Warmoth Virgin Build - Her name is Bertha

[StogiePatriot]

Well I've pestered the folks in the Wiring room for a bit so I figured I'd share my decision to go big with me first warmoth build...  Here are the particulars:
Body:
Chambered Strat body, rear route HSH configured with standard strat controls.
Uber bad arse quilt maple top adorning the swamp ash body
Schaller tremolo with FR locking nut (R4) - Strat Neck pocket
Finished Amber Dye with a solid amber back; masked binding

Neck:
Warmoth Pro Angled Standard thin (Right Handed), Flame Maple, Pau Ferro Fretboard, 1 11/16" Nut Width, 6150 frets (std), Gotoh/Grover (13/32", 11/32") Tuners, 22 frets, 10-16" Compound Radius, Pearloid Sharkfin Inlay, Cream Binding, Clear Satin Nitro, 25-1/2 in.

The pickups are going to be (neck) SD Full Shred; (m) Custom Shop Pearly Gates strat sized humbucker; (bridge) SD Dimebucker.  I'll be using Triple shot rings and a funky wiring config that I pulled out of my...... head...

The pics are of the actual wood (the assembled pic) and the finish that will be on it for the other...

I'm obviously broke and excited beyond measure..... :cool01:  My build blog is at www.crisrogers.com/music

 

[AutoBat]

you don't need to save then upload gallery photos, you can just link direct to them.
standard 6150 frets?  Nooo. you want stainless steel. they're like playing on glass with the added benefit of being nearly indestructible.
everything else sounds awesome.

 

[StogiePatriot]

Thanks for the tip AutoBat on the pictures...

On the S/S vs Nickel silver, I bet I read 3-400 posts from multiple sources before I went n/s  -- I'm not rough on the frets at all and my stable to this point is all n/s so I figured I'd go with that which I know.  It certainly wasn't to save pennies - just a choice...

Besides, 'if' I am wrought with regret in a year or two I'll drop the thing off w/my brother (luthier/repair dude) and have him refret it for me.  But I totally get where the S/S is the goto choice - I just decided to go old skool on that pick...
Thanks again!

 

[AutoBat]

 

[StogiePatriot]

:toothy12: ROFLMAO!

 

[Shadow]

For whatever reason, this build always comes to mind when tonar is mentioned... I'm still in love with the side burst on an electric.

http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=4976.msg159820#msg159820

Edit: That should give you an idea of his work and a link to him as well.

 

[StogiePatriot]

For whatever reason, this build always comes to mind when tonar is mentioned... I'm still in love with the side burst on an electric.

http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=4976.msg159820#msg159820

Edit: That should give you an idea of his work and a link to him as well.

Yeppers - that is fantastic work and in my ballpark - I'm such a sucker for a quilt top...  I've got a few flame and 'ripple' effect maple tops but they are on stage breaking POSs.  I wanted a gitar I'd love for a long loooonng time (even w/nickel silver bwooohahahah) ;-)\\

I've seen lots of accolades for Tonar and there's ample reason why it's aimed his way....

 

[stubhead]

I'm curious about the funky wiring scheme, and how it might affect the balance of the output of the pickups. The Dimebucker is Duncan's respectful clone of the Bill Lawrence L500XL, which is my PU of choice for three builds now. Lawrence does funny things with the inductance to make an extremely powerful pickup with very little string pull. And it's got enough power to basically function like two good Telecaster bridge PU's next to each other but no squelching each other in the way real Telecaster bridge PU's would do. It has enough power that I'm wiring them with their own 4-way switch, front coil/back coil/series/parallel. However, it is a fireblowing dragon, and the only way I know of to make it play well with others is it's own volume control and the switch positions that power it down some.

