2008 January | thejamesmachine

January 29, 2008

The Mega Strat is dead. Long live the regular strat. by James @ 7:16 am

OK, so I gave up on the Mega Strat project. As I said before, I am no expert when it comes to guitar wiring, but I have replaced more than a couple sets of pickups, replaced switches and pots, and did a complete rewire of my Peavey T-60 without any trouble. I haven’t ever had complete failure as I did when wiring this project up… The more times I desoldered and resoldered, the uglier things got, the closer new parts come to getting burnt up and failing.

Here’s how it panned out:

I have the Custom Shop ‘69 pickups wired in as standard with the middle pickup flipped (at the moment). I wired in the modded TBX tone control as a master tone, with a dummy knob (not wired to anything) in the third spot. It sounds great, looks great, works great.

I’m a little concerned because I have a very limited usable range on the volume pot. It was recycled from some previous project, so it may be burnt up inside or something. From 0 to 6 it is completely silent, from 6-10 is the normal volume range. I will pick up a new 250K pot next time I am at Ye Olde Radio Shaque.

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January 26, 2008

Mega Strat Progress 3 by James @ 7:38 pm

I fixed the “inverted switch” problem in the original wiring diagram… bastards.

http://medinaline.net/pics/megastrat-wiring-fixed.jpg

I am trying to get up the nerve to get started on it right now. Wish me luck.

———– Update: 8:35PM ————-

I installed the new 5 way switch… Unfortunately, the behavior is exactly the same. Only the rhythm pickup works and only with the push/pull switch down. Time to replace the push/pull switch now. Wish me more luck than I got last time.

———– Update: 9:32PM ————-

OK, I feel generally better about things. The situation is exactly the same now that I replaced the push/pull knob. I have a feeling there is either something fundamental I don’t understand about the wiring diagram, or there is something fundamentally wrong with the wiring diagram. Either way, I think I can rule out bad soldering as the problem :)

Time to go pay someone to fix it.

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January 24, 2008

Mega Strat Progress 2 by James @ 9:06 pm

OK, I finally got back to it and purchased the replacement 5 way switch and push-pull pot today, as seen below.

I would just like to step back for a moment and rant about the “shopping online kills local businesses” thing. To me, it’s fast, easy, and a hell of a lot cheaper to shop online. The thing I hate about real world shopping, music stores in particular, is the employee. Most music shops feature guitars more than anything else. Sure they have a drum set or two… keyboard or two… ten basses… Buncho amps. Music store employees all play guitar and in the most unimaginative way [compare to: bleached blonde bimbos, unimaginative at being bimbos]

I am not afraid to say it out loud… voice of a nation right here. Guitar players are the worst people on Earth.

OK, not a completely fair generalization, but a generalization nonetheless. The fact that it qualifies as an “unfair generalization” is proof enough for me that it is absolutely true. Worst people on Earth.

Anyway, the long and short of it is this: I was in a hurry and wanted to get these parts right now. So, I paid $31.96 to purchase from a real world store, lining the commission of hair-product-open-collar-guitar guy. Just did a quicky search online… Total before shipping? $9.57.

I’m sorry, Ye Olde Musique Shoppe, that you have to compete with places like GNC for monthly rent payments in your strip-mall store front. I really am.

I wonder if they sell anal lube up there…

OK, enough about that. Here are some pics as to why I need to rewire this thing with new switches.

Today’s theme:

Don’t ever pay me to do electronicalish work for you.

-OR-

Friends don’t let friends High Life and solder.

-OR-

Too poor to expect more.

-OR-

Why’s it gotta be so damn cold up in here when the electric bill is $150 a month?

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