Who Says Boxes Ain't Useful?

[Superlizard]

I'm going to re-wire the entire guts of my newly-acquired Agile Goldtop (P90s).

Thing is, the control cavity is so deep and it's too small in there to be able to get your
soldering iron where it needs to be without burning up everything in the process.

So, I channeled the spirit of Les Paul and designed a little Les Paul-style Wiring Harness Station...
outta a box, some tinfoil sheets and packing tape; whole thing took maybe 20 mins to make:

Now I can wire the thing up outside of the cavity, slap it all (assembled) back in the cavity with just a few other spots to solder once in.  :icon_thumright:

 

[AutoBat]

I'll have an LP someday, but for now I'll have to suffer with the pain of a top routed guitar

:laughing11:

 

[JaySwear]

thats a really cool idea... and it only cost $100 for the capcom arcade fightstick box!

 

[pabloman]

Would that happen to be some Custom Shop 69's wound by Abby with the bridge on mod?

 

[Cagey]

So, I channeled the spirit of Les Paul and designed a little Les Paul-style Wiring Harness Station...
outta a box, some tinfoil sheets and packing tape; whole thing took maybe 20 mins to make:
Now I can wire the thing up outside of the cavity, slap it all (assembled) back in the cavity with just a few other spots to solder once in.   :icon_thumright:

Good job. I've seen a number of electronics shops where they build controls for various things, and they often do the same thing. Build up a jig out of plywood, lexan, aluminum or whatever so you can mount all the parts in such a way that you can get at them to wire the little rascals, then you just transfer the harness into the end device's enclosure where it gets mounted and buried. Seems like you're doing more work, but you're not. It makes the work a whole lot easier and less mistakes get made, so a lot of time gets saved. Of course, it usually only makes sense if you're going to use the jig more than once, but that happens more often than not. Successful designs tend to get duplicated.

 

[mayfly]

Yep - I've got jigs for all wiring looms for when I was building amps.  Really simplifies and speeds things up.

 

[bigguspickus]

I'm afraid Gibby is one step ahead of you, SL. They put the LP controls on a circuit board now.

 

[lafromla1]

I'm afraid Gibby is one step ahead of you, SL. They put the LP controls on a circuit board now.

Talk about a clean setup....

 

[Cagey]

That is pretty nice, isn't it? Reminds me of that configurable Strat control system...

It's called the "Toneshaper SSS-1". Has lots of jumpers, switches, different resistors, caps, etc. so you can modify how things work. Available from all the usual suspects, including Musician's Friend, for about $120. Makes for a very neat installations...

 

[Superlizard]

[/quote]

Bah - that stuff's for wussies who are too lazy to solder.  :icon_jokercolor:

Besides, what if you had to replace a pot? 

 

[Cagey]

You can replace pots on the PC board just as easily, if not more so, than with discrete parts. With the PC board, you don't even have any wires/caps/resistors to deal with. If you don't have one already, you might want to get a desoldering tool (solder sucker). Even nice ones like this...

...are only $3.95 at Parts Express. They make life a whole lot easier. It's just a spring-loaded one-shot pump. You heat up a solder joint, put the tip of the pump on the hot solder and press the release button. The piston inside pops back and sucks the solder right off the joint. Works like a champ.

Not everything is assembly. Sometimes, there's disassembly involved, and you need one of these to do that.

 

[Superlizard]

You can replace pots on the PC board just as easily, if not more so, than with discrete parts. With the PC board, you don't even have any wires/caps/resistors to deal with. If you don't have one already, you might want to get a desoldering tool (solder sucker). Even nice ones like this...

...are only $3.95 at Parts Express. They make life a whole lot easier. It's just a spring-loaded one-shot pump. You heat up a solder joint, put the tip of the pump on the hot solder and press the release button. The piston inside pops back and sucks the solder right off the joint. Works like a champ.

Not everything is assembly. Sometimes, there's disassembly involved, and you need one of these to do that.

I've always considered getting a sucker, but desoldering braid works for me.

Whatever one does, just be very careful not to overheat the traces... and lift them off the PCB. 

 

[OzziePete]

I'm going to re-wire the entire guts of my newly-acquired Agile Goldtop (P90s).

Thing is, the control cavity is so deep and it's too small in there to be able to get your
soldering iron where it needs to be without burning up everything in the process.

So, I channeled the spirit of Les Paul and designed a little Les Paul-style Wiring Harness Station...
outta a box, some tinfoil sheets and packing tape; whole thing took maybe 20 mins to make:

Now I can wire the thing up outside of the cavity, slap it all (assembled) back in the cavity with just a few other spots to solder once in.   :icon_thumright:

Good lateral thinking to engineer a solution to a problem. BTW, with all that extra tin foil you can make a hat.... :laughing7:  :icon_jokercolor:

 

[Cagey]

Whatever one does, just be very careful not to overheat the traces... and lift them off the PCB.  

That's why I don't use solder braid. We tried it in a repair shop I worked in back about 100 years ago when the stuff first came out and not only ruined too many PC boards and parts with it, we burned ourselves a lot. Since then, PC board traces have only gotten thinner and narrower and parts have gotten less robust, so I can't imagine it being good for anything but dire emergency use. Even if none of that were a problem, solder wick costs a lot more than a solder sucker and it's consumable so you have to keep replacing it.

 

[Superlizard]

Whatever one does, just be very careful not to overheat the traces... and lift them off the PCB.  

That's why I don't use solder braid. We tried it in a repair shop I worked in back about 100 years ago when the stuff first came out and not only ruined too many PC boards and parts with it, we burned ourselves a lot. Since then, PC board traces have only gotten thinner and narrower and parts have gotten less robust, so I can't imagine it being good for anything but dire emergency use. Even if none of that were a problem, solder wick costs a lot more than a solder sucker and it's consumable so you have to keep replacing it.

But... but... I don't have to solder PCB.  Not amp/guitar-wise, anyways.  :icon_jokercolor:

 

[Superlizard]

BTW, with all that extra tin foil you can make a hat.... :laughing7:  :icon_jokercolor:

Oh, I've gone through several already.

It's my only protection from the Metal Ones and their brainwave scanners.

 

[Cagey]

Buy a solder sucker anyway. You can impress your friends with it <grin>

 

[bigguspickus]

They'll probably think it sucks.

 

[Cagey]

They'll probably think it sucks.

Nah. Telling them it's a sucker in the first place defuses those kinds of comments.

Dim: Check out my new solder sucker!
Dum: Wow. That things sucks!
Dim: It's supposed to.
Dum: Yeah. Well... it sucks a lot!
Dim: So does your mother. What's your point?
Dum: Your nuts.
Dim: Yeah. Mine, too. Still waiting...
Dum: Whut?
Dim: I said "wake up!"