I thought we'd agreed not to talk about Pest's drinking problem. He was underage at the time.
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I thought we'd agreed not to talk about Pest's drinking problem. He was underage at the time.
haha classic Fretty, Pest is still underage for about another 7.5 weeks !
Doc you hit retirement number of pages - 65 !
Quote:
Originally Posted by wokkaboy
Hahahaha.....good one Wokka, nah, I'm not drinking the final coat...honest...lol.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wokkaboy
I'm guessing that I'll have to go into retirement then, that was a really short career as a guitar builder, wasn't it?.....j/k
On another note, I now have only another 35 pages to go to get to 100.
Okay, so I've checked the finish on the Strat Body after leaving it hanging up to dry,it does seem to be touch-dry but I'm going to give it more time before I go and apply another coat.
I'm just having my regular caffeine fix at the moment and will then get to it and get the Soldering mini-tutorial done, stay tuned.
Still reckon there is a cracker of a reality TV show with Shazza and Doc's epic build diaries....
Quote:
Originally Posted by dingobass
In my honest opinion, I think Shazza rules, she really got that 50's Rockabilly vibe nailed with her build, I might consider having a go at building the same kit she got for one of my later kit builds, one of my mates has a guitar that looks similar and it has a Bigsby on it, really nice guitar to play, it has a floating wooden bridge on it though, he got it custom made for him, I might see if I can take a pic of it next time I'm at his place so I can post it for everyone to check out.
Okay, I've had my regular caffeine fix so I'd better get my backside into gear.
Mini Soldering Tutorial
Thought I would include a mini-tutorial on Soldering in my STA-1M build diary for anyone who may be interested in improving their soldering skills, now if any of you are already good at soldering, feel perfectly free to humor me, this is mostly for all the newbies at guitar building, I'm going to show you how I was taught to solder while I was doing a Basic Electronics Course through TAFE at the Charles Darwin University here in Darwin in the mid 90's, I also want to add that I have been pursuing Electronics as a hobby since I was 13 years old, I'm now currently 46 years old....my goodness, time certainly flies doesn't it?
Anyway, when you go to do a soldered electrical-connection, there are at least two phases involved, preparation, and then the actual soldering.
Preparation:
When you go to do the preparation prior to soldering, you want to make sure that the two pieces of metal to be soldered are clean, this helps the hot molten solder to stick to, and flow onto the two surfaces to be soldered together, if the solder doesn't stick, or "take" to the surface of the metals this creates what is called a Dry Solder-Joint, this is bad because a Dry Solder-Joint creates a high-resistance electrical connection which can cause bad earthing problems, or can stop circuits from functioning normally like they're supposed to, or, loss of audio signals.
After the surfaces to be soldered are cleaned, there are a further four phases to the preparation prior to the actual soldering, they are:
1, Cut.......Cutting a piece of plastic-insulated wire to length, remembering that it is easier to shorten a wire than to lengthen it, so maybe cut it a bit longer than it needs to be.
2, Strip......Strip a short length of plastic insulation off the end of the wire, for a piece of wire that's going to be soldered to a solder-lug on a pot you can strip off about 4 to 5mm of the insulation, which should be enough.
3, Twist......Some pieces of wire will contain lots of small strands of copper-wire bundled together inside the plastic insulation, what you want to do prior to soldering is to twist the strands together to form a single neat strand, try and twist the wires all together in the same direction.
4, Tin.....To "Tin" the single bundle of twisted copper-strands means to coat the bundle with Solder, this is done to ensure a good solder-joint that is Electrically strong.
I will be posting some pics shortly to illustrate each of the four phases more clearly.
Okay here are some pics to illustrate the four soldering-preparation phases:
Cut:
Attachment 10223
I used my wire stripping-tool to cut the piece of wire to the required length.
Strip:
Attachment 10224 Attachment 10225
I then used my wire-stripping tool to strip about 5mm of plastic insulation off the end of the wire, making sure I didn't completely remove it, then I used the excess insulation to neatly twist the small copper strands together to form one single strand.
