David Ross David Ross Musical Instruments
Forum Replies Created
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I have two main work surfaces. The first picture is my bench, which is about 60″L x 24″W x about 40″H. I made this in college out of white ash with a 3/4″ melamine top. It just seemed like the exact dimensions I would need and I’ve never thought twice about in in the past 12 years or so. I use it every day and it’s great. I chose melamine with a white surface for the top as I thought it would be helpful for adding light/brightness to the shop. The second workstation is my workbench island, also made in college, mostly made out of MDF with a melamine top. The top measures 6′ x 4′ and has lots of space underneath for drawers, shelves, and a vacuum. I put my bandsaw and sander on here, and it has enough space to multiple guitars, I also do routing here occasionally. These are not beautifully made, it’s purely about function.
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Hey Josh, thanks for the reply! I’ve never really sat down and thought about it before and so this certainly clarifies things on my end.
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I build pedals in addition to repairing guitars, some of the resources I use are Tayda, SmallBear Electronics, and LoveMySwitches. You should be able to find what you’re looking for there, or from a vendor who specializes in guitar pedal parts.
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I’m shooting from the hip here a bit but I’m inclined to say that this should be doable. As for the PRS 5 way switch, if it’s what I think it is, I’d probably just tell the customer that it benefits all parties to make this as simple as possible and to replace it. This isn’t going to be easy in general and what would the customer really know about it? Side rant, why do the PRS people never seem to be happy with the electronics? They have all these options at their fingertips from the factory but then they want a whole new set of options. I don’t get it man…
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Thanks for the advice guys! Yeah this is potentially a bit of a mess but I’ll discuss these options with the customer. One thought I had is since there are already 3 holes drilled in the top, I think I’m going to ask the customer what he thinks about having the lipstick pickup get its own electronics top mounted, basically a volume, tone, and output jack, and then if he wants the piezo, he can plug into the end pin jack. I think this might get him most of the way there without having to gut the electronics and start from scratch. I’ll see what he thinks and get back…
-David
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Here’s some reference files that may be helpful:
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While I’m unfamiliar with the circuit itself, if the guitar were in my shop I’d start troubleshooting by making sure the battery was actually fresh. From there, I’d take my multimeter and check voltages throughout the circuit, making sure the transistor and IC and both getting power for example. You could also make yourself an audio probe and go through the circuit and see where the signal starts to weaken or distort. It could be that there’s a component failure, a broken connection or a solder joint that needs to be reheated. Going step by step through the circuit and being deliberate should yield results.
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If you’re going from a humbucker to a P90, presumably you wouldn’t need a push/pull pot unless you had something different in mind. Regardless, the Seymour Duncan wiring diagrams likely have what you’re looking for:
https://www.seymourduncan.com/resources/pickup/wiring-diagrams
seymourduncan.com
Wiring Diagram Library | Seymour Duncan
The world's largest selection of free guitar wiring diagrams. Humbucker, Strat, Tele, Bass and more!
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I recently made a video on how to measure the DC resistance of guitar pickups. I’m trying to create videos for my YouTube channel more regularly but we’ll see how it goes. Between shooting and editing it’s quite a lot of work but I now have everything I need to make it relatively easy, so I’m giving it a go. Check it out if you’re interested:
https://youtu.be/V_EYGIYxHec -
I actually use these pots for the guitar pedals I make. Basically you’re looking for a 500k linear dual gang pot. Alpha makes them, I usually get mine from Tayda (in Thailand I believe), although they’re out of stock at the moment. In the future I would seek out guitar pedal suppliers like Adafruit, LoveMySwitches, SmallBear, Stompbox Parts and others. You could also search on Mouser. Glad you found one!
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I’m using WordPress to manage my websites content, and Dreamhost as my hosting service. I’ve had good luck with them for the past 3 years since starting my business. Since you’re in New York State, you may want to consider getting in touch with your local SBDC if you haven’t already, not only for this but in general as well. They can likely guide you through the website process and additionally, a few years ago they had a grant that allowed a company to build my website for free. All I had to do was provide them materials and they did all of the complicated back end stuff. You can check my site out here if you like: https://davidrossmusicalinstruments.com
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Hey JD, I found this one on the Seymour Duncan Wiring Diagrams page. I believe this should be what you’re looking for. I’ll also leave a link below to the main Seymour Duncan Wiring Diagrams page, since there are a lot of diagrams on there and you can select a lot of different options:
https://www.seymourduncan.com/resources/pickup/wiring-diagrams
-David
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As someone who works out of an unfinished basement, I like this question. A few years ago I had someone install an electric heater that’s about 24″ x 16″ or so. It has a fan in it and is located about 12′ from my workbench. It’s not that powerful but it takes the chill out of the air and is usually adequate for winters in upstate NY. If it gets particularly cold, I’ll also use a small space heater. I can pretty reliably get my work area up to around 60F in the winter, but not much more than that unfortunately. Additionally, I’ll use a humidifier to bring up the ambient humidity from as low as 30% to something closer to 40%.
