Long Term Project

[Photomike666]

I haven't done any major amount of electrical work on a guitar before, but know my way round a soldering iron.

The project has 4 distinct stages, one & two I'm working on and three and four will come in time.

Stage one is get a new guitar (Schecter Hellraiser C1-FR), saving is going well.

Stage two is to design and plan new wiring for my present strat copy

Stage three is acquire parts

Stage four is the build.

I have decided to do this as a learning exercise for working on guitars, and to explore what sound possibilities are available. Once I get the Schecter I will chose a piece of music to play on each available setting on my present guitar, and then again on each available setting on the Schecter. This will all be done on a clean channel with no effects or modeling for clarity. I will simply switch my cable from one guitar to another and keep testing. I plan for both guitars to have the same strings. Schecter has 2 EMG Active humbuckers each with a coil tap push pull pot. The present guitar has s/s/h passive pick ups through a Fender five point switch in standard wiring.

To the project guitar. It is a Harlem Strat copy that came with a lot of cheap electronics that are quite noisy. I have already put a Seymour Duncan Distortion humbucker at the bridge, but that is all.

For now all changes will be electronics only, and I have set a budget of $250 + postage. This was a cheap guitar purchased to learn on, and I see no point spending a fortune on. But I also see no point having a guitar I won't play again :-)

I am into playing heavy rock/metal, so I will be aiming at those kind of sounds.

And to the planning...

The Seymour Duncan Distortionbridge humbucker stays, but all other electronics are to be replaced
- Neck - Seymour Duncan Coolrails - fits with no mods except wiring
- Middle- Seymour Duncan Hotrails - fits with no mods except witing

The single volume and single tone pots are going, as are the 5-way and the input jack...

Once planned and reshaped, the inner cavity will be lined with insulating copper tape.

All three humbuckers will be rewired to DPDT on/on/on switches to run in series, parallel or coil tapped. Neck & middle will be wired to a stacked volume control while the bridge will run on a push/pull volume control.

A new 5-way will be used to improve quality, same for the input jack. All wires will be new (26 gauge) and heat shrinked.

The present volume & tone pots will be replaced with higher spec versions and a two more volume pots will be added.

Sound combinations will be:_
- neck, neck/middle, middle, middle/bridge, bridge, bridge/neck & all three together.
- each pick up individually can be parallel, coil cut or series
- separate volume control on neck/middle and bridge
- Switch on tone cap (0.22 & 0.47)
Total sound combinations will be = 63 (x2 for each tone setting if it makes much difference).

The guitar will end up with 2 extra pots and 4 slide switches at will be fitted almost flush to keep them out of the way.

Last part will be rerecord the same piece of music as previous in all settings and compare to original recordings. I am hoping not only for increased tonal control, but also much greater signal clarity.

Would love to hear comments and advice on what can be accomplished.

[Photomike666]

Ok so 8 months have passed and the story changed. My wife was made redundant last year, and any thoughts of new guitars & upgrades went out the window.

Now she is back at work I can start saving for the Schecter again. I also had a output socket failure on my project doner, so have purchased some of the electronics.

Present setup is a Harlem Strat copy (HSS), Seymour Duncan Distortion humbucker, & Ernie Ball Power Slinky string. Everything else is stock.

Parts arrived yesterday, so last night was strip down. As expected all internals look cheap low quality, the unexpected was the sawdust from manufacture!

I've researched my wiring diagrams as I plan to use two push pull pots in lieu of stockers. The volume pot when pulled will allow the bridge pickup to bypass the 5 way switch, so I can use bridge/neck and other combinations. The tone pot will have a 0.22 & a 0.47 orange drop.

This will lead to a long Switchcraft gold output jack, fed with new wires throughout.

Later stages will see hot & cool rails in the middle & neck & all three humbuckers having hot shots for coil cut, series or parallel wiring.

[Photomike666]

The inside didn't look too pretty...

[cebreez]

Look forward to seeing the progress. More "pics" !!!

[Photomike666]

Despite the heat I got a few bits done today.

