close to the intended effect. not that far from 472 which works.
but really you can get a capacitor for like 13 cents. save yourself some trouble and just get the thing!
something like this could come in handy
Here is an example telecaster bridge plate to do this swap:
https://www.amazon.com/Allparts-Humbucker-Single-Pickup-Conversion/dp/B002MWKOHI
Double check the measurements on whatever you buy.
As stated previously, for the neck you just need a different pickguard.
Since you currently have humbuckers, you likely have 500K volume and tone control pots. Single coils generally use 250K. To get the expected single coil sound, you may want to swap these out as well.
These are the set that I have, available on Amazon and made in the US:
If you are going to re-solder everything, I'd strongly suggest you replace that cheap switch while you are at it. There are two kinds of those crappy circuit board switches: ones that have failed and ones that will fail. A genuine Fender rotary switch is less than $15 and will last a lifetime
> It did take drilling, but just work your way up a bit size or two at a time until you hit your 10mm goal or whatever
Another option is a tapered reamer. https://www.amazon.com/General-Tools-130-3-175mm-12-7mm-Woodworker/dp/B00004T82J/ref=pd_bxgy_469_img_2/146-5308785-6687402
Yeah for this you would need to find a 3 pole double throw (3PDT) push pull pot. I used a few DPDT for mine. I have not been able to find any 3PDT push pulls though they may exist. You need the 3 poles so each humbucker can be connected individually to it.
You could get away with 2x DPDT and use one to split the neck and mid and the other for the bridge.
Just built one from Amazon and came out waaay better than I expected. I can vouge for
Bogart DIY Electric Guitar Kits... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09N111XFH?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
Happy building!!
Don’t worry. Just do it! You’ll have a blast and learn a shitton
You could put treaded inserts into the screw holes on the guitar. Use matching machine screws with springs between the body and pickup to adjust the PU height. The springs will push the PU against the screw heads and move when you turn the screw in or out. The downside is that the heads of the screws move. The upside is good connection between the PU and the body.
Alternatively, solder a machine nut to the holes on the PU and use the mounting brackets. Put a spring between the PU and bracket, put matching screws through the holes in the bracket and into the nuts on the PU. When you tune the screw, the height of the pick will change, but the screw stays in the same position.
Hope that helps!
If you can spend $200...100% get this instead. The guitars you listed are made of pretty much garbage materials and will never play well or sound very good.
The guitar I linked is a legitimately good guitar around the level of a Mexican-made strat, but in some ways even better IMO. The pickups are the weakest link by far...just those generic ceramic single coils you find in every cheap strat copy. But that can be easily solved for few bucks on Ebay if you want, and they still sound pretty decent stock.
Grab this spray tent and a roll of plastic to drape over it while things dry. Works fine.
Go down to your local hardware store, grab a few of these obviously in the size that will fit, a few washers and a few nuts to fit. These are partially domed, you can sand/polish, leave as is, paint or whatever. Pop this smooth side out, washer and hand tighten the nut inside the cavity.
Rather than making it out of a traditional guitar switch I recommend making one out of a normally closed momentary switch. This will make it so the killswitch is only engaged as long as you're physically holding the button down so you can't end up in the scenario you described.
But if it's not your thing that's cool, to each their own
Well my main issue was that I had the ground wrong on my switch. The diagram you provided was perfect. I have sound in all switch positions now.
From what I'm reading, switching to 25k pots will give me better volume control (smooth as I turn the knob, rather than the 0->100 I have now when barely turning), but will they affect the sound/tone of the guitar? I'm not getting quite as much of that heavy "chug" as I thought I would when palm muting.
I'm assuming this is the kind of pot I need?
Bourns Guitar & Amp Potentiometer, 25K Audio, Solid Shaft https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003WUL5MM/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_3TZWTHFJFJCB7E9VWZNT
Also can you tell what capacitor is being used in that diagram? Mine has "223M Y5U 100V on it. Is that the one I should use?
Sorry for all the questions, and thanks for your help.
I’ve also purchased this - 22Pcs Damaged Screw Extractor Set, Easy Out Stripped Screw Remover for Broken Screw 2-12mm, Titanium Antirust Coating, 64-65 HRC Hardness, Burnish & Extract Bits Separatly https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08797CL1M/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_NM6WM5Q2BM5T465EYPQF
Please ask questions for more details but basically i got this overdrive pedal off amazon. Im 99% sure everythings in the right place and i cant figure out why im getting no signal. Im getting voltage all the way to the footswitch but i dont rlly know what im checking for, all i know is its not getting to the led because its not turning on and i used my multimeter to check(im aware disconnected in the picture but it wasnt before). Please help give me a step of what to check if any of you know, im guessing its just my poor soldering job and its causing a short but im new to all this and reddits my go to for help:)
Me personally…. I refuse to use the back plate. I always take them off. I just don’t like how they protrude off the back instead of sit flush.
For the pickup, you’ll need to take off the pickguard. You’ll find that there should have been 3 screws that would have secured the pickup bottom plate to the pickguard. You’ll need to buy something like this https://www.amazon.com/Dopro-Imperial-Humbucker-Springs-Dimarzio/dp/B07DLRC8XS/ref=mp_s_a_1_32?keywords=fender+pickup+screws&pscroll=1&qid=1643838505&sr=8-32&wIndexMainSlot=66 to replace the missing screws.
