affinitymodproject

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Finished project.

I ended up having to make a custom conversion plate to account for the difference in scale length between a standard guitar and a baritone. Playing it took some getting used to, but I'm having fun with it.

[affinitymodproject]

My current project is a baritone telecaster. I more or less know what I want, and I'm waiting on the hardware to arrive.

The first 3 positions on the 4-way switch are the standard pickup arrangements. Position 4 is the treble cut from the "Blackguard" circuit. I couldn't find any pre-existing diagrams that quite fit, so i ended up drawing this based on what I've learned from modding.

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My most recent project... This started as a kit. Given what I've learned from guitar modding so far, the assembly and setup went very smoothly. The wiring is standard for a strat. Finishing the neck and body probably took the longest out the entire project. I used a dark blue wood stain and a satin clear-coat. I may swap out the tuning machines and add strap locks at some point. Overall, I like how it sounds. I've been learning to play in open G.

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Awhile back, a friend gave me a blues box guitar. For a $40 toy/instrument, it's fun to play with. The major downside is that the cardboard body doesn't really hold up well. I decided to give mine an upgrade. I spent like $12 for the box and the laser cut wood bits. The BBG has a piezo pickup. I transfered that to the new body and added a volume control. I also upgraded the tuners with some leftover ones from my parts box. This was a fun afternoon project. There are a few other improvements and finishing touches I could do, though they can wait until some other weekend.

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I'm thinking of trying series/parallel switching.

I saw an article online that shows how to set up two picks  for series/parallel, and this is an extrapolation for a strat. You could eliminate the 5-way altogether and use dpdt on/off/on switches.

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A quick sketch of an idea for a split single coil pickup. I’m sure someone has built something similar at some point.

The idea is that you could use the pickup as a standard single coil, a noiseless single, or have only half the pickup on. It opens up all sorts of new options, like having the low strings on one pickup and the high strings on another.

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Been awhile since I posted anything...

There have been a few more additions.

I added phase switches to the neck and middle pickups. Those are the two upper switches  on the side of the pickguard. I had to do a bit of routing to make room for them. The idea of a phase switch is to reverse the flow of power from the pickup. It gives a sort of semi-humbucker effect.  Kinda funky. It also gives me more options.

One thing to mention is that my placement of the switches is less than ideal. It requires routing the pickup wires into a side cavity to the switches, and then running leads back to the main control cavity. A more efficient way to set this up would to avoid the extra routing and just use a pair of 250k push/pull potentiometers. The only reason I didn't do this is because the bodies on the Affinity strats are thinner than other models, enough so that there simply isn't enough depth to properly install a push/pull pot.

The second obvious change is the addition of a tone control for the bridge pick. Normally, strats wouldn't have one and most players don't miss it. There are a number of reasons for it; including manufacturing cost, lack of space, and added load on the circuit. Some folks get around it by connecting the bridge pickup to either the neck or middle pickup's tone pot, which is what I did previously.

The routing I did for the phase switches left me a bit of extra space. The hole for the shaft was left from a previous attempt at adding a passing-lane switch, which I absolutely loathed. I happened to have a mini pot and a spare capacitor on hand, so I decided to try adding a bridge tone, just to try it out.

As it turns out, I like it... quite a bit. If I were to do the mod on another guitar, I'd probably use a stacked 250k/250k concentric potentiometer, but otherwise I absolutely love it.

I've also replaced the stock neck plate with one from Icon Plates. Doesn't affect the sound, but it does add some additional personalization.

[affinitymodproject]

New toy.

Guitar Center is having a sale this weekend. One of the items on offer is a dual humbucker bullet strat. While I mostly prefer single coils, having more options isn't a bad idea, and at $89.99 the price is right.

I've got it set up, and I plan on playing it for a week or so before doing anything else to it. Exactly what that will be, I'm not sure yet.  I need to do some more reading before I finalize any plans.

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"Finished" isn't always final...

You know that feeling when a string is just about to break, but its a slight turn from being in tune? I hate that. I've mostly accepted that it's unavoidable. As part of an effort to reduce its occurrence, I've added a set of Graphtech saddles and string guides.It won't completely eliminate string breakage, but it should cut down on it drastically. About the only other thing I could do would be to install a roller nut, and I'm not sure if one will fit on the Affinity neck.

The next addition is a Hipshot Tremsetter. Basically, it acts as a counter balance to the trem springs and helps to stabilize the bridge. This causes the bridge to return to a center position after the vibrato arm is used. It also makes bends a bit easier and helps keep the guitar in tune during normal use. If a string breaks, the tuning still goes all to hell, but that would happen normally.

Rather than the recommended extra long drill bit, I used a tool called a Pin vice for drilling my pilot holes. It's a small finger powered drill that's mostly used for drilling small holes in scale models and hobby projects. It's also the perfect size to fit in a tremolo cavity.

The final mod was to swap out the no-load tone pots for a greasebucket tone circuit. So far I like how how it sounds. YMMV. 

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There's the end result.  The  red button is the kill switch. The switch between the volume and the upper tone knob is the jazz switch, and the one below that is the seven sound switch.

I ended up having to wire the bridge pickup into the neck's tone pot. I really like the  combination of the neck and bridge pickups. Having all three pickups on gives a very full sound.

The jazz switch doesn't quite work like I thought it would, though I do like how it sounds. It gives a more percussive sound, though it also adds a fair bit of hum.

I love the sound of the '57/'62 pickups. The stock pickups weren't terrible, but the new ones have a clearer more bell-like tone. They also have hum less, at least when the "jazz switch" is turned off.

