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Cheers for the info Simon, much appreciated 🙏
Thought I'd be fine with the humbucker but wasn't sure what to expect from the vanson p90. Might try without but add a longish one to the back of a pot that'll be ready to feed up to the bridge if needed so the whole harness doesn't need to be removed again.
Have a tele missing the bridge ground and there is a slight hum until you touch the strings. Easy fix but not got round to it. Makes the big muff even more wild
That looks awesome.
Thanks fretworn. Really can't wait to see how she sounds and plays now
That doesn't sound like a missing ground, it does sound like it's grounded or you wouldn't reduce the hum level by touching the strings. The baseplate on the bridge pickup is grounded and the mounting screws pass through this and so normally end up grounding the bridge by default. I prefer to add a definite ground wire to make sure, but you can normally get by without one. A multimeter to check the resistance from the bridge to the metal of the output jack is all that's required to see if you have continuity or not.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jbuller7
(Note that some cheap Tele bridge pickups lack the metal baseplate that makes up such a part of the Tele sound, so these would definitely need a bridge ground wire).
Earth and positive on the jack arse-about-face?
cheers, Mark.
No, you'd just get permanent buzz that would be made even worse when you touched the strings. Note that it's a slight hum, not a loud one, so it's probably just standard single-coil hum that could be improved be cavity screening.
Will have a look over the holidays. Cavity shielded and ground wire were fitted and checked everywhere bu the bridge. Maybe 1 has come away
Hopefully get some pictures up later but we're nearly at the playing stage now. Frets levelled and polished, lacquer flattened and polished, wiring completed and installed, strings on and plugged in. Losed neck pickup wire or switch wire as there is an intermittent loose connection buzz when switching between pickups but it stops when you finger the pickup wire in the f hole (lol). All back out and rechecked later hopefully. Guitar sounds sweet acoustic.
Morning all,
So xmas has passed and we're into a new year. Didn't quite get everything finished for the 31st as i'd been hoping as the boiler started leaking oil and a few broken tiles had to be fixed on the roof which was apparently more important.
Also got the Epiphone that the new guitar is replacing sold within 4 hours of posting it online so its been a good holiday break.
Anyway back to the point in hand... the 335 is completed now apart from a headstock logo. its going to be a silver celtic knot like the control nobs but haven't found the right one yet. Really happy with how it all turned out. The piano finish on the headstock is pretty on point with the copper edge. Must find the original 335 drawing that I coloured in while playing with ideas to see how close I got.
Absolute minimal earth hum through the valve amp despite not installing the bridge ground wire so don't think i'll risk removing the bridge post bush.
Original looking finish. Top work.
Great stuff. We could really do with a full-length shot of it to see it in all its glory.
You may find that with the copper top, the pots are grounding the copper, which in turn is grounding the bridge and stop-bar.
Locking tuners - you've got far too much string round most of the posts. Less of an issue when there's no trem, but the idea is that you have minimal string wound round the post. To fit a string, line the hole up so that its in line with the string, pull it as tight as you can and then lock it. You should be able to get it up to tension within 1/2 to 3/4 of a turn of the post. Whilst you need 2-3 turns for standard tuners to keep the strings held well, it's the interaction between wraps (especially on wound strings) when you apply and release tension (such as bending strings or using a trem) that can allow a bit of movement to occur between the wrapped turns, allowing the string tension to change and so go out of tune a bit. With a locking tuner, all the sting holding is done by the lock, so you don't need any wraps around the post. Also makes it slightly quicker to change strings.
Thanks DarkMark.
Why do it the same way as other have? We'd all be still sitting in a cave if no one went to see what was over that hill.
Hi Simon,
Thanks for the comments.
Never used locking tuners before and when fitting the string I didn't really see the advantage over 'normal' tuners but when you explain it like you did I can see the point. I'm not a string breaker and even the G string tuning has been really stable with a new set of string on and playing a lot of bending to try and find if there are any dull spots on the frets. None found.
Was going to take a few better photos tonight or tomorrow as I had too many out of focus ones last night. Once I have the photos i'm happy with i'll post in the gallery and send it in for February GOTM. Here are a couple of 'soft focus' shots lol
And upright with the amps
Looks very Gnarly [cool]
I've just Re-Started my modified ES1 build [Re Routed for Kinman P90's- had to take 5mm off the thickness of the neck tongue because the V 2 Kinman P90's pickup's are deeper than Humbuckers....New V3 Kinman P90's are slimmer so won't need that mod]
I also extended the neck heel so it extends over the body binding, like it does on my Gibson ES 347 [more comfortable as well]
Attachment 33160
Something you might want to consider if you find tuning problems with your new build [It's a Gibson neck set angle/ tuning peg problem common to all Gibsons], and is something I have designed out of my ES-1 build, once I saw the "String Butler"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPpsAGdAHKE
You don't need to buy a String Butler, you can easily make and install your own [Less cumbersome version] in the build.
