Houston, We have a project!

Brent Dowell

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So, Vaughn has had a thing for inexpensive foreign instruments lately. He had scored quite a deal on this one on ebay.

Unfortunately, it's a little neck heavy, so didn't really work for him standing up and playing, so lets just say his loss is my gain.

That's not to say it doesn't have some issues, but fortunately, that should be easy to overcome.

Over all it's in good shape, but the pickups leave a little to be desired and it could just use a little general 'fettling'.

I'm also thinking of giving it a bit of a paint job.

I'm going to put in new pickups and completely rewire it with push/pull pots so I can do a coil tap mod to put the humbuckers into single coil mode.

This should be fun!

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Thanks to a little help from Vaughn, We have a wiring diagram.
DoubleNeckCoilTap.jpg
 
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Not sure, but I'm open to suggestions!

Zebra stripes, perhaps? I'll bet it'd be the only double-necked zebra in Washoe County!

And if I'd have known you were gonna post the wiring diagram, I would have spent a few more minutes in Paint making it look better, lol. :)

I sincerely hope you have fun with that axe. I would have liked to have found a way to put it to use, but it really wasn't practical for my needs. I'm very glad it found a good home at The Dowell Home for Odd and Wayward Instruments. :D
 
Starting to think Yellow with black strips..... Maybe orange. Not sure yet.

Dowell home for Odd and Wayward instruments, I like that!
 
Did someone say stripes?

Charvels.jpg
 
I love music - listen to it a LOT. Old and some new.

Last night I really enjoyed some of South Pacific - Rogers and Hammerstien

I love Guitar.

I play NOTHING - NO talent at all - I tried.

I do LOVE the colors and finishes applied to things like Guitars

I will be watching this with a GREAT deal of interest.

My shop is a WELCOME place for colors ---
 
Well, I've gotten a start on it. All the parts are here, including the paint.

I've stripped all the hardware and have taken it apart.

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Worked with the stripper to get all the paint off.
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And here they are, all sanded up to 320 grit, cleaned with lacquer thinner and then naptha. That's what the reranch site said to do, so I'm doing it.

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Going to just let these dry out a bit before I put the seal coat on. Had to hose the body off a bit, so it really needs to dry out a bit.

Painting is hard for me. I like instant gratification. It takes everything I have to just not grab the can of paint and start spraying on on the bare wood.

But what I’ve read, and started to learn and get stuck into my thick head is that the quality of the finished product really relies on the prep work you do before you ever take the cap of the can of paint.

This is killing me. It’s going to take days and I’d much rather be putting the electronics together.
 
I've been following a guitar thread on another site and the builder lined all the body cavities with copper foil--I guess to reduce cross feed?. Is that something you're considering?
 
I think lining the cavities is done more with Telecaster or stratocaster type guitars. They typically have single coil pickups, which are prone to getting the dreaded 60hz interference.

This guitar has humbuckers, which is basically (and I hope an expert will correct me if I'm wrong) 2 single coils wired in such a fashion as to cancel out that hum.

Now the interesting point is that I am planning on wiring these pickups so that I can put them into single coil mode, which means, Hmmm, Maybe shielding the cavities makes sense?

I've heard you can also use some of that adhesive backed aluminum foil tape to do that shielding as well.
 
Yes, shielding the cavities is a good idea if you're using the humbuckers in single coil mode. :thumb: And another yes on the foil tape. I've even done it with Heavy Duty Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil and rubber cement. You do want to find a way to ground it, although you can often just rely on the bodies or shafts of the pots making enough contact to ground the foil.

Oh, and you're also correct about the 60 cycle hum. That's indeed what the shielding is for.
 
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