I dunno - you're putting three pretty powerful pickups quite close together, and that neck pickup might be loud and muddy due to it's overwoundedness* - the Tripleshot rings do the series/parallel/singlecoil thing, right?  If you look at some shredmonkey-of-the-stars guitars, if they're doing three pickups, the middle and neck ones are often surprisingly tame, for the sake of balance. One thing you can be sure of is that you ain't a-gonna get that cute, classic vintage Stratocaster "quack" with switch positions 2 and 4. But what the heck - the worst that might happen is you'll have to rewire something & maybe swap out a PU or two. I still consider all of my happy guitars to be works-in-progress, even if I don't molest them for years at a stretch.

*(it is now....)

P.S. ("Bertha" as in "I had a hard run, runnin' from your window?" Though some feel as though this was actually sung as "I had a hard-on, runnin'...)

 

[StogiePatriot]

Stubhead, I'm sorta there too, but my thinking is exactly the "what the heck" and if I need to yank the neck out and put a JB or a vintage in that slot to tame things out, then that's the plan.  Or a blend pot... or a resistor network.....  or  arty07: arty07:

Yeah, that's where I am on this....  ;-)  I'd had the same thought but as Jumble and I had been bouncing back and forth in the Wiring room, it's an experimentation machine (a gorgeous one - the best kind)...  The other bit is I have a set of hot rodded SDs in a crap LP china knockoff with the triple shot rings and those things can cut down the signal in a hurry just with a flip here and there.  So long as your not staying at full volume and not playing, the north coil only setup is mousy where the parallel setup is raunchy and dirty (like I like my woman....)

I think i like this place!  Cool peeps and actual interesting questions of intrique (not JUST b@ll busting)...

 

[DangerousR6]

very nice, I like it... :icon_thumright:

 

[StogiePatriot]

Thanks Doug - I'm thinking that I'm not alone with fretting and worrying over the config before purchase; it must have been 14-15 builds of the same guitar and after purchasing you're still figuring out if you got it right, etc.  Thank goodness that's over now and I've entered the puppy-dog love stage...

Which of these two should I get Doug to hook me up with?

I'm 50/50 at this point on these two...
Thanks!

 

[stubhead]

OK, now the "Bertha" reference is clear. I tracked down your schematic and it is... very interesting! It will certainly produce a huge number of combinations no matter what you do - and therein lies a problem. Now, I am a longtime fan/addict of "Les Paul" wiring. Two pickups, four knobs and a three-way. And you will run into many who will turn all the knobs to 10. set their amp to sound it's best there, and do nothing but move the selector switch, for three tones. Not surprisingly, these will be the same people who say "I never use tone or volumes controls, because they make it sound sucky."  Of course it does - all they can do is remove signal. The key to it is to set all the guitar knobs at 7, THEN set up your amp for the goodies. Which gives you four little turbochargers an inch from your little finger. And with the switch in the middle, there are all sorts of interactivity between the pickups.

Line6 here clarified it for me, I'd only been playing the things for 35 years... What is happening there is that the pickup at the lower volume is functioning as an inductor to the louder PU. For those who say "It's too complicated" & "It will never work on stage" - ummm, it's called "Duane Allman", and it happens in every single instance of his solos on "Elizabeth Reed." You go to sugarmegs.org, and listen to any of the dozens of instances between 1970 and late 1971:

http://tela.sugarmegs.org/_asxtela/

The "Live at the Fillmore" version is adequate. And this is all a roundabout way of saying that with that diagram wired up, every switch you flick is going to unleash such byzantine induction loops and differing amounts of resistance and proportional capacitance that it may be quite impossible to "research" much of anything. What you will learn is how to make some really cool sounds by random switch-flicking - but it'll be like trying to get smart by eating an encyclopedia, or studying Chinese grammar by parachuting into Mongolia with trade beads - yes, you would eventually learn how to say "Me go peepee" and "Me hungry!"....

Though I am absolutely the wrong person to tell you not to make it complicated, I guess I was lucky in approaching it from the opposite direction - what set of tones did I need to have to fake my way though the last 40 years of music?

six volume controls and six phase switches? ???

