Learning how to build an electric guitar

[lumberjim]

Oh, and... Remember that red guitar I bought for $106? I've had it disassembled and kind of in my way for 3 weeks or so. I've been brushing up on the wiring inside guitars and what all that stuff does....

I had procured a bunch of pots and a few switches and associated bits of hardware in anticipation of wiring the next 2 guitars. One of the switches I bought is a Freeway super switch. It has the traditional in-line 5 positions, but it also has a second row of 5 that is accessed by tilting the switch lever. It could potentially be wired for 10 unique combinations of pickups. They have an archive of wiring diagrams for this switch as it controls various pick up arrangements. SSS and HSS (single coil X 3 and single, single, humbucker) for strat type guitars, and a few for other 2 pickup guitars. Here's the one I used to wire the red guitar :



The switch is the rectangle with the BH OP BG etc... And 'note terminal A is not used '
See all those tiny little tabs you have to solder wires to? Look closer:



I've been trying to get my nerve up to do it for the 3 weeks the guitar has been apart. I had pre tinned all the lugs on the pots and put the puddles of solder on the backs of the pots to hold the ground wires, on previous occasions, before chickening out and doing more research before tackling that birds nest of wiring... Well today, I nutted up and dove in. It took me about 4 hours to do it... But I did it. And it's really cool. I used 2 different flavors of capacitors(the orange things ^) on the tone knobs. Capacitors bleed off Treble. Turning the knob up takes less, and down takes more. The value of the capacitor represents how wide that range can be.

Common values are. 022 and. 047. People have a lot of opinions about which should be used with which pots and pickups. In general, you use a 47 for humbuckers and 500k pots, and 22s for single /250k. The way this set up works, the tone knobs have a potent effect on the sound. It's like another layer of variation you can get from the different pickup combinations. All in all, it makes the guitar incredibly versatile. The switch was $37, the pots came to $3.47 ea X 3. The wire and solder I already had, but maybe $1.25 in value... So now it's about a $150 investment. I could sell it to a friend for $250 and feel like I was doing them a favor.

[Griff]

That is pretty cool!

[xoxoxoBruce]

So a G string is only a G string if the choice of electronic components allow it, or it's always a G but with different tones?

[lumberjim]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

Oh, and... Remember that red guitar I bought for $106? I've had it disassembled and kind of in my way for 3 weeks or so. I've been brushing up on the wiring inside guitars and what all that stuff does....

I had procured a bunch of pots and a few switches and associated bits of hardware in anticipation of wiring the next 2 guitars. One of the switches I bought is a Freeway super switch. It has the traditional in-line 5 positions, but it also has a second row of 5 that is accessed by tilting the switch lever. It could potentially be wired for 10 unique combinations of pickups. They have an archive of wiring diagrams for this switch as it controls various pick up arrangements. SSS and HSS (single coil X 3 and single, single, humbucker) for strat type guitars, and a few for other 2 pickup guitars. Here's the one I used to wire the red guitar :



The switch is the rectangle with the BH OP BG etc... And 'note terminal A is not used '
See all those tiny little tabs you have to solder wires to? Look closer:



I've been trying to get my nerve up to do it for the 3 weeks the guitar has been apart. I had pre tinned all the lugs on the pots and put the puddles of solder on the backs of the pots to hold the ground wires, on previous occasions, before chickening out and doing more research before tackling that birds nest of wiring... Well today, I nutted up and dove in. It took me about 4 hours to do it... But I did it. And it's really cool. I used 2 different flavors of capacitors(the orange things ^) on the tone knobs. Capacitors bleed off Treble. Turning the knob up takes less, and down takes more. The value of the capacitor represents how wide that range can be.

Common values are. 022 and. 047. People have a lot of opinions about which should be used with which pots and pickups. In general, you use a 47 for humbuckers and 500k pots, and 22s for single /250k. The way this set up works, the tone knobs have a potent effect on the sound. It's like another layer of variation you can get from the different pickup combinations. All in all, it makes the guitar incredibly versatile. The switch was $37, the pots came to $3.47 ea X 3. The wire and solder I already had, but maybe $1.25 in value... So now it's about a $150 investment. I could sell it to a friend for $250 and feel like I was doing them a favor.

Here's that post. I'm in it for $150

[glatt]

My tour guide was the lady in post 634. She was showing off the candling technique to us, so I bet she had worked on the floor previously, and maybe still did as needed. She walked through slow enough for me. We stopped in interesting locations for a minute or three, and walked past dormant areas quickly.

I also got the vibe that everyone liked working there. But I couldn't help thinking about how it would be tedious to sand the bracing on 150 guitars a day by hand.

I saw some things in your pictures that they didn't show us. The lady said it took a few months for a guitar to get made from start to finish, so I bet they focus on certain parts of the build at certain times instead of having a true assembly line where a board goes down the line and comes out as a guitar a day or two later after you allow for glue and finish drying.