Project Parts-o-caster - Wilkinson - Brian May - ish (almost) and pot blending

[Vinnie1971]

Here is my Partsocaster

Started off as Cruiser By Crafter Stratocaster, whihc I paid £20 for unseen.

I put it on ebay as when I first playee it, the action and intonation were allo over the place and it was bad.

But it was only superficial - I took the neck of, shimmed it with a couple of wood shavings, then set the action and intonation to see if it was worth keeping.

Yes it was. Got it bang on - while the neck was off, I was able to confirm it is solid wood, probably basswood.

The tremolo arm felt still, previous owner wound it so much into the block it was cracked.

At this point I decided to make a parts-caster.

 

Its got :

Wilkinson tuners

Wilkinson Vintage Voice pickups (which are really awesome)

Wilkinson Tremolo- (this is way better than a squier or MIM tremolo as the sustain block is very big and chunky - made a huge differentce to sustain and tone

Wilkinson saddles etc.

Now its set up to play perfectly, it sounded awesome and I could have stopped there.

 

Upgraded to CTS Pots, with 0.047 uF Orange drop and treble bleed kit, and a 500K no,load pot for a blender.

But made a few wiring modifications

I installed 2 toggle switches which can put the middle pickup in series or paralled with whichever other pickup is selected on the in-between selections (2 and 3) plus phase reverse on the middle pickup.

In parallel with phase normal, the 5 way selector behaves as normal.

Put in series then the middle pickup can be added to either bridge or neck, to make a bridge or neck humbucker (this actuall works as follows:

Positions 1 and 2 are bridge humbucker, Postions 4 and 5 are neck humbucker, position 3 is off - its the only deadspot.

Phase reverse works on positions 2 and 3 in parallel and make for screaming humbucker funk in positions 1, 2, 4, 5 in series. Very Brian May !

In addition, the second tone pot is set so it can be used in 1,2,3,4 positions in series or parallel as a blend pot.Apart from position 3, where it does nothing, it adds neck to bridge or bridge to neck, depending what is selected, at 0 it is fully blended, e.g, bridge selected and neck fully blended, kind of like tele Bridge + neck. Then at 10, it goes out of circuit, so the more you turn it, the less of the blended pickup is in the mix until its gone. I like to think its more of a no blend pot - so at zero you have the least amount of your selected pickup then at 10 you have all the selected pickup.

The blend pot works very well in all modes.

 

Next for the bench is my Jedson Tesico-castor - its a Telecaster style Jedson badged Tesico - it plays nicely with a decent neck and those black foil pickups sound awesome, but.... It could do so much more...

 

I needed to do a bit of research to work this out - I did not want 9 switches to turn pickups on and off, in phase out of pahse, series parallel etc with 3 deadspots, no, I wanted to use my 5 way switch to get the most combinations. so even though there is no actual selector position for all 3 pickups, by combinning the middle with either bridge or neck and dialling the blend pickup to zero - I get ALL THREE!

 

 

I have to say, this £20 guitar turned out awesome! I have a Frankenstein Parts--caster headstock logo with custome made in the lab to go on, but havent done it yet, but I think this guitar has earned it!

 

Heres my wiring - and pictures.

[Vinnie1971]

here are the possibble selections: [TABLE=width: 797]

[TR]

[TD]Position[/TD]

[TD]Series / Parallel [/TD]

[TD]Phase[/TD]

[TD]Result[/TD]

[TD]Blender[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]1[/TD]

[TD]Parallel[/TD]

[TD]in[/TD]

[TD]normal bridge[/TD]

[TD]can add neck[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2[/TD]

[TD]Parallel[/TD]

[TD]in[/TD]

[TD]normal middle + bridge in parallel[/TD]

[TD]can add neck (all 3 pickups in parallel)[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]3[/TD]

[TD]Parallel[/TD]

[TD]in[/TD]

[TD]normal middle[/TD]

[TD]no blend[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]4[/TD]

[TD]Parallel[/TD]

[TD]in[/TD]

[TD]normal middle + neck in parallel[/TD]

[TD]can add bridge (all 3 pickups in parallel)[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]5[/TD]

[TD]Parallel[/TD]

[TD]in[/TD]

[TD]normal neck[/TD]

[TD]can add bridge[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]1[/TD]

[TD]Parallel[/TD]

[TD]out[/TD]

[TD]normal bridge[/TD]

[TD]can add neck[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2[/TD]

[TD]Parallel[/TD]

[TD]out[/TD]

[TD]middle out of phase + bridge in parallel[/TD]

[TD]can add neck (all 3 pickups in parallel)[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]3[/TD]

[TD]Parallel[/TD]

[TD]out[/TD]

[TD]normal middle[/TD]

[TD]no blend[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]4[/TD]

[TD]Parallel[/TD]

[TD]out[/TD]

[TD]middle out of phase + neck in parallel[/TD]

[TD]can add bridge (all 3 pickups in parallel)[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]5[/TD]

[TD]Parallel[/TD]

[TD]out[/TD]

[TD]normal neck[/TD]

[TD]can add bridge[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]1[/TD]

[TD]Series[/TD]