All pickups are now wired to the new 5 way Fender switch. From switch new wire rinds to the new volume & tone pots. Both pots are CTS push pull 500k linears; volume pulled up lets the bridge bypass the switch and allows neck/bridge combination. The tone push pull swaps between 0.22 & 0.47 Orange Drop Caps.

The pick guard has a nice new covering of copper on the underside, nos I just need to do the earth wires and fix the output socket...

[Photomike666]

I did run into a few unexpected issues;

The body has two cut outs for the switches, one where 5 way goes and another where the pots go. The pots cut out was shallower than the sector hole, and did not have the depth for the push pulls. I used a 19mm drill bit and drilled overlapping holes to increase the depth. I than sanded and painted the inside.

The shaft of the new pots was 10mm, but the originals & holes in the pick guard were 8mm. Drilled those out too.

Last one was a bit weird... The wire on the orange drops did not fit through the holes of the push pull switch. I had to file them down to make the fit. I wanted to ensure they were through the hole got a good fit.

Might even get it finished tomorrow!!!

[cebreez]

Last one was a bit weird... The wire on the orange drops did not fit through the holes of the push pull switch. I had to file them down to make the fit. I wanted to ensure they were through the hole got a good fit.

I've run into that too. The wire looks plenty small enough till you start wiring the switches. I usually just put a small glob of solder on the edge of the wire and touch it to the terminal on the switch. A small piece of shrink tubing and your done. I usually wire the entire switch first then run the wires where they need to go but with guitar wiring when some of the wires go to other switches that's not possible.

[marnold***]

Where did you manage to get CTS push-pulls? They stopped making those several years ago, AFAIK.

[Photomike666]

Your quite right, I wanted CTS, but ended up getting Bourns

[marnold***]

I was looking at one of those for my Squier '51. The majority of the volume drop is in the first 1/3 of the pot's range.

[Photomike666]

Once I get it together ill let you know where the range is

[Photomike666]

Project is done and semi complete for now ;-)

Was a bit tight getting the wires in the space allowed, what with the extra caps and DPDT switches.

The sound is very similar to before, but has more clarity, which I am very happy about.

The DPDT volume pot works a charm, now I can any pick up combination. These pots have a lot more travel then the stock units, but volume is even across the range.

The tone however does not work as anticipated. I get no discernible difference through the travel of the pot, and nothing between the two different caps (Orange drop 0.22 & 0.47). I found a diagram on the net which I followed, but I am now wondering if it’s right. Any advice would be greatly appreciated – Diagram on below post.

[Photomike666]

This is the wiring diagram used for the push pull tone control. And info on why it has little effect appreciated.

[deeaa*]

I've run into that too. The wire looks plenty small enough till you start wiring the switches. I usually just put a small glob of solder on the edge of the wire and touch it to the terminal on the switch. A small piece of shrink tubing and your done. I usually wire the entire switch first then run the wires where they need to go but with guitar wiring when some of the wires go to other switches that's not possible.

I don't even bother. I just slap 'em on and solder over the metal. Never had a connection like that fail yet in about 30 years.

[cebreez]

I don't even bother. I just slap 'em on and solder over the metal. Never had a connection like that fail yet in about 30 years.

Awesome! I would say that is a testament to your skill.

[marnold***]

The tone however does not work as anticipated. I get no discernible difference through the travel of the pot, and nothing between the two different caps (Orange drop 0.22 & 0.47). I found a diagram on the net which I followed, but I am now wondering if it’s right. Any advice would be greatly appreciated – Diagram on below post.

Do you mean that you notice little difference between the two caps OR that you notice little difference between 10 and 1 on the pot OR both?

[cebreez]

I can't see where the difference in the values of the caps would have that much difference at all. If I'm not mistaken they are just used as a treble bleed and are normally only changed according to what size pot you use.
In your diagram the tone should go to the pickup and not to the volume pot. I know your wiring is a little different so this is based solely on standard Strat wiring and is meant as a jumping off point. The cap and ground go to the lug "1" of the volume pot and then to the positive side of the output jack. Here are some diagrams from Guitar Nuts. Hope they help.