MBM-1F - Oops! All Switches

[B'Lark]

And so it happened again. I had other plans lined up, and was thinking of either a Baritone Thinline Tele or a Singlecut Hollowbody, but then dangit, this thing came up. I haven't got it yet, but I'm excited to start this one so am starting the Diary a little early this time.







I believe the listing was that it was a cancelled custom order. So with my penchant for Mockingbirds, the flamed top and headstock grain being really interesting, and since the Mockingbird STQ that I used to have didn't have a neck that I liked, I snapped it up, and thought I'd take cues from the STQ and play around with them.



I'm going to use White and Chrome hardware rather than Black, and Warman G-Rail pickups in both positions to go crazy with the wiring. They're such interesting pickups to me as well, and I can't go past them because of that. And since the STQ had some nice extra switching to play around with, I'll be doing a bit of that too.



At the moment, the plans I have for the electronics are:

Standard Stuff: 3-Way Toggle, 1 Volume, 1 Tone

Not so Standard:

Series/Split/Parallel for Rail Coils (3-way Mini-Toggle)
Coil Selection on each pickup, Single-Parallel-Rails-Series (2x 4-Way Blade switches, a la 4-Way Tele switching)
Series/Parallel for Neck with Bridge (2-Way Mini Toggle)
Neck Phase Reverse (2-Way Mini Toggle)
Killswitch

At the moment I don't have any form of diagram, but I theory-crafted a bit and I THINK that these switching choices SHOULD all be able to be strung together. I'm fully prepared for that not to be possible though and to have to cut some of the switching. That could also happen as a result of a lack of cavity space too, especially if I do go for a pair of Blade switches in there. So everything there's subject to change once I get my hands on the parts and start planning the nitty gritty of it. Maybe I'll hog some space out and get all of in there and even add a Varitone sort of setup... I think I actually like the sound of that plan.

This is gonna be fun. So let's get silly!!

[B'Lark]

oh god why did i decide to do this

[WeirdBits]

My kind of fun.

[JohnH]

That gives me a headache lol

[B'Lark]

That gives me a headache lol

You and me both, man. It's not gotten any better since that last screenshot either haha


And it arrived today!!



Extra goodies! Figured I'd need a ton of wire so got that with the order and Tru-Oil's my ol' faithful for finishing. Plus Bone Nut upgrade and a Treble Bleed can't hurt!



Headstock grain is more subtle than it looked in the pictures, but still there



Nice bit of grain difference on the fretboard too. Can't remember if it's Rosewood or Ebony but it's a nice piece!



Vague Dry fit!!

[B'Lark]

The Figure is also a bit deeper and across more of the top than I gave it credit for in the original pictures





This section in particular didn't look like it had a lot, but there's a good amount, and I reckon it's gonna come out nicely!

[B'Lark]

Neck pocket's a pretty good match too. It's not super snug but I also don't think I will have to worry about fixing it up at all. Just gonna have to tidy the base of the pocket a bit (First pic of previous post)





Small glue spot I think??? Seems to be pretty clear of excess glue but I haven't been hyper-critical as yet.



Binding and all looks pretty damn neatly done too, aside from the corner of the horn being a liiitle untidy. Nothing a bit of sanding can't fix.

[B'Lark]

I got in to staining this evening, and:



First off: It's a lot more purple in person than it came up in this shot. I'll grab a better pic tomorrow when the sun's out.

Second, a lot more glue spots showed up, as well as a big one in the top itself. There's a crack in the veneer, and it seems some of the glue has leaked through (which is not a shock thinking about it, there's definitely a bit of a knot in the area so it would be less stable overall there



Also on the edges, the veneer is blistering a bit now that it's had some wetness on it.

But you know what, I actually love the way the top turned out.

It's just such an interesting piece of wood to me, with the knot, the variance in the flame and the way that sections took the stain better or worse than others, the blisters taking more than the areas around them. It's such a fascinating result and to me the glue spots and inconsistencies all just add to the effect. So I'll be leaving it as it is now.



Also freehand roughed out a headstock shape. I'm sure it's adjacent of other things but I just kinda winged it, wanted something smooth but with a point to echo the feel of the Mockingbird, but keeping a balanced asymmetry to it.

Also also. Am going to be able to simplify the wiring by ONE WHOLE SWITCH!! I'm gonna opt for a 4-Way Rotary Switch as my pickup selector to cut out the need for a separate Neck Series/Parallel switch. I think that I've got the wiring pretty much worked out, but with the shenanigans that these pickups allow I'm not certain and I'll definitely be asking for confirmation that I'm on the right track some time soon.



What a wonderful mess haha

[Chaosblade]

As far as veneer imperfections go, that's not bad at all. Gives it character, unlike the one I couldn't get rid of that was just a 4 inch long hideous splotch from the edge toward the center.

If you're willing to throw more money at the project the SD Triple Shots would accomplish what you're looking for with the pickup configurations and look a bit cleaner with less cutting and simple soldering. But that's relatively expensive and it seems like you might prefer having all the extra knobs and switches for this project.

[B'Lark]

As far as veneer imperfections go, that's not bad at all. Gives it character, unlike the one I couldn't get rid of that was just a 4 inch long hideous splotch from the edge toward the center.

If you're willing to throw more money at the project the SD Triple Shots would accomplish what you're looking for with the pickup configurations and look a bit cleaner with less cutting and simple soldering. But that's relatively expensive and it seems like you might prefer having all the extra knobs and switches for this project.

Yea! It wasn't anything too unsightly, and I definitely agree that it gives it character!

Ahh, I forgot about the Triple Shots actually. They are definitely pricey, and I've always been hesitant with them because I worry about how easy they are to actually use on the fly since the switches are pretty small. But I also already have the mini-toggles that I need since I was planning to use them for my last build (But didn't end up using because the pickups weren't 4-conductor, and I was silly and didn't check at all haha)


Daylight shot:



Much better representation of the colour and the detail. The Blisters have settled back down as well so they'll be easier to work with now too. I also realised I hadn't mentioned what I'm using to stain. Colortone, a mix of Blue and Cherry Red, in a 10:3 ratio. Played around with another body I had to test it a bunch and landed at that ratio, and am very happy with the result. It is a little washed out at the moment but I am expecting the Tru-Oil to patch that up.





Knobs arrived too. I've been wanting to use knurled speed knobs for ages 'cos I reckon they'll be my new go-to's but I haven't had much of a chance.

Also, worked out some details with the electrics:

330k Pots (Since it'll be both singles and 'buckers I feel the in-between should work better)
Varitone will be: Bypass - 3000pF - 0.01μF - 0.022μF - 0.047μF. Each paired with a 10MΩ resistor.

I think everything on the electrics front has also been ordered, so now just a waiting game on that, and continuing to try and wrap my head around the overall wiring situation haha