Buying pick ups, and other hardware problems,


educatedfilm
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Joined: 08/10/01
Posts: 882
educatedfilm
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Joined: 08/10/01
Posts: 882
05/31/2002 11:24 am
I'm building a guitar at the minute, and this is the first sort of project tah i've gone into...
I've got the main part of the neck sawen and glued together, and the same for the body blank.. So at this point, I need to order my hardware, and i need help with this.
[1] Pickups: I'm going to buy 2 humbuckers (with gibson string spacing), and one single coil (with fender string spacings, and it'll be tilted to fit the gibson string spacings)...
Now, what i'm stuck with are the values for pick ups. I'd like a meduim tone...
I know for single pick up that's between 6k and 9k. For humbuckers that's between 7.5k and 9k. My question is, how close should the values be sot there wont be a noticable difference in volume (this is important because of phase switching). Also what value of pots will need to go with these? (any additional maths explanation with also be aprecaited)
[2] Sheilding: will just the normal shielding tape, or whatever it's called be enough? Any help on this subject will greatly apreciated.
[3]Scratch plate materail: I'm looki9ng for some think that looks like tortoise shell but is GREEN... or some thing that looks like Abalone. (it's not managed to find scratch plate material that fits either description, although there are start scratch plates that look like abalone).
# 1
pstring
Big as Elvis, Baby
Joined: 11/29/01
Posts: 899
pstring
Big as Elvis, Baby
Joined: 11/29/01
Posts: 899
05/31/2002 2:14 pm
Hey Ef, take a look at this website, they should have everything you need, http://www.stew-mac.com

take a look at their Golden Age p/u's, I'm using one of the ceramic single coils in the neck position of my tele and I think it would blend nicely with the PAF style humbuckers and I don't think there will be a problem with volume. You should use 500k pots, btw what kind of vol/tone layout are you going to use? You might want to use a push/pull type pot for your phase switching, don't waste money on shielding tape, tin foil, glue and solder work just as good, if they don't have the pickguard material you want, let me know, I'll dig up a website that will have it,
peace&funkiness
# 2
James8831
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Joined: 10/29/01
Posts: 510
James8831
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Posts: 510
05/31/2002 3:10 pm
pstring has it down..

Stewmac has top notch stuff,very good postage costs to the UK and is fairly quick too.

I'd (just!) add i'd go for Pots from Brandoni -

http://www.brandoniguitars.co.uk/index2.html

go to prices then under accessories and strings - you can't order on the web so on the phone ask for Alan,he knows a lot of stuff in this field (-it's either him or some bird there,i think).



The reason is that i prefer Linear response pots for Vol (should be marked thus- B500K - B standing for Linear).
And Logarithmic (A500k in this case) for Tone pots...Stewmac don't seem to offer that option.

As it happens most standard guitars [i've ripped apart] have pots like i've described above.

For pickups, The (darned) Gibson measures about 5.5K in the Neck and 8.3k in the bridge--as the string vibrations are less discernible to the pickups in the bridge area (strings dont vibrate as much) they need more output.

My twin 'bucker Ibanez measures 4.3k Neck and 7.8K bridge.

You can't tell much difference between the actual level of output in practice.

Project str*t copy has neck@4K,mid5.45K,Bridge@6k and for various reasons you can't tell a great deal of difference in output [although, i have to say it is run through an inboard preamp ,so i suspect you'd be able to detect more differences without a pre]

So I don't ramble too much ,i'll try and keep this short Brandoni also do Kent Armstrong, got the SKY Vintage in the strat copy,not overly impressed with this though.

for cheap parts also see.

http://www.highlystrung.co.uk/ - top geezers, low price- they do ORDINARY scratchplate material,about £10. :)

Otherwise http://www.pickguards.com/

Good hunting.
Accuracy,you say? hmm interesting concept..
# 3
Lordathestrings
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Joined: 01/18/01
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Lordathestrings
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Posts: 6,242
05/31/2002 3:52 pm
My tuppence...

