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I have a "log" guitar that I can take on holidays, pack in anywhere and because it's a cheap neck attached to a block of pine, I'm not too precious about it. Not as fancy as Les Paul's log, it is a great way to test the pickups before putting them in the guitar.
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I was looking at the wiring diagram that came with the darkstars Attachment 12238
They do what I was going to and switch both centre taps to ground, which I thought would create phase issues until I tested which wires went to where by wiring up a single coil and tapping the poles with a screwdriver. It turns out that these darkstar sets have the black wire on the north coil of the neck and the south coil on the bridge.
Love the log Andrew! You might start a trend here man - I know I'm thinking of building one ASAP :).
cheers,
Gav.
Log! It's better than bad, it's good!
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Trust me, its bad. The balance is all wrong, there's nowhere to rest your right hand and its almost impossible to play sitting down. As a plus, it packs in the car very easily and the fretboard is close enough to my home guitar to keep my fingers nimble on longer trips.
Ha ha nice 1 Andrew. Yeah I was looking at the pic and saw the strap and thought....there must be another reason for that than playing live?Quote:
Originally Posted by AndrewA
The black stump looks cool BTW. didn't picture you as a dark stars guy, but v. cool
I know I should be more patient, but I'm so looking forward to starting polishing these onWednesday
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the Tele will be fast with the Italian race stripe :D
I'm making it for a mates 40th birthday present. I used to play in a band with him, and the colours, and styles all point to his style. The Italian race stripes are a nod to his Ducatti.
Hey Weirdy, im just looking at the wiring again, my darkstars have two rows of screws, no slug. Im guessing I just find the bridge coil furthest from the saddle and then pair it with the coil that has rhe opposite magnetic pole on the neck? Im putting a temporary phase switch on the log to help find the right phase orientation.Quote:
Originally Posted by WeirdBits
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Yep, inside bridge coil (furthest from the saddles, less ice-picky) and combine it with whichever coil from the neck gives you a hum cancelling pair. Clips leads or terminal screws blocks are ideal for testing without having to solder anything.
Yeah, I've got clip leads on the log guitar, but found it took too long rewiring just to check phase, so i added a phase switch. Now I'm thinking about putting one in the PBG-1, so much for simplicity.
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Construction time.
I rubbed the body back with 2000 wet paper and I'm happy enough with the look of it.
Using my continuity tester, I found that the black paint on the bridge post wouldn't let current through, so I have had to scrape paint off contact areas between the earth wire and the strings. Hopefully it isn't noticeable once assembled.
looks great Andrew. Your earth wire should be touching the bridge post bush, why would it be making contact with the strings ?
Nice satin look on the Black stump Andrew
Sorry Wokka, didn't explain clearly. The whole point of earthing a bridge is to provide an earth for the strings. On this guitar, I had to remove paint from the connection between the earth wire and the bridge post, then the bridge post and the bridge, then the string holes in the bridge in order to get a clean electrical contact between the earth wire and the strings.
Thanks Andy, its changed slightly from what I originally wanted, but 100% happy with the Dingo Tone.Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy40
ah ok cool I understand now Andrew all good. Hope the earth works !
Looking good and nearing the home stretch now.
Construction complete... Sort of.
Attachment 12815
It still needs a setup and the bridge pickup and split still need some work. My question is this, is it finished enough to enter it in GOTM?
Looking good Andrew. To enter GOTM the electronics should be working and you really need to make an attempt to intonate and setup the guitar. You have to Sunday night to enter it so you may have it ready by then, or technically 2am Monday your time !
Fixed the electronics (pickup was too low) and shaved the nut hight down. Should finish the rest tomorrow.
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This has turned out real nice and like the finish. The ebony timbermate worked well
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Mate fantastic guitar. I've never seem one of these build, super impressed with your Dingotone skillz
Thanks Andrew and Andy (common name on this site). I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out
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Man thats one awesome axe. Now i know what im gonna do with all the spare bits i get left over from all the guitars i want to build. A small portable practice guitar and one i can experiment on for sounds without worrying about wrecking it. Thanks mateQuote:
Originally Posted by AndrewA
Thanks Nitro. I'm saving up lots of leftover bits for a possible cigar box build.
Sound test:
https://soundcloud.com/andrew-aeschl...1-test/s-wk2Rb
1st Danelectro Cool Cat Metal pedal, neck pickup, both, bridge, split neck, split both, split bridge, split bridge + neck, split neck + bridge.
For those who are interested, played through rebuilt Samick LA40RCS amp with the amps replaced by Jaycar 2x 40W amp kits, Behringer C-3 mic set to Omni against opposite wall to amp (acting as a boundary mic) around 2m away, Behringer C100 valve preamp, Digitech AM-2038 ADC cable.
sound sweet Andrew! Congrats
Thanks Dedman
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Thanks for taking the time to post the audio Andrew, I wanted to know what the darkstars sounded like.
nice sound demo Andrew
Hey Andrew, sounds great and glad that you took the effort to run with separate split push/pull controls as you can really hear all the different voices from the combinations used in your audio sound clip. No doubt you like it too and how about those Entwistles? Massive bang for the buck aren't they!
Thanks Andy, Stan and Waz. Really love the Darkstars, and you're right Waz, the separate controls are great.
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Cheers Andrew.
I figured the best way to hear the pick-ups sound is clean channel and everything set as neutral as possible, but this guitar will probably rarely be used with a clean sound. Besides the first question in people's minds when they see the guitar is "will it djent"
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Always good to know it has multiple personalities.
I took my EX-1 to work one Saturday a few weeks ago to show some workmates and in between customers we were having a play and whilst it didn't look right seeing someone else playing Jazz, Country and very mellow laid back stuff on it I was happy to know it could do that and also seriously djent too.
With the split PUP mods you can play almost any style. In fact on mine one of my mates belted out Dave Gilmour's solo from Comfortably Numb and it sound so much like the neck PUP on a Strat that he uses that it was incredible. Yours should be able to do the same too.
Having such a versatile guitar means you won't have to swap axes so often for playing different styles which is what I had to do switching back and forth between a Strat & my old Explorer.
I reckon you will find it hard to put down once you discover more and more things it can do.
Yeah, the mix of sounds are great, the splits let you get a fenderish sound, then flick to bucker goodness with the press of a switch
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Uh Oh........Waz.....taking it to work now.....that's a slippery slope