ShortScale.org

Hi All,

I recently placed the order for the pups for the cindicaster Mk. I AndyUltraTwin bestowed upon me...and i've never sucessfully soldered a goddamned thing in my life...maybe an input jack once...maybe. So i need some general tips and tricks. any kind of solder i should get/avoid? any kind of other halp would be appreciated. i've been playing guitar/bass for almost 15 years now, so it's time i learned how to do some of the kewler shit.

halp me obi wan kashortscale.

don't solder stuff in mid air over your jeans because if you drip any solder it will burn through your jeans and make you jump up going EEE and your pickup selector switch will get yanked out of the guitar and you'll have to solder all of the wires back on it.

don't do that.

Reece wrote:don't solder stuff in mid air over your jeans because if you drip any solder it will burn through your jeans and make you jump up going EEE and your pickup selector switch will get yanked out of the guitar and you'll have to solder all of the wires back on it.

don't do that.

lol. duly noted!

silver solder is the good stuff - but it is expensive and the effect in a guitar is negligible.

just make sure you plan everything out before soldering. don't leave the iron on a part for too long as it will either melt it or render it useless. get wiring diagrams from seymour duncan's website. get a solder sucker or some wick. leave a little bit more wire than you need on the pickups - you never know. take your time and be patient.

also: how do a wire for splittage of a humbucker? can i incorporate that into the existing switch? or should i use a different pot?

if you pickups are 4 conductor then you need to figure out what wire is what. if they are 2 conductor then you can't split them.

the SD website has loads of stuff on splitting coils and wiring configurations.

if you can split them you will need either a mini toggle (dpdt) or a tone pot with a pull up feature (which is essentially a dpdt switch stuck to the bottom of it.)

chisa wrote:if you pickups are 4 conductor then you need to figure out what wire is what. if they are 2 conductor then you can't split them.

the SD website has loads of stuff on splitting coils and wiring configurations.

if you can split them you will need either a mini toggle (dpdt) or a tone pot with a pull up feature (which is essentially a dpdt switch stuck to the bottom of it.)

sweeet! thanks for the tips! i'm totes gonna fuck it all up, i'm sure...but what can you do? can i get good pots and the local radio shack you think? i'm definitely buying my solder there, so i figured if i can one-stop shop it, i will.

if it is a strat type guitar you may be best trying to source some CTS 250k pots. i think that is what fender uses as standard. the lower the rating on the pot means less treble to the tone. if you are using humbuckers you may need 500k pots or maybe even 1000k as they are naturally a darker sound.

chisa wrote:if it is a strat type guitar you may be best trying to source some CTS 250k pots. i think that is what fender uses as standard. the lower the rating on the pot means less treble to the tone. if you are using humbuckers you may need 500k pots or maybe even 1000k as they are naturally a darker sound.

it's a tele-stylie cut for a humbucker in the neck position that i believe i have the ability to split the coil on..i'll look for CTS pots fo'sho'.

St. Jimmy wrote:

chisa wrote:if it is a strat type guitar you may be best trying to source some CTS 250k pots. i think that is what fender uses as standard. the lower the rating on the pot means less treble to the tone. if you are using humbuckers you may need 500k pots or maybe even 1000k as they are naturally a darker sound.

it's a tele-stylie cut for a humbucker in the neck position that i believe i have the ability to split the coil on..i'll look for CTS pots fo'sho'.

If you want to split the bucker AND you are looking to replace the pots, I'd advice you get a push-pull pot to activate the coil split. Like how the squire '51 works.

okay. so the bridge came yesterday for the Cindicaster Mk1, and i've got all the pickups in place with the bridge as well. I need to do some filing of either the PG or the humbucker ring for the neck pup because it doesn't quite fit, which would be smarter to file, ya'all think? I think it's going to look buh-dass once it's all together...

okay, so i'm a fucking wiring n00b here...so i have some questions.

do the pups get wired to the blade switch, and then the blade switch and input jack get wired to the pots?

is grounding everything to the back of the volume pot REALLY the best place to ground shit as per GFS' little wiring guide?


HALP ME SHARTSCOLD! now i just need knobs, pots and some soldering gear and i'mma gonna have the Cinidicaster ready for battle!

Okay, so after a trip to radio shack and ACE hardware, i'm ready to attempt wiring up the Cindicaster MK. I this evening. (I also ordered something very special for it, that I know will cause some peeps to be REALLY happy.)

but i need to know if the following is possible:


WHAT I HAVE:

-Single Coil Bridge PUP

-Splittable Humbucker

-4 Position Blade Switch

What I want to do:

-4 Way Does the Following: Bridge Only, Neck Only, Bridge and Neck, (I don't know what to do with the last position)

-I bought a switch so i can split the humbucker so i want to incorporate that

-One single master volume pot


tell me how to make this happen, please? And I will rub you all off with the balls of my feet.

Fucking hell you're like a tiny kitten that is useless and just shits itself.

SeymourDuncan.com

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/

4 way switch wiring
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wi ... c=tele_4ws


Humbucker Colour Coding:
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wi ... olor_codes


Splitting
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wi ... 1vol_split


Generally what you do with a humbucker is (this is using the Seymour Duncan colour coding) this:


The red and wires are the ends of each coil, solder together and tape off.
Black is Hot and Bare is Ground, and you also connect the South coil Start (green) to Ground. This is a humbucking arrangement with the coils in opposite directions to each other.

To coil split you want to ground that red and white connections so only the North Coil is doing something, that's what the split switch is doing. Ignore the fact it's a push pull and do this on your toggle switch.

LOL. I know, I know. I'm 28 and I'm scared shitless of soldering shit...because i've never been any good at it. and after i started tearing into it last night i realized the pots i got from radio shack were the wrong fucking ones. so i went to guitarfetish and got myself a 1 meg push/pull and a 1meg regular pot for tone...the toggle would've been tits, but i can do that on a different guitar later. i also got myself a standard tele three switch, because the more i thought about it, that suits what i want ten times better.

you're a champ for putting that all together for me. and i am indeed a kitty who shits himself.

Has anybody got or know where to find a wiring diagram like above for a strat???????????????

update:

LOL. i now know why i don't wire guitars all the time. i followed, or at least THOUGHT i followed the wiring diagrams perfectly...btw i changed to a 3 way switch so i grabbed a diagram for one of thems from seymourduncan.com...and i wired everything the way i thought i was being told to...with LOLtastic results.

-The pickups actually work and are pretty hot, so that's at least good BUT

-the Bridge PUP is always on, no matter which spot on the switch i use

-the push pull pot works, but it seems to be the tone, not the volume

-the tone is the master volume and there isn't much "range" in it

all in all, i'm not all that pissed since it was meant to be my first attempt at wiring a guitar myself, and i kinda reached for the stars with this shit. and honestly i'm more happy that i wired pickups and sound actually comes out, and the sound is pretty spank-tastic and it dirties up pretty kick assedly.

The next one i do will be WAY simpler. I'm thinking no switching. just pickups and volume.

i have one more thing to add to the Cindicaster mk.I and then I'll reveal in pic form what i've done.

Good for you, man. You have to start somewhere. I am still new enough I remember how scary it was and I STILL don't know teh scienz behind any of it. I will take a picture of my setup for reference, even though you have already gotten what you need--someone else might benefit. I am about to solder a Mac power adapter that has a frayed wire.

DGNR8 wrote:Good for you, man. You have to start somewhere. I am still new enough I remember how scary it was and I STILL don't know teh scienz behind any of it. I will take a picture of my setup for reference, even though you have already gotten what you need--someone else might benefit. I am about to solder a Mac power adapter that has a frayed wire.

ha ha. yeah, i might take another stab at it later or whatever. but i'm definitely not afraid to buy a cheap(er) guitar and drop new shizz in it now...but like i said, i will definitely adhere to KISS.