Upcoming NGD and Beginning of Project thread - Blacktop HH Strat

[sunvalleylaw]

So where do you guys buy small gauge wire for using as jumper wires on switches and etc? And what do you get?

[sunvalleylaw]

One other update. I guess I may be ok on my wiring after all. I looked more closely at the specs and it lays out switching like this, in every place that I can find specs on switching.

Position 1. Full bridge pickup
Position 2. Two inside coils
Position 3. Full neck & bridge pickups
Position 4. Outer neck single coil
Position 5. Full neck pickup

SO, though my position two seems off due to the wrong coil being active in the neck, that is fixed by my swapping the pickup 180 around in the hole as DVM suggested. I put it in there with both sets of wires toward the pots, but maybe this Dimarzio is set up differently. In any case, there is room with the wire I have and in the hole just to switch it around. AND, looking at position 4, it appears I am not supposed to have a coil active on the bridge in that position. Looks like neck only. So I should be good! I guess I can swap that pup around and put it all back together after all.

[duhvoodooman***]

http://www.guitarfetish.com/Guitar-H...ols_p_409.html

[sunvalleylaw]

Well, I thought it was working, testing with the screwdriver test. Put it all back together, strung it up, but no go on the bridge in any position. Despite it acting active when I tested. I must have something goofed up or loose on the power on that side, and knocked it putting it back together. So, good thing I left the extra string on the strings. Will try again either some night this week or more likely next weekend. The good news?? It looks awesome, and the neck pickup I bought sounds freaking great! It has a lot of articulate sound that is not all one blast of sound, but has some depth, and it will get the Weezery feedback I wanted. I think it will sound great for what I want. So that is cool!

So, the learning process continues.

[marnold***]

That's what I like about the vintage-style tuners I put on my '51. Makes it easy to remove strings and string them back up quickly.

I had the same thing happen the first time I put my Lace pups in my '51. Got it back together and the bridge was dead unless the grounds were partially defeated. Turned out that the leads got pinched somehow in the bridge pup cavity itself. Just resetting it fixed the problem. Took a call to Lace to get it figured out, though.

[duhvoodooman***]

Probably a twitchy solder joint on the bridge p/u connections. Could be either the hot or ground connections for that pickup.

[sunvalleylaw]

So yay! Took it back apart, without ruining the strings on there, and cleaned up the solder in one area with the black and white wires from the bridge, where there was an extra big glop of solder, and re-did the red hot wire, as I did not like how that joint turned out anyway. Too much exposed wire with no insulation. So, corrected those things, and it all works! Awesome! I finally get to hear the Virtual Hot PAF I bought from Tone2theBone ages ago! And it sounds really good! I like the variation in the wiring set up this way too. Lots of different sounds. 2 and 4 are somewhat similar, but have their own vibe. One thing I might think about is seeing if a guy can take one of the tone pots and turn it into a blend pot as between the two pickups when they are being run together. I have never really messed with separate tone controls all that much.

Old nasty non functioning solder job


New and improved. Now with sound!


All buttoned up. It seems to like its new friend, Rabid Rodent.

[tjcurtin1]

Congrats on getting the wiring sorted out, Steve - it can really make you sweat bullets when it doesn't work like it's supposed to!

[sunvalleylaw]

Congrats on getting the wiring sorted out, Steve - it can really make you sweat bullets when it doesn't work like it's supposed to!

And thanks to DVM for all the great help he provided helping me get there!