New to the forum and have been curious about doing a guitar build for a while so I took the plunge with the MK-2.The kit was pretty good out of the box done a mock setup and everything was inline, just required a bit of sanding.I done the neck and headstock in linseed oil a few days ago and printed out a design I made in Adobe on some decal paper.I'll clear coat the headstock tomorrow and start spraying the body.
Last edited by Troy murley; 02-07-2023 at 07:34 PM.
Hi and welcome.
You've made a good start there.
Thanks mate just taking it one step at a time.
Done the wiring yesterday as well.First time since high school that I've used a soldering iron.
I'd just be careful with the tone control where the capacitor leg is coming off the middle tab of the potentiometer.
It's very close to the back of the pot, and very easy when fitting the top on the guitar to get them pressed together, when you are very likely to get silence. I'd either resolder the capacitor so the exposed length of leg on the 'hot' side of the capacitor is shorter and is in no danger of being able to touch the back of the pot, or put some insulating tape around the leg and on the back of the pot.
It doesn't look like there's a ground wire soldered between the back of the tone pot and the back of the volume pot when you took that picture. There's a black ground wire leading off the tone pot which I assume is the bridge ground wire, but ATM you are relying on the copper tape to carry the pickup signal ground, which I never trust to be a reliable ground path for the signal.
Thnx I'lll definitely take that on board I'll probably just wrap the leg of the capacitor.I had a brain fart when soldering and realised I should have done it the other way around lol.And yes no ground between pot and vol yet I ran out of solder if the copper tape doesn't cut it I'll solder in a ground.both pots had the little lug that stopped them from sitting flush so I used some washers underneath to get them sitting flush so there is definate contact through the copper tape between pots.I plugged it into the amp and there was no ground hum present.
Last edited by Troy murley; 02-07-2023 at 09:47 PM.
You normally snap those tabs off with pliers.
All it takes is for one of the pots to become loose and you either loose your signal completely, or else it gets noisy due to a high resistance path. If you only solder the grounds to one pot, solder to the volume pot. If you loose a good ground connection to the tone pot via shielding tape, then the worst that happens is the tone control doesn't work well or at all.
And if you'd soldered the capacitor between the tone pot tab and the back of the volume pot (whilst wiring a ground to the volume pot and not the tone pot) then the tape would still provide a ground path for the tone pot metalwork but it wouldn't be the end of the world if that path became a higher resistance one. Shielding works up to quite high resistances.
All stuff that may not appear obvious at first, but comes with experience.
Welcome Troy.
The decals look good.
PitBull Builds: FVB-4, LP-1SS, FBM-1, AG-2, TB-4, SSCM-1, TLA-1,TL-1TB, STA-1HT, DSCM-1 Truckster, ST-1, STA-1, MBM-1, MBM custom, GHR-1 (Resonator).
Scratch Builds: Pine Explorer, Axe Bass, Mr Scary, Scratchy Tele's.
The little voices in my head keep telling me "build more guitars"
Please add that to the headstock thread. Very cool!
With the decal paper, do you have to wet them and then slide into position and then seal over? Which sealant did you use?Originally Posted by Troy murley
New to the forum and have been curious about doing a guitar build for a while so I took the plunge with the MK-2.The kit was pretty good out of the box done a mock setup and everything was inline, just required a bit of sanding.I done the neck and headstock in linseed oil a few days ago and printed out a design I made in Adobe on some decal paper.I'll clear coat the headstock tomorrow and start spraying the body.
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