(Among the 34,000 concerts on sugarmegs there are hundreds of "GD" shows featuring some fine "Berthas." I try to limit my self to 1772-1974 "Dark Stars" just because there is SO much great music available. But don't listen to the April 8th, 1972 show - it'll just make you crave more switches.)

http://tela.sugarmegs.org/_asxtela/gd1972-04-08.asx

 

[JCizzle]

Sounds good, man. I'm still assembling my first build and if there's one thing I can tell you it's make a decision and stick with it, and it sounds like you're doing just that...

 

[greywolf]

your gonna love that Beauty!

 

[StogiePatriot]

OK, now the "Bertha" reference is clear. I tracked down your schematic and it is... very interesting! It will certainly produce a huge number of combinations no matter what you do - and therein lies a problem. Now, I am a longtime fan/addict of "Les Paul" wiring. Two pickups, four knobs and a three-way. And you will run into many who will turn all the knobs to 10. set their amp to sound it's best there, and do nothing but move the selector switch, for three tones. Not surprisingly, these will be the same people who say "I never use tone or volumes controls, because they make it sound sucky."  Of course it does - all they can do is remove signal. The key to it is to set all the guitar knobs at 7, THEN set up your amp for the goodies. Which gives you four little turbochargers an inch from your little finger. And with the switch in the middle, there are all sorts of interactivity between the pickups.

Line6 here clarified it for me, I'd only been playing the things for 35 years... What is happening there is that the pickup at the lower volume is functioning as an inductor to the louder PU. For those who say "It's too complicated" & "It will never work on stage" - ummm, it's called "Duane Allman", and it happens in every single instance of his solos on "Elizabeth Reed." You go to sugarmegs.org, and listen to any of the dozens of instances between 1970 and late 1971:

http://tela.sugarmegs.org/_asxtela/

The "Live at the Fillmore" version is adequate. And this is all a roundabout way of saying that with that diagram wired up, every switch you flick is going to unleash such byzantine induction loops and differing amounts of resistance and proportional capacitance that it may be quite impossible to "research" much of anything. What you will learn is how to make some really cool sounds by random switch-flicking - but it'll be like trying to get smart by eating an encyclopedia, or studying Chinese grammar by parachuting into Mongolia with trade beads - yes, you would eventually learn how to say "Me go peepee" and "Me hungry!"....

Though I am absolutely the wrong person to tell you not to make it complicated, I guess I was lucky in approaching it from the opposite direction - what set of tones did I need to have to fake my way though the last 40 years of music?

six volume controls and six phase switches? ???

(Among the 34,000 concerts on sugarmegs there are hundreds of "GD" shows featuring some fine "Berthas." I try to limit my self to 1772-1974 "Dark Stars" just because there is SO much great music available. But don't listen to the April 8th, 1972 show - it'll just make you crave more switches.)

http://tela.sugarmegs.org/_asxtela/gd1972-04-08.asx

The June '72 shows are the epics for me; aside from their European tour.  The drugs were at a reasonable level and the guys were playing their arses off - accurately and in time!  And whilst this guitar isn't a facsimile the bass that Lesh played in that era (good gravy Batgirl - he was the tone tinkering king) - it's my jack-around rig for now.  It's just as easy to rip all that stuff out and throw a JB, Jazz and a seth lover in it for the no knob approach, but for me at this time, it's a fascination that I 'need' to indulge.  (At least this one won't get me arrested...)

That 4/8/72 show is monsterously EPICTastical!  Only deadheads understand....  :cool01: I wish they had dancing bear smilies....

 

[StogiePatriot]

OK, now the "Bertha" reference is clear. I tracked down your schematic and it is... very interesting! It will certainly produce a huge number of combinations no matter what you do

Mainly because I suck at math, I'm sticking with Dan0's count of 93 combos.  If I decide to play with the 8 pole/5 position switch Jumble exposed me to it goes off the chain at that point.....