H's ES-1GT

[UpperCaseH]

It's a good day. After a bit of a depressing hiatus, I was able to order a new kit!

I've been tossing up between an ash p-bass and a single cut LPJ for months, thinking about which one I was gonna do, and how I was gonna do it, and then when I go to order either one, they're not available until August. Was also thinking about a hollow body one of these days, so I thought about doing an ES-5, realised the kits don't have cutaways, and ended up ordering an ES-1GT.

I'd love to try to get it a similar red to what Andyport achieved way back in this thread: http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ead.php?t=2346 but I'd also love to continue with the dingotone / tru-oil finishes that I've had a lot of success with so far. Can anyone comment on whether Karijini Red or Uluru Red would get me close to that? Was thinking about ebony timbermate for a grain pop, but if Mahogany timbermate will darken up like in the link I posted that's exactly what I'm after.

Haven't ordered any different hardware yet, but I'll defintely be replacing the pickups. Only question is whether I want to go with new humbuckers or humbucker-sized p90s. Gonna look around for different knobs too, I'm after something like a tophet/bell shape in chrome to match the other hardware.

Also, I recently replaced the stock pickups in my first build (TL-1Q) with a Tonerider Vintage Plus set. Mind blown. Would definitely recommend. Turned an OK-for-a-first-go kit into something that's been making me neglect every other instrument I own.

[Dedman]

nice choice H! I have Tone Rider bucker size P90's in a Les Paul and they sound great. The other option is to split the humbuckers and set a heap of tone choices. Plenty of room in there for push pulls. I have the gold Tone Rider PAF style in my V and again, they sound great
https://www.pitbullguitars.com/shop/...old-humbucker/

[UpperCaseH]

Considered splits and discarded the idea for a semihollow because I thought it'd make the wiring even more of a hassle. Thinking about it though, it actually won't, will it? Because the same pickup wires will run to the same pots, just with different connections.

Yeah, I'm gonna do it. Did you split both to the slug coil, or do the neck>screw, bridge>slug thing?

On wiring: Obviously I'm not going to be able to shield this guitar. Is shielded/screened wiring worthwhile? I think I've got some lying around from a different project.

e: This project's starting to look a bit more expensive than I imagined...

[gavinturner]

Hey H,

Great choice of kit - realy love these guitars to build and to play. Dude - hit DB up for a custom colour!

chers,
Gav.

[JohnH]

These look like great kits - look forward to seeing what you do with it. That red on of Andyport's is such a nice guitar

[Dedman]

H, I try to use shielded cable where I can , espeically on those long runs to switches on Gibsons.

I used this diagram

[UpperCaseH]

Thanks!

While I'm OK at following wiring diagrams and simpler schematics, my actual knowledge of electronics is kinda weak, so I'm gonna ask a potentially stupid question.

Standard wiring has volume > tone and then tone > cap > ground. The diagram you posted has volume > cap > tone and then tone > ground.

To my (weak) understanding, that looks like a slightly different way of doing the same thing (edit: As in, this is a resitor and capacitor in series and so the order shouldn't matter). Is there a reason to use one over the other? Something to do with placing the cap before or after the tone pot?

[Dedman]

That's a question for Weirdy, I can follow diagrams but like the internet I don't know how it works, I just accept that it does :P

[Simon Barden]

The order of capacitor and potentiometer resistance for the tone pot doesn't matter. The capacitor and the pickup's impedance make the actual RC low-pass tone circuit, the tone pot's resistance just varies the amount of low-pass signal that gets sent to ground.

It is important for an RC (low pass) circuit that the resistor goes first and the capacitor is connected afterwards and down to ground. Do it the other way round, with a capacitor first and a resistor on the leg down to ground, and you get a CR (high-pass) circuit. But as previously mentioned, in a guitar tone circuit, the pickup is the 'R' component, whilst the capacitor is the leg down to ground and the pot is just a variable resistance in that ground leg.

In reality it's less simple than that, as the pickup also has inductance and capacitance, and there's also the volume pot path down to ground as well. so you get a resonant low-pass filter, with a resonant peak at the filter's turndown point. Most humbuckers have higher resistance and inductance than single coils, which moves the low-pass turndown point to a lower frequency value than in a single coil. This is mainly why humbuckers have a lot more middle and far less high-end to them than most single coils - the resonant peak is boosting the mids, and the trebles are then quickly rolled off after the resonant peak (some of this is also due to phase boost/cancellation issues with the two coils sensing different parts of the vibrating string). On standard single coils (e.g. Strats and Teles), the lower resistance and inductance values move the resonant peak into the treble area, so they are less mid-sounding and can have very pronounced treble content.

Of course, single coils with more powerful magnets and more windings such as P90s have a lower resonant peak than most Fender styles, so whilst being brighter than humbuckers, aren't as bright as a Strat or Tele pickup.

With the large 'bumble-bee' paper-in-oil capacitors originally used by Gibson on Les Pauls etc. I'm assuming in physical location terms it made more sense for them to run the capacitors between the volume and tone pot than to try and fit them on the top of the tone pots and wire them between the tone pot and earth. Especially as they didn't have heat-shrink sleeving at that time and positioning the cap between the two pots helped avoid any inadvertent signal shorting.

[UpperCaseH]

That's about where I'm at too, Dedman.

Thank you for the detailed post, Simon. I understood most of the first two paragraphs and only some of the rest, but it definitely answered my question!