Guitar Facelift/tone change...Finished (phew)

Twelvebar · **Posted:** Sun Jul 26, 2009 7:49 pm

If you have no soldering experience, buy some cheap wire, and something metal to solder to. Spend 15 minutes or so practicing joins. It is easy to learn, but worth practicing to get it right before you hit anything of value.

you should be able to learn in one sitting. I also try to use alligator clips, for a heat sink whenever possible. between the join, and the components whenever possible. (Yes they are for more than smoking the hippy lettuce!)

Martian · **Posted:** Mon Jul 27, 2009 4:39 am

rkreisher wrote:

Martian,

I will keep that in mind. If I need to, I will buy the gun; but I will hold off until I need it.

Pasloade74,

I am hoping so. Give me a few weeks and I will give a review on the tone.

I will also post pics as the job gets going. My first pics should start in about a week when my black accessary package comes in. I'll swap out all the white plastic for the black, minus the pickguard...see how that looks. I really cannot wait until I unviel the finished product, I think it will be sweet.

RK

It should come out really well!

One thing: If you're not in the mood at any given time, walk away from the task until you are. Remember, slow and steady wins the race!

Martian · **Posted:** Mon Jul 27, 2009 6:53 am

BigJay wrote:

Martian wrote:

rkreisher wrote:

I am about to do my first major (for me) modification. I am putting in a Dimarzio Super Distortion 100 in the bridge of my 3 tone Sunburst HWY 1. I have put the following on a "wish list", but have not placed the order yet:

1. New white Fender pearloid 11 screw HSS pickguard.
2. The Dimarzio SD 100 Humbucker "F" spaced, Black
3. A Dimarzio 500k split shaft pot
4. Some copper tape to shield everything
5. Soldering gun -- at Lowes
6. Black Fender accessaries: knobs, switch tip, trem tip, and coil covers (Already bought)

Is there a particular solder I should use or just regular electrical stuff? Is there a site I can go to to get instructions on doing the job. I know the Dimarzio site has wiring schematics. Any help would be greatly appreciated. All together it will be a $160 modification.

I posted this on another area, but I think this one has more traffic.

RK

Make sure you use RESIN CORE solder (the regular stuff), NOT acid core which is for plumbers.

The only real wiring you'll be doing is removing the OEM pickup and installing the DiMarzio. With the DiMarzio, the braid and black wire go to ground and the white wire goes to where the OEM wire was on the toggle. If you find the DiMarzio out of phase with the middle pickup, simply reverse the DiMarzio's black and white wires.

With the shielding, make sure a piece of it is allowed to come out of one of the pickup cavities and rest on the body of the guitar. Once you put the piclguard back on, the OEM foil from the back of the pickguard will come in contact with your new foil, thus integrating your new shielding into the circuit and grounding it among everything else.

Hi Martian....caught your comment about different types of solder. Can you explain the differences and why one is preferable in this application?

Thanks.

Soldering resin (aka soldering paste or soldering flux) cleans the job and helps the solder distribute and adhere to the job better.

Acid core solder burns into the job because for its applications, the metal is much more difficult for the solder to adhere to. This is for say, galvanized pipe and would eat right through electronic components.

rkreisher · **Posted:** Mon Jul 27, 2009 6:04 pm

Twelvebar wrote:

If you have no soldering experience, buy some cheap wire, and something metal to solder to. Spend 15 minutes or so practicing joins. It is easy to learn, but worth practicing to get it right before you hit anything of value.

you should be able to learn in one sitting. I also try to use alligator clips, for a heat sink whenever possible. between the join, and the components whenever possible. (Yes they are for more than smoking the hippy lettuce!)

Excellant advice. I was planning to this that. I will find something to solder together.

I haven't smoked hippy lettus in almost 2 decades and got rid of those things long ago. I do own a few hemostats for clamping crap at work (feeding tubes and various other reasons), they should work, but I can go get some alligator clips as well.

RK

knotty · **Posted:** Tue Jul 28, 2009 9:45 am

rkreisher wrote:

Martin,

Thanks for the all the info and advise.

Knottty,

I was thinking the same thing, but where I am from saying a soldering gun and meaning the pencil is synominous (even though it is not). It is like that also if you order a Coke here, the majority of the people will ask you what kind meaning DP, Pepsi, Coke, Diet Coke, ect. Thanks for your advise too, a soldering pencil it is.

