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Post subject: Re: Tiredcaster: A newbie strat project
Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 11:03 pm
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tired_guitarist wrote:
... I got the idea from Guthrie Govan's signature Suhr guitar...


Drew

Guthrie has a signature Suhr? Hmm.. I'll have to try check it out.

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Post subject: Re: Tiredcaster: A newbie strat project
Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 1:53 am
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Twelvebar wrote:
tired_guitarist wrote:
... I got the idea from Guthrie Govan's signature Suhr guitar...


Drew

Guthrie has a signature Suhr? Hmm.. I'll have to try check it out.

Hi 12bar,

Its a beaut!

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He's also got a thru-neck natural finish model too.

Here's the man him self giving a demo at Namm 2010. Guthrie Govan at NAMM 2010

Enjoy!

Andy

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Post subject: Re: Tiredcaster: A newbie strat project
Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 1:56 am
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tired_guitarist wrote:
Andy - That's great, thanks for clearing that up for me, I've never seen a selector switch like the Fender one before, which is why I was confused! Thanks for editing your diagram too, I'm very grateful of your help, and I hope you don't think my mentioning it was a criticism :) As for the overheating components, I thought I better ask just in case, as I noticed they were getting pretty hot, and it would be just my luck! think I will get hold of some crocodile clips for heatsinks, just to be sure!

No probs mate! :D

As Martain said "slow and steady wins the race". Just take your time and "if in doubt, give us a shout" :D

Andy

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Post subject: Re: Tiredcaster: A newbie strat project
Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 4:57 pm
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Hey guys, bit of an update on the tiredcaster project, I finally finished up the wiring today, and I'm pleased to say that it works!! well, sort of..

First of all, I removed the little bit of wiring that I had done, as I managed to get some nice vintage style cloth covered stuff. I know it seems like making more work for myself, but the difference in the quality of what I was using and this stuff was pretty big. Also, the cloth covered wire was easier to work with!

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I carried on wiring up the connections in Andybighair's awesome diagram, the fact that I understood it just goes to prove how good it was! I attatched a 470k resistor to the terminals of the 5 way switch, as well as the hot wires from the neck and middle single coil pickups..

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Then I soldered in the 0.47uf capacitor, not a great one but I figured I would rather buy cheaper items, and if they dont work then no harm no foul, but if they do work then I can replace them. I think I will replace it with an orange drop capacitor

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After I made sure all the pickup wires and things were in the correct place, I put in the final piece of ground wire, and that's it! the first time I've ever attempted anything like this, so I was dreading putting the scratch plate back on, as last time I did this the guitar sounded like a large angry bee, and not much else :roll:

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scratchplate back on...

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and here it is with everything back on, ready for the test...

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(apologies for the photo quality, used the camera on the Mrs' ipod, wasn't great)

Plugged it in, and surprisingly enough, it worked! The blower switch/passing lane mod works great, you can go from a nice mellow rhythm sound to a high gain lead sound with the flick of a wee switch, tried it through my Fender frontman amp and it sounds pretty good, but will need to try it through my usual setup before I can comment further.

The only problem I encountered is that the volume doesn't work, it turns down a small fraction but doesn't turn down completely, if it turned up full is 100% then turned right down is about 80-85%. So I'm hoping that one of you guys could give me some advice as to what this might be? I would be even more grateful than I already am!

Thanks for reading, I will be back with the final update as soon as I can sort out the volume problem, and thanks again to everyone who helped me out so far, in particular Martian and Andybighair 8)

Cheers, Drew :)


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Post subject: Re: Tiredcaster: A newbie strat project
Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 5:28 pm
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Drew,

Of course, you're welcome.

It's looking good!

As to the volume pot's malady, you might want to check how well you heat sank the solder on the volume pot's grounded terminal along with all the other wires you brought to it. Also, don't trust the foil to be your ground. Run and solder a ground wire from the pickup selector switch to the volume pot to the tone pot to the mini switch.

Lastly, and I don't know if this is a typo on your part, the cap should be .047uf, not 0.47uf.

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Post subject: Re: Tiredcaster: A newbie strat project
Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 12:04 pm
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This thread is great! Compliments!

(in fact it's super, man!)

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Cheers!

Nutter


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Post subject: Re: Tiredcaster: A newbie strat project
Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 12:05 pm
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+1 Nice work!

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Post subject: Re: Tiredcaster: A newbie strat project
Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 12:27 pm
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Martian wrote:
It's looking good!

+1

Nice job, Drew! I'm really glad you found the wiring diagram usable. I've got to try out that blower switch on my next build.

