MBM-1F - Oops! All Switches

And so it happened again. I had other plans lined up, and was thinking of either a Baritone Thinline Tele or a Singlecut Hollowbody, but then dangit, this thing came up. I haven't got it yet, but I'm excited to start this one so am starting the Diary a little early this time.

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I believe the listing was that it was a cancelled custom order. So with my penchant for Mockingbirds, the flamed top and headstock grain being really interesting, and since the Mockingbird STQ that I used to have didn't have a neck that I liked, I snapped it up, and thought I'd take cues from the STQ and play around with them.

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I'm going to use White and Chrome hardware rather than Black, and Warman G-Rail pickups in both positions to go crazy with the wiring. They're such interesting pickups to me as well, and I can't go past them because of that. And since the STQ had some nice extra switching to play around with, I'll be doing a bit of that too.

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At the moment, the plans I have for the electronics are:

Standard Stuff: 3-Way Toggle, 1 Volume, 1 Tone

Not so Standard:

Series/Split/Parallel for Rail Coils (3-way Mini-Toggle)
Coil Selection on each pickup, Single-Parallel-Rails-Series (2x 4-Way Blade switches, a la 4-Way Tele switching)
Series/Parallel for Neck with Bridge (2-Way Mini Toggle)
Neck Phase Reverse (2-Way Mini Toggle)
Killswitch

At the moment I don't have any form of diagram, but I theory-crafted a bit and I THINK that these switching choices SHOULD all be able to be strung together. I'm fully prepared for that not to be possible though and to have to cut some of the switching. That could also happen as a result of a lack of cavity space too, especially if I do go for a pair of Blade switches in there. So everything there's subject to change once I get my hands on the parts and start planning the nitty gritty of it. Maybe I'll hog some space out and get all of in there and even add a Varitone sort of setup... I think I actually like the sound of that plan.

This is gonna be fun. So let's get silly!!

oh god why did i decide to do this

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My kind of fun.

That gives me a headache lol

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Originally Posted by JohnH

That gives me a headache lol

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You and me both, man. It's not gotten any better since that last screenshot either haha


And it arrived today!!

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Extra goodies! Figured I'd need a ton of wire so got that with the order and Tru-Oil's my ol' faithful for finishing. Plus Bone Nut upgrade and a Treble Bleed can't hurt!

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Headstock grain is more subtle than it looked in the pictures, but still there

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Nice bit of grain difference on the fretboard too. Can't remember if it's Rosewood or Ebony but it's a nice piece!

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Vague Dry fit!!

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The Figure is also a bit deeper and across more of the top than I gave it credit for in the original pictures

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This section in particular didn't look like it had a lot, but there's a good amount, and I reckon it's gonna come out nicely!

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Neck pocket's a pretty good match too. It's not super snug but I also don't think I will have to worry about fixing it up at all. Just gonna have to tidy the base of the pocket a bit (First pic of previous post)

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Small glue spot I think??? Seems to be pretty clear of excess glue but I haven't been hyper-critical as yet.

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Binding and all looks pretty damn neatly done too, aside from the corner of the horn being a liiitle untidy. Nothing a bit of sanding can't fix.

I got in to staining this evening, and:

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First off: It's a lot more purple in person than it came up in this shot. I'll grab a better pic tomorrow when the sun's out.

Second, a lot more glue spots showed up, as well as a big one in the top itself. There's a crack in the veneer, and it seems some of the glue has leaked through (which is not a shock thinking about it, there's definitely a bit of a knot in the area so it would be less stable overall there

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Also on the edges, the veneer is blistering a bit now that it's had some wetness on it.

But you know what, I actually love the way the top turned out.

It's just such an interesting piece of wood to me, with the knot, the variance in the flame and the way that sections took the stain better or worse than others, the blisters taking more than the areas around them. It's such a fascinating result and to me the glue spots and inconsistencies all just add to the effect. So I'll be leaving it as it is now.

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Also freehand roughed out a headstock shape. I'm sure it's adjacent of other things but I just kinda winged it, wanted something smooth but with a point to echo the feel of the Mockingbird, but keeping a balanced asymmetry to it.

Also also. Am going to be able to simplify the wiring by ONE WHOLE SWITCH!! I'm gonna opt for a 4-Way Rotary Switch as my pickup selector to cut out the need for a separate Neck Series/Parallel switch. I think that I've got the wiring pretty much worked out, but with the shenanigans that these pickups allow I'm not certain and I'll definitely be asking for confirmation that I'm on the right track some time soon.

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What a wonderful mess haha

As far as veneer imperfections go, that's not bad at all. Gives it character, unlike the one I couldn't get rid of that was just a 4 inch long hideous splotch from the edge toward the center.

If you're willing to throw more money at the project the SD Triple Shots would accomplish what you're looking for with the pickup configurations and look a bit cleaner with less cutting and simple soldering. But that's relatively expensive and it seems like you might prefer having all the extra knobs and switches for this project.

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Originally Posted by Chaosblade

As far as veneer imperfections go, that's not bad at all. Gives it character, unlike the one I couldn't get rid of that was just a 4 inch long hideous splotch from the edge toward the center.

If you're willing to throw more money at the project the SD Triple Shots would accomplish what you're looking for with the pickup configurations and look a bit cleaner with less cutting and simple soldering. But that's relatively expensive and it seems like you might prefer having all the extra knobs and switches for this project.

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Yea! It wasn't anything too unsightly, and I definitely agree that it gives it character!

Ahh, I forgot about the Triple Shots actually. They are definitely pricey, and I've always been hesitant with them because I worry about how easy they are to actually use on the fly since the switches are pretty small. But I also already have the mini-toggles that I need since I was planning to use them for my last build (But didn't end up using because the pickups weren't 4-conductor, and I was silly and didn't check at all haha)


Daylight shot:

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Much better representation of the colour and the detail. The Blisters have settled back down as well so they'll be easier to work with now too. I also realised I hadn't mentioned what I'm using to stain. Colortone, a mix of Blue and Cherry Red, in a 10:3 ratio. Played around with another body I had to test it a bunch and landed at that ratio, and am very happy with the result. It is a little washed out at the moment but I am expecting the Tru-Oil to patch that up.

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Knobs arrived too. I've been wanting to use knurled speed knobs for ages 'cos I reckon they'll be my new go-to's but I haven't had much of a chance.

Also, worked out some details with the electrics:

330k Pots (Since it'll be both singles and 'buckers I feel the in-between should work better)
Varitone will be: Bypass - 3000pF - 0.01μF - 0.022μF - 0.047μF. Each paired with a 10MΩ resistor.

I think everything on the electrics front has also been ordered, so now just a waiting game on that, and continuing to try and wrap my head around the overall wiring situation haha

Looks great so far. I don't mind the veneer either.
I personally wouldn't use truoil on a body ever again after using gluboost. I would be concerned about Truoil changing that wonderful colour you have going there. the yellowing effect of the Truoil might mess with the purple dye too much. I hope it doesn't

Chris

I agree with Christodav. Use a clear coat.

Just in case you haven’t got the message yet...don’t use Tru Oil. Yellow + blue = green.

Alright, seems like a pretty major consensus here. I was suspecting that ot should be ok as my last one wasnt tinted too much by its tru oil coat but it is a quite different purple. I will test on my other test pieces, but in that case, what clear coats would people recommend? Had mediocre experiences with a rattle can clear before, but am happy to hear what you guys have to suggest

Christodav has a similar coloured guitar which he used ‘clear coat’ on. Perhaps he could drop a reply here and let us know what was used.

I did a curiosity about my switching options (since I know I'm going overboard with it, and even though I do realise I won't end up using most of them cos it's just impractical but still)

For each pickup, 4-way plus Series/Split/Parallel on Rails will be 10 options, 20 so far

Then 10x10 for both pickups together in Series, plus another 100 in parallel. Add 200.

Same again for those, but with Neck out of Phase. Add another 200

So if I'm not mistaken, I have:

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Headstock shaped, and neck stained. Actual colour is pretty similar to the body, but indoor lighting so will take outdoor pictures tomorrow. Really happy with the grain and variation throughout the neck (a bit of the variation on the neck though compared to the headstock is because it's less dry, so those two parts will even up to one another by tomorrow)

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Looks like I shouldn't even need to take anything extra wood out, just gonna be a little squished :)

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Whuff am I bad at this getting things done in a timely manner stuff.

Ok, so I opted for some Self-levelling epoxy for the top. Its not back to a mirror gloss, just at a nice matte. As usual, mediocre indoor night-lighting doesn't show off the colour or the finish super well. I went Tru-Oil on the back and sides because its easy, and I hit a point of "I just need to get this done"

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All the electrics fit on now, and it's wiring time next

That's a huge wiring job... Is it worth prototyping it up and seeing what's useful and what isn't? Something I did once with my Telecaster was to build a sort of external control cavity out of plastic card, and wire options into that and see what combinations I liked and didn't. It just screwed into the standard holes. Having it external meant it was much easier to wire up and much less hassle to try things. Also I didn't try to wire all the options up at once, just tried one kind of control at a time to see how I liked it. With my standard of soldering etc it would have been a nightmare trying to debug the entire lot. I also had a bit of tag board in there with major components on to make connecting and disconnecting easier...

'course if your eyes and soldering are better than mine it maybe that its no big deal to do all that in place - if so, carry on!
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I'd certainly wire as much out of the cavity as possible on a template. Far easier.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JimC

That's a huge wiring job... Is it worth prototyping it up and seeing what's useful and what isn't? Something I did once with my Telecaster was to build a sort of external control cavity out of plastic card, and wire options into that and see what combinations I liked and didn't. It just screwed into the standard holes. Having it external meant it was much easier to wire up and much less hassle to try things. Also I didn't try to wire all the options up at once, just tried one kind of control at a time to see how I liked it. With my standard of soldering etc it would have been a nightmare trying to debug the entire lot. I also had a bit of tag board in there with major components on to make connecting and disconnecting easier...

'course if your eyes and soldering are better than mine it maybe that its no big deal to do all that in place - if so, carry on!

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Cool, but that's just not the sort of project that this is. I WANT the over-the-top wiring to challenge myself and to go with the pickups. I've already done the wiring diagrams, and have run it past others to check it should work.

Plus, probably a bit late to drop some of the switching when I've already cut the holes for 5 extra switches in, I'd say.

Fair dos. Enjoy doing it!