Copperhead soloist build

[macegtr]

Those electronics. Applied another layer of conductive paint for control cavity and meanwhile it was drying, I got a good opportunity to study the wiring for electronics. This is the stuff, which is going in:

2 x EMG SA active single coil pickup
1 x Seymour Duncan TB12-trembucker, passive
GraphTech Ghost piezos, 6 wires combined
GraphTech AcoustiPhonic Kit Advanced version (preamp, 3-pos switch for magnetic/piezo and blending, push-pull volume pot (two EQ-options for acoustic tones)
EMG 5-pos Strat switch (solderless)
EMG Master Volume push/pull -pot (solderless)
EMG PA2 (solderless) for buffering the passive TB-12, will change the output to low impedance to match with the rest of active EMG-electronics, for example same controls can be used (this will be hidded in the control cavity, no need to toggle)
4-pin barrel type input jack, stereo version with switch option to cut the supply voltage, when guitar is not plugged. These things are rare. Stereo cable will be used to carry the magnetic and piezo-signal separately outside of the guitar.
Gotoh-battery box, for which Warmoth prepared a routing into the body.

Knowing that there will some improvisation needed, I made a quick "simulation" of the wiring outside of the guitar. Here is the mess, which should be fitted in:

One challenge is get supply voltage cutting to work, when guitar is not plugged. Acoustiphonic has a very specific jack and logic for this (open is on, and closed is off), but here the plan is to use a barrel type jack for their minimalistic presence, which i prefer. Warmoth has prepared the body for this, 13mm hole is drilled already. Those 4-pin stereo-jacks with swithing are rare, originally I was planning to use a Fishman 4-pin -version but happened to found from Ebay (again) a better version (hopefully). The switching mechanism in these is the standard way, cutting the ground path when the plug is not plugged in. Because of that I cannot use the default way of GraphTech to make it work, plan is to use EMG-switch option for this. Should work.

Another thing is the controls. This body is prepared for standard Strat-setup, with switch place and three holes for pots. I'm not planning to make additional holes so those controls in this case will be: 5-pos switch, volume for magnetic pickups, 3-pos switch for selecting magnetic/piezo or blending those and volume for piezos. Tone control will be left out, have to admit: very rarely used for my needs.

Started with battery box installation:

Battery box installed:

Also installed pickups, input jack, all pots and switches in for preliminary check. Here are couple of views, actually this the final look of the front side

Possible layout studied for control cavity, there will be couple of tight places with all the wires:

As can be seen, this guitar has all the strings attached already and the bridge is pretty much setup. What can I say, even the acoustic sound and the resonance of this thing is amazing  :icon_biggrin:

 

[stratamania]

I must say this thread is turning out to be very good.

With the PA2 being hidden away inside the guitar, is it only used to convert the impedance of humbucker, or also used as a boost?

 

[macegtr]

I must say this thread is turning out to be very good.

With the PA2 being hidden away inside the guitar, is it only used to convert the impedance of humbucker, or also used as a boost?

Thanks stratamania, it has been my pleasure

Yes, PA2 will just change the impedance in this case. As you might assume, typical use case for PA2 is boosting, which is toggled on with the accompanied switch. Amount of boost is defined with the trimpot.

 

[stratamania]

Cool, thanks.

When you get a chance to fully intonate the guitar, it would be good to see if there would be enough play in the saddles theoretically had the LB63 been mounted at the standard location or not as the case may be.

 

[macegtr]

Cool, thanks.

When you get a chance to fully intonate the guitar, it would be good to see if there would be enough play in the saddles theoretically had the LB63 been mounted at the standard location or not as the case may be.

OK, will be checked.

 

[stratamania]

OK, will be checked.

ccasion14:

 

[dmraco]

Great work so far.  Drilling for a bridge, especially a whammy is the most nerve-racking thing to do.  SO final.

I did mess up a Floyd mount not too long ago.  Luckily the body was not finished so I could easily fill and re-drill.  after painting the cavity black it was 100% invisible.

Just curious...does warmoth not drill for that bridge?  I guess it differs slightly from a standard Floyd.

 

[Cagey]

Great work so far.  Drilling for a bridge, especially a whammy is the most nerve-racking thing to do.  SO final.

Indeed. And some bridges are hyper-critical about the mounting post placement. I did a Jaguar some time back that had a Mastery bridge. Didn't think it was going to be any kind of issue until after I pressed in the "thimbles" and dry-fitted the bridge. Luckily, it went on without issue, but that thing was so close that if those holes had been off by more than a few thousandths, the bridge wouldn't have fit. Surprised the hell out of me. Not because it fit - I expected it to - but because it was so close that there was no margin for error. I don't mean to malign Mastery - their stuff is top-notch - but it seems like less than ideal design practice to expect that kind of precision out of wood. You need to be able to compensate for the fact that you're dealing with a foundation material that can move, and may not have been milled on a CNC machine with positional accuracy that runs several places to the right of the decimal point.

 

[dmraco]

I think a good drill press REALLY helps too.  I have been getting by with one of these.  It has worked OK but I did drill one VERY crooked neck mount hole with it.  UGLY.  Thank goodness it was covered by the plate!

This is what has saved my bacon more than once.  This is more useful than a screwdriver.  Sorry...hijack over.

 

[Cagey]

For as many guitars as you've built, you don't have a drill press? Damn. You're working too hard. That's like fighting with one hand tied behind your back.

Christmas is coming. Ask Santa for a drill press. You need one. Make sure he understands it has to have a minimum 12" swing, and that if he doesn't come through, there will be hell to pay.

 

[macegtr]

Great work so far.  Drilling for a bridge, especially a whammy is the most nerve-racking thing to do.  SO final.

