Dub's Wacky Project Guitars Thread--we're baaaaaack

[dubkitty]

I Googled and found the schematics on the Euroguitars forum...there's a fellow over there who's an absolute German guitars boffin. there are a couple of other Schaller schematics over there, one for a single PU jazz guitar setup and one that includes an additional 2-way switch the function of which is unclear. i believe there are also schematics on Schaller's website.

[dubkitty]

well, since all the rest of the bodies and stuff arrived yesterday, i thought i'd give you a tease of the next one to be completed. this is the Kent Copa body with two original Kent PUs and a 9.5kΩ Guyatone PU in the bridge, the Hondo neck from the 70s, a Bigsby aluminum bridge, and the eBay mystery tremolo. i'm going to try a rotary tone switch if i can figure out an efficient way to wire for the three PUs...perhaps the six-way toggle they sell at StewMac.

[ryan summit]

ooh mama looshan

[dubkitty]

i took the cover off one of the Hopf pickups to see if there was anything adjustable in there, and discovered that the Schaller PUs are built in the paleo-electric style of Burns Tri-Sonics, i.e. a bobbinless coil with, in this case, four cylindrical magnet slugs set in the middle of the coil and a flat piece of steel laid across the top to serve as a polepiece. i felt like i was looking at something from the 30s. sorry i didn't take a picture, but i sliced my finger open while getting the pickup cover off and thus had to put everything back together before parts got lost. this explains the odd, diffuse, airy sound of the PUs, which is particularly delightful on the neck PU. the problematic aspect is that they have a low output level, about 20-30% quieter than my sunburst Strat. i'm going to have to put the Hi 5 back on the board so i can balance the guitar levels without dicking with the amp settings every time i play Hoppy.

[theavondon]

Mmmmmmm. This thread rules.

[dubkitty]

i promise to take a picture of the pickup innards the next time i take the guitar apart.

[phantasmagorovich]

Subscribed.

Great work on hoppy, dubster! Cant wait to see the others come together.

[dubkitty]

here's the progress on Kendo, the Kent/Hondo hybrid. the neck holes have been drilled, a new bone nut profiled and slotted to replace the funky plastic one that was on the neck when i bought it, and the mystery tremolo installed. i tried to place it so it covers the hole for the original tailpiece's spring plunger. the next thing i need to do is cut away the pickguard at the neck heel to accomodate the truss rod adjusting nut, which sticks out about 1/2 inch from the end of the fingerboard. after that, it's all about the electronics. i'm still trying to decide how to wire up the pickups, whether to use the six-way toggle they sell at StewMac or a rotary selector. if i use a rotary selector i'll basically have to use a normal tone circuit because i don't think there's enough room to cram two rotary switches into the control cavity. on the other hand, the six-way toggle costs $30, which is a lot of money for a fuckin' switch. anyway, Lulu seems to approve.

[Achtane]

That is fine.

[ryan summit]

that trem is so dope
hows it workin?
you get alotta wang out of it?

[AxAxSxS]

[dubkitty]

i haven't strung it up yet, so i don't know how well it works...i'm not going to put strings on it until i have the wiring sorted, because i'll just have to take everything apart again and there's a definite limit to how many times you can run screws in and out of mahogany before it turns to mahogamush. it feels good just playing with the bar and feeling the spring tension, though...it's got a nice sharp springback to it that feels different from any other trem i've tried, tighter than a Bigsby or Jazzmaster trem but not as stiffly demanding as a Maestro vibrola.

i want plastic knobs like that on ALL MY TREM HANDLES.

[ryan summit]

wang mahogomush
sounds like someone important

[dubkitty]

and Mongolian!

[phantasmagorovich]