Archive for March, 2010
Gearing Up For Humbucker Production
Posted by admin in General Electric Guitar Building on March 30th, 2010
A Winders Workbench.
So far I have three spools of coil wire, all of my alnico magnets and the hookup wire. By Friday I should have all of the rest of the remaining parts and when I do, I will go live with my order page. Can’t wait!
The plan is to start with 3 different varieties of humbuckers which can purchased individually or in sets. As time passes, I’ll add some options like different colored bobbins and nickel steel covers. Then, as I start to sell more pickups, I’ll add single coils of every variety. It’s a crowded market, but my goal is to stand out by offering hand wound quality for a machine wound price. We’ll see how it goes. Stay tuned!
Handmade Electric Guitars vs Factory Made
Posted by admin in General Electric Guitar Building, Uncategorized on March 25th, 2010
Yesterday I spent some time in a local guitar shop while looking for a new amp. As I looked at the dozens and dozens of guitars they had for sale, I couldn’t help but notice how perfect each instrument looked from a construction standpoint. It was obvious to me that none were handcrafted. How could I tell this? They were too perfect.
There's just something about a handmade guitar that inspires us to play at our best
When I make a guitar, I try to select the most unique wood to use. Aside from the tonal characteristics, I like my wood to have personality. All of the guitars I saw in this shop had wood grain so perfect they looked fake. In fact, some of the finishes were so smooth and precise, I had to question whether I was looking at real wood or a silkscreened photo of wood ( a process some guitar manufacturers actually resort to).
When I build a guitar, I try to achieve the highest level of craftsmanship possible. However, I am relying on my hands, eyes and my sense of touch to guide me as I shape material supplied by mother nature. In the end, my guitars have the occasional tool mark, grain texture and subtle finishing flaws that prove they were made by hand and not a computer guided machine.
When I first started building guitars, I would get frustrated in my attempts to mimic the perfection of the assembly line versions. But then I began to realize that trying to accomplish by hand what a machine can do is the wrong idea. These days, I want my guitars to have the same kind of character and personality that a piece of custom, handmade furniture has.
Now don’t get me wrong, I still strive to make the most playable instruments possible. However I want my choice of wood and finish to shout, “Hey, look at me! I was made by human hands and not a machine!”
My Pickup Test Results
Posted by admin in General Electric Guitar Building on March 23rd, 2010
In my last posting I described a series of tests I planned to do using different strength magnets in a humbucker. To say the least, the results were very informative. Here is what I did:
The pickup I used was one of my own handmade buckers. I wound both bobbins with 43 AWG wire to just over 6,000 turns on each. This produced a total DC resistance of 9.8k Ohms. Next, I charged up three Alnico 5 magnets to a full charge of around 830 gauss. Then, I degaussed two of the magnets with one down to 650 gauss and the other to 550 gauss.
The test consisted on inserting the 830g mag into the pickup, installing the pickup into my mule guitar and playing through a small practice amp. After the first test, I swapped out the 830g mag for the 650g and repeated the test. Then, I did the same with the 550g mag.
What surprised me was how the tone didn’t change at all from one mag to the next. As a sanity check, I took the 550g mag and further degaussed it down to 400g. That did the trick.
In the first three tests, the tone stayed warm with just a hint of top end brightness. But at 400g, the tone lost the top end and sounded almost muffled.
So what does this prove? For me at least, it shows that I can degauss an A5 down to 550g without loosing tone. Why is this important? Lower gauss means less string pull and that means more sustain. If I go too low, I’ll increase sustain, but I’ll pay a penalty in lost tone.
The test also indicates what will happen if the DC resistance is increased by adding more coil wire. The Alnico 5, even at full gauss strength, will start to loose top end as the resistance increases. That’s why high powered pickups often use ceramic magnets. They help to preserve the top end better than an alnico 5 is able to do. However, if the pickup pushes past 15k, even a ceramic starts to loose treble. That’s why I think some pickup makers are starting to experiment with neodymium magnets.
Unfortunately, neodymium mags have their own problems. Because of their massive pulling strength, guitar strings have a tendency to stick to the pickup’s pole pieces, especially if a tremolo is used for dive bombs.
For now, I’ll probably stick to a lower number of turns on the bobbins and go with various alnico grades since to do so will mean a wider range of tone in my pickups.
Testing 1, 2, 3…
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on March 21st, 2010
Parts is parts
Today was spent in the world of pickup research and development. First, I wound a couple of humbucker bobbins for a test pickup. What am I testing? Alnico 5 gauss levels. These magnets tend to be fairly strong when initially charged. While that may seem like a good thing in terms of signal strength, it can have an undesirable impact on sustain and tone.
Next, I charged up three A5 bars to around 900 gauss. Gauss is a measurement of a magnet’s strength. The higher the number, the stronger the magnet. Then, I degaussed two of the magnets to different levels. So now I have three different A5 gauss levels to test. The strongest is 884 gauss. The next one is 653 gauss and the last one measures in at 523 gauss.
