A few hiccups are expected along the way, I've melted a few of 3-way switches/pots, pickups should be fine, I haven't knackered one yet from dodgy soldering.
Seen that cocktail stick drop fix on the tdpri forums before, nice fix up job To paraphrase Ron Kirn (good luthier on the tdpri forums), you don't get better at building guitars, you get better at hiding your mistakes.
The drop fill is looking like it will work. I now have a high spot that can be sanded back.
As for the pots, the push pull didn't get too messy so should be fine but I'm not going to risk the tone pots. I've ordered two pots, a 5 way switch and another capacitor and some 22awg wire.
Don't get too downhearted, electrics can always be replaced. Nothing rarely goes to plan (not for me, anyway), just go with it.
I made an a huge f'up with my wrath project, forgot to put the router guide on and took a chunk out of the top. Nearly scrapped it, had planned on a flat top with binding, contouring didn't hide it, so I've gone with a forearm contour.
Take it as it comes, don't worry too much about mistakes, (same as playing guitar) it's a learning process.
It's sometimes better to use a smaller soldering iron tip, but it's just one of those things you get better at with practice. If you really get stuck then I'm sure I've seen harnesses that are already soldered together, though you'd still have to connect your pick ups.
FWIW, despite being a trained electronics engineer myself I managed to connect a (borrowed) DiMarzio pick up wrongly as it was a 4 wire pup and I don't have any coil tap switching; It sounded quite thin and lower output than the (original) bridge pup. I managed to sort it out this afternoon though and it sounds brighter and louder than the original Epiphone one, so I think I may looking at getting a pair of them (or maybe Bareknuckle ones).
I like the colour with the white pick guard. The black covers add contrast, but maybe some white pup covers would look good too.
My wrists hurt from drumming, my finger tips from playing guitar, so I'm resorting to posting on the web now...
I saw your post about the Wrath earlier. Looking great. Nobody would ever have guessed about the router-mare.
I was thinking of you earlier. I had a pic of your wiring job in front of me to follow your routing. There the similarity ends.
It's a 30W pencil tip iron so it's all down to me unfortunately. I put the vernier on the wire I used and its 1.5mm more than double 22awg (discovered to be the norm after the event). I'll have some practice runs on the spare pots before I have a go at the new ones. I'm determined to do the soldering myself.
Hardware today. Not much corrosion other than the screws and springs but years of gunk and DNA to get rid of.
Stripped the bridge and trem down to their component parts.
Buffed everything with the Dremel and then rebuilt everything. I would have liked to buff a little further but the chrome is quite thin and it would have been too easy to buff straight through to the base.
What bits did you use on the dremel to route the the wood and polish the pickups poles out of interest? Never really got to grips with the dremel I bought years ago.
Drop filling works great used it quite a few times now, particularly with black. You can get away with quite a bit as the finish helps hide it.
Today I rubbed down the areas on the body that I drop filled last week. The top horn still isn't quite right so I have dropped filled it again.
I wired the pots and switches. Not the prettiest of solder jobs but everything appears to be OK.
After testing the resistance directly at the pickups I found that the middle was a randomly showing open circuit. I've decided to discard all three in favour of a set of Wilkinson Hot Singles with more windings. They will be closer to a Fender spec and will be more in line with the 250k pots and 0.47uf capacitor that I have changed to anyway.
I soaked 1200 wet and dry overnight in water and a dash of washing up liquid. I sanded back yesterdays drop fills and gave the whole body a quick rub down, then cleaned it all off with kitchen towel. Everything is totally flat and all the dimples and bumps are gone. The whole body has a nice dull satin look and feel to it ready to take the clear gloss lacquer.
The body is hanging in the garage now. I have spayed a light mist of lacquer over it and will be applying spay coats every half hour or so.
Author: hyperfish
25-11-2019 21:26:06
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