[TD]in[/TD]

[TD]bridge humbucker (bridge + middle in series)[/TD]

[TD]can add neck in parallel (all 3 pickups)[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2[/TD]

[TD]Series[/TD]

[TD]in[/TD]

[TD]bridge humbucker (bridge + middle in series)[/TD]

[TD]can add neck in parallel (all 3 pickups)[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]3[/TD]

[TD]Series[/TD]

[TD]in[/TD]

[TD]Off (no sound)[/TD]

[TD]no blend[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]4[/TD]

[TD]Series[/TD]

[TD]in[/TD]

[TD]neck humbucker (neck plus middle in series)[/TD]

[TD]can add bridge in parallel (all 3 pickups)[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]5[/TD]

[TD]Series[/TD]

[TD]in[/TD]

[TD]neck humbucker (neck plus middle in series)[/TD]

[TD]can add bridge in parallel (all 3 pickups)[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]1[/TD]

[TD]Series[/TD]

[TD]out[/TD]

[TD]bridge humbucker (bridge + middle out of phase in series)[/TD]

[TD]can add neck in parallel (all 3 pickups)[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2[/TD]

[TD]Series[/TD]

[TD]out[/TD]

[TD]bridge humbucker (bridge + middle out of phase in series)[/TD]

[TD]can add neck in parallel (all 3 pickups)[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]3[/TD]

[TD]Series[/TD]

[TD]out[/TD]

[TD]Off (no sound)[/TD]

[TD]no blend[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]4[/TD]

[TD]Series[/TD]

[TD]out[/TD]

[TD]neck humbucker (neck plus middle out of phase in series)[/TD]

[TD]can add bridge in parallel (all 3 pickups)[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]5[/TD]

[TD]Series[/TD]

[TD]out[/TD]

[TD]neck humbucker (neck plus middle out of phase in series)[/TD]

[TD]can add bridge in parallel (all 3 pickups)[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

 

[WRGKMC]

Building parts casters is allot of fun and you can learn allot in the process. I have a bunch of them I've built over the years. If its something I like I don't mind spending extra money on it if its unique or something I like.

 

I try not to go overboard on spending however because in most cases it wind up being a financial loss.

 

Yes you may pay $30 for a beater. If you spend $100 getting it in shape. You now have a $30 beater that cost you $130. Add in your labor time, even at minimum wage, and you could easily invest $200 in something that has a resale of $40 (if you're lucky).

 

I use the low end Fenders as a baseline. I can buy an Affinity Tele for $180 new and $100 used. They are decent players that have mediocre everything in them so a little investment can fix most of their issues. I can spend maybe $40 to make them top players. I needed one for its recording tones and the parts replacement makes it reliable and versatile enough.

 

The most you may need to do is replace the crappy switch and if you're doing that you can go with a 4 way so you have the extra series wiring. If you buy wisely you can do that for the cost of a set of strings. I got 6 years out of the original switch before it needed replacement. Same fro the tuners. The pots should last another 5 years (15 years total regular use) I've already re-fretted it and replaced the bridge too.

 

I didn't spend much though. I waited till I found the best deal the best price. I spend $10 on 18:1 mini Grover tuners, $5 on a new bridge, $4 on a top quality switch, and I already had the fret wire so it was mainly labor replacing those. Say $30 in parts total and its as solid as a regular Fender.

 

Will I get any more for it when I sell it? Not unless the buyer is really stupid. If I'm lucky I should be able to get close to what I paid for it.

[WRGKCM]

Building parts casters is allot of fun and you can learn allot in the process. I have a bunch of them I've built over the years. If its something I like I don't mind spending extra money on it if its unique or something I like.

 

I try not to go overboard on spending however because in most cases it wind up being a financial loss.

 

Yes you may pay $30 for a beater. If you spend $100 getting it in shape. You now have a $30 beater that cost you $130. Add in your labor time, even at minimum wage, and you could easily invest $200 in something that has a resale of $40 (if you're lucky).

 

I use the low end Fenders as a baseline. I can buy an Affinity Tele for $180 new and $100 used. They are decent players that have mediocre everything in them so a little investment can fix most of their issues. I can spend maybe $40 to make them top players. I needed one for its recording tones and the parts replacement makes it reliable and versatile enough.

 

The most you may need to do is replace the crappy switch and if you're doing that you can go with a 4 way so you have the extra series wiring. If you buy wisely you can do that for the cost of a set of strings. I got 6 years out of the original switch before it needed replacement. Same fro the tuners. The pots should last another 5 years (15 years total regular use) I've already re-fretted it and replaced the bridge too.

 

I didn't spend much though. I waited till I found the best deal the best price. I spend $10 on 18:1 mini Grover tuners, $5 on a new bridge, $4 on a top quality switch, and I already had the fret wire so it was mainly labor replacing those. Say $30 in parts total and its as solid as a regular Fender.

 

Will I get any more for it when I sell it? Not unless the buyer is really stupid. If I'm lucky I should be able to get close to what I paid for it.

 

Last week anything made in China was crap. Build and neck construction. Now you can make them great for 40 bucks. ? Yeah, of course.