Tomorrow, I plan to test all three–one at a time, of course–in the same pickup and the same guitar. This will help me to decide what gauss level works best in terms of all-around tone and sustain. Then, I’ll need to do the same with the A2, 3 and 4 mags I plan to use in my pickups. However, these magnets tend to work fine fully charged as they aren’t as strong as the A5.
In the past, the magnets I used came fully charged. But, since I want total control over the tone and sustain of my pickups, I really have to do the charging/degaussing myself. It takes more work, but the results will be something I can stand behind.
After I finish this test, I’ll post the results. Stay tuned!
Highline Electric Guitar Pickups
Posted by admin in General Electric Guitar Building on March 19th, 2010
When I first started building electric guitars, I wanted total control over every aspect of the outcome. In fact, I had ideas for my own bridge and tuner designs as well. Unfortunately, I lack the tools necessary to fabricate such components. Pickups, on the other hand, are a bit more doable.
Over the past couple of years, I have been studying and practicing the dark art of pickup making. The results have been successful and now I’d like to make them available to anyone in need of hand wound “boutique” pickups.
My plan is to start by offer humbuckers in three varieties; Hot, Medium and Mild. Each will be made using coil wire that has been selected to achieve the correct output and tone. I will also be using a variety of alnico magnets, which I will charge myself in order to fine tune the tone and sustain.
So what makes my pickups different? I’m not trying to sell an overpriced, overpromised product. What I mean is, I’m not claiming to replicate a tone that, in my opinion, can’t be replicated by anyone. For example, when someone claims they sell a pickup that yields a true PAF tone, they’re exaggerating. Why do I say this? Because there is no such thing as PAF tone, I don’t care what people say. If you take 5 different PAF stickered pickups and play them one at a time in the same guitar, they will all sound different. Some sound good and others sound terrible.
When Gibson made these pickups, they constantly tweaked the design by changing magnets, wire, bobbins, baseplates and so on. Plus, the winding patterns changed depending on who was running the winding machines. As a result, there is no standard “vintage PAF tone.” In fact, I could hand you a rock and say it has PAF tone and you couldn’t argue because it’s a subjective opinion.
My goal is to make a high quality product using modern, better made and more reliable materials. I also have some ideas for some less than traditional designs as well.
I’ve ordered all of the materials and hope to be ready to start selling by mid April. I’ll post and tweet when ready to pull the trigger. Stay tuned!
Water Based Top Coats For Electric Guitars
Posted by admin in General Electric Guitar Building on March 17th, 2010
For my latest Legato build, I decided to try out Hydrocoat Resisthane Plus. This is a pre-catalyzed (meaning it contains a drying catalyst already mixed in), water-based lacquer, which can be brushed or sprayed right from the can. I chose to spray it on using an HVLP sprayer.
A quart is more than enough for one guitar.
The advantage of this product is it cures faster than nitrocellulose lacquer. In fact, it should be ready to wet sand and polish in only a few days as opposed to a few weeks. The disadvantage is that you have to lightly sand between coats. I find I usually do this anyway even when I use nitrocellulose lacquer since it helps to smooth the finish.
I'm using a Wagner Control Spray Plus HVLP sprayer.
I started out by hanging the guitar in my garage so I could spray a light coat over all of the sides at once. However, when I sprayed it lightly, I ended up with some pretty heavy orange peel. After the lacquer had dried about an hour, I sanded it smooth with 220 grit. Then I decided to lay the body flat and spray just the top of the body and headstock with a thicker coat. This approach seems to work better, however, I did suffer a couple of runs, which had to be sanded flat before spraying the next coat. Tomorrow, I’ll sand and spray two more coats before moving on and repeating the process on the sides and back.
I’ll post more photos as I proceed. Stay tuned!
Happy Accidents
Posted by admin in General Electric Guitar Building on March 16th, 2010
I had a teacher in art school who once told me to let accidents happen when I paint because sometimes they can take you into new and unexpected directions. That’s what has happened with the Legato build I’m doing. The other day I mentioned the issue I’d had with the strings running into the headstock and how I fixed it by filing grooves into the wood. The big question mark for me, was how to fill the truss rod nut access hole.
A lightbulb went off in my head when I remembered that I had a block of Sculpey sitting unused on a shelf in my basement. It took 4 attempts, but I finally got what I wanted. And, I’m so happy with the result, I’ve decided to make this unique feature a signature design on all my guitars going forward. I’ll tweak it a bit, but the photo below gives you an idea of what I’m talking about.
