Well, part 2 of the tone video took waaaay longer than I anticipated! I spent a ridiculous amount of time editing, and animating illustrations of the tone circuit.
Here I present a tutorial on how to read cap values, an explanation of how the capacitance and resistance work together as an RC filter in the tone circuit, and some audio examples to help in selecting a useful cap value for a tone circuit. More
After much deliberation, experimentation, determination, and the inevitable procrastination and distraction… I’ve finally completed this comparison of tone capacitor material types and capacitance values. In part 1, I’ll evaluate a bunch of different dialectric material types to see how they change the character of the sound. In part 2, I’ll cover how different capacitance values affect the range and usefulness of the tone pot.
First, I built this Tone Thing 🙂 It’s a piece of cardboard on which I mounted 7 different capacitor material types, and 7 Orange Drops of different capacitance values, and one Bourns 500k audio taper pot. This is connected up with alligator clips to my Epiphone Riviera P93, in parallel with the signal at the output jack (the same place as the master tone in a regular guitar circuit).
In this video, I finally bring together the results of the last 20 or so videos, and demo the results of my Epiphone Riviera P93 electronics overhaul. I first demonstrate the original Epi setup, then swap in my new electronics, and then replace the pickups with a matched set of new Vintage Vibe Guitars P-90’s.
The new electronics include CTS 500k audio taper pots, no-load mod on the tone pot, an Orange Drop .01uF tone cap, all new shielded wire, and a new Switchraft L12A jack. So, if you’re wondering what it might sound like if you change out your pots and caps in your guitar, this should be a good example. (Note, I’m changing the jack for mechanical reasons, not to improve the sound). More
In part 3 of the video series on installing pickups, I select some screws and show some tricks for drilling the holes right where you want them.
For the screws, I chose some slotted silver 3/4” long #4 wood screws. Even though the Bigsby and tuners are finished in gold, I think these silver screws will look good with the polepieces.
Since the new holes will overlap a bit with the old filled holes, the drill bit will have a tendency to walk into the old hole. The bit always wants to take the path of least resistance. I’m using a Rockler Self-Centering Bit, which makes it really easy to drill precisely centered holes – it’s good for things like door hinges and cabinet hardware too. If you don’t have one of those, the next best thing is a brad point drill bit, which has a sharp spike to prevent the bit from shifting. With a brad point bit or regular bit, you’ll want to use something sharp like a drill punch or awl to give the drill bit a good starting point.
This is part 2 of the video series on Replacing Pickups in a semi-hollowbody guitar. Here, I show some common-sense tricks for properly positioning the pickups front-to-back and side-to-side on the guitar, without having to make lots of measurements, etc. To place the pickups parallel with the edge of the fretboard and parallel with each other, I use spacers. You can experiment with spacers of different sizes to find a good fit – I’ve used pens and pencils and scrap wood. Just make sure the spacer is equal in size along its entire length – avoid tapered pens. Here, I’m using drill bits wrapped in tape, since my bit set has so many choices in size. I also show a way to use the low and high E strings as a straightedge when aligning the pickup polepieces under the strings. Note, in the video, I didn’t realize the camera was slightly angled when showing the pole piece alignment, so it’s not as
Note to self: next time, set the camera to proper manual focus before doing those closeups!
I’m finally all set to replace the pickups on my Epiphone Riviera P93. I’ll be using a set of Vintage Vibe Guitars height adjustable dog-eared P-90’s. I’ll do a detailed review of these pickups later, but for now I’m focusing on how to do it.
In part 1 of this video series, I remove the old pickups, position the new pickups using a spacer, decide if the existing holes can be reused, and then show how to fill the existing holes in preparation for drilling new ones. I was planning to use a 1/8” dowel to fill the holes, but it turned out that the factory positioned some of the holes too close to the edge of routed recesses, and the screws had breached through the sides. So instead of dowels, I’m using Elmer’s Carpenter’s Interior/Exterior Wood Filler.
This is part 5 of the video series on wiring up guitar electronics.
In this video, I show how to wire up the jack. I’m replacing the original Epiphone jack with a Switchcraft L12A. The L in the part number indicates a longer 3/8” bushing, which is just a bit longer than the Epi jack. I’m hoping this well allow me to fit a lock washer in addition to the regular washer and nut, so the jack will stay tightly in place rather than falling into the body of the guitar so much (as I showed in my Don’t Know Jack video). More
I’ve posted an update to my Neck and Neck article, which now includes comparisons of the Epiphone Riviera P93, Sharaton II, Dot Studio and Casino, Les Paul 100 and SG G-400.
In summary, the necks of the Sheraton II, Dot Studio, Casino and Riviera P93 are all basically the same: 24 3/4” scale, 12” radius, 15/16” thickness at 12th fret, 1 11/16” width at nut, 2 1/16” width at 12th fret. There are small variations between the guitars, generally less than 1/32”. I guess different binding styles and materials account for the neck width differences.
The SG and Les Paul have slightly thinner necks (about 13/16” thickness at 12th fret), but are the same in every other dimension (width, scale, radius).
I must’ve looked pretty funny in the corner of Best Buy, pulling down guitars from the wall and measuring them with my calipers and radius cards.
Update Feb 4, 2011: I wrote up a number of ideas for solutions in this blog post. And I wrote up my final mods in this post.
Before plunging into the details, here’s the abbreviated version: the Epiphone Riviera P93 guitar has 3 pickups and 3-way selector switch. There’s no way to turn off the middle pot other than turning it all the way down. Because of this, the volume pots must be wired with independent (aka decoupled) wiring, which results in bad treble loss when turning down. And because of this wiring, there’s no way to use a treble bleed cap since turning down one will result in loss of high frequencies in the other. This problem can be avoided on a typical two pickup 3-way switch (traditional Les Paul style) guitar since it can use non-indendent (coupled) volume wiring. Read on for details…More
This is a quick video comparing linear and audio/log tapers for a tone control. I’m comparing a Bourns 500k audio taper pot (PDB241-GTR01-504A2) with a Philmore PC27 500k linear taper pot. The capacitor is a .022uF Orange Drop (225P100V 223K). I’ve wired the neck pickup directly to the jack with the tone pot in parallel, just like a normal guitar circuit, but with no volume pot. More