To do it you need two lengths of Brass tube, easily bought online from hobby shops.
Outer diameter one should be 6.35mm, inner diameter one should be 5.56mm, get Brass wood screws that have a head slightly larger than 6.35mm [pretty much stock size that is easy to find] that will hold the two brass rod assemblies together once screwed down.
Attachment 33161
You just cut the tube lengths to the required length, place them appropriately, and just screw them down....I small amount of lubricant like WD40 sprayed between the brass tube might help things, but TBH I doubt it would be needed.
The whole design works similar to a the String Butler, but without the expense, and you can sort it to suite your individual Guitar build
You got to love KIT Guitars, if only for the scope of invention :D
This has come up great! Really digging it...I'll have to do a hollow body at some point.
https://i.imgur.com/7ZgjQS5.jpg
Hi Tweaky, thanks for the comment. My other band guitarist has a Gibson Les Paul and his G string is always hanging out of tune. He bought and fitted a string butler and it helps the problem somewhat but he still struggles with maintaining tuning stability. This was something that I was concerned about but so far so good. Have been bending the sh!te out of the strings and going from inside to outside to see how this affects stability. Would be interested in seeing your design so fire a photo of it fitted up if you can.
Thanks Sonic Mountain. The copper and patina colour changes quite a lot depending on the light. All the finished pictures have been taken at night under artificial light so i'll have to get a few in natural light at the weekend and put them up
IMO those string butler things are a solution looking for a problem. The key to stable tuning is all about having properly cut nut slots. Invest in a good set of nut files and you'll have guitars that stay in tune quite happily. If the nut is poorly cut or too narrow for the string (a problem I encountered on my 2018 LP Classic Gold Top) then you'll have tuning problems regardless of what additional hardware you fit.
There are no tuning stability problems at all on my Gibsons (3x LP, 1 x Flying V, 1 x Firebird and 1 x CW acoustic) or my other guitars with Gibson style headstocks. The Gibson style headstock design will certainly exacerbate the problems of a badly cut nut, but cut that nut correctly and there is no problem to make worse.
Exacerbate - great word Simon. Now my word of the day.
What a fantastic finish, well done !
I would hate to be sat somewhere thinking to myself 'finished my Pitbull, I think I'll
enter it in the February GOTM' and not seen your posts on this guitar...…..:mad:
Thanks Fatboy.
It got the sh1t played out of it at practice tonight and sounded fantastic at high volume. 3 hours later and still in tune. The other guitarist (gibson les paul) may be making a pitbull purchase soon he was that impressed 😂
It's not just string slots not cut as well as they could be, it can, and usually is a combination of things.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Gibson's slanted headstock, combined with the offset tuning pegs are notorious for being a major cause of tuning instability, if you add less than best practice when stringing them up your not going to solve the problem.
There is a YouTube video of Wes Montgomery famously complaining that his Gibson L5 it constantly going out of tune, so it happens to the best of them, and has been a well known problem with Gibson slanted headstock designs
I've got a 1978 ES347 that stays in tune pretty well, how much it having a Brass nut has to do with it I'm not sure.
I've also got a Hummingbird that doesn't suffer tuning problems either, but then again I don't tend to do a great deal of string bending on it TBH.
I've also got a SG, that despite having a perfectly cut nut tends to go out of tune after two fret string bends, and that's after applying Nut Sauce Graphic lubricant....I'm sort of suspecting the Kluson tuners are at fault on this guitar.
Thankfully I have no issues so far and long may it continue
Just added this to the audio / video section but here are the links to the demo. Big bends and still holding tune... mostly
https://youtu.be/jbEOl9mOSnM - just noodling
https://youtu.be/e6XimJfJnqE - pickup demo
start - 0.41 - Neck
0.41 - 0.58 - both (split bridge)
0.58 - 1.24 - both (humbucker bridge)
1.24 - 1.51 - bridge (split)
1.51 - 2.16 - bridge (humbucker)
Nice sounds, and it looks really good.
If you use the 'insert video' on the toolbar, and then delete the 's' from 'https' in the link before accepting and posting, you can directly embed one video per post.
e.g.
http://youtu.be/jbEOl9mOSnM
Oh ok thanks Simon. Videos were over 300MB each so didn't even try a direct upload.
You can't upload videos directly to the site, but you can embed them so that you get the preview and don't need to go to the YouTube site first.
But (like most forum sites) any secure link using HTTPS (as opposed to an unsecure HTTP) won't work, so you need to delete the 'S' from the end, to use an 'unsecure' link.