All done and playable. Not as red as I wanted it, but still looks OK. The same stain on the mahogany AGM-3F looks a lot better. Now to gift it to a friend and work on getting the other one finished. Also gives me some room to get cracking on the IB-7 refresh/rebuild.
Here's some more pics. Had to black out the graphics on the headstock of course.
They should be very happy with that.
What's the balance like?
It's pretty good. I was trying to hold the body with one hand as close as I could to the strap button and there's still more weight on the body side. I didn't notice any issue with neck dive when playing it.Originally Posted by Simon Barden
The only issue I have is because the button is that much further down than normal, it has the effect of pushing the neck further away from my body. I'm only a little fella and my arms are therefore shorter than most, and it's a bit difficult playing some chords low down on the neck because I struggle to get the right angle. Shouldn't be an issue for "normal" sized people however.
You wouldn't get on with a Firebird at all then!
Finished the intonation on that AG-1F and finally got around to gifting it to my friend. He was a happy camper.
Now that I have more room, I thought I'd find some time to finish the polish on the AGM-3F and start putting it all together. Adam sent me a set of pots last year that they were looking at selling so I figured I'd use them here. Wish I'd tried to fit them earlier because I didn't realise the threaded part of the shaft has a bigger diameter than the kit pots so I had to drill out the holes to make them fit. Wouldn't have been so scary if I realised this before I had many clear coats on and all polished up. Regardless, I took to the holes with my drill on reverse and what I thought might be the right size drill bit. Unfortunately, the holes were still a bit too small and the next size bit I had in my possession was way too big so I finished off the job with a round file. Was working on the first hole when for some reason I decided to check my watch and in that momentary diversion of concentration, the file came fully out of the hole and then slammed into the face of the body. Of course, my file had snapped after falling off my bench a while back so it wasn't a nice rounded end that drove into the body, it was a nice sharp broken edge. Thankfully with it being a stained flame it's not overly obvious and you have to look for it. Still, a couple of expletives escaped my lips.
I put that behind me and continued on with the assembly because at this point I just want to get it playing. Put all the components in and completed what I thought was one of my neater solder jobs I've done. Checked all my groundings and the chirping from my Fluke had me thinking all was good in the world. Finished soldering the pickup leads to the appropriate pots and did a final check of all my wiring against the wiring diagram.
Plugged it into my amp and gave it a tap test. Nothing. Tried all pickups on all switch positions and not a sound. So, I grabbed one of the crappy kit strings and eagerly wound it on (after having to search the correct way to string up a Bigsby because I've never used one before). Plugged into the amp and .....
silence
So, back to the drawing board and checking all my wiring again. Maybe I have a short somewhere. I hope it's that simple. Grrrr....
Anyway, pretty happy with how it looks at least.
The good news is that I have a short. The bad news is that I have no idea where. The hot and the earth on the jack show a short. Pretty much everything I test is shorted. I hope I haven't accidentally grounded a cable I shouldn't have. I was so proud of myself, too.
Time to trace cables.
Bummer about the jagged file incident...
I use one of these for those kind of hole enlargement jobs:
(google tapered reamer)
Hope you find that short too. Just be methodical, and I'm sure you'll sort it.
Last edited by McCreed; 03-10-2021 at 12:16 PM.
Making the world a better place; one guitar at a time...
Well, I'm an idiot. Found my first issue and I'm now getting some sound. The wiring diagram I was using is this:
I'm using a Switchcraft toggle switch and I didn't pay enough attention to the difference. On the Switchcraft, the earth lug is in between the bridge/neck lugs and the two lugs that get joined together for the middle is on the opposite side:
Of course, that meant a bit of re-wiring because some of my runs were too short to reach the correct lugs. But.... I now only get sound when the switch is in the bridge position but it seems like it's only coming from the middle or the middle and bridge. The volume controls for the middle and bridge both seem to somewhat work while the neck volume does nothing. With the switch in middle or neck position, I get no sound out of anything. The tone pot seems to function but I'm not sure if it's correct because it doesn't seem to do much.
Oh well, a small amount of forward progress is better than no progress at all. I've probably borked something else while troubleshooting the original problem and de-soldering other cables.
So far today, I've managed to burn a finger on each hand and my big toe with the soldering iron. I'll leave you with that visual.
Nope, I was wrong. Only getting sound out of the bridge pickup. Tap test confirmed it. Which would explain why I only get sound out of the bridge position. At least I have a narrower scope to investigate this time. Back to the drawing board.
Success! Hot wire for middle pickup was push too far into the lug after the resolder and was touching the pot casing. Ground/neck pickup wires were touching at the switch after fixing that debacle.
I now have sounds.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote