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Fear this thread is turning into the guitar version of Scoble changes a Randonneur...
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Turns out the "slight" buzzing when using the bridge PU was pretty much deafening when strung up and playing with overdrive. Balls.
So I had had to get under the bridge again to fix this morning's cock up. To avoid binning a third set of strings in two days I went drastic and removed the neck. Bit scary but it did the trick. Fiddled about with the thing in bits but plugged in until the penny finally dropped as to which wires i'd got the wrong way round. Had to bodge a couple of bits with scraps of electrical tape and add two extra bits of wire but got there in the end. Boom.
I'd already bypassed the tone control for the neck bucker in this morning's fiddlings but this time I managed to eliminate any ground hum and get the middle position in phase. It's sounding fantastic. Neck is perfect 60s jazzy pop. Very early George Harrison and it sounds massive with various combination of fuzz and overdrive. The middle position is beautiful for big strumming and country pickin' and the bridge is still a super bright tele bridge. Too bright really.
The only thing I would say is that hearing how nice the neck PU sounds has made me realise how ice-pick sharp the bridge is. I've always known is was bright and have compensated by rolling off tone (something I can do with the tone on the bridge only wiring I have now) but yeah, having started down this path of pickup tinkering has given me confidence to keep playing with it. Given the difference you can get in the sound of a guitar for the sake of £100 or so I'm definitely going to keep it up.
I can see lots fo fun to be had picking up cheapo squires and sticking decent PUs in them. I'd really like another Esquier with a Bigsby at some point. No reason I can't build one up from parts now I've got the confidence to tackle simple wire jobs.
Well chuffed
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@mattioats, It was that I hadn't spotted that the earth wire didn't go straight from the PU to ground, It was soldered to a convenient little bracket in the gap between the pu and control cavity with another wire going from that to ground on the back of the vol pot.
I'd swapped the hot and ground on the controls which meant that I had hot AND ground connected to this little halfway point. It should have just shorted the signal but I guess one of the connections wasn't great anyway so it was buzzing madly. I just snipped everything off the little bracket, joined the two halves of the hot and earth wires so they didn't stop at the little bracket thing. That got rid of the mad buzz when using the bridge. I then ran and ran a new earth straight from the bridge to earth (again, bypassed the halfway bracket thing and ran straight to vol put) and hey presto, no hum.
Kind of pleased that I figured it out by trial and error and logic rather than blindly following a diagram. Was my first day "off" in ages and I had a very pleasant day tinkering about, drinking tea and generally pottering. To have a fully working and great sounding "new" guitar at the end of it is a massive bonus!
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Having a nightmare with cracks on the edges of my fingertips at the moment. Usually at the corner of the fingernail but often right in the middle at right angles to the nail. Very painful and obstructive to playing... and chopping lemons and chillis. Ffffff....
Assuming it's a combination of washing my hands a lot as a result of having a baby at home and cycling in cold dry weather. Am trying to remember to wear gloves and rub chapstick on them. I don't want to soften the callouses actually on the tips of my fingers so it's a bit of a faff.
Anyone else suffering?
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That's how my chronic eczema started...continually washing hands because of looking after young kids.
The skin specialist I saw said it's known as "mother's hands" and is a kind of allergy/hyper sensitivity to water.
Hopefully yours is just dry skin 'cos it makes guitar playing a right pain mainly because of the cuts but also because you have to have ointment on your finger tips most of the time.
And don't use chapstick use proper eczema cream like Epaderm. -
Yeah, have ordered a load of hand cream to keep by all the sinks and carry about with me. Seems a bit better today but still pretty painful
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I’ll finger you wait wat.
Couple of banjos in my local record/2nd hand guitar shop inc. a 1930s with a resonator and new velum for cheap.
Might be Persuaded to flog (or lend... or both) you the walnut finish squier jazz if you fancy it.
You can also borrow my knackered Fender 5 string banjo if you like?
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Come visit man! BRM’s coming this weekend.
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Yup mine is on here ^^^ from pre Christmas & up for sale
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Lol just lost my reply, annoying. Definitely after buying one but only have a budget of £200 - you reckon the one at your local shop is around that? Would v much prefer an older one if poss.
Be good to see you dude but I'm swamped with flat legals this weekend boo hiss. What're you guys up to?
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I’lol go take some pics and give it a strum.
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Great price! Great for guitar too...
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About
Guitar Nerds Anonymous
Posted by
@dooks
Confusing, but sounds like something's not grounded when it should be.
My understanding is that all guitars have a wire that goes from bridge into the cavity and ends up attached to ground with the rest, so I imagine that's what this extra one is. Its job is to ground the rest of the metal hardware (bridge, strings, tuners).
If it's not too much hassle, undo what you just did to the bridge pickup, but swap the wires of the neck. This might lose any humbucking you were getting in the middle position, but it should put them back in phase.
I think...