Martian wrote:
As to the volume pot's malady, you might want to check how well you heat sank the solder on the volume pot's grounded terminal along with all the other wires you brought to it. Also, don't trust the foil to be your ground. Run and solder a ground wire from the pickup selector switch to the volume pot to the tone pot to the mini switch.

Lastly, and I don't know if this is a typo on your part, the cap should be .047uf, not 0.47uf.

+1 On all that too. Martians your man here. Definitely check you've grounded the far right terminal on the volume pot.

Keep us posted! :D

Andy

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Post subject: Re: Tiredcaster: A newbie strat project
Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 4:06 pm
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Hey guys, thanks so much for your kind responses! It's been good fun to do, if anything though it's ended a little bit too quickly, as I don't have enough cash to fund another project at the moment :( I was thinking about changing the paint, but as it's thick poly (I think?) it would probably be more hassle than it's worth. I'm thinking about other mods I could maybe try, any suggestions?

Martian - Ah yes it's a typo on my part, the website does say .047uf, also now that I think of it, I don't know that I ground the selector switch to the volume pot. On the selector switch, underneath the row of terminals on top, there are two songle terminals, one on each end, I'm guessing this would be the part to ground from? As always, thanks for your help!!

Nutter - Awesome thanks, glad you like my project, not quite a "super" strat but not far away!

Miami Mike - Hey, thanks very much for checking out my project, it's awesome that so many of you guys here have looked in!

Andy - Yeah your diagram was great, I honestly wouldnt have managed without it, as the ones I found online were complicated, as I can't read proper wiring diagrams, well not yet anyway. And you definitely should try out the blower switch, not tried it out with my proper setup but I think it will prove very useful. If it's good enough for Guthrie, it;s good enough for me!!

I will take it apart again next week maybe if I get the chance, and double check the grounding. I guess unless I or anyone comes up with a cool mod idea, I'm pretty much done, at least until I can get hold of some new pickups. I would have loved to fit a warmoth neck with 22 frets, but as it's a Squier Affinity I'm sure the body is a lot slimmer than a regular strat, so the neck pocket would be different.

I will check back in when I've got it sorted out, thanks again every one!

Drew :)


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Post subject: Re: Tiredcaster: A newbie strat project
Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 4:14 pm
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tired_guitarist wrote:
...
Martian - Ah yes it's a typo on my part, the website does say .047uf, also now that I think of it, I don't know that I ground the selector switch to the volume pot. On the selector switch, underneath the row of terminals on top, there are two single terminals, one on each end, I'm guessing this would be the part to ground from? As always, thanks for your help!!Drew :)


Yes to the two single terminals. Soldering to one is enough. They are placed on either side for convenience.

As always, you're quite welcome! :D

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Post subject: Re: Tiredcaster: A newbie strat project
Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 8:12 am
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Hey guys,

Just dropping in here to let you know that the tiredcaster is complete, at least for the time being. All it needed was to ground the volume pot, and it's done.

I'm pretty surprised with the results, as the guitar has little to no hum, the volume now works perfectly too. The only problem now is I have nothing to do! At least until I can afford some new pickups for the neck and middle, to replace the standard squier units.

Thanks again to everyone who helped, offered their opinion or even just had a quick read, I appreciate it. I will either start a new thread or resurrect this one when I have some pickups!

All the best,

Drew :)

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Post subject: Re: Tiredcaster: A newbie strat project
Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 8:26 am
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tired_guitarist wrote:
Hey guys,

Just dropping in here to let you know that the tiredcaster is complete, at least for the time being. All it needed was to ground the volume pot, and it's done.

I'm pretty surprised with the results, as the guitar has little to no hum, the volume now works perfectly too. The only problem now is I have nothing to do! At least until I can afford some new pickups for the neck and middle, to replace the standard squier units.

Thanks again to everyone who helped, offered their opinion or even just had a quick read, I appreciate it. I will either start a new thread or resurrect this one when I have some pickups!

All the best,

Drew :)


Enjoy!!!

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Post subject: Re: Tiredcaster: A newbie strat project
Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 12:52 pm
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tired_guitarist wrote:
Hey guys,

Just dropping in here to let you know that the tiredcaster is complete, at least for the time being. All it needed was to ground the volume pot, and it's done.

I'm pretty surprised with the results, as the guitar has little to no hum, the volume now works perfectly too. The only problem now is I have nothing to do! At least until I can afford some new pickups for the neck and middle, to replace the standard squier units.

Thanks again to everyone who helped, offered their opinion or even just had a quick read, I appreciate it. I will either start a new thread or resurrect this one when I have some pickups!

All the best,

Drew :)

Good stuff, Drew!

Threads like these show what a great forum this is.

I'm really glad this project worked out for you. :D

Enjoy!

Andy

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