Roasted Ash hollow tele body with roasted maple neck - Balanced?

[stratamania]

What about a pair of Seymour Duncan P Rails, if you are after versatility it can give you P90, Humbucker and Single coil type tones in the one pickup.

 

[Cagey]

Buddy of mine put one of those in a single pickup Melody Maker. Between strategically adjusting the volume/tone and switching between single/P90/humbuck mode, he got a helluva lotta versatility out of a very simple guitar.

 

[sleemon]

The P Rails do look intriguing but I think it will be too complex for me. Think I'll go for the TV Jones pickups after all although I never tried them. I am a bit worried that they will need to be too close to the strings - do you have any experience in this? I'd like to have room below the strings to be able to pick above the pickups. And I'm still worried that I'd like the p90 sound more... But I guess I would be able to switch and change the cavity size so it would fit a soapbar hum cancelling p90 at some point...

EDIT: Did write poor Spike once again to make him change the order. I think I need the Fralin hum canceling p90's although it will make everything more expensive considering the fact that I live in Denmark....

EDIT2: Spike returned and said that the guitar is in production and that it would require a restart fee of 25% and I'm sure I'll be fine with the TV Jones configuration. I am though wondering if I at some point could buy a noiseless P90 in a TV Jones sized enclosure. Like the TV Jones T90 but with hum cancellation. 

 

[Cagey]

Just build the thing and see what it sounds like. No matter how much you plan/review/research, you'll find that what the thing ends up sounding like will not be what you expected. Fortunately, most of the time it ends up sounding better  :laughing7:

 

[sleemon]

Hi guys,
Now I got the parts and I'm really impressed with the quality. Now I'm about to wire up everything, but I dont know how to do it, I have to admit. The reason is that I want to use a Dimarzio EP111 in stead of a regular 3-way switch. I don't need any fancy wiring, just the most basic.
The most basic schematic I've found is this
http://www.dimarzio.com/sites/default/files/diagrams/2h1v1t_1dpdt1111or3wtelsplit.pdf
But it says "split center position" - is that what I want?
And how do I make the connections on the switch? I don't understand... and how do I connect the pickups to the EP111?
Guess I'm kind of lost, thought I could find a youtube video and just follow the video without knowing too much about circiutry...

 

[Fat Pete]

If you stuck with the TV Jones pickups that diagram isn't going to work - AFAIK you will only have black, white and shield.

I think this diagram is the one you want. It doesn't matter that it says it's for single coils.

 

[sleemon]

Thanks!
And how do I connect the pickups to the switch?
EDIT: I found it on the diagram (DOH!)

 

[sleemon]

Now I've wired up the guitar. It's the first time soldering for me and I'm afraid it shows... The middle and the bridge pickup works, but when I switch to the neck pickup there is a noise when I do not touch the strings and no sound from the strings. When I touch the strings or the hardware the noise disappears but there still is no sound from the strings... Any ideas?

 

[Cagey]

I'm guessing that it's wired wrong. Can't tell by the picture, but it's a pretty safe bet. Review your work.

As for your soldering, it appears you're feeding solder to the soldering iron, which will always win. The solder will melt, and then it doesn't know what to do so it forms into a ball and pouts. What you want is for the parts to be hot enough to melt solder. Then, then feed the solder into the joint, and it'll flow around nicely and make a good joint. Think of the soldering iron as a catalyst, not an active participant. It's just there to get the joint hot.

 

[Sovereign_13]

Tin your parts.  Heat them beforehand and apply solder.  Keep the heat on until the solder wicks onto the wire or case, rather than forming a ball.  Tin the parts separately before joining them - tinned parts will go together much easier.  You'll find you spend less time with the iron on the parts if you tin beforehand, as the solder in the tinned parts will spread the heat around very quickly and help the solder to flow better.  You'll also find you use less solder, which makes your joints neater.

Don't get discouraged.  Soldering is one of those things that's easy to understand and difficult to get really good at.

 

[sleemon]

Thank you, you´re completely right. I think I learned it now... I don't understand why it doesen't work though. Perharps I need to bring it to a tech - I just can't stand waiting! I'll post som pictures tomorrow of the guitar.
This is how the wiring looks now and these are the schematics that I have used. If you look at the previous picture you can see how I made the connections on the switch. I can't see why that is wrong? But I'm sadly definately no expert.

 

[Sovereign_13]

I think maybe you have some wires crossed.  Is it possible for you to get a picture of the whole wiring setup and post it here?  Wires that leave the frame and then appear to re-enter can be confused with other wires that are the same color.

Rest assured that we can certainly help troubleshoot this you if you work with us.  Some of the folks here have seen every problem under the sun and fixed it when it comes to guitars.