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Importance of Electronic Components in guitars (discussion)

Roubster

Roubster

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Every EBMM that I have had except the LUKE I changed the PUPs on. Doing this myself basically really got me interested in how everything works and why and the importance of the componenets. This basically made me change my major in College from Music Performance to Electrical Engineering. I am still in the beginning of it all and dont have a concept of everything, but I felt like discussing this with all you guys and what your thoughts, experiences are.

I have done my own set ups and changing the PUPs because I had a bad expereience with a local tech...thank goodness it was not an EBMM at the time :). Anyway, the most recent PUP change I did was on my Silo Special and added in the Treble Bleed mod with the Cap and Resistor in parallel.

The origin of this discussion is because I want to take this out since the taper of the Volume and Tone knobs has drastically changed and is not very usable to me. I also need to get some high quality tools and components, because I used a cheap Soldering Iron and soder which basically resulted in a disasterous looking PUP swap...it does work but I have some noise issues most likely due to cold solder joints all over the place and also imporoper soldering technique.

Why I bring this up here of course is that EBMMs seem to use very high quality components and the workmanship is phenomenal when it comes to the joints and arranging the wires and all.

Main question is, do any of you guys preffer different componenets? What reason and did you notice and change in tone?

And my other main question is, which Soldering Iron should I buy? There is ton of them out there...seems like Weller and Hakko are the top of the line.

Anyway, there is a lot going on here...apologies for that. Feel free to discuss whatever you like, regarding the difference in tone with different Caps, Treble Bleed Mods, Switches, pots, whatever.

Cheers!
 
jamminjim

jamminjim

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Get a Weller WPC100 and you'll be good to go for a long time. You can get different sized tips and the Wellers are very supportable.

As for pots. Log tapers are standard in guitars AFAIK. You could try a linear taper pot and see how it works for you. I like Alpha pots with the 3/8 inch shafts for amp building, 'spose they would be very good for guitar too. CTS are good as well. There are pots that cost much more and are much more precision, like Bourns. But they aren't necessary for 50's/60's/70's tech stuff like guitars and guitar amps.

Hope you enjoy electrical engineering. There are quite a few forums out there for you to vist.
 
kimonostereo

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I build effect pedals for fun and I have to say, buying a good soldering iron is a must! There are a bunch of affordable ones out there. Weller, Tenma and a bunch of others. Try Tools and Soldering - Soldering & Accessories - MCM Electronics - Category for a run down and some reviews. Variable wattage is a must.

I also suggest getting solder braid and a good suction type desoldering iron.

As for components: I like Ernie Ball components as they are pretty high quality. The pots are OEM CTS I think but not sure. I have bought some cheaper brands and they are hit or miss a lot of times, but I've only had one bad EB pot ever.

My first EBMM was the EVH. I loved the short throw 3 way toggle and spent months searching for one back in the early 90's. I had no idea that they got an OEM switch and made their own board and attached it. No wonder I could never find one! That said, the choice of components are always high quality down to the strap knobs. No reason to replace much. If I do replace anything, it's the tuner knobs from chrome to pearloid. That's about it though.

Oh, I did swap out the humbucker in my DDII Luke to an EMG 81 but there was no soldering involved at all!

One more thing: If you want to get good at soldering, go to General Guitar Gadgets or BYOC and build a few effect pