A friend has asked me to fit some pickups on his cheapo strat.  He had a pop first, but let’s just say it didn’t go very well.  He’s under the illusion that I will fare better.

The guitar is fitted with a cheap looking 5 way switch, the likes of which I cannot locate a wiring diagram for.

Does anyone recognise it?  Or have a wiring diagram for it?  Or even a method for determining what wire goes where with a multimeter?

Thank you in advance!

I love it but I just can’t let things be, I have to fiddle/meddle…

I think the only thing I don’t like about it is the tuner ratio. Every time I think I have what I need, sorted out in my head, I read something contradictory and start doubting myself (there’ll probably be a lot of that in this post…). The trouble is that the tuning is too fine, so it’s near impossible to get it spot on. Do I need a higher or lower ratio? How do I find out what the current ratio is?

Ideally I’d like to replace the tuners with ones with a more appropriate ratio. That fit in without having to enlarge the current holes in the headstock. It’d be nice to have drop in, vintage style tuners. I’d really like locking ones, too, but I have a feeling that what I am after just doesn’t exist, at least not without breaking the bank. The better ratio would be more important than locking. I don’t know what the current tuner ratio is.

The other thing I want to do is change the pickups. I have seen a set that has a mini, hot rails humbucker for the bridge and a black chrome single in the neck position. I want to replace all the electrics*. I want a 4 way blade switch for:

Switch Positions
1) bridge
2) neck + bridge (parallel)
3) neck + bridge (series)

4) Neck

Plus a push pull pot for splitting the hot rail coils.

So I need to find a diagram for all that.

I’ll also be replacing the control plate for one with a slanted switch. I bought a replacement switch knob to help with access, but it’s not much of an improvement and it’s ugly. Can’t decide whether to stay chrome or go black. I’ll have to get on my PC, find some pictures and do a mock-up to give me a better idea.

*There are two reasons for replacing all the electrics. One is that I can’t help myself! Doing this stuff is the best part of owning a guitar (it sure ain’t the playing, not the way I do it…). The second reason is that if it turns out that I preferred this guitar as it is, the plan would be to get a cheap Telecaster kit (I’ve seen a nice, semi-hollow bodied one at Thomman) that I can drop the new electrics into. I have been wanting to build a kit for a long time.

So, any advice or/and help with this, would be greatly appreciated.  It would also be fun to see/read about other peoples’ Telecaster mods.

There are no luthiers nearby and the guitar doesn't mean much to me, because I've gotten myself an acoustic recently. I'd just like to hear what this guitar would've sounded like with right strings.

Could I fix this with some wood glue?

I've notice when restringing that the neck looks weathers.

The laminate seems crazed.

Please see images attached.

Should I be alarmed?

Is it just cosmetic?

Help!

I’ve got a relatively new guitar (around 9 months old). For the last few months, I’m getting some intermittent fret buzz/choking on certain notes/frets. It’s usually either B or E notes (mostly B). So when I get the buzz, I will experience it across the entire neck on every B note. So I’ll get it at the 9th fret on the D, 4th fret on the G, 12th fret on the B etc. It doesn’t sound like your standard fret buzz. It sounds like some minor fret buzz + a harmonic. For example, when you play the B note on the 4th fret of the G, you can almost hear the same note the octave above. It sounds like I’m using an octave pedal. This happens on and off. Some days, I don’t experience this problem at all. 
 

Anybody have an idea what’s going on and how to fix it? 

ive given up on the seller helping me.

so i want to modify the tuners so that they are stiff like on a much cheaper tanglewood accoustic. the nuts were actually slack so i tightened them up, no difference. and the tiny screws seem tight.  i am a diy mechanic and if it was a moped engine i'd just put some lock washers on or some plastic shims in the right place. or put sawdust in the gear compartment.

but it isnt a moped engine so thats why i am here lol. so can they be repaired or modified? im yet to dismantle one fully to see why they are loose. i just thought i'd ask on here first.

when i tighten a string there is resistance on the oval winder bit as per normal.  but if i even touch the oval bit in the direction that loosens the string it moves all to easily. and when i play it goes out of tune after a few minutes. my tanglewood has "stiff" tuners and stays in tune for up to half an hour or more depending how thrashy i get. and even then its only the odd string. any help or advice  appreciated before i reach for the big hammer and tig welder.

Tomorrow I will be restringing my Fender CD-140SCE Electro Acoustic.

What’s the consensus on removing all the strings at once vs removing and replace string by string (or 2 at a time) to keep tension in the neck.

Thanks in advance.   

Having got back into playing the guitar a few years ago, I have gone from an acoustic to an electro acoustic, which I mainly play unplugged.

I think it is time to now replace the strings as it is not sounding as good as it did.

Is replacing the strings on an electro acoustic exactly then same as on an acoustic, or are there other elements to it due to the pickups etc?

Many thanks.  

Perhaps my choice of rather heavy string is responsible, or could the angle across the bridge be too steep?
Anyway, as far as I can tell the solution is to do the following:

1. Take off the strings and tailpiece.

2. Remove the offending bolt.

3. Put wood glue around the inside of the hole.

4. Hammer the bolt back in (perhaps with a toothpick as a shim) and make sure it's lined up properly.

5. Reverse step 1.

I've not tried anything like this before but it's a cheap guitar so I ought to try myself. Is there anything I ought to watch out for?

 

!!! WARNING !!!

Guitar amplifiers contain high voltages and can cause injuries which are potentially lethal.

Do not attempt repair work or modification if you are not a trained professional.