I've come 'round to the conclusion that lower impedance humbuckers have better tone. And I find that a wide range of tones are available by adjusting the relative volumes of out-of-phase pickups.
Lordathestrings
Guitar Tricks Moderator

www.GuitarTricks.com - Home of Online Guitar Lessons
# 4
pstring
Big as Elvis, Baby
Joined: 11/29/01
Posts: 899
pstring
Big as Elvis, Baby
Joined: 11/29/01
Posts: 899
06/01/2002 5:22 am
I agree with L, James and I have talked about this before and the normal to lower range impedance p/u's seem to be a key factor in getting good tone, when you think about all the great albums of the 50's,60's& 70's, those recordings were made with stock pick-ups,, into the 80's when hotter p/u's became the rage it seems like tone started getting more sterile sounding, I have a Dimarzio MegaDrive in a strat body, that really is only good for that 80's kind of sound, it just doesn't have that mid range body, I guess Seth and Leo knew what they were doing back in the 50's...
# 5
educatedfilm
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educatedfilm
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06/01/2002 9:56 am
thanks poeple...
I intened to have an indepedant volume control for each pick up (so actaully, the volume doesn't matter too much i've realized), tone control for each pick up. And 2 phase switches, lets you switch 2 of 3 the three pick ups phasings, giving you all the possible combinations.
I was gonna go for the 7 way pick up selector, but i changed ma mind..
Cheers james for that Highly strung page, which is a great help cos they sell stuff over here...
thanks once again

edit: oh yeah, I play left handed, so the pot need to be left handed (ie turn the opposite direction to the normal ones)... which isn't too difficult to find, but nobs?

[Edited by educatedfilm on 06-01-2002 at 05:01 AM]
# 6
James8831
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Joined: 10/29/01
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James8831
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Posts: 510
06/01/2002 6:18 pm
Low impedance..


I can't describe quite how ..............fantastic.. the low impedance pups on my Tele sounded the first time i heard them. If you've got the body, then you still get great sustain , albeit at a lower volume. The tone still
puts a smile on my face...If you really want to boost them up to Zep/Stones levels you'll need a Stompbox (zoom,etc), or a preamp, to increase the output. Just heard Seymour's Seth Lovers - on the his website ,the man would be proud! Lower output and lovin' it!

Ed..you're most welcome..

Just had a play with a volume pot+knob and the knob "reads" the same either way round,relatively, (what you do is whack the pot open to full and then line the 10 up with your reference point) when i did this the word Volume was upside down in both cases.

I once found a site which explained all about pots and have since forgotten ..much about them.
Learned Gentlemen, kindly intercede if you will..

I know it's possible to wire them differently as i once managed to wire a pot so it was "off" in the middle and produced sounds either side :o .... that was a very funny project/scratchplate -3 [ugly] home mades, 3 vols, 2 tones no switches,very little space- after that I had my "19th Nervous Breakdown" and bought a book..so i don't have to remember too much stuff. ..Adrian Legg, Customise Your Electric Guitar, BTW.

Keep us Posted. Cheers.
Accuracy,you say? hmm interesting concept..
# 7
educatedfilm
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educatedfilm
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Posts: 882
06/01/2002 6:27 pm
LOL!
I've got adrain's book (I think my teacher illustrated one of his other books). I've also got "guitar electronics for musicians" by Donald Brosnac (that book is FAAAAN-TAAAA-STIC, it's really really good in it's aproach, it just assumes you know what a neck/ body/ pick ups are etc (the external parts of the guitar), and it teaches you about everything else from scratch... I'd strongly recommend this book).
hmm... right handed nobs aren't any good, cos i have them, and when you put them so that the 0 is at 0 volume, what happens is: it goes over the blank part of the nob, the 10, 9 , 8, 7 ,6 ,5 and stops around there... oh well... I'll probably get the nice shiny silver ones... shiny shiny shiny!!!
# 8
James8831
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Joined: 10/29/01
Posts: 510
James8831
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Joined: 10/29/01
Posts: 510
06/01/2002 7:49 pm
Originally posted by educatedfilm

"guitar electronics for musicians" by Donald Brosnac (that book is FAAAAN-TAAAA-STIC, ........ shiny shiny shiny!!!



;)

I'll have to check that one out guv'ner..you can't go wrong with a shiny knob...Telecasters type knobs,i mean.

You may want to try Brandoni they are UK based and also have cheaper knobs, but, the postage is more than Highly-Strung..Go Figure.

Have a nice "Jubilee Weekend" :D i'm gonna try and miss the more "Corporate Rock Whore" aspects of any concert..which means i might watch Brian May........or not.

*Rummages for old Sex Pistols tab*
Accuracy,you say? hmm interesting concept..
# 9

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