Tims Les Paul Spalty

[Timsan]

Thanks for the advice, guys. I've installed a string ground but haven't soldered it yet, just left it out of the way. I don't think I'll need it though.

It's all wired up and working. A couple of things I learnt:

- use at least a 40W soldering iron. I borrowed a 20W because my old one had packed it in, and it had a hard time heating up the pot housings. Got there in the end but the extra wattage would have helped a fair bit.

- Make sure none of the pot terminals are touching the shielding. The "hot" terminal of the bridge vol pot was touching the wall of the cavity, which caused it to a) not work, and b) stuff around with the neck pup when the selector switch was in the middle position. All sorted now.

Apart from that, I seem to have nailed it first go. No hum or buzz, and the pups and selector switch are working the way they should.

I'm going to get some different knobs, though. Because it's a lefty, the controls are back to front. Which means I get no noise when the dial says 10, and maximum shreddage when the dial says 0. I'll probably go for some without numbers or somesuch.

[lawry]

Hi Tim,
Not sure what you mean by the numbering on the knobs. Didn't you use standard pots with standard wiring?
Do you rotate them in the opposite direction (anti-clockwise for 'more')? Because if you do, and you didn't put in reverse audio pots for the volume, then you'll have all your apparent volume changing in the first 10% -ish of rotation. Just curious here because I've never heard of pots being wired back to front even on a lefty.

[Timsan]

Well... On both my basses (a Schecter and an Ibanez) the volume control is anticlockwise for more volume, clockwise for less. I didn't think this one would be any different. I'm at work now, but I'll double check the wiring tomorrow.

[Timsan]

The other thought is that I might need to get reverse taper pots... But it being a left-handed kit, shouldn't they be that already?

[lawry]

Well I'll be hornswaggled. I haven't heard of lefty pots as a matter of course.
With that being the case I would hope they have supplied you with reverse taper pots, Tim.
I guess it makes sense when I think about it. Be curious to know what you find.

[adam]

Hey Tim, you know, I've never thought about this. We've sold at least a hundred Lefty kits and I've never heard from one customer to say the pots are for righties, so I'm assuming they do supply "lefty" pots. Let us know if that's not the case.

[Timsan]

I've bunged the hardware and some strings on so that I could check the electronics. The pots are working properly, and they are the correct orientation for a lefty guitar. When you turn the volume up, the instinct is to turn the knob down and away from you towards your fretting hand. On a righty, that means the direction is clockwise, and on a lefty it's anticlockwise. So things are all good there, which means that the pots are correct but the knobs are the wrong way round.

Adam, I'm going to hazard a guess here, and say that most of the lefty kits that people have bought would be ST-1 or TL-1 types, where the electronics are pre-installed, with the relevant knobs already in place? This would possibly explain why there hasn't been any major issues like this before. I'd be interested to know whether anyone else has done a lefty G-type kit and encountered this.

I will get some different knobs though... I saw these water buffalo horn knobs at Realparts that took my fancy.

Anyway, here she is... Almost there. She looks the business and makes a noise, but she needs a proper setup before I get too excited. The action is pretty low and the nut needs a bit of filing. I'm going to take it to a guitar tech mate of mine for the relevant surgery.

[lawry]

Man,that looks hot Tim. I've never been much of a fan of LPs but that is cool! Even if it is the wrong way round. Excellent build mate.

[Dengreg]

Looks good. Might have too look at a G-type later in the year.

[stan]

nice Tim, I am a lefty too, so keep it locked up...