Sculpey. It aint just for making cute figurines!
eGuitar Plans Web Site Update
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on March 16th, 2010
I just added a new page to my web site where I plan to display electric guitars and pickups I plan to offer for sale. Right now I only have one guitar listed, but as time passes, I plan to add more. Keep in mind that I build my guitars and pickups by hand, so they take a while to finish. Here’s a link to the page.
My Legato Has A Problem!
Posted by admin in General Electric Guitar Building on March 14th, 2010
I tell people all the time that building guitars often requires creative problem solving. Case in point: My current Legato build has a major problem regarding the headstock.
As you can see in the photo below, the required headstock angle starts about an inch or so in front of the nut. It should have started right at the nut. As a result, the strings–shown in red–are going to contact the headstock as they travel from the nut to the tuners.
The arrow shows where the strings will contact the headstock.
Obviously, I was more concerned with the headstock’s shape than I was with its position. But, instead of cutting off the headstock and repositioning it closer to the nut, I decided to try a radical approach as shown in the next photo.
Channels carved into the headstock solved the problem.
What I did was carve channels for the strings. This will allow the strings to run from the tuners to the nut without touching the headstock. And, since the strings will be surrounded by wood, there may be a nice bump in tone. Of course the next thing I have to figure out is what to do with the big hole that provides access to the truss rod nut.
The Dirty Secrets Of Electric Guitar Building… Part 13
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on March 12th, 2010
Ah, here we are at Part 13. Maybe I should bow to superstition and call it Part 14. Yeah, right! Besides, the number 13 fits today’s subject; Electric Guitar Wiring.
When it comes to wiring up an electric guitar, the possibilities are as varied as the styles of music one can play. For this reason, I highly recommend studying the basic principals of electricity and how it applies to guitar wiring. You can follow a wiring schematic, but it really helps to understand what’s happening in the circuit you create.
Some wiring schematics can get very complicated.
Instead of boring you with the details, which could fill a massive book, let me give you a brief explanation of what happens when you pluck the strings of your guitar.
When the strings vibrate over the pickup, they excite the magnetic field contained within the pole pieces. This, in turn, motivates the flow of electrons in the coil surrounding the magnet. The flow continues through a circuit made up of wire, switches, potentiometers and capacitors, all of which control and shape the signal before it heads out to the amplifier. Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? However, it’s much more complicated than that.
The most important factors to understand are resistance and capacitance. Opposition the signal is resistance while capacitance refers to the ability of a component to store a portion of the signal. All of the components in your wiring scenario posses these two factors, which vary based on their individual designs. Some components are designed with resistance as the main influence while others are geared more toward capacitance. For example, a potentiometer is big, variable resistor while a capacitor is designed to soak up some of the signal.
To some, it may seem like resistance and capacitance are a bad thing–after all, don’t we want a strong signal to travel from the pickup straight to the amp? Sure, but then you wouldn’t be able to adjust the volume and tone at your guitar. When you turn down the volume knob, you’re actually increasing resistance which weakens the signal. And when you turn the tone knob, resistance increases and channels the signal into a capacitor, which absorbs the treble frequencies.
It would be easy to wire a guitar if there were only one type of potentiometer and capacitor, but that’s far from the case. There are hundreds to choose from, each with their own unique specs. That’s why it’s so important to learn what the values mean.
Sure you could follow a schematic without knowing the whys, but I’ve come across more than a few that simply don’t work. And if you’re on a budget–who isn’t these days–you’ll save yourself both time an money if you can make the right decisions based on a thorough understanding of how the values affect performance. Also, don’t assume a wiring schematic you found will do the trick. Most scenarios are based on personal preference.What worked for one person may not work for you. But if you don’t know this, you won’t find out until you’ve closed the control cavity and play through an amp.
Now, lets talk about soldering for a minute.
You can have a good schematic, wire and components, but still screw it all up with a bad soldering job. Use solder specifically for wiring, not the stuff plumbers use. A 15 to 30 watt soldering iron works fine for most tasks, but you may want a higher wattage when soldering several wires to the back of a potentiometer. Whatever you use, make sure your solder joints are SCS. Small, clean and shiny. If they’re splattered and dull, the electrons won’t flow through.
Follow a good schematic and do most of the work outside the guitar. I use a cardboard box lid to hold the controls while I work.
Before you start soldering, take a good look at your schematic and decide how much of the work can be done outside of the guitar’s control cavity. Try and do as much of the soldering as possible before you install the components. And lastly, DON”T FORGET TO RUN A GROUND WIRE TO THE BRIDGE! If you forget to do this, you’ll be reminded with a jolt the first time you touch an electrical component, such as a microphone, that isn’t properly grounded. With a tune-o-matic, the ground wire is fed into one of the post holes. With a tremolo bridge, there should be a provision to connect the ground to the bridge block. Regardless of the bridge type, the other end of the ground should be soldered to the back of a potentiometer along with the pickup grounds.
That’s it for Part 13. In Part 14, I’ll discuss applying finishes. Stay tuned!