I did mess up a Floyd mount not too long ago.  Luckily the body was not finished so I could easily fill and re-drill.  after painting the cavity black it was 100% invisible.

Just curious...does warmoth not drill for that bridge?  I guess it differs slightly from a standard Floyd.

Thanks dmraco. When the order for these parts were placed, I did have a email discussion with Warmoth sales and also this GraphTech-bridge was discussed. I was asking/hoping that would it have been possible to Warmoth to take this stud position shifting (3mm) into account. Was not possible, as this bridge is not supported by Warmoth, probably meaning that there is no CNC-program and setup for this so I decided to leave the holes out. Also this means extra charge, as this is also change to ready CNC-setup for Schaller Floyd Rose (in this case).

That stud hole drilling, especially so close to wood edge, was quite scary stuff, have to admit. I also measured everything at least three times. Drilling these by hand is out of the question and as Cagey stated, drill press is the thing. But a good and sturdy/big enough drill stand will work also surprisingly well, Wolfcraft 5072 has proven to be a very good stand for this project, every hole in this project has been drilled with that one with Bosch hand drill attached. Has also depth control.

Those stud inserts were also pressed in with this one.

 

[stratamania]

Did you also do the drilling for the bushing inserts for the trem, with the Wolfcraft?  Does it have enough reach across the body?

Seems a handy thing to have if you don't have space for a pillar drill.

 

[macegtr]

Did you also do the drilling for the bushing inserts for the trem, with the Wolfcraft?  Does it have enough reach across the body?

Seems a handy thing to have if you don't have space for a pillar drill.

Yes, those holes were drilled with this one. The distance from the pillar to the drilling center point is 130mm, which has been just barely enough for this kind of "normal" guitar body. Of course you can always rotate this thing to find better angles, unless you decide to attach it to a base. The iron plate is big enough for quitar body to keep it automatically straight for most operations, weight is 7.1 kg, so it is also sturdy enough.

Drill vise is not included but highly recommended, especially with rubber jaws to protect wood.

 

[stratamania]

OK, thanks... I can see a 130mm would be enough but with not much room to spare. Impressive results you have so far with it.

 

[Cagey]

130mm (which translate into an approx. 10" swing) seemed too shallow so I went around to a few guitars/bodies I've got out right now and sure enough, if you orient the thing right, 130mm will give you the reach to drill or press just about anything you'd need to. At least, on a Tele, Velocity and even a Jazzmaster. He's obviously using it successfully with a Soloist, which means it'll work with a Strat and a VIP.

Seems like a handy thing, if you couldn't have real drill press for some reason. Thing is, even at Amazon they want $438 for one, while for $225 you can get one of these 12" WEN units...

Variable speed, depth stop, multi-axis stage, and clearly a much sturdier unit with a much more powerful motor and lot more utility. It's gonna take up slightly more space, and it's no 7.1Kg - more like 40.3Kg (89 lbs.), so you're not going to be moving it around much.

 

[stratamania]

Cagey, a 130mm is just over 5 inches is 10" a typo?

 

[Cagey]

No. The distance from the centerpoint of the drill to the pillar is the throat depth. Depending on which spec you read, you'll either get that number, or the "swing", which is just slang for "diameter" - as if you were going to attach something to the chuck that would swing around while the motor was running. The swing number sounds better because it's bigger, so that's what the marketing weenies use. But, the critical dimension is really the radius of that imaginary swinging thing, as that tells us the throat depth that limits the size of the piece you can drill to the center of. So, as usual when listening to marketing weenies, you have to do a little math in your head to get to the truth  :laughing7:

 

[stratamania]

Ah, gotcha. The throat depth is basically the radius of the thing as near as a gnats whatsit and the swing is the diameter based on that. As you say seems to be more marketing swing, err spin...

Still seems a bit odd, as something when it swings, unless you are at a 60s revival party, tends to swing around a point of rotation. The distance to the arc of swing would be from the point of rotation to that arc which would be the radius, not a diameter. Marketing wizardry for sure...

 

[macegtr]

We have a sound I managed to squeeze all the electronics in, control cavity is quite crowded. Probably not the tidiest one but this is the best, which i could come up with.

The central unit here is the EMG 5-position Strat-switch, which is not just switch but also a bus. All pickups are of course connected here, also the battery and supply voltage for all the pickups and accessories is distributed from here. It also has send/receive headers, for example the EMG PA2, which is buffering the Seymour Duncan TB-12, is connected to one of these headers reserved for bridge pickup. Also the AcoustiPhonic-preamp for piezos  is getting its power from here and the power off for all is toggled on/off using the Ring-connection in stereo-jack (ground is connected, when plug is plugged in). Pretty sophisticated stuff but being totally solderless, needs more room for all the connectors and wires compared to traditional soldering.

Also the master volume is solderless, it has push/pull-option originally designed for EMG-89 pickup but this can be used for coil splitting the passive TB-12 -humbucker also. For that I needed to solder headers to TB-12 to plug it in to this pot.

EMG PA2 is just lying on top of this all, insulated with tape, won't move anywhere. All the rest is basically occupied with piezo-wires and GraphTech AcoustiPhonic-preamp/switch/pull-push volume and solderless wiring. The AcoustiPhonic is actually summing all the signals and sending them to 4-pin output jack. So also the signal from magnetic pickups is going through this, enabling for example the blending of acoustic and electric sounds.

Put copper adhesive also on top of the control cavity cover to finalize the shielding. By the way, 2 layers of conductive paint seem to work well, measuring about 10 ohms around the cavity.

The trem routing will also have a cover, some preparations for pilot holes.

Both of the backside covers attached into the body.

Backside of this guitar is finished  :icon_thumright:

 

[Cagey]

Looks great to me. I think you did a fantastic job, especially so considering how much you've managed to pack into that control cavity.