Members IndofunkCity Posted October 3, 2006 Members Share Posted October 3, 2006 Hi yall's. I've been talking over this project with vintage clubber and he's been giving me some great advice (thanks, man!), but I thought I'd share with the rest of the kids to get opinions, warnings, etc. First off, it's gonna be a bunch of wiring mods on my Artcore hollowbody. I've replaced a few pickups on solidbodies, and I've made a simple effect circuit or two, but never worked on a hollowbody. this scares me Here's the proposition: 1. Replace stock pickups with GFS vintage Nashville Retrotrons 2. Change the controls to master volume - blend pot - 2 tones 3. Put in a mini toggle to switch from parallel to split coils to series I actually received all the parts last night, and I may do the deed this weekend if I don't get too scared and send it to VC Here's my hacked-together wiring diagram. It looks like it'd work... whaddya all think? (sorry about the terrible photochop ) So. Any advice, warnings, "yur {censored}in stoopid", etc? edit: oh, the tone caps will be .022uf... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Armchair Bronco Posted October 3, 2006 Members Share Posted October 3, 2006 Personally, I think it's going to be REALLY, REALLY hard to get all those squiggles just right on the red and green wires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members IndofunkCity Posted October 3, 2006 Author Members Share Posted October 3, 2006 Originally posted by Armchair Bronco Personally, I think it's going to be REALLY, REALLY hard to get all those squiggles just right on the red and green wires. Oh, you haven't seen me haxx0rz up wires Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mercer Posted October 3, 2006 Members Share Posted October 3, 2006 I wouldn't want to mess with a hollowbody, but if it's a cheapish Artcore, go for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members IndofunkCity Posted October 3, 2006 Author Members Share Posted October 3, 2006 No more cheers, jeers, or sneers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members septopus Posted October 3, 2006 Members Share Posted October 3, 2006 I couldn't do it myself, but I think it'll sound great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mindwave Posted October 4, 2006 Members Share Posted October 4, 2006 I think I'm stealing your diagram. I have a similar, although not exact idea for MY hollow with the same PUPS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members IndofunkCity Posted October 9, 2006 Author Members Share Posted October 9, 2006 Well folks, I did it. It didn't quite turn out the way I'd expected, but I'm hoping some of you can tell me what I did wrong. First, the photodocumentation.... Popped out the old pickups and hardware. Note mental floss to keep pots and knobs labeled and (hopefully) easy to pull back through. The entire Artcore assembly. They did a pretty damn good job, those Chinese. Heat shrink tubing and decent solder joints. Put in all new hardware. eek. Hooking up the minitoggle on a lifesaving solder station. Partially wired up. Note Sprague orange drop caps. Testing the output before tackling the daunting task of putting it all back together. Success! Or rather, success? Here's the thing. See... 1. In full humbuckler position on the minitoggle, everything sounds fine. Except for 2. 2. I switched the neck and bridge tone controls. D'Oh! 3. In the other 2 minitoggle positions, the coils are on in very {censored}ing weird combinations... *Middle position neck: both middle coils are on plus a little of the outer neck coil *Middle position both pups: only the middle coils are on *Middle position bridge: both middle coils plus a little of the outer neck coil *Bottom position neck: all 4 coils on *Bottom position middle: all 4 coils on *Bottom position bridge: all 4 coils on, but the bridge coils seem weaker Anyways, here's a clip where I just play an E chord through all 9 positions. Mayhaps one of you tone doctors can help figger out WTF I did. http://www.IndofunkCity.com/music/xhcfx/artcore/gfs_wtf.mp3 toggle up - neck toggle up - both toggle up - bridge toggle middle - neck toggle middle - both toggle middle - bridge toggle down - neck toggle down - both toggle down - bridge Here are some comparisons with the stock Artcore pickups. GFS clips are on full humbuckler, and all pots are wide open. All through the Champ with the tone pots on 10 and the volume on 5 (to prevent overdriving). Into an SM58. Artcore neck Artcore bridge GFS neck GFS bridge Obviously, I'm an even worse guitar player than I am a guitar modder So since it was such a royal PITA to do, and since the full humbucklers sound fine, and also since some of the other unknown positions actually sound decent, I'm gonna leave it like this for a second. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HMKRich Posted October 9, 2006 Members Share Posted October 9, 2006 Originally posted by IndofunkCity I think this is the part where I decided not to ever work on a hollowbody. