Tele-Dano convertible mojo reviver ...

Electronics question...

Unless someone wants to dissuade me, I'm going to go for 250k pot for the volume control, and a 1Meg tone pot. My other Dano-style build has the 100k/1meg concentric pots but as I'm predominantly a bridge position player I figure I'll get a bit of extra brightness with the 250k in what is somewhere between a neck and middle position placed pickup.

Does this sound reasonable?

In terms of the wiring I am otherwise thinking of an original type LP junior type of thing, probably with a .47 cap...

thanks, Dario

 

Thanks Old Rebel, John and Chris. John, really nice to see you reactivating you build. Looking forward to seeing more.


Chris, as happy as I am with my house (apart from the lack of a workshop) sound really carries in it since the renovations - regular acoustics seems too in you face for late night noodling. In fact I've even had comments about my unplugged electronics - but maybe that's just about my playing...mmm


A wiring question ...the no-name lipsticks I bought have three wires, but being a dumbass that knows nothing of electronics (yes, even googling has confused me on this), I only need two for my simple volume and tone setup. So which two wires to I use ...or do I join two of them together? Hope to get started on the wiring in the next couple of days so all suggestions welcome. Cheers

 

Ok, found this which sounds pretty sensible - I'm sure this is what I did last time I wired one up. Where you were...


On this the bare would be the chassis or baseplate ground and the insulated wires would be the leads to the coil winding. The insulated wires can be positive or negative. Just be consistent or else you could end up with two pickups out phase with eachother. No tape is needed - bare and ground (one of the insulated wires) to a ground (such as the back of a pot) and the other insulated to the hot terminal on the switch.

 

Ok, it's finished. Wired it up last weekend and it worked first time. Played it for a few days and fine tuned the nut (I seem to have - hopefully only temporarily, misplaced my stewmac nut files). I then ended up taking the neck off and did some more tweaking on the frets and the truss rod, and it is now playing great. Here are some final photos and I'll try and do video soon so, if you're interested, you can get an idea of it's acoustic volume and tone, and what it sounds like plugged in.



...and one of the back with a canine reflection....


cheers, Dario

 

Thank you all for your comments.

dblues - I'd love to hear your build too. Is there a thread for it - I'll look into it!

Barney - I have every intention of putting together some videos shortly, we'll see how nicely life plays with my evening schedule this week Have been impressed with the sound samples of some your lipstick winds - may have to have a word at some point.

Some observations on how it sounds - acoustically it is louder than my tele thinline and previous Dano style build which makes sense as it has a larger acoustic chamber and is virtually hollow.

It is very bright sounding though and I think it will sound better when the strings are a bit older and their highs have tamed a bit. I'm sure part of this is the tele bridge and string through design and I wonder how different it would sound with a floating tailpiece and wooden bridge - ala a proper convertible. The choice of timbers is also a factor - I'm sure using Masonite for the top and back would have given it a slightly duller (but not unattractive) and more compressed sound.

Electrically I think this extra top end is helpful particularly given the positioning of the pickup. It sounds really clear and bell like when played clean, and though I'm not much of a neck pickup guy for rock sounds I've managed to get some pretty gnarly tones. Ok, I guess I'll try and cover off on all that on the video.

cheers

 

Thanks for that, I hadn't had any luck when searching for it. As I saw the first picture though I remembered it - really cool build and background story.

Pemalato, obrigado. Look forward to seeing your build too. Have you got a build thread going? Where abouts in Portugal are you? I visited 20 years ago and really liked the place and would love to go back.

There'll be a delay to any video/sound files. I spent a few hours today pulling the guitar apart and doing various things. Just didn't think it was playing as well as it should in several ways, and there were a few aesthetic things too - the binding was separating from the body in a few spots and the tape wasn't really masking some of the poor surface prep either, so I took it all off

I've taken the neck off and very slightly reshaped the back of it and re-applied true-oil. I cut a new nut for it too and will fit that once the true-oil has cured properly. In good news I found my stew-mac nut files I'll probably do a bit of fret work and truss rod adjusting on it too. I had thought it was ok, but once I compared it to my DC59 style build I wasn't happy with the idea of my new build playing inferior to a previous build ....

I spent a bit of time smoothing the sides of the body - there'll still be a few ridges but the uglier bumps have gone, and tomorrow I'll reapply the tape. The secret I think is to make sure you do not stretch the tape in the slightest, particularly around "the inner curves".

later