Here's the making of my new Z-body!
Specs:
Neck
25,5" Wizard Wenge neck, reverse Tele Headstock
Sperzel Mini Locking Tuners
Side inlays only
Body
Alder Z-body w/ Flame maple top
Dyed Blue Finish
Electronics
Air Norton / Tone Zone Pickups, both coil splittable
Killswitches on Volume pots
Recessed TOM Bridge w/Graphtec Piezo saddles
Graphtec Acousti-Phonic preamp, with dual Jack output
Double battery box
I apologise in advance for my bad English; I'd like to share some steps of the making of, because I spent many hours to make all this Graphtec stuff to work.
All pictures are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/35598617@N00/sets/72157629491724633/with/7060448097/.
Hardware:
Knobs, Pickup frames, battery box and neck plate are from Warmoth. Pots & switches are from a local store. Bridge is a Tonepros TP6. I've choosen this bridge to match Graphtec Piezo Saddles (there's no enough black hardware around ??? :headbang1: :dontknow.
Graphtec installation:
Graphtec saddles are not conductive, so I needed to ground strings properly. I drilled on the back to add some wires and properly ground the string ferrules.
Back ferrules are painted with a black conductive painting. Just to be sure, I filed them and then pressed them into the wood:
Ferrules now touch the copper wires; all is grounded :blob7:.
After some more holes:
Then I shielded the back cavity and wired the rest...
There's a LOT a cables!
Graphtec list many schematics on their website, but no one were good for my case. I wanted a dual jack configuration using two Deep Barrel Jack (Ibanez Style), so I changed their layouts a little. I will post the full wiring later
Now I have the following configuration:
- A killswitch is ready to use on the Volume knob (pot pulled)
- A push-pull pot on the Tone splits both the pickups
- If I insert a single mono jack only , I can choose between magnetic pickups, piezo bridge or both blended, using the 3-way switch on the far right
- If I insert two mono jacks, I can have magnetic pickups on the first jack, and the piezo output on the second jack. In this mode, a killswitch is active on the Piezo Volume knob (pot pulled)
I mounted tuners, oiled the wenge neck and set up bridge and strings. The final result:
I hope you like it :glasses10:
Specs:
Neck
25,5" Wizard Wenge neck, reverse Tele Headstock
Sperzel Mini Locking Tuners
Side inlays only
Body
Alder Z-body w/ Flame maple top
Dyed Blue Finish
Electronics
Air Norton / Tone Zone Pickups, both coil splittable
Killswitches on Volume pots
Recessed TOM Bridge w/Graphtec Piezo saddles
Graphtec Acousti-Phonic preamp, with dual Jack output
Double battery box
I apologise in advance for my bad English; I'd like to share some steps of the making of, because I spent many hours to make all this Graphtec stuff to work.
Hardware:
Knobs, Pickup frames, battery box and neck plate are from Warmoth. Pots & switches are from a local store. Bridge is a Tonepros TP6. I've choosen this bridge to match Graphtec Piezo Saddles (there's no enough black hardware around ??? :headbang1: :dontknow.
Graphtec installation:
Graphtec saddles are not conductive, so I needed to ground strings properly. I drilled on the back to add some wires and properly ground the string ferrules.
Back ferrules are painted with a black conductive painting. Just to be sure, I filed them and then pressed them into the wood:
Ferrules now touch the copper wires; all is grounded :blob7:.
After some more holes:
Then I shielded the back cavity and wired the rest...
There's a LOT a cables!
Graphtec list many schematics on their website, but no one were good for my case. I wanted a dual jack configuration using two Deep Barrel Jack (Ibanez Style), so I changed their layouts a little. I will post the full wiring later
Now I have the following configuration:
- A killswitch is ready to use on the Volume knob (pot pulled)
- A push-pull pot on the Tone splits both the pickups
- If I insert a single mono jack only , I can choose between magnetic pickups, piezo bridge or both blended, using the 3-way switch on the far right
- If I insert two mono jacks, I can have magnetic pickups on the first jack, and the piezo output on the second jack. In this mode, a killswitch is active on the Piezo Volume knob (pot pulled)
I mounted tuners, oiled the wenge neck and set up bridge and strings. The final result:
I hope you like it :glasses10:
Last edited: