Dan's SG-1F

[FrankenWashie]

Digging that colour combo Dan. Good (if somewhat nerve wracking for you) save on the neck!

[Dan]

I converted the bridge pickup to 4-wire tonight, since I can't do much else at the moment.

It was a bit fiddly but not too bad in the end. I'll do the neck pickup tomorrow night.

I guess I'll have to order some push/pull potentiometers now.

[wazkelly]

I bought some Bourns from Real Parts for the EX-1 and about to do the same for new PUP's arriving later in the month for the EX-5 and at $12 each they were great value, easy to wire up, and also easy to use with no dramas so far. I have copied in their link below. Was tempted by the Push/Push ones initially but they may have been out of stock when I tried to order which is not such a bad thing as you could easily forget what is 'On' the next time you go to play the guitar.

http://www.realparts.com.au/electron...pull-pots.html

[Dan]

I've started putting the varnish on. It's a satin finish (because it's also destined for a table one of these days) so doesn't show too much of a shine but should polish up ok once I get a bit more on there and wet sand it a bit.

I've got some decal paper on order which should hopefully arrive soon so I can get that on the headstock so it gets covered in varnish as well. Just need to finalise the size of the design so it looks right.

Push/pull potentiometers are on order, and once they arrive I'll start soldering up the wiring. I assume it's still a good idea to shield the control cavity on a guitar with humbuckers, so I should probably order some more copper tape as well.

[wazkelly]

Yep, all your suggestions are spot on. Colour looking good too.

[Dan]

I had a week away for work so last weekend tried to get the body done and ready to cure. It's looking pretty good and should be ready for a final polish in another week or so.

The headstock still needs a couple more coats but the decals are on and it's almost there. Time to start the wiring this week I reckon.

I did a quick mock build this morning just to get a bit more of an idea of how it's going to look - pretty happy so far.

[Dedman]

Yup, thats come together nice!

[Dan]

I finally got to the point where I was happy enough with the finish so I've started to put it together. It's not perfect but I realised that I had more chance of making it worse than better if I kept messing with it.

I installed most of the hardware last night, and the pickups are in but I haven't done any of the wiring yet. I strung it up with some old strings that had been removed from a different guitar and used some leads with alligator clips to test it out anyway though, and despite the hum from the bodged wiring it sounded alright.

The neck had a fair amount of back bow, to the point where I couldn't play anything on the lowest three frets even with the action raised up a lot higher than I'd like, so I adjusted the truss rod and it's a lot better now. It looks like I'll be able to get the action low enough - I'll check the neck again tonight and see how it is sitting. The intonation was in the right ballpark as well so it seems that I managed to glue the neck in about the right position. I'll adjust it properly once I get new strings on there.

I have a couple of issues/questions though:
1. Which way do the washers on the tuners go (bump up or down)? I put them in with the bump up but one of the bushings doesn't want to screw in properly.
2. The neck pickup doesn't sit parallel to the strings - it is angled with the coil towards the neck sitting a lot lower than the other coil. The bridge pickup sits roughly parallel with the strings. What's the best way to get the pickups sitting parallel to the strings?

[Dedman]

hey Dan,
the bump probably goes down so it doesn't spin
the adjusting screws on both sides of the pick up will allow it to rise and fall in its mount, just tinker tills its level

[Dan]

I can raise/lower the pickup in the ring, but it is tilted no matter whether it's up high or down low. Maybe putting some foam or something under one side might tilt it so that it's level with the strings?