Being is Bewildering

DIY Strat – The Return of the Legend Part 9: Shielding the Scratchplate

beingisbewildering — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 22:26:20 +0000

In the Part 8 I described hacking the scratchplate to bits in order to fit the humbucker – after sanding the rough edges smooth and cleaning everything up, I got to a milestone moment: actually starting to put it back together.

First though, I wanted to add some shielding to the back of the scratch plate (and also the pickup cavity when the guitar is painted) in order to (hopefully) eliminate some of the RF hum you get with single coils. After reading online, I decided to do this with self adhesive copper tape (rather than use the shielding paint) – although it seems to be fairly expensive stuff (at least from online guitar stores). So I sought an alternative: most garden centres sell copper tape as a slug repellant, and I got a 4m roll for a couple of quid.

After a little deliberation on where to start, I just got stuck in and put the first strip down one edge.

I found the best way to apply the tape was to cut t length with scissors, the carefully stick down avoiding creases and air bubbles, overlapping by a few millimetres and then trimming the edges with a sharp knife.

In order for the shielding to work properly, each piece of tape must be electrically connected to the next, which usually means soldering along each joint. This is a job I didn’t want to do. Here’s where my luck came in: some copper tapes have conductive adhesive – the next job was to check the continuity of my shielding and hope for the best…

…it seems this brand of slug repellant tape does have conductive adhesive! The only job left was to start installing the pickups and pots…

Filed under: Guitar Tagged: copper tape, guitar, humbucker, pickups, scratchplate, shielding, strat, stratocaster

DIY Strat – The Return of the Legend Part 8: Modifying the Scratchplate

beingisbewildering — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 10:58:58 +0000

Last week I removed all the hardware off the scratchplate and marked out where I needed to cut to install the humbucker in place of the bridge single coil. It was a very close fit as the footprint of the new PAF style pickup only just covers the diagonal line made by the existing single coil. With everything marked out, the scratchplate has been sat on the shelf for a little while – I guess I been putting off the job of cutting parts away… anyway, today I decided I would jump straight in with the hacksaw and just get on with it.

I didn’t have any flat files to hand, so I improvised by wrapping sandpaper around a couple of rulers to give a nice even finish to the cut.

Continue to Part 9

Filed under: Guitar Tagged: guitar, humbucker, pickups, strat, stratocaster

DIY Strat – The Return of the Legend Part 7: Priming the body

beingisbewildering — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 10:25:32 +0000

Today, finally, we had some good weather allowing me to do some more work on my strat clone’s body. I had previously stripped the lacquer off using a orbital sander and then removed the colour-coat by hand with sandpaper. With a clear blue sky and gentle breeze, I got on with the process of working through the grades of sandpaper, before spraying on some primer. I managed two or three coats during the day and was left with a primed, brilliant white guitar body. Unfortunately, its still showing some scratches caused by the sandpaper, so it looks like some more time with the wet-and-dry paper is needed!

The last couple of photos shows the Strat body after a coat of primer and a light sanding with 400 grit paper. I really like the effect of the scuffed edges giving it that relic look – I’m now seriously considering relicing the final finish on the guitar – Is this cheating, or should I just play it every day for 20 years and wait?

Continue to Part 8

Filed under: Guitar Tagged: guitar, humbucker, pickups, strat, stratocaster

DIY Strat – The Return of the Legend Part 6: Starting to make a start

beingisbewildering — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 00:00:27 +0000

After not doing much on the guitar this for a week or two, the new electronics I ordered arrived and kick-started me back into action. First to arrive was the Tonerider Alnico IV Classic humbucker, nicely packaged in plastic presentation case – I’ll just have to wait to find out how it sounds… Next were the other replacement electronics: the 500k pots, a 0.047μF and 0.022μF cap and a couple of toggle switches – this will form my Tone Switch and Coil Tap. I also managed to source a set of Wilkinson EZ-Lok machineheads which arrived the same day. They’re a much more sturdy construction than the cheap old ones with a very smooth action – the only issue is drilling out the headstock to accommodate the larger spindle. I probably won’t attempt this with the cordless hammer drill… I also managed to get a coat of primer on the body, however this only served to reveal the crap job I’d made of the sanding!

