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I don't want to alarm anyone, but…
OMG! IT MAKES NOISE!
:)
But, I'm getting ahead of myself. First off, it was time to bolt on the neck and mount the bridge. I started by placing strips of masking tape on every second fret or so, and then measured the width of the neck at each fret and marked the centre. The fretboard dots can't be relied on for your centre-line, as they vary too much and aren't always centred. As such, the masking tape and measured centres allow me to line up a fishing line centre-line.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con..._bridge_01.jpg
With the my markers lined up with the centre-line I was able to align the neck and clamp it in place.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con..._bridge_02.jpg
And, then carefully bolted it into position (well, screwed it actually, and I used candle wax to lubricate the screws to minimise the risk of them snapping).
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con..._bridge_03.jpg
Time for the bridge…
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I used an old high and low E string (through the string-thru) along with the centre-line to align the bridge with the neck (I'm using the bone nut I made in the previous posts, it's just sitting in place for now). I also had to make sure all the string-thru holes were clear and lined up. Once I was satisfied, I tightened the bridge mount screws just enough to hold it in place.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con..._bridge_04.jpg
Then, I used a couple of long steel rules (with masking tape on their back to protect the finish) to line up along each side of the bridge to check its squareness and alignment down the length of the neck. I also took a moment to re-check my scale length to ensure the bridge was in the right position, and had a look at the action (saddle height, nut height, string height etc). If you remember back to early in this thread, I did some re-routing of the neck pocket, so I wanted to make sure I got it right.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con..._bridge_05.jpg
It all looks pretty good to me.
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Time for the dreaded moment… trying to connect the control plate to the pickups. Because of the length of the leads and small cavity size, I had to connect the plate right up close to the body which made things very awkward. While making the connections I had to be careful how the wires would lay in the cavity and around the switch to ensure that it would all fit… hopefully.
Ready for surgery.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con..._wiring_05.jpg
It was a struggle (it's been a while since I've done any real soldering), but I eventually got everything connected and wiggled into position. I knew it was never going to be pretty, but I tried to keep it neat and use heatshrink wherever I could.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con..._wiring_06.jpg
Time for the big test. Using a headphone amp I plugged it in and… it actually worked!! Well, mostly. Both the pickups and all 5 positions on the lever switch worked (I still had my 2 test strings on from mounting the neck and bridge), but when I used the push/pulls, nothing, silence.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con..._wiring_07.jpg
Because it was the same for both pickups I knew immediately what must have happened, I'd mixed up the colour pairs on my original diagram, which meant the red and white wires were reversed on the switches… thus each coil was shorting itself and no sound. The fact that I knew what was wrong didn't stop the 5 minute stream of expletives that followed… as I would have to reverse those two connections on each switch, which were hard enough to solder the first time, and now had everything else soldered in around them <sigh>. Eventually I was able to get them reversed and re-soldered, but the wiring was now a little uglier and messier… but, it worked, at last. Btw, I've edited my post with the schematic in it to explain the error with the wiring.
The next step was trying to squeeze all of that wiring into the control cavity. It was somewhat akin to trying to close an overfull suitcase, but after several attempts and re-positioning of wires I was finally able to get it into position and screwed down. In my brief untuned 2 string test… I have to say I'm liking the out of phase parallel sound a lot, and although the tone has a nice warm sound when it's wound right back, the linear pot is making it a bit 'all or nothing' rather than the progression I was hoping for. I may need to change it back to a log pot at some point, I'll wait and see.
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So, everything was in place, time to throw a full set of strings on it… PitBull 9's, of course. Final touch, over-size strap buttons.
I still need trim the width of the nut, but I won't do that until the neck has settled in and I can get a better idea of the action. I did a rough check today and I think I'll have to take about 0.010" or so off the bottom of the nut to get the overall string height close to where I want it, then tweak the slots. Because the neck has been sitting so long (maybe 8 months) with no tension, I've been tuning up in stages and I'm still around 2 tones down from standard at the moment.
Time for some quick pics, all indoors unfortunately. I will hopefully be able to get some good pics in sunlight over the next couple of days. Anyway, I think it's come up alright.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...sembled_01.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...sembled_03.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...sembled_04.jpg
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http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...sembled_02.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...sembled_05.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...sembled_07.jpg
I just had a quick play with the headphone amp again, still tuned a couple of tones down though, and I have to say that I lurrrrrve the position 2 'out of phase parallel' sound! Very notchy, nasally, almost like position 2 on a strat sounds. And, the fat 'bridge and neck in series' (position 4) has some hair on it. As expected, the parallel coil settings for the pickups thin their sound quite nicely, which I like, and I think this wiring is going to produce some really nice sounds. Now, if I can just add that talent switch, I'll be set.
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Great work Scott - looking schmick and sounds like its a cracker!
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Fantastic work Scott. She's come up beautifully! Would love to hear how she sounds...!
cheers,
Gav.
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another fantastic build Scott, hope you are far enough away from the tele napper. Nice mods and sure it will sound great when the neck has settled in and played through a nice amp
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Looks flipping amazing Scott! I'd be happy to pay a couple of grand for that if I saw it in a shop (if I had a couple of grand...) Did you find that there was much leeway in the neck when you were aligning it? I thought with a bolt on neck you could just rely on the fit of the neck cavity to keep the neck straight assuming the fit is tight enough. Anyway you should definitely enter this gem in GOTM!
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