The OP is not responsible for any damage or injury caused upon using the information provided.

!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED !!!

Hi everyone,

I have recently been working on a Marshall MG15CFX for a friend, quite a nice little practice amp. The issue was this - you would play the amp for a while, say 30 mins, and suddenly the sound dies and it goes really really quiet. After turning it off and on again, it would work again for a couple of minutes, until it goes dead quiet again. Sounds familiar? Well this might be of use to you.

There seem to be some older posts in the Marshall forum that may (or may not) relate to this issue, but I didn't want to post there because of some of the things I am about to say about this product.

Now, the case with the MG15CFX is this: the amp going quiet is actually the power stage going into thermal shutdown to protect itself from overheating; but let me take it from the top.

I will explain a little bit the troubleshooting involved here so you can better test this yourself if you have one of those. The amp essentially consists of 3 main parts: i) the preamp, ii) the power amp and  iii) the digital FX section. After playing the amp for a bit, when it eventually went quiet, I was still hearing a little bit of the guitar, with all the overdrive and the distortion form the preamp and FX section. This made me suspect that the problem lies with the power stage. Fortunately, the amp has a 3.5 mm Jack input for playback from an external device, so I hooked up my phone and played music through the amp until it eventually went quiet. Although the schematic for the amp isn't available anywhere, it is reasonable to assume that the playback input isn't connected to any of the FX or preamp circuitry, since it is unaffected by any of those settings (I tried to trace the tracks, but eventually got lost, but that doesn't matter for now anyway.) So this was a further hint at the power stage being the problem.

After taking the amp apart and visual inspection, I found nothing obviously wrong, but the interesting bit is this: on the power board, the output transistor IC shares a heat sink with a linear voltage regulator. The voltage regulator supplies 5V to the digital circuitry in the FX section. But it's doing so by regulating 18V down as it's being supplied by the positive DC rail - If it's dropping 13V of course it gets hot pretty fast! And with the rather small heatsink and both ICs sitting back to back, of course the output transistor will go into thermal shutdown to protect itself. Technically, the output IC is exactly doing what it is supposed to in this scenario. So the amp is not as much broken as it has a fatal design flaw. Come on Marshall, you have clearly never tested this, this is very poor engineering.

The way I fixed it: it's relatively straightforward, we just need to get rid of the heat and the problem shouldn't come back. Luckily, we have a very big heatsink at our disposal: the chassis itself. So I took out the voltage regulator (unscrew from heatsink, de-solder from PCB) and put it on the chassis instead. I was even able to repurpose the thermal pad still on the heatsink, you can remove it if you're careful with the right tool. Then connect wirs from the tabs of the voltage regulator back to the PCB (make sure to confirm which of it's legs is the input and which one is the output before you re-solder, these are the two legs on the outside, the middle one is ground)

A photo is attached below, but I also recommend putting on some heatshrink to cover the exposed contacts on the regulator. After taking some measurements, the current draw seems to be about 100 mA, just to inform your choice of wire gauge.

I have tested the amp for a continuous 90 mins of music playback at reasonable room volume (master around 9-10 o'clock) and the problem has not re-occured. It also didn't get nearly as hot anymore, both heatsinks are now doing their job, and so I assume it's fixed and works properly now.

But yeah, the biggest disappointment is Marshall's engineering flaw embedded in this amp. It is a little surprising that no one caught on to this sooner and that they have been selling a product like this (I think it's discontinued now.)

I have an Epiphone Gibson Les Paul Studio 2, which in my opinion, is a lovely guitar for the price I paid and l love.  The only thing is that as I am becoming more proficient as a guitarist and playing the electric more I am getting some buzzes, which has been suggested to me could be that the action is too low.  That got me thinking could this be something I could do myself?  I have no knowledge about setting up guitars and only know a little the sort of issues that would make the difference between a good and bad guitar, therefore I"d like to ask what is involved in adjusting the action and is it something I could do myself?  I assume it is something fairly straightforward to do and if I do get it wrong could be easily rectified by somebody more proficient than me.   Attached is a picture for reference and for me to ask what would I adjust?  I assume it would be the screws closest to the pick up?  Which was would I turn them?  I have some engineering knowledge and make various models so think I have the skills to carry out what appears to me to be a fairly basic adjustment.  The guitar is currently fitted with a set of 10/46 strings and I do know a good friendly local Luthier who has done work for me before,  that can do this for me should I decide not to attempt it.

thanks in advance for your help.

Alan

So, my prestige elite (joking) Squier Bullet 5-way pickup selector was bad to start with, but is getting worse.

Rather than a simple replacement, I'm thinking of going the individual pickup toggle switch route.

That way, I could just turn on whichever pickup I want, in whatever combination. For buzz-killing effect (like my playing isn't a buzz-kill in itself, lol) neck + mid, or mid + bridge, or neck + bridge.

Is that stupid, is there an even better but still simple to wire solution, and where would you order switches from please?

If relevant, the pickups are 3 basic single-coils. I never change pickups mid-song.

TIA

Greenstap

Firstly: wax?

Second: tinted?

Now I like the idea of tint since I prefer the reddish tint of rosewood to the grew brown of Laural if it works, but is that an accepted thing?  We are probably into French Polishing territory here but I thought I would ask.

There's no colour coding to the wiring. just 4 tabs. How can I tell which is start and which is end? does it matter? can I just connect the two inside and run the others to earth and hot?

Thanks in advance for any insights. 

 

Thank you.

Alan