80s superstrat
- Thread starter Jumble Jumble
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Jumble Jumble
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Finally some more pictures.
Jumble Jumble
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Updates on this guitar.
1. After a setup and fret level, I still had "sitar effect". Turned out the nut was low, and so I shimmed it myself to make it right. Lesson learned: professional guitar techs might do a "setup" without checking it out. Learn to do it yourself!
2. Adjusted the bridge saddles with the right number of shims, and most importantly, removed the stock shim that changes it to a 10" radius. Feels much better now.
3. Electronics overhaul. While I did achieve exactly what I set out to do - vintage Strat sounds with a humbucker bridge tone - it turned out that what wasn't what I wanted. I have a vintage-sounding Strat already, so I decided to beef this guitar up a bit instead. Got a Cool Rails neck pickup and put a Vintage Hot Stack Plus in the middle. At this point the middle pickup was half the volume of the other two, which didn't work at all. So I replaced that middle pickup with a Vintage Rails. The VR comes with 4-conductor wire and is intended to be wired in parallel, but I wired it in series instead for extra volume. It still more or less sounds like a vintage strat middle pickup, but much louder and a little bit more hot.
With all three pickups now humbuckers wired in series, there's no need for a clever switching system - I replaced it all with the completely standard Strat 5-way, one pickup wired to each of the contacts and no splitting at all.
It sounds really great through distortion now, and I think the looks are a bit more interesting too:
Video to follow in the next few days.
1. After a setup and fret level, I still had "sitar effect". Turned out the nut was low, and so I shimmed it myself to make it right. Lesson learned: professional guitar techs might do a "setup" without checking it out. Learn to do it yourself!
2. Adjusted the bridge saddles with the right number of shims, and most importantly, removed the stock shim that changes it to a 10" radius. Feels much better now.
3. Electronics overhaul. While I did achieve exactly what I set out to do - vintage Strat sounds with a humbucker bridge tone - it turned out that what wasn't what I wanted. I have a vintage-sounding Strat already, so I decided to beef this guitar up a bit instead. Got a Cool Rails neck pickup and put a Vintage Hot Stack Plus in the middle. At this point the middle pickup was half the volume of the other two, which didn't work at all. So I replaced that middle pickup with a Vintage Rails. The VR comes with 4-conductor wire and is intended to be wired in parallel, but I wired it in series instead for extra volume. It still more or less sounds like a vintage strat middle pickup, but much louder and a little bit more hot.
With all three pickups now humbuckers wired in series, there's no need for a clever switching system - I replaced it all with the completely standard Strat 5-way, one pickup wired to each of the contacts and no splitting at all.
It sounds really great through distortion now, and I think the looks are a bit more interesting too:
Video to follow in the next few days.
JonatanOTG
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Yeah, looks even cooler now! :icon_thumright:
Jumble Jumble
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Here's a demo video. I'm afraid the playing is a bit uninspired because I was concentrating so much on making sure I covered all five positions with two volume settings for each one.
The playing gets better after 4:30 when I turn the volume up - at that point I thought "just a few seconds here and I'll fade it out", so I stopped thinking about it so much.
[flash=700,393]http://www.youtube.com/v/l5rLApyRIWI?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0[/flash]
The playing gets better after 4:30 when I turn the volume up - at that point I thought "just a few seconds here and I'll fade it out", so I stopped thinking about it so much.
[flash=700,393]http://www.youtube.com/v/l5rLApyRIWI?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0[/flash]
Cagey
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Very good. The pickups all seem to complement each other... that is, the variation isn't so wide as to be useless but they still maintain an identity. All three sound good, I guess is what I'm trying to say. Plus, the thing looks good. What's not to love? I imagine you're pretty pleased with the thing. I know I would be.
Jumble Jumble
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I am pleased with it now - very pleased. I was kind of worried when it didn't quite "click" when it was done. It was a problem of setup firstly, and then also to do with it not giving me anything I didn't already have in 4 of the 5 slots. This was my first build too, so I was a little disappointed. But my second build (white tele) went brilliantly and it clicked immediately. That inspired me to get back to work on this one and I'm so glad I did. it's awesome now. Now that the setup is right, I can feel the benefit of the stainless steel frets much better too.
The only thing left on it is the fret ends. I have actually hurt myself slightly a few times on them, sliding a long way quickly. I don't want to send it off for weeks for that to be done. So... what do I need to do to round them off a bit?
The only thing left on it is the fret ends. I have actually hurt myself slightly a few times on them, sliding a long way quickly. I don't want to send it off for weeks for that to be done. So... what do I need to do to round them off a bit?
JonatanOTG
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Sounds & looks great!
Exactly. Total versatility is not always just a good thing, it can take away the personality in the instrument and make it sound a bit anonymous. I made that mistake in 3-pickup guitars at least twice... :doh:
Cagey said:
Exactly. Total versatility is not always just a good thing, it can take away the personality in the instrument and make it sound a bit anonymous. I made that mistake in 3-pickup guitars at least twice... :doh:
Strat Avenger
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'Nice guitar. 'Has exactly the right number of knobs.
Personally, I would have used a 500k for all 3 pickups, but that's just me.
Personally, I would have used a 500k for all 3 pickups, but that's just me.
C
Cederick
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IS it just me or did it sound like the guitar was out of tune on the video? :icon_scratch:
Otherwise I love the looks of it. Of course, I would have the exact same setup except having it in alpine white: but it looks great in yellow too :cool01:
Otherwise I love the looks of it. Of course, I would have the exact same setup except having it in alpine white: but it looks great in yellow too :cool01:
Jumble Jumble
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I think what happened is I accidentally bent a lot of notes sharp; not sure why as its not normally something I'm prone to.
Jet-Jaguar
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It looks like Jumble wrote about his pickup selection in a Seymour Duncan Blog post:
http://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/the-tone-garage/optimising-hss-for-distortion/
http://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/the-tone-garage/optimising-hss-for-distortion/
Jumble Jumble
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Indeed!
CrazyGrain
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lol, I've never liked yellow guitars but this is the third yellow W i've seen that looks great. Good job.
It's funny, I was thinking about using low voltage screw terminals as well. I usually have tons laying around from work but can't seem to find any right now. :toothy12: Way it goes I guess...
It's funny, I was thinking about using low voltage screw terminals as well. I usually have tons laying around from work but can't seem to find any right now. :toothy12: Way it goes I guess...
Jumble Jumble
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They're not in there any more! They weren't needed in the huge simplification.
Strat Avenger
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How's the brass block sound?
