Mustang Build.

[dmraco]

I was able to work a deal with Day-mun and acquire his cream mustang body.  I am building for an aspiring high school Musician who is a lefty but is used to tuning right handed guitars around.

I picked this up from Warmoth.  It will be the 1st Wenge piece I have ever used.  I am very interested in the fretboard.  Neither of us are fans of the CBS shape so I may reshape a bit to something closer to the warhead.  We will make a call after it is installed.

Since we are tight on budget we will be using the pick guard that Day-Mun was nice enough to provide.  I am using the ferrite GFS gold foil pick ups.  Humbucker sized single coil in the neck and a humbucker in the bridge.  I used these before in another build and have a really nice tone to them. 

 

[BigSteve22]

Building a good playing axe for a young musician is a fine thing to do. If it helps your budget, I have some orange drop caps that aren't being used. Let me know what values you are planning to use, if I have what you need, I'll gladly donate them to your cause.

 

[dmraco]

Building a good playing axe for a young musician is a fine thing to do. If it helps your budget, I have some orange drop caps that aren't being used. Let me know what values you are planning to use, if I have what you need, I'll gladly donate them to your cause.

Thanks.  I have always used the Gum style caps and have them on hand.  what are the orange drops?

 

[Logrinn]

The world needs more Mustangs.

 

[rgand]

This will be a cool guitar. Frankly, I like the CBS headstock. Please post a pic when you get it on, even if you're going to cut it down. It would be nice to see how that looks.

 

[BigSteve22]

what are the orange drops?

Orange Drop is actually a registered trade mark of Cornell Dubilier, but the name is generally applied to any design with radial leads, which is dipped in orange epoxy, such as those made by Sprague. A lot of builders like them because of some sort of perceived "secret mojo". Nice caps, but just caps, none the less. "Mojo" is in the imagination of the listener....... Keep listing your specs, if I can help out with something out of my parts drawer, I'll be glad to send it along. :icon_thumright:

 

[Cagey]

They're good caps. High quality, reasonably priced, and most importantly, reliable and consistent.

I used to use quite a few of them back in my electronics engineering/experimentation days.

 

[dmraco]

Honestly Steve I do not need it but will try one.  I have never given caps much thought.  I usually use these:

http://www.guitarfetish.com/Polyester-Gum-Drop-Tone-Caps-022uf-for-Humbuckers_p_695.html

I do have a Bumble Bee vintage cap on a LP Jr. I built just to be vintage correct.  I cannot tell.

 

[mayfly]

They're good caps. High quality, reasonably priced, and most importantly, reliable and consistent.

I used to use quite a few of them back in my electronics engineering/experimentation days.

I will add that these caps are freaking huge compared to other polyester designs 

 

[Cagey]

I'm sure they're using a slightly thicker polyester to get to the Orange Drop's higher working voltage rating (600vdc), which would force larger plate areas to achieve the same capacitance. Combine those two things, and you get a physically larger cap.

Has to be something like that, when you consider the ceramic .022uf 50wvdc parts are not much bigger than a matchhead.

 

[BigSteve22]

I will add that these caps are freaking huge compared to other polyester designs 

True that, small they ain't! That's because most of the ones around are the 600v variety, the 100v caps are much smaller, but still larger than most for their values. The .022's I have are 600v and measure about .75" x .5". Guess all that "mojo" takes up a lot of room!  :icon_jokercolor:

(Cagey mentions bigger plates, but I'm pretty sure it's the "mojo"..........)

 

[bagman67]

I'll say that as a practical matter, for guitar purposes, extremely small components can be a little difficult to manipulate during installation.  Almost the opposite of the crowding you experience with a big paper-in-oil part.

But I don't subscribe to any of the claptrap about one type of capacitor having superior tone vs. any other package type, provided the same actual capacitance value.  Not that anyone asked.

 

[rgand]

Joe Gore did a comparison of 4 different types of capacitors and demonstrated that they all sounded the same. At least, I can't hear any appreciable difference.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEr-66DR8PM[/youtube]

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Orange Drop is actually a registered trade mark of Cornell Dubilier, but the name is generally applied to any design with radial leads, which is dipped in orange epoxy, such as those made by Sprague. A lot of builders like them because of some sort of perceived "secret mojo". Nice caps, but just caps, none the less. "Mojo" is in the imagination of the listener.......

I believe Sprague owned the Orange Drop name originally, however the line has been sold a couple of times since then, most recently to CD. CD has since moved production out of the US (Vermont I think?) and into Mexico. The good news is they are still a very reliable part. It isn't a "mojo" thing so much as that 100% of them are within tolerance, every time. I am firmly in the "measured value is all that matters" camp, so a reliable measured value is what makes Orange Drops appealing to me.

 

[mayfly]

For my high voltage designs I was always a fan of Mallory.  Since then, the Mallory line was also bought by CD!

Those CD guys - they might just take over all the high voltage cap market! 

 

[Day-mun]

My favorite JM upper controls have a Mallory cap installed (it is so smooth and laid-back sounding!), but Mallory caps seem to "let a lot by" in other applications; all the noticeable roll-off is at the last third of the pot's sweep. Orange drops are the go-to on most of my builds, but lately, I have been using the Fender reissue waxed paper/tin foil caps. They sound really good with the Antiquity II's I put in my latest Mustang & JM (lower control pots are 250K in that one).

 

[Tomatonator]

You could evaluate a bunch outside the guitar. This guys vids are really useful:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92G-jw4TqS4[/youtube]

 

[dmraco]

back to the guitar....test fitting the pick ups.  I love these things.  The neck is a single coil (humbucker sized obviously)

The bridge is a humbucker that will be tapped for single coil mode.

 

[ragamuffin]

Is that the new "yellow tortoise" pickguard material? Looks awesome, I might have to plan a build around it haha

 

[dmraco]

Is that the new "yellow tortoise" pickguard material? Looks awesome, I might have to plan a build around it haha

Yes it is.  I like it a lot.