The extremes of my shop that I’ve measured are around 80F and 70% in the summer, and 40F and 30% in the winter. This is if I leave things unattended which I obviously don’t. Essentially, it’s a balance between getting a decent temperature and humidity range in the shop. I’ll often keep customers guitars upstairs and out of the shop if the conditions are more favorable. This time of year, I feel comfortable leaving guitars in the shop. I think what’s most important is to be mindful and do the best you can.
Edit: Just to answer a couple more questions, I rarely heat overnight unless it gets particularly cold out (single digits/below zero) and I’m worried about pipes freezing. When it gets below 60F is when I start to really feel it. I’m not a big guy and so I have to dress particularly warm. One thing that’s worth getting is fingerless gloves. Lastly, my honest feeling is that since the customers guitars are not in my possession for longer than a few weeks, I don’t think they’re likely to be ravaged by temperature and humidity, even if the conditions are less than ideal. I am mindful of the environment and do the best I can, but I also don’t feel that guitars are as delicate as one would be inclined to think.
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I appreciate the response and the perspective, thank you! I am curious, since I’m a rather inexperienced builder, I’m torn between being a perfectionist, versus seeing a project through and cracking eggs regardless of the mistakes. The concern for me is starting a project, messing up at a certain point, and going back to the beginning endlessly. This is a tough question but is there a point at which one should feel confident in being able to build a guitar from start to finish without any errors? If so, what is that point?
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Hey Neil, the other frets are quite worn out and a refret would likely be in order, however I’m not sure if the customer is willing to spend that kind of money yet. I was curious what role the nut plays in a zero fret situation? I may be overthinking it but my understanding that the zero fret sets the string height, but how should the nut be treated?
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Hey Ian, sounds good!
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That sounds good, do you know when the next meeting is?
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About 3-1/2 hours. Maybe we can have a Zoom chat…
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Unfortunately not any. I have sprayed nitro in the past and have gotten good results, but the only compressor I have now is a little 6 gallon pancake which I’m guessing doesn’t have the capacity needed to use an air brush, although I could be wrong. I was thinking about some combination of stain and maybe giving Glu-Boost a try, but I’m skeptical about how satisfying that would ultimately be.
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Hey Ian, I grabbed some more pictures with some naphtha saturating the two main areas on the body and headstock. I also took some better photos of the heel and soundhole.
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Gotcha, thanks Gerry!
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Hey Gerry, yes that should work fine! I’m wondering about the value of the resistor however, would it be a ~250k resistor to ground?
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Hey Gerry, thanks for the info. I actually posted about this guitar last November and still have the wiring diagrams that I used. The first picture is the original wiring diagram, the second picture is push/pull switching setup, and the third picture is the wiring that my customer’s guitar currently has.
I posted a thread about it too which should make things clearer:
https://dev.loothgroup.com/all-forums-all-topics/topic/prs-special-22-sh-wiring-help/
dev.loothgroup.com
PRS Special 22 SH Wiring Help??? - Quick Questions - The Looth Group
PRS Special 22 SH Wiring Help??? - Quick Questions - The Looth Group
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Thanks Tony, I’m leaning towards trying the 250k resistors on the leads of the bridge and neck humbuckers. I may even play around with this on one of my own guitars and see what the effects are.
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Hey Mike, you said you had a skeleton of this figured out. Do you have a wiring diagram you could share? Two things: Jumping on the Loothalong and talking with people there is never a bad idea. There’s usually folks on all hours of the day who can provide solid advice. Also, I may be able to draw something up for you if need be, although I can’t guarantee it would be perfect, I could likely get something pretty close to what is desired. Then we could work from there.
Any thoughts here @ianhatesguitars ?
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Should I make this into a new post in this forum? OK I think I see what you intended here haha
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I’d be glad to. Is there a time that works for you? Or I can just jump in and see who’s around.
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I would be very interested in a violin setup series. Since it’s tangentially related to what I myself and a lot of us are doing already, I think it would be a real benefit.