It'll take me awhile to explore all the different settings . So far, I'm happy with the modifications I've made. I've learned a fair bit about how how electric guitars work, as well as how to solder.

I haven't decided if I'll try refinishing the body. For now, I'm just enjoying playing it. I may look at working of a Telecaster at some point. Again, there's no timeline.

[affinitymodproject]

I finally settled on fender's '57/'62 pickups.  I also bought some no-load pots for the tone controls.

The wiring diagram shows exactly what I have planned. I have the parts on hand, so there's really no reason not to use individual capacitors for both tone knobs.

The purple bit is a variant on the 7-sound mod. I got the idea from looking at diagrams for G&L's S-500. G&L uses a very different control layout. I'm using the Fender tone control setup, rather than G&L's passive treble and base system. Hypothetically, the switch is going to let me bring in the neck/bridge pickup independently of the 5-way, but depending on how the 5-way switch is set, the neck and bridge may or may not have a tone control. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

The turquoise  section is a treble cut, or "Jazz Switch". I saw the wiring for it on Premiere Guitar's site while looking for different mods, and decided to give it a try. The basic idea is to shunt most of the treble to ground to give a sound more reminiscent of a bass. It may or may not stay. If not, I may replace it with a cap switching mod for the middle tone pot.

In red, is a kill switch. It allows for machine gunning and some other dynamics. It'll be something new to to explore.

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I decided to go ahead and install the new pickguard. The hole pattern on the Fender standard guard is different from that of the Squier  guard. Having learned from my mistakes in installing the tuners, I'm plugging the old holes before continuing. The plugs are made of basswood and then glued in. They'll be allowed to cure overnight, before the new holes are drilled. The screw holes on the new pickguard also have a shallower countersink. I haven't quite decided how I'm going to deal with that. I can either change the existing countersink or buy new screws.

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The next stage of the project will be to replace the stock internals with new components.The pickguard, 5-way switch and two of the potentiometers are all stock Fender parts. The Third pot is a a Proline 250k  micropot. The local Guitar center was low on stock, so I had to do a substitution.

The switches and other components are from Radioshack. Those won't be used until after the wiring upgrades, but I prefer to have them on hand for when I need them.

I still need to buy some new pickups. Right now, I'm leaning toward the Fender Vintage Noiseless singlecoils.

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Stage One: Part 2 Hardware Upgrades - Bridge and Setup

The next step in the hardware upgrades is to replace the stock bridge with a new one. The Proline bridge is similar to the stock one, though the block does have a bit more mass which gives a slight improvement on sustain. Aside from the block, the other major difference was that the bevel on  the stock bridge was very rough and uneven. The new bridge is neatly finished. The old bridge also has shallower countersinks on the holes.

The installation was pretty easy.  I opted to reuse the original bridge plate screws, as the new ones had longer shanks which would have flattened the threads in the body when tightened.

After that, came the setup. Between Fender's website and the Guitar Player's Repair Guide, I was able to find all the information I needed to do it. I bought a feeler gauge and ruler at Sears, and made the radius gauge out of sheet brass. I followed the instructons as written, and while the process wasn't difficult, it was rather time consuming. I spent about an hour getting the settings roughed in, and another two and a half hours fine-tuning them. A luthier could have set it up faster and with less difficulty, but it was worth trying the setup just to learn how it's done.

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Stage one - part one: Hardware upgrades

The first part of the hardware upgrade will be changing out the strap locks and tuning machines. The stock tuners are meh, and I'm constantly having to re-tune, though at least part of that is from me (ab)using the vibrato.

As far as strap locks go, they're generally a good idea for most guitars. The standard buttons have a tendency to slip loose, something that can be catastrophic if it results in a dropped instrument.

To that end, I have a package of Schaller straplocks and a set of Fender locking tuners. The strap locks went in about five minutes. The only real issue I had was that my strap is designed for use with buttons. I had to stitch the slits closed to make sure the strap doesn't come loose in spite of the locks.  Eventually, I'll probably just buy a new strap, but this will work till then.

The Tuners are where I hit a snag. The tuning machines have a pair of guide posts on the back which slot into a pair of holes on the guitar head. They're held in place by bushing that screws in from the other side of the headstock. The body of new tuning machines are slightly longer than the old ones, meaning spacing on the guideposts for the stock tuners is different by about an eighth of an inch. This meant that I had to drill new guide holes for all the tuning machines. I probably should have filled the old holes by gluing in a short bit dowel before I drilled.  I didn't. Whether or not that will mean anything , I don't know. The parts fit snugly, and I haven't had any problems so far. For right now, I'm happy with the new tuning machines.

[affinitymodproject]

Introduction

I've recently learned to play guitar, and I'd like to delve further into the construction and inner workings of electric guitars. I have an Squier Affinity Stratocaster that I'm planning on using it as a testbed for various modifications.

I specifically chose to use an Affinity strat for this, because it's inexpensive as guitars go, and I'm less worried about making the inevitable mistakes with it than I would be with a more expensive instrument.

As far as what I plan to do, I have this planned out in stages.

The first step will be to upgrade the hardware, specifically the tuning machines, strap locks and bridge. Once that's done, I'm going to learn how to do a full setup. The next step will be to rewire the internals and upgrade the pickups. After that, I'll start looking at various wiring mods.

Eventually, I'd like to have a go at body finishing, though that's something for far in the future.

There's no set time table for any of this. I know generally what I want the end result to be, but I'm not going to rush it.

As for why I'm setting up this blog, it's going to serve as a record of what stages I've completed. It may also be of some interest to others.