John IV Thinline Tele

[record83]

OK...so I have been bitten by the building bug BIG TIME. So badly that I need to sell most of my guitars...

Decided that I am going to build a Thinline Tele for one of my oldest friends. I am hoping to have it done for his B-day on March 16th. He is living in Seattle working his ass off to support his wife through law school in Boston. I wanted to do something nice for him and have an excuse to get another build under my belt. He (nor his wife) have any idea that I am building it...it's going to be a total surprise.

I am building it to his "specs" based on conversations that we have had throughout the years. I talked to him a few months ago and nonchalantly asked about gear to make sure he was still "current" on the features he was looking for.

It's based off a prized G&L Namm show prototype that he bought in the 90s and had to let it go in hard times. It was a semi-hollow finished in Mary-Kaye White. Building about the same thing, but with his modifications....

First the body: Thinline Swamp Ash w/matching top, rear routed. 2lbs 10oz. LIGHT! Routed for humbucker in bridge and P90 in neck.

 

[record83]

He really would like to have full LP style controls... It has the space for a selector switch and will suite an "SG" style toggle just fine, but worried about cramming 4 pots in that cavity. I purchased Bourns audiophile long shafts and have some Alpha mini long shafts as well so I might be able to make it work.

Anyone with suggestions or experience trying to do 4 pots and toggle in a kidney cavity?

 

[record83]

We've all seen this box a MILLION times at our doorsteps (for me it's at my work and it's followed by everyone making comments like: "What? More guitar parts??? Don't you have enough?!?!?!?"

 

[record83]

For the neck I am taking a risk... He would like a traditional Maple/Rosewood neck, but I saw this in the showcase and decided to pull the trigger on it...

It's made out of Afra (another no-finish wood) with striped Ebony board, 6150 frets, Black Tusq nut and Boatneck contour. He works construction/freelanced carpenter so I thought he would appreciate the natural wood grains. The streaks in the Ebony look ***STUNNING*** in person (can't get a photo to show it so well...)

 

[record83]

Forgot to mention: he is the fourth generation John in his family, hence the "John IV" title. Nothing to do with Tele shredding phenom "John V".

He even has his own logo he used to put on his gear to "identify" his property: It was a roman numeral "IV" with a crown on top of it. Was on all of his FX, amps, cases, etc... I am going to draw a little version of it and turn it into a decal for the headstock.

 

[record83]

Had to out-source the finish for now. A very grainy Mary-Kaye White done by Peter Gebhardt in NY. (He built two of my guitars).

 

[record83]

Trying to find a cost-effective alternative to the Stew-Mac conductive shielding paint. Found this on eBay: 320842278148

Does that look OK? Any other sources for paint? I was going to do foil, but cavity would be kind of tricky to pie cut and solder.

 

[Cagey]

Foil/conductive paint is a waste of time/money/effort. It's one of those things people do because it seems like a good idea, but in reality it's pointless. You'll notice none of the big manufacturers use it, and at the prices they charge you'd think they would, but they know better. Use shielded cable throughout and you'll be much further ahead.

 

[record83]

Foil/conductive paint is a waste of time/money/effort. It's one of those things people do because it seems like a good idea, but in reality it's pointless. You'll notice none of the big manufacturers use it, and at the prices they charge you'd think they would, but they know better. Use shielded cable throughout and you'll be much further ahead.

Huh....... :icon_scratch: You have a point...in order to "shield" the entire cavity, I would have to fill that whole hollow chamber, which is impossible....but that being said still this whole "shielding the cavity" craze is actually marketing BS??? The idea works in theory, I guess I haven't really A/B'ed it.

Do you have a good source for shielded cable? Or do you just use a small gauge balanced audio wire?

 

[Cagey]

You don't have to "fill" the cavity, you have to close all the openings, which is impossible. Just for starters, you have between one and three huge openings in the top where the pickups poke their little heads out, so even if they're noiseless parts your cavity is still getting flooded with EMI/RFI. If they're not noiseless, then they're just extra huge and highly sensitive antennae listening for any fluctuations in the magnetic fields of the world around them.

To get a really quiet guitar, you need noiseless pickups with all your hook-ups done with shielded cable. It's still not 100%, but it's about as close as you can get.

A good source for cable at reasonable prices is Guitar Parts Resource. They have the single conductor stuff like you see on some humbuckers and running between switches/output jacks/etc...

8' is $7.79, which is pretty good relative to what most places charge. They also have 4 conductor shielded...

@ $6.79 for 4' - also not a bad price. While you're there, you can also get a variety of shielding parts, particularly the elusive grounding lugs so you don't destroy your pots soldering to the housings...

Another good place for wire if you think you might use larger quantities is Stewart-Macdonald. They'll sell you a 50' reel of the single conductor braided shield stuff...

... for $26.38, and the shielded 4-conductor stuff in 25' lengths...

... for $26.83, also good prices.

Warmoth sells wiring "kits", but I'm not impressed. There's no room to make mistakes because the lengths aren't very generous, the braided single conductor has an insulating sheath on it that I think is made out of Kevlar or something - the stuff does not want to strip, and the price isn't that great.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Cagey, I've seen you throw that out there before as fact.  Some big brands do factory shielding, and even on their economy line.  The last MIM Tele I hotrodded was shielded with paint from the factory (though most likely pointless like you state).  We've all seen the old Gibsons and Danoes with metal boxes in the cavities.

 

[record83]

Thanks again for the advice. You are both right....I have owned many Fenders from all price ranges (except Custom Shop....cuz we are the real custom shop, right??) and several Gibsons and some have NO shielding at all and some have the black paint.

I am already hip to the GPR...I love those grounding lugs but wish they were a bit bigger. I know there is another brand out there that makes a lug with longer piece that sticks out so you can use it practically to ground everything.

For vintage single coil pickups with the b/w cloth wire do you snip the entire leads and use the braided cable???

I did "foil" the cavity just to improve the grounding (i used sealed Bourns pots so I wanted to make sure there was added surface area for the ground). The guitar is SUPER quiet.

 

[Cagey]

For vintage single coil pickups with the b/w cloth wire do you snip the entire leads and use the braided cable???

No, there's no point to it. Single coils are just big antennae anyway, so there's little to be gained by shielding anything in the various cavities. I think that's why some guys believe shielded cable is useless. They use single coil pickups, so they're right.

 

[stubhead]

In spirited defense of COPPER FOIL, it's lurvly stuff to have around. There's some chintzy stuff, I have a roll of thicker, really sticky copper tape that's lasted years, because of what it's used for. If you stick a piece down over all the holes the pots go through, and then put the pots through it and somehow or another ground ONE pot or the foil - all the pots are grounded. A little strip can be used to sneak up and ground the bridge in ways that may be way easier than more, umm, less-easy ways.

There is really no such thing as more-grounded-than... grounded, which is a hard concept to get. Some control cavities look like Soviet Union dentistry, like "I'm gonna ground the Mother-fudge outta this guitar!" And many people now ground the back of the pots all together* with a single thin unshielded wire for cosmetic reasons, because they think it looks cool. These are dark & trouble times.

Why can't you put four pots in a normal cavity? Are they anti-social? :icon_scratch:

*(for about the fourth time, usually.)

 

[Cagey]

Some control cavities look like Soviet Union dentistry, like "I'm gonna ground the Mother-frick outta this guitar!" 

ROTFLMAO! That is too funny!

It's true, though. They wanna follow More's law - "If some is good, More's better". And of course, too much is just right. Too bad it has little or no effect. Tremendous waste of time/money/effort for little or no return.

 

[stubhead]

I LOVE some of these internet "tutorials" and YouBoob videos where someone earnestly purports to "teach" how to do some totally ass-backwards, useless kind of crap "luthiery." Which is probably a personality disorder of mine, oh eet's-a long list.

"I'm gonna share this little trick about screwing on strap buttons with ya..."

Oooh! Oooh!