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members IndofunkCity Posted October 9, 2006 Author Members Share Posted October 9, 2006 An engineer (and guitar player) friend of mine looked at the schem and laughed. He said it's not even wired for a simple parallel humbuckler Here's what he said: I think your big problem is you have the red wires and white wires from both pickups wired together. This will give you all kinds of strange effects. For instance if you have the switch up, you may think you are just getting series, but it reality you are getting the two top coils (one from each pickup) in parallel and those are in series with the two bottom coils which are also in parallel. So I guess I gotta go back to the drawing board and get ready to pull the dam thing out again and rewire I found this SD schem, I *think* it should be better ... looks lke maybe I just jumpered the wrong poles... Any more comments before I {censored} it up royally again? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members vintage clubber Posted October 10, 2006 Members Share Posted October 10, 2006 Originally posted by IndofunkCity An engineer (and guitar player) friend of mine looked at the schem and laughed. He said it's not even wired for a simple parallel humbuckler Here's what he said: So I guess I gotta go back to the drawing board and get ready to pull the dam thing out again and rewire I found this SD schem, I *think* it should be better ... looks lke maybe I just jumpered the wrong poles... Any more comments before I {censored} it up royally again? When I first started trying to do my own mods 20 years ago, I botched more than my share of jobs that I ended up taking to a tech to fix... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mfergel Posted October 10, 2006 Members Share Posted October 10, 2006 Don't feel bad. I just wired the tip and sleeve backwards on a job and that was just a simple two humbucker/3-way switch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guitarcapo Posted October 10, 2006 Members Share Posted October 10, 2006 Won't you need TWO switches (one for each humbucker)? I have an Artcore AK85 with two Nashvilles in it. They seem kinda weak to be coil split or run in parallel. I suggest maybe something hotter from GFS like the Liverpools. At any rate here's my Artcore: There's also a "5 way switch" you can hook up to any given humbucker. Gives you either coil individually plus in series, in parallel, and out of phase two of THOSE switches would give you LOTS of tones to play with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mightysasquatch Posted October 10, 2006 Members Share Posted October 10, 2006 I just bought a new Epiphone Casino, and I was thinking of changing the pickups, but those pics just convinced me that I really like the stock pickups. I'd have a breakdown trying that, and I graduated from Galloups School Of Lutherie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wrathfuldeity Posted November 11, 2006 Members Share Posted November 11, 2006 I recently put in new highorder pu, hovland caps, and pots/switches/jack in an AS73. I used latex tubing instead of floss or string and it was fairly easy. It also really pays to use the best wire you can find and take your time doing a good sodering job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Geeter Posted November 11, 2006 Members Share Posted November 11, 2006 You are brave. More balls than me anyhow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GuyaGuy Posted November 11, 2006 Members Share Posted November 11, 2006 Originally posted by IndofunkCity An engineer (and guitar player) friend of mine looked at the schem and laughed. He said it's not even wired for a simple parallel humbuckler Here's what he said: So I guess I gotta go back to the drawing board and get ready to pull the dam thing out again and rewire I found this SD schem, I *think* it should be better ... looks lke maybe I just jumpered the wrong poles... Any more comments before I {censored} it up royally again? hey indo! that looks right if you're trying to wire one humbucker for series/parallel. but you'll need another push/pull or 2-way DPDT switch for the other humbucker. in your first diagram it looks like you were trying to use 1 switch to switch 2 pups from series to parallel. AFAIK it's not possible to switch 2 pups w/ one switch like that. however, if you want series, parallel, AND split coils, you'll need a 3-way switch, which isn't available in push/pull. unless someones makes a push/pull/pull harder. IMO having split coils AND parallel wiring on a humbucker is redundant. both are designed for a single coil sound; having one or the other is enough. i'd suggest parallel if they're low output pups. what's the blend pot for? balancing the 2 pups and then the other 2 are tone? PM me if you need help in case i don't see this. i'll do what i can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guitarcapo Posted December 3, 2006 Members Share Posted December 3, 2006 Parallel is better than splitting in my opinion because you retain hum cancelation and the volume drop is less. The tone is usually better too unless the pickups are designed to be split. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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