RK

Oh dont get me started about "coke". Im a RC guy since I was a kid. Most people in Canada have no idea what it is. LOL

WoodyTone · **Joined:** Mon Jul 06, 2009 11:15 am **Posts:** 22

Very good advice herein. Only thing I would add is try to solder things as quickly as you can because there is a risk of damaging a wire or pot. Therefore it's important to wait for the soldering iron to heat up -- don't plug it in and then just expect it to be ready to go. And if you're going to hold a wire with your other hand as you're soldering, just beware that the wire can get hot.

emcnasty · **Joined:** Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:11 am **Posts:** 48

welcome to the dark side(figure of speech) becuase of black pickguard etc....lately ive put black hardware etc on my cv 50s strat and mim strat totally cool lookin strats now i didnt think i could put the new pickups in my mim....but i did it not to hard pure vitage noiseless very nice tone love the guitar now at first was gonna kick to the curb...still gonna get that cv 60s in candy apple red with mint green pickguard....oh was that in a different forum???? anyways into the stratosphere..........

rkreisher · **Posted:** Thu Jul 30, 2009 7:12 pm

emcnasty wrote:

welcome to the dark side(figure of speech) becuase of black pickguard etc....lately ive put black hardware etc on my cv 50s strat and mim strat totally cool lookin strats now i didnt think i could put the new pickups in my mim....but i did it not to hard pure vitage noiseless very nice tone love the guitar now at first was gonna kick to the curb...still gonna get that cv 60s in candy apple red with mint green pickguard....oh was that in a different forum???? anyways into the stratosphere..........

No ventually my pick guard is going to be white pearloid. Going with a HSS configuration. All the knobs, pu covers, switch cap, and tremelo tip are going to be black. Can't wait until I have it complete.

RK

rkreisher · **Posted:** Thu Jul 30, 2009 7:36 pm

My first package has arrived. The one with the black accessories. I am waiting to order the the Dimarzio pickup and white pearloid pickguard until next payday (next week). I am itching to put them on now.

I'm going ahead and putting on the black parts this weekend, it will give me an idea what color Dimarzio to order, white or black. Still not convinced it will look good with a white pearloid pickguard with black accessories.

My wife is already rolling her eyes at me, she hates it when I get on these guitar modifications kicks. I really have not wanted to do something like this in a long time, and its the first time I feel confident going to dig into the guts of my guitar myself.

I'll post pics as I go.

RK

emcnasty · **Joined:** Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:11 am **Posts:** 48

right on bro dig in and do it yourself youll feel better by doing it yourself i did anyway....i just put the white pickguard back on my cv 50s but then put black pickup covers black knobs and trem tip and switch tip i think it looks cool my mim strat is all black everything have fun bro ...back into the stratosphere................

frostymug · **Posted:** Fri Jul 31, 2009 12:02 am

Hey rk, you can look at the HSS Highway One to get an idea of what the black on white would look like on your burst.

http://www.fender.com/products//search. ... 0111760300

Granted, yours would be pearloid, but at least that's the basic burst-white-black color scheme.

Shredd6 · **Posted:** Fri Jul 31, 2009 1:20 am

Question for Martian (or anyone else who knows).

I'm about to put together a pickguard with a SD JB jr. neck and bridge, and duckbucker middle. The package deal I bought came with all 500k pots and a 440 cap. I'm a little leary of the setup. Would I do better to use 250k Vol, and 220 cap?

Martian · **Posted:** Fri Jul 31, 2009 4:46 am

Shredd6 wrote:

Question for Martian (or anyone else who knows).

I'm about to put together a pickguard with a SD JB jr. neck and bridge, and duckbucker middle. The package deal I bought came with all 500k pots and a 440 cap. I'm a little leary of the setup. Would I do better to use 250k Vol, and 220 cap?

No. You are good to go with the package deal you've received.

rkreisher · **Posted:** Fri Jul 31, 2009 6:13 pm

frostymug wrote:

Hey rk, you can look at the HSS Highway One to get an idea of what the black on white would look like on your burst.

http://www.fender.com/products//search. ... 0111760300

Granted, yours would be pearloid, but at least that's the basic burst-white-black color scheme.

Thanks for the link. I think it's going to look good.

RK

	Page 2 of 4	[ 60 posts ]	Go to page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4 Next
Go to page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4 Next

	Page 2 of 4	[ 60 posts ]	Go to page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4 Next
Go to page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4 Next

Andorra	EN	ES	FR
Belgium	EN	DE	FR
Croatia	EN
Czech Republic	EN
Estonia	EN
France	EN	FR
Germany	EN	DE
Italy	EN	IT
Latvia	EN
Lithuania	EN
Malta	EN
Netherlands	EN
Poland	EN
Romania	EN
Slovakia	EN
Sweden	EN
United Kingdom	EN

Austria	EN	DE
Bulgaria	EN
Cyprus	EN
Denmark	EN
Finland	EN
Greece	EN
Hungary	EN
Ireland	EN
Liechtenstein	EN	DE
Luxembourg	EN	DE	FR
Monaco	EN	FR
Norway	EN
Portugal	EN
Slovenia	EN
Spain	EN	ES
Switzerland	EN	DE	FR	IT

Mod Shop

Custom Shop

Guitar Facelift/tone change...Finished (phew)

Who is online