Soldering

 Hole drilled through end block. It is 1/2", to accept the Fishman endpin jack.

I'm soldering the "hot" wire to the tip lead of the jack here. I then soldered the ground wire (no pic, sorry).

I see now that I could have made my end block a little thinner, as I only just had enough room to thread the bolt onto the inside and tighten it enough to feel secure. You can't really see in this photo, but I have put a piece of ebony down the centre of the back end of the body, where the endpin goes into the guitar. This will be both decorative and add extra strength.

So that I don't forget which wire comes from which lead I labelled them. Wouldn't do much good to forget which wire is which and wire them backwards to the electronics.

The "tip" is simply the lead on the jack that connects with the plug end on the cable.

In With the Old, Out With the New

I want this thing to give the impression of an antique, so I sanded down the stain and re-applied two times to give it a worn look. Once the surface is fully glossy it should look pretty good, if I say so myself... and I just did.

Quick and Easy Sunburst

 The three way switch required a half inch hole, which I drilled with a forstner bit (flat bottomed drill). It makes a nice, clean cut.

I think most people wait until the guitar is put together before starting the colour finish, but I decided to go ahead with the top. I wanted that "tobacco sunburst" look, without having to source the high priced specialty stains. So, I went to the hardware store and found some spray stains by Krylon (one of my favourite paints for many projects). The lighter colour for the centre is Honey Gold.

 The darker colour for the edges is Redwood.

I placed the guitar top on a 5 gallon pail and sprayed around the edges, aiming the paint outward, away from the centre of the guitar. Gently, I swept over with light sprays until I had the desired effect.

I will sand it all very smooth when it's dry and apply several coats of gloss clear coat after the guitar is all assembled. I want the sides to be dark, and the back to have a similar look to the front. The neck is black, and I will blend that into the sides of the guitar body, and probably add some gentle black spray in the "waist" of the guitar as well.






As of July 22, I have taken the finish a step further. Since I want the feel of an antique item, I have given it a faux finish. The colour seems more muted here, but it's actually a little brighter than this. However, I sanded it down to give a worn look and then applied more spray stain. If you look very closely you can also see where I have started to notch the pickup inset holes to allow for the metal tabs that hold the height adjustment screws. The four little pieces to the right are the decorative covers I made to hide those notches. They essentially do what a pick up ring would do on most electric guitars; which is to say they cover the holes and provide an anchor for the height adjustment screws.

Getting Wired

Wiring is coming along. This pic doesn't show where I am at this point, I've progressed since. It was easier to wire things up with the pots in position, allowing for making sure the wires are long enough and that I'm actually connecting things to the right spot according to the schematic.

All I have left to do is figure out which leads I'm supposed to wire on the endpin jack, and solder my ground wires. You may be thinking I should know how to wire the jack, but there are more connection points than there are wires going to it. When I have more time I will have to refer back to the information on the jack.

Passive ... Agressive Pickups?

There are two basic types of pickup; passive and active. Passive pickups work through simple magnetic properties, sending impulses through wiring going into the amplifier. Active pickups are powered (usually by a battery). I am using the more common passive pickup, specifically DiMarzio DP 103 humbuckers. The humbucker is named for the fact that it's configuration is designed to "buck the hum", or cancel the hum that can happen with a single coil pickup. They are typically wired in series, so each of the two coils of the humbucker is linked like sausages in the wiring. This is not always so, and many different effects can be obtained by wiring in different ways. However, I am going for a standard wiring of two pickups with a single volume and tone, with a three way switch. The switch allowing to select neck, bridge, or both positions.

OK, so the pickups are passive. But the instructions are passive aggressive. The wiring schematic cryptically shows only two wires from each pickup. As you can see above, there are five wires sticking out the end of this thing. Well, after a bit of reading and head scratching, I realized that the black and white wires get tied together and capped (at least with this brand, you will have to be sure the wiring is what you expect before going ahead with the tying of wires), essentially eliminating two wires. And it would seem the green and the bare ground are wired as though they were one wire. So, in effect, we do effectively have only two wires. That's just paranormal stuff to someone who hasn't really done any electronics to speak of.

Now that I have that figured out, it's time to get into it. I spent some time last weekend when I was home doing most of the wiring. I hope to get the remainder done this weekend, and then I can start the assembly of this guitar. Yay.