strat build – final wiring and assembly

I’ve been neglecting the documentation on my strat build. I spent a lot of time working out the wiring and final parts list, and basically wrapped the project up a couple week ago. Once everything was here I had to do the wiring, which was a bit intimidating. Luckily my friend Chad is a ninja at it, gave me a few tips and loaned me one of his pimp digital soldering stations. After using that thing I couldn’t imagine using any of the junk soldering irons radioshack sells. I’m totally spoiled now.

I could bore you with all the wiring schematics, but for now here’s the basic rundown of the wiring:

• Pickups – Seymour Duncan P-rails, which have 3 modes each. Can be run as a humbucker, p-90 or a single-coil.
• Controls – each pickup has its own volume, its own 3-way mini-toggle that selects the pickup mode. there’s a single tone control that covers both pickups, and then a 3 way blade switch that lets you either run the neck pickup, bridge pickup, or both.

There is really quite a bit of wiring involves in this. It took me an entire afternoon to do the work, most of it was spent stripping and tinning the little pieces of wire I needed everywhere. I was so busy I really didn’t take any pictures, except for a few quick shots with my iPhone.

The only issue I currently have is that when you run both pickups at teh same time, the volume controls are not independent. My friend Chad is pondering this issue and I’m planning on emailing Seymour Duncan for their input. It may not be possible to do it that way with a 3 way blade switch, but its really the only problem. I wasn’t quite happy with my soldering job on the mini-toggles so I’ve since taken that apart and re-done it, and its much cleaner now.  I don’t think its a bad job for a first time eletronics job. I did a lot of metalsmithing soldering in college, but that’s way different than this.

I haven’t been able to play the guitar much since I completed it. It is in need of a serious setup job, so I’ll be hauling it down to Louisville soon to get a pro to do the setup and intonation work ( I could do it, but I don’t have the proper tools, and don’t have the desire to spend hundreds on tools I may use once). Once that’s done it will be ready to rock.

Speaking of rocking, I got a new amp. My neighbors already know this, but it is freakin loud. It’s a Vox AC15 tube amp. I always knew tube amps were more powerful, but it’s really insane how much MORE powerful they are. I had a 20w solid state before, and this 15w tube is just in another league. I can turn it to about 1.5 at the most without rattling the building. No joke.

Now if I could only play worth a damn…