Twist:
Attachment 10226
You can see in the pic how the twisted copper-strands have twisted together neatly, this is what it should look like with no fraying, it should look like a single strand of copper wire.
Finally we come to the Tin-phase:
Attachment 10227
When you go to tin the wire, first wipe the tip of the soldering-iron on the damp cleaning-sponge, or a damp cotton rag after applying some solder to the tip, this tins the soldering iron tip so it can heat the joint to be soldered more efficiently, when you actually go to tin the wire, use the tip of the soldering iron to heat the copper strands and then apply the solder to both the soldering iron tip and the copper strands, don't apply the solder to the iron tip and use it to transfer the solder to the copper strand because the flux in the solder will have gone up in smoke and won't be able to do it's job.
The job of the flux inside the standard 60/40 Electronic Solder is to boil-off any dirt, grease, and oxidation contaminating the surfaces of the metals to be soldered, if the Flux goes up in smoke before it can do it's job, this could potentially create a dry solder-joint.
Doc, I reckon you ought to post this in the "How to thread" more people will find it.
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Originally Posted by Dedman
Good point and a good idea, or maybe one of the mods could copy the data and paste it to a thread in the How To section.
Actually, what I'll do is see if I can duplicate it in the How To section.
This last pic shows what the tinned wire should look like:
Attachment 10228
The tinned wire-end should look like the above pic, nice and shiny-silver.
Note that some of the pics may be a bit blurry, I really need to find out if my Nikon A100 Camera has a Macro function and learn how to use it.
Note 2, you can find a duplicate of this mini-tutorial in the Non Pitbull Guitars Gear forum section.
Hey doc, in terms of applying solder to pots etc, do you have a recommended method for cleaning surfaces?
In the past I've read differing approaches what would you recommend?
Quote:
Originally Posted by FrankenWashie
Well if you're soldering a wire to the metal-shield of a pot, there's no real special techniques I could recommend, other than using some sandpaper, say 180 grit, to sand the metal a bit so that it is shiny, you could also use a pocket knife to scrape the shielding, or, you could use a fine file, sanding or scraping the shield will help the solder take to it easier.
If you're soldering a wire to one of the solder lugs on the pot, you could first sand or scrape the lug shiny, and then tin it prior to soldering the wire on it, be careful with the amount of heat you apply to the solder lug because it may loosen from the heat.
I've gotten pretty good results just by using a Stanley-Knife blade to scrape clean and shiny metal surfaces to be soldered together.
I'll see if I can add some info about soldering to a pot in the mini soldering tutorial I posted in the Non Pitbull Guitars Gear thread, including some more pics.
Update:
Just got a new postal tracking update for the three Entwistle ASN57 pickups I ordered last week, here's what it says:
In transit Processed through Australia Post facility 12:41pm Wed 6 Apr Winnellie, NT
So, going by that I might get a parcel card for them in my mailbox either by Friday, or sometime next week....woohoo!!
Hey Doc, clear out your private message inbox. You're over your quota.
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Originally Posted by Muzza
Just done it, not sure if you got my pm, could you re-send your message?, cheers..
Update:
Just got a bit of good news in my email inbox a few minutes ago, according to this postal tracking notification I should have the new ASN57 pickups at home by this afternoon, here's what the notification said:
In transit Attempted delivery - redirected to Post Office Click the link or press Enter to know more about this event
6:41am Thu 7 Apr The Narrows, NT
I'm going to go and check my mailbox to see if there's a parcel card for me in it.
Update:
Turns out I was right.
Doc I thought you already have your pickups for this loaded in the pickguard ?
hes got that much going on he forgot about them ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by wokkaboy
Quote:
Originally Posted by wokkaboy
I actually ended up having to order some new pickups because one of the AS57 pickups I ordered before went faulty, the new ones are a set of three ASN57 noiseless Single coils, I just got back home from picking them up from the post office.
There were some other goodies in the parcel along with the ASN57 pickups, three Pitbull Guitars picks, a couple of Pitbull Guitars stickers, three Ernie Ball posters, and a set of 42-09 gauge Ernie Ball strings.
ok Doc, so if PBG supplied the pups did they replace the faulty one ?
PS I just rolled over to page 67 !
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Originally Posted by tonyw
Haha....I think it's more a case of me just forgetting what planet I'm on...lol.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wokkaboy
Nah, I just ordered the new set of pickups since I was going to do it anyway, the AS57 pickups hummed too much for my liking, these new ASN57's are Noiseless, that is, they don't hum and should be much quieter.
Hey Doc do you use those lil baby 9's? if so i will send you the set i have for free, i will never use them. I just swapped 10 sets of 9's for a few beers, too slinky for me..
Quote:
Originally Posted by tonyw
Yep, I tend to use 42-09 gauge strings on 25 inch, or 25.5 inch scale guitars, and 46-10 gauge strings on 24.75 inch scale guitars, I got to the point where I'm fairly comfortable with both gauges, I seem to remember Fender using heavier gauge strings on their 25.5 inch scale instruments, like the Stratocaster, that's probably why you see a lot of vintage Strats with 5 trem springs.
I block my trems, hate the things and use 10's, 13's on my slide guitars but anything smaller than 10's? i just dont like them, i should really use 11's for a standard string set seeing as i am a rhythm player who sometimes lashes out into the i am invincible lead role :D
Hey Doc page 67.... nudge nudge wink wink say no more
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Originally Posted by tonyw
That means another 33 pages to go till I get to 100, boy is this diary going to be epic....lol.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tonyw
Some people like trems, some don't, I'm going to set up the trem on my Strat so that it floats since I want to be able to get that "Surf Shimmer" sound where you play a barre chord and then use the trem to slowly lower the pitch of the chord and then bring it back to pitch, works great on a clean sound with lots of reverb.
Ahh thats what i do with my fingers, but each to his own.... enjoy
Quote:
Originally Posted by tonyw
No worries mate.
I might see if I can get the new ASN57 pickups installed in the scratchplate shortly, will post a pic for you guys.
With a bit of luck I should have the Strat up and running in a playable condition by the end of next week, hopefully.
68 pages now Doc!!! Will it ever end? Will we ever see a finished guitar? Find out next time, on PIT BULL GUITARS!
Quote:
Originally Posted by keloooe
Hahahaha.....It'll probably end when it's totally driven me way past insanity, maybe it already has and I don't even know it, as I said, this build diary is going to be epic....lol.
Okay, here are a couple of pics with the new ASN57 pickups installed, I measured the DC resistance of each pickup and they all measured about 13.5k, which is pretty much on spec, so, all three should work perfectly:
Attachment 10306
Attachment 10307
Doc you should start measuring the inductance, that tells you more about the pickup than capacitance.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tonyw
I would but none of my Multimeters can measure Inductance, I used to have one that could measure Inductance but it went faulty on me.
Yep cant measure it without a meter that will do it lol
I want a machine that will measure Q but they are too expensive
Quote:
Originally Posted by tonyw
Q is basically the sharpness of a filter isn't it?, such as a notch-filter, a notch-filter with a very high Q will be more effective at notching out a frequency than one with a lower Q.
You can make a notch-filter out of an Inductor and a Capacitor fairly easily, same goes with bandpass filters.
Hey Doc,
Sharpness is not a bad word to describe Q.
Q is 'officially' the Quality factor of a resonant circuit:
'The Q, quality factor, of a resonant circuit is a measure of the “goodness” or quality of a resonant circuit. A higher value for this figure of merit corresponds to a more narrow bandwith, which is desirable in many applications.'
Ref: http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/text...onant-circuit/
and
It 'characterizes a resonator's bandwidth relative to its center frequency'
Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_factor: