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Wow! Sorry I missed the live version of this chat. Having used light cured dental materials for years, I can guess the answers to some of your questions. Beware, these are only guesses because the dental materials are similar, but likely a bit different. First, as far as wearing the orange glasses - it’s a darn good idea. Repeated exposure to a bright light, especially with blue components, will likely promote cataract formation. I do no…

Would you have any recommendations on wiring configurations and piezo controllers to replace the electronics in my Music Man Reflex, which used to have the Game Changer system? The guitar has an HSH pickup configuration with a piezo bridge pickup. It has three existing holes for Volume/Tone/Blend, a blade switch slot, and a 3-way switch hole. When I bought this guitar about a decade ago, the Game Changer system offered a mind-numbingly a…

Friends, I am looking for a wiring schematic that shows how to set up 2 humbuckers, each with their own Volume pot -- no Tone in this circuit. Everything I have has some type of Tone control in the circuit. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Got a 60’s Hofner bass coming in that is noisy and feeds back (according to the owner). Thoughts on why? Any chance taking out the control plate screws could be an issue?

Hey! I had a customer drop off an ultra clean 60’s L4 and he has a repro de Armond rhythm chief he wants installed. Does anyone have any experience installing these with minimal modifications? It has the pole that mounts on the fingerboard which I’m hoping is the only mod. I ordered a repro guard and it will need to be notched for the pickup and have the volume and tone control mounted. Does anyone have any experience mounting a jack to th…

Ok. I am stumped. PRS Studio is in. 3 pickups. 5-way selector switch. 2 pots. Here's the dilemma: Customer wants two concentric pots installed. The front pot would be volume for the neck & middle pickups on the top knob, the bridge volume bottom knob. The rear knob is for tone. Top knob controls neck & middle pickups tone, bottom controls the bridge tone. I've gotten the skeleton of this sort of figured out but I don't....ha ha? The PRS 5-way…

i have a 2010 g&l asat bluesboy with a loose barrel jack. which is to say, when a cable is gently unplugged the jack comes out of the body. there is no nut on the inside of the control cavity to hold the jack in place - it looks like the wood itself is threaded. the jack barely protrudes into the control cavity so i don’t see an obviously good way to get a washer and nut on it. any ideas outside of enlarging the hole and installing a jac…

Hey everyone. I’m trying to figure out a wiring scheme for a modded National Triolian resonator guitar. It has a Fishman Resophonic end pin jack pickup (link to that is below) as well as a lipstick pickup that was installed along with a three way switch, and two potentiometers. Essentially what I’d like to do is wire it so there is one volume control for the lipstick pickup, one volume for the piezo, and the three way switch controls eac…

hello looths - i'm building my first guitar. generally following (and enjoying) the gore/gilet books. after 3 tries, i've yet to get a crack free bend around the nose of a venetian cutaway with a mahogany side. i made a version of the fox bender - using clamps on hand for the waist and cutaway, and a pid temp controller (verified accuracy), and am using a stew mac blanket and three straps. the recipe for my last attempt was: sapelle (fo…

This thing had a conveniently placed hole in the neck pickup cavity that ran all the way to the end of the tenon, presumably the entry point for the long drill bit that drilled the access from pickup cavity to control cavity before the neck was originally fitted. I injected several pipettes of hot water into this hole while heating the fretboard extension area with a silicone blanket to loosen the extension from the body. Reactivated hi…

I'll start by saying I don't post much because it's confusing to know if I should post on this site or the Patreon site, both are hard to navigate, etc. Also, I sent this question to the last "elder" meeting but I have no idea what the outcome was (I thought there would be some answers documented for those that can't attend live). So, with those frustrations out of the way... I have in my backlog a 1988 PRS Studio. It has HSS pickup c…

I have two guitars I am working on that are missing a few parts and wanted to see if anyone has them that they would like to sell. I have a customer with an early 50's L5 that he got when he was 10 years old. He wants to reinstall the dearmond rhythm chief but is missing the long beam that connects the controls to the pickup and the small bracket affixes between the string run between the tail piece/bridge. Second, I have a 1978 telecaste…

Being new here, thought I would post an introduction. My name is Paul McGill Mcgillguitars.com I have been making guitars since 1976. I have lived and worked in Nashville since 1985 when I relocated here to work in the repair/restoration shop at Gruhn guitars. 410 Broadway, now a novelty shop. I was there a short time before commiting full time to guitar making as I had done prior to moving here. My main influence as a guitar maker was Ro…

Howdy gang! I was recently trying to find something in my shop and came across a box of 500k linear taper pots. I always use audio taper for volume, but what do you guys and gals think of audio versus linear taper for tone control? I've seen both used, but it's been a bit since I wired a guitar from scratch and can't remember which I prefer. Thoughts?

So, nothing against Luminlay which is an amazing component, with a top notch quality level, but they're quite expensive for what they are. I was messing with ideas and formulas over the past couple weeks, and I think I reached a nice level of quality. On the left my own 'luminlay', on the right the genuine one. Still need to manage how to control the bubble formation but I can finally see the finish line.