GSH-1R. Marcel's Covid Super Strat -PBG build #10

[Tassieaxeman]

WA post is hopeless at scanning parcels. I'm in Tassie and never had a package from pbg that has been scanned past Malaga until it hits Launceston.

[McCreed]

Our local postie contractor is refusing to deliver parcels at the moment. He simply leaves the delivery attempted card as he's concerned about his potential exposure.

They're supposed to just leave any and all parcels at your door. Even signature required parcels.
I've ordered a bunch of stuff online over the past few weeks and delivery times have been excellent considering the circumstances, and fwiw, I'm usually a Aus Post basher... (all from east coast to Bris-metro though)

I think Cliff has a point though. Some of my tracking updates have been sparse between point A and point B.

Hopefully the kit arrives soon and we can all focus on the build you'll be doing just for our entertainment

[Marcel]

Well, it was expected to be delivered by yesterday Friday the 3rd. I just checked the status and it is still in WA with a "Delayed" flag. So I'm thinking it's anybody's guess as to when it will be delivered.

[Marcel]

Well, here we are 11 days later and my wonderful Postie delivers my kit. We chatted for a few moments and the topic of "delays" results in her showing me a photo of the huge stack of packages she had to deliver today beside the massive pile allocated to one of her workmates.... Aussie post right now is swamped with packages is all I will say.

Anyways, minutes after I had the box in my hands it was open, and my eyes were finally treated to its contents.... It took mere seconds to develop a plan of action.

[Marcel]

It is recommended that a mock build is done first... so that is what I did.... Good thing too as I found a number of issues.

Putting the pick guard in place identified the first issue... the screws on the humbucker were too deep for the route, so the guard sat proud about 5mm above the body. No problem. I had intended to replace the humbucker anyway, so the first job became rebuilding the guard with the PU's I wanted in this build. Fitting out the guard was the easy part, getting all to fit into the routing of the body was the challenge. Details on that latter, but the short answer here at this point was I kept wishing the depth of the routing in the body was say 3 to 5mm deeper. None the less it all got jammed in there with very little space to spare.

I loose fitted the neck and I plonked the bridge in its hole, and a new battle emerged... The bridge and the guard and the neck were all fighting for the same limited space. if the neck was right then the bridge was jammed. if the bridge could move the neck would be out... Resolved by fitting bridge and guard correctly so the bridge could swing nice, and filing excess guard in the neck pocket away, and thus allowing the neck to sit home comfortably.

It was only after fitting the neck that something didn't look right... I ran a string from the E positions on the nut and bridge and discovered the issue that wasn't obvious before... The SD JB humbucker I installed was for a narrower 49mm bridge, not the 52mm bridge that will be part of this build... So I doubt the JB will be staying in this build.

[Simon Barden]

You need a challenge to keep your mind occupied. You'd hate it if it all just went together smoothly.

[Marcel]

So true Simon...

Would be nice in a way if this build lasted just a bit longer...lol

[McCreed]

The SD JB humbucker I installed was for a narrower 49mm bridge, not the 52mm bridge that will be part of this build... So I doubt the JB will be staying in this build.

The JB (standard) should be 50mm centre to centre. Given that a strat humbucker is perpendicular to the strings rather than slanted like a single coil, I honestly don't see why the JB won't work.
Even at 52mm string spacing (slightly less than 52 at the first coil) the E strings should be sufficiently within the magnetic field(s) of the pole pieces.

The notion that there has to be perfect alignment between strings and pole pieces is broadly overstated. It's mostly just the visual aspect that has given players the idea that it's wrong.

Edit to add:
I'd at least try it and see how it sounds before abandoning it or buying another pickup.

[jugglindan]

You need a challenge to keep your mind occupied. You'd hate it if it all just went together smoothly.

It's the times that things go wrong that I have a chance to learn something.

Usually by bothering people here

[Marcel]

Totally agree with you there McCreed that it's an aesthetics thing. I know the JB would work fine as the strings would all be to some extent over the poles, however it's not the center of the poles which is a tiny tad irksome.

I did go to the SD website to see if there were F spaced and G spaced versions, but there was nothing I could find that even hinted at different pole spacing's. Seems there is the JB and that's it.... The whole SD site tends to lean to single coil sized humbuckers and regular humbuckers with apparently nil allowance for F and G string spacing's...Add to that the site is void of manufacturer part numbers so using the site as a reference when hunting on eBay or Reverb is impossible. You have to have the part number first and search the SD site to see if it is what you want... the whole thing is just a little painful and disappointing, which is a shame as I do like SD pickups more than most others