Tonerider Alnico IV Classic Humbucker with new pots and 5-way switch

Starting work on the scratchplate

All parts removed!

Marking out the template for the humbucker ready for cutting

Continue to Part 7

Filed under: Guitar Tagged: guitar, humbucker, pickups, strat, stratocaster

DIY Strat – The Return of the Legend Part 5: A slight change of direction and a bit of Photoshopping

beingisbewildering — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 22:03:25 +0000

I had mentioned in Part 2 that I would include a Tone Switch in the wiring scheme for the Legend, effectively being able to switch in a capacitor in addition to the tone pot – this method, is apparently, not the best way and I’ve been pointed to this thread on Guitar Nuts, which allows selection of capacitor on the tone pot. A much more sensible option.

Since I’ve stripped the body back to bare wood, and until I can locate some sander sealer locally, I’m a bit stuck with the project – so instead I’ve Photoshopped what I hope the final guitar will look like.

This process has also helped determine the position of the additional toggle switches required for the coil tap and tone switch.

Continue to Part 6

Filed under: Guitar Tagged: guitar, humbucker, pickups, strat, stratocaster

DIY Strat – The Return of the Legend Part 4: Progress!

beingisbewildering — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 22:21:03 +0000

After spending a lot of time reading about the best way to strip the remaining finish off the Legend, I settled for plain old hard work. Depending who you believe, Nitromors either will, or won’t touch the polymer lacquer. Some people recommend a thick coating of the stuff, wrapping it in cling film and leaving overnight. Others state the best way is with a heat gun. Both these options seem to have obvious draw-backs: high potential for personal injury coupled with probable damage to the guitar.

So, I lumped for hand-sanding the guitar body (with a little help from the orbital sander to get the lacquer off). The whole process “only” took a few hours, and isn’t strictly finished yet, but good progress was made – including removing the horrible white gloss I’d started to repaint the guitar with 5-ish years ago.

Starting work

The final result (although I took these pics before completing the job – the remaining black paint on the cut-out is now gone!)

Some spots of the original wood sealer can still be seen in the grain, but as I’m going for a solid colour I don’t this as an issue. The next step is to spray with primer, sand, spray with primer, sand, spray with primer…

Continue to Part 5

Filed under: Guitar Tagged: guitar, humbucker, pickups, strat, stratocaster

DIY Strat – The Return of the Legend Part 3: Subconscious Influences from 1988

beingisbewildering — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 23:32:47 +0000

I’ve just been looking through my collection of guitar books and found the one from which I learnt to play. I haven’t look inside its covers for probably 15 years, but I can still remember the layout, text, illustrations and music on every page. Usborne Music Guides: Learn to Play Guitar only boasts 64 pages, but I must have spent countless hours absorbing every detail in that book.

And some of it must have stuck: the front cover shows almost exactly the guitar I have chosen to make the Legend into…

A blue strat with rosewood fretboard and white scratchplate – the PAF style bridge humbucker is, obviously, an afterthought. Strangely, the cover also shows an almost exact replica of the EKO Ranger acoustic, borrowed off my cousin, which I learnt to play on.

Continue to Part 4

Filed under: Guitar Tagged: guitar, humbucker, pickups, strat, stratocaster

DIY Strat – The Return of the Legend Part 2: Choosing a paint scheme and more…

beingisbewildering — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 22:41:32 +0000

So, I have an old Aria Legend strat copy in pieces and the almost unlimited inspirational resources supplied by Google. How should I re-paint the Legend? Initially, I felt a DIY Van Halen style Frankenstrat would be the way to go. Then I discovered www.flametopper.com – a man with an awesome guitar collection. Vintage style would have to be the way to go, especially after scrolling half way down the page and seeing this:

Lake Placid Blue, white stratchplate & switchgear, with rosewood (well, mahogany) fingerboard. Sorted.

I would, of course, have to replace the pots and switches – it’s been over 10 years since I played the Legend, but I can still remember adjusting the tone and volume to the “sweet” spot to eliminate the crackles. So, more Googling and a recommendation from a friend brought a couple of retailers selling replacement items, but why stop there? Surely the sound could be improved upon by replacing the cheap, stock pickups? Probably. Somewhere at this point, I decided that a bridge humbucker (with coil tap) would make my vintage-inspired strat-o-copy something slightly different.

Now “Fat Strats” are nothing unusual, but I wanted more than just the standard coil tap. Being able to choose which coil on the humbucker to “tap” would surely lead to a wider variety of tones and sounds… some further Googling brought me to www.gmarts.org, a website with a simply stunning depth-of-knowledge, presented in an easy to understand way. And so I learnt about pickups, wiring schemes, 3-way coil taps and phase. Whilst not wanting to be overly ambitious, the Advanced Wiring section contained something too good to miss: a Sweet Switch to instantly knock-off some brightness. Notes were taken, and a plan devised to include it in the final scheme.

This just left the choice of pickups. In order to perform the coil tap, I would require a 4-wire humbucker – Google didn’t disappoint: Tonerider seem to be a relatively new company, but I can’t find a bad review. Best of all, they’re cheap.
I didn’t want anything too hot, so have settled on the Classics humbucker with Alnico IV magnets and nickel covers.

The wiring scheme will require 2 extra switches; one for the coil tap, and one for the sweet switch. The only dilemma is where to mount them… here aesthetics and ergonomics clash – it remains an unsolved problem…

Continue to Part 3

Filed under: Guitar Tagged: guitar, humbucker, pickups, strat, stratocaster

DIY Strat – The Return of the Legend Part 1: Rebuidling my Strat-o-copy

beingisbewildering — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 21:56:34 +0000

My first guitar, an Aria Legend strat copy, currently lies broken, in pieces, up in the attic and has done for over 10 years. In a somewhat misguided attempt to improve the paint scheme (I’d seen a silver-grained black colour-wash sunburst strat in a magazine), I disassembled it and began what I thought would be the simple task of stripping off the paint. Modern guitars are finished with a polymer lacquer which can only be described as indestructible. After many hours with paint stripper and an orbital sander I had one half of the body back to bare wood. And that’s where the project ended. Frustrated by the lack of progress, the bits were boxed up and put in the back of a cupboard until recently, when after going to a gig, inspiration struck and I decided to rebuild it.

There’s a certain sentimental value to still owning your first guitar and maybe even being able play it. Only it wasn’t my first, or even second: first came an ancient EKO Ranger 6 acoustic borrowed off my cousin, complete with a solid wood case made by my uncle. I was probably 8 or 9, when he brought it round with a new set of strings and a handful of plectrums. After a year or so, I’d decided that electric was the way to go. Again, my cousin pitched up with a guitar and amp for me to borrow; my second guitar was a red Aria Pro-II Les Paul. The amp (which I still own) was a Carlsbro Stringray Super. My fourth (and currently only serviceable guitar) is a Squier Tele, bought on a whim whilst at Uni.

Which brings us (almost) back to the Legend. This is my starting point, I have a half-painted body, neck and all the hardware.

So, what to do with this guitar? The journey starts, as with lots of things, with Google.

Continue to Part 2

Filed under: Guitar Tagged: guitar, humbucker, pickups, strat, stratocaster

2010 in review

beingisbewildering — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 13:58:50 +0000

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 6,900 times in 2010. That’s about 17 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 23 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 52 posts. There were 28 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 10mb. That’s about 2 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was November 2nd with 139 views. The most popular post that day was GIMP Tutorial: How to create a vintage toy-camera Black & White Photo.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were tutorialized.com, gimpology.com, pixel2life.com, ghuj.com, and psd.tutsplus.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for vintage photography, goldfrapp, hitchcock, vintage poster, and retro poster.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

GIMP Tutorial: How to create a vintage toy-camera Black & White Photo February 2010
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