As a note, the screw will go through the top of the pickguard, but then you’ll put on a spring between the pickguard and the pickup bottom plate. This spring holds tension on the pickup so that you can adjust the height.
Thanks man, here’s the link to the kit Flying V kit
I think what you are describing is what Peavey does with their T-60: https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=peavey+t-60+wiring&view=detailv2&qpvt=peavey+t-60+wiring&id=D6BA6D1C800BE4C56FCF0A3A6A19DD7C5C681EC4&selectedIndex=0&ccid=EiACA8kI&simid=608016577817938136&thid=JN.sr3ppVPRJ09kvalkdH...
I use a 25 watt iron for all my guitar soldering and get good grounds on my pots using this method . I use this flux and 60/40 Lead solder. Hope that’s helpful.
I use Tung oil as well and haven’t had an issue. Were you wiping the excess oil off the neck after like 45 minutes? This is the Tung Oil I like I’ve used it on two separate guitars, I wet sanded them with graduated grits, did one coat, wiped after 45 minutes, and waited 12 hours then I was done. Hope you find a solution that works for you.
I hope these work. I just ordered them off Amazon like 55 mins ago. I'll have to measure the ones already in the guitar when I get home. This wasn't even something I knew to worry about. Thank you again.
Here's a 2 pole relay with a 5vdc coil. You use the foot switch to trigger the coil and you have one set of contacts for the pedal and one for the light. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E0NTPP4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_C3VRAQRPZA9DYN5FCZ0T
Amazon. Made by Cloudmusic. They have a bunch of patterns.
CLOUDMUSIC Red Rose Guitar Straps Pattern Jacquard Woven With Black Leather Ends For Acoustic Electric Bass (Red Rose) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0768R4GHS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_VB7T6S6FK9BXS4TXNJR2
I don't know if you saw my last comment on the other thread, but These are what I got and I couldn't feel comfortable about doing any setups before hand. You may need to get an imperial set versus metric depending on your guitar, or both of you've got a big collection of various origin. Everything I was ever unsure about setting up in my collection I gained full confidence over with these keys.
I settled on ordering this set because my truss rods are mostly all at the headstock and I hate trying to maneuver keys in there through strings and string trees. I think some are just deep. But I honestly couldn't finish my own setups before these, I would get too frustrated trying to figure out if I was actually making a turn or not. I don't think I was, it was always terrifying tbh.
I recently got a pick guard from this amazon seller for my HH strat. Tons of colors to choose from and they're all about $10 each. It's from Asia, though, so shipping took a few weeks. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076K2CNWY/ref=twister_B0783955M7?_encoding=UTF8&th=1
I bought one of these on amazon for $60.00. They are unavailable at the moment, but it has a shaped headstock and rosewood fretboard.
Replaced pickguard with aftermarket strat PG and needed to make a few holes.
You'll probably want to look into humbucker sized p90s called p94s
Or if you really want single coils you could get some adapter rings for some strat style pickups. Might look weird though.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074R14JLC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_3nZkFbCR33NCR
These also come slanted.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08B674PZP/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_-oZkFbRJV3J45
That looks like the elvis costello jazzmaster? The new reissue fender did was alder with a "walnut" finish and nitrocellulose lacquer. That guitar in the picture looks like it has a much more satin finish though, so you'd have to do some sanding to get it looking more flat instead of shiny. Either way alder with a dark stain will get you most of the way.
I've tried to do walnut stain on light wood before and it's had mixed results, often brings out too much of the grain (especially on pine) so be sure to test the stain on the interior of the pickup cavity before you do the whole thing.
So it sounds like this one would not work? If not can anyone recommend something close that would fit? https://www.amazon.com/Seymour-Duncan-SH-4-Humbucker-Pickup/dp/B0002EKNQ0/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_3?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1518290958&sr=1-3-fkmr0&keywords=SH4+JB+chrome
I bought this book years ago:
It's a great way to have a whole bunch of projects at your fingertips. You can create all the projects on breadboards (rather than having to print out your own PCBs).
Maybe this guy? Existing pickup is about 70 mm while this one is 52 mm.
I lost my copy of "Electronics for the practicing guitarist" a while back, it must be out of print now since I can't find it on google, when I first lost it I went looking to replace it and only found copies with the name changed from "guitarist" to "musicians" but I still can't find it with the new title, anyway, if you can find a copy it's a good book. Sorry.
I was a little off on the name but I still can't find the original "guitar" version - http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Projects-Musicians-Craig-Anderton/dp/0825695023/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1443902909&sr=1-1&keywords=Electronic+Projects+for
EDIT2- finally found it, wow my memory must be shot - http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Presents-Do-It-Yourself-Projects-Guitarists/dp/087930359X/ref=pd_sim_14_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=1S9J99514HDJCRH7XR31&dpID=51xdX0uIelL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR124%2C160_
Swapping pickups is a great place to start, I agree. There are tons of easy-to-follow wiring diagrams online that make it pretty simple. You might even try one of the simpler guitar pedal kits from BYOC electronics to build up your soldering skills up. These two books are essentially my bibles: