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Lefty Jazzmaster: Let there be sound!

Thanks for cheering me on.  :)

The neck was misaligned, leading me to panic and post a "Holy @#$!, help!!!" thread (http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=17809.0). Thankfully, Max and Mayfly sprang to the rescue!

I worked the tremolo a little bit, just because, and I could hear it scraping the back of the cavity cut for it. I've got a genuine Fender trem and, surely, Warmoth routes for the generic one they sell on their site. Seems to be a minute difference; the genuine one seemed to need but a hairsbreadth more room. I took it out and, with some coarse sandpaper, sanded down the back of the cavity where the trem was rubbing. Seems to be fine, now. No pics, because it's not terribly stimulating. :icon_biggrin:
 
I'm thinking that zinc-plated screws are not receptive to -- or at least less receptive than the metal of the chassis -- solder.
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It's useful to scrape everything you're soldering to. Just take the course sandpaper to it and mess it up, the solder sticks better to rough metal. And anything chrome-plated, you want to grind/sand/gnaw through the plating to get to the real metal underneath. It doesn't have to be pretty, the electricity doesn't care.
 
Mr. Head is correct in that you usually need some naked metal to play with, but the real problem there is you need a massive (think 70-100 watts) soldering iron because that big flat part you're trying to solder to is acting as a heatsink. That's why the solder is balling up and won't flow. You can't get the parts hot enough. The solder will melt on the iron, but it shrinks like a nutsack in Lake Superior when it touches that relatively cold metal. Also, that eyelet is too massive. Unless you have a torch, it'd take 5 minutes to get it hot enough for solder to even think about adhering to that, and it still might balk.

You already have a hole drilled. Get a machine screw with a lockwasher/nut, and a bog-standard compression terminal lug similar to one of these...

Terminal-Cable-Lugs-SC-JGY-.jpg

Crimp a short bit of wire into the lug, bolt the lug onto the sheet metal, then solder your various ground requirements to that.

IMG_1266_Sm.JPG

Those lugs are as common and cheap as dirt. You can get them at Lowe's or anyplace like that. Even small hardwares and automotive stores often carry them, as well as Radio Shack or any other kind of electrical/electronics distributor. Hell, Kroger's might have them, if it's a big enough store.
 
Yeah, in trying to solder all that metal, hoping to get the heat to stay where I need it is like trying to pick up some mercury by stabbing it with a fork.

The Home Depot in Chelsea is so useless. The staff are clueless and not remotely helpful and, in browsing for teardrop washers or items of the type Cagey mentions, I've not been able to find any. The Depot in Bed-Stuy is at least bigger, like a rural-sized box store, so maybe I'd have better luck there. The Lowe's is pretty good, but it's harder for me to get there. Local hardware stores in the bywater in which I live are pathetic. They're far more Haitian/Misc. Caribbean Social Clubs or Chinese Junk Stores (not the boats, the English definition of junk ... no, not that one ... ) than useful hardware sellers.
 
Man. You'd think in a city the size of New York you'd have hardwares and other retailers up the ass.

Time to learn to love The Interwebs. It's a series of tubes...

Seriously, unless you have a gig this weekend, think of the whole guitar-building thing as a hobby.

EAED0C8821441B1C831686_Large.jpg


It's a time-wasterizin' hobbyzation sorta thang!​

Just order the parts you need, wait for the little rascals, and proceed from there. All that cabbing and walking and bussing and subway riding just to get to some half-assed store is for the birds. If you think shipping is bad, add up all the fares you pay to get disappointed.
 
Cagey said:
If you think shipping is bad, add up all the fares you pay to get disappointed.
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Well, I buy an unlimited fare card every month since I make at least two subway or bus trips a day, so it's cheaper than paying per fare. I pay in time, when I gallivant around the borough(s) looking for parts ... but sometimes it's good to get away from the apartment.
 
what area of Brooklyn do you live in? I used to live in Bed Stuy off the A train.
 
I used to live in Bed-Stuy, too. I lived off the Nostrand stop on the A. Jefferson Ave at Marcy.

I'm in Flatbush now. I've been all over. A decade ago, I was on 4th Avenue between Pacific and Dean, but I keep getting priced out of to wherever I move.
 
Getting out is good.

We don't have public transportation systems here to speak of. I mean, they exist, but they're just about useless so nobody uses them. It's like a bunch of traffic managers, civil engineers, economists, social workers and useless bureaucrats get together to study the whole thing until they can figure out exactly where to put the pickup points and destinations where they'll be the most inconvenient and farthest from any group who might be interested in using them or any place that might benefit by their availability, all at the highest cost possible. It's gotta be mind-bending work.

Most of the time, unless you're crippled or your destination is farther than 20 miles, you can walk where you want to go faster and cheaper. Of course, assuming you avoid the various kinds of misadventure you might encounter, you might get soaked or freeze to death, but who cares? It's better than walking 3 miles to stand at a bus stop waiting for hours for a bus that may never come because public workers get 215 days off a year. Then, if by some miracle the bus does come, it's only going to drop you within 3 miles of where you want to go.

Thank the FSM for the Internet and UPS.
 
Yeah, the People Mover is pretty sad. And I once waited long enough for a bus on Woodward and decided it was never coming. I walked from the DIA down to the river, probably before the bus had even arrived at the stop I'd left.
 
Cagey said:
Getting out is good.

We don't have public transportation systems here to speak of. I mean, they exist, but they're just about useless so nobody uses them. It's like a bunch of traffic managers, civil engineers, economists, social workers and useless bureaucrats get together to study the whole thing until they can figure out exactly where to put the pickup points and destinations where they'll be the most inconvenient and farthest from any group who might be interested in using them or any place that might benefit by their availability, all at the highest cost possible. It's gotta be mind-bending work.

Most of the time, unless you're crippled or your destination is farther than 20 miles, you can walk where you want to go faster and cheaper. Of course, assuming you avoid the various kinds of misadventure you might encounter, you might get soaked or freeze to death, but who cares? It's better than walking 3 miles to stand at a bus stop waiting for hours for a bus that may never come because public workers get 215 days off a year. Then, if by some miracle the bus does come, it's only going to drop you within 3 miles of where you want to go.

Thank the FSM for the Internet and UPS.
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Spoken like a true Californian.  :laughing7:  RAmen!
 
Well, I've been too busy to get to wiring the guitar, but that's good because I want to come up with a solid means of grounding all the components without using the pot housings. I desoldered the eyelet and I'm going to hit the sad little Home Depot in Chelsea today to see if I can find some holey fastener-type jobbies (that's what they're called, I'm sure :icon_biggrin:) as a better hub for my rhythm circuit ground wires.

I need to figure out if there's a screw / bolt gauge with a 7/64" shank, since that's how wide is the hole in which was the eyelet (how's that for syntax!) ... then track down a washer and nut for it, to boot. Blech.

Edit: found this link (http://hingedummy.info/screwinfopage2.htm) ... seems like a 3- or 4-gauge would work, though the 3-gauge has a significantly thinner root.
 
There's very little on Woodward any more, at least in Detroit, so I don't know why they'd even run a bus line on it. Probably why you waited forever. I think even the whores have abandoned it. Used to be a lot of 'em back 100 years ago when I was going to school. Took two hours to get there for 3 hours worth of classes, then two hours home. Luckily, it was only about 3 days a week. The whores were fun, though. They'd know I wasn't gonna be a customer, but it didn't stop 'em from trying. Plus, they were fun to watch <grin>
 
You should all consider moving to Portland. It's cheaper than NY or any big city in Cali, and the public transportation is awesome and comprehensive.  :icon_biggrin:

actually, i take that back. don't move here. i don't need my rent going up either
 
So, I stayed up even longer past my bed time last night and connected everything, though I left some of the soldering 'til today. Finished up the soldering, the PIO capacitors gave me the most trouble. So frickin' ungainly. There were other frustrations. I uttered many, many, many oaths, curses, swears, you name it. I made some porn stars blush.

But I got it all together, I dropped in the pickguard and plugged her in and -- to my pleasant surprise -- everything worked. Rhythm circuit worked, even, despite that I did a Gibson-style '50s wiring scheme, disregarding the traditional JM wiring. Did '50s wiring on the master tone and volume also, but I don't like the effect. It's so, so muddy when I completely roll off the tone.

There was a problem, though. Buzz. Not the typical single coil buzz, but grounding problems buzz. Touching the strings made it go away. I cursed a bit more and set about tracking down the issue. I figured it was that the wire I intended to be pinned between the tremolo and the lip of its cavity, against the top of the body, wasn't making contact with the trem. So I took it off and repositioned the wire and reseated the trem, refastened it: no hum.

Next, I set to screwing down the pickguard. Found that I had some errant wires, so I had to coax them into the cavity, which I did -- after cursing a bit more -- and then was able to screw the pickguard flush to the body.

I plugged her in and she was quiet as death with the master circuit engaged. I struck the strings. Sweet music.

I then flipped on the rhythm circuit and got nothing. Bupkus. Dead. No sound. Sad face.

I must have broken a connection or touched a hot run to a ground wire or terminal. So @#$#$#$&*#!@(@ing frustrating. But the whole rhythm circuit switch isn't fakakta because when down (off) the neck pup works in the main circuit. So ... frowns and curses.

:sad: :tard:
 

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I opened her up and took a look at the rhythm circuit switch. The neck pickup wire was not soldered. I overlooked it, obviously. However, this can't be the source of my problem because even without being soldered on, the rhythm switch was activated when the master circuit was engaged.

However, I soldered it anyway. I plopped the pickguard back in, plugged in the guitar and tapped the neck pup's magnets with the rhythm circuit on ... still nothing. Not being soldered was not the problem.

I can't see any obvious issue besides that I chose a wiring scheme different from that prescribed in the diagram. But why, then, did the rhythm circuit work the first time I plugged in the guitar, before I addressed the grounding buzz? Blind luck?

A few asides:

Having to tape the pickup covers so they don't fall out of the pickguard is a bit of a pain. I'd love to improve upon the Jazzmaster design by attaching the pickup covers to the pickguard.

They drilled 13 holes in my guard, but I only got a 12-pack of screws. I think the 13th hole was mistake, because it's the one hole that isn't countersunk.

The ground wire from the tremolo is such a friggin' pain. Glad I've got the foam sheet and could turn the guard over onto it, thus not needing to disturb the trem wire. Now that I've got the guitar perfectly grounded, I don't want to mess with the trem at all. Sadly, the trem scrapes against the cavity they routed, so I'll need eventually to remove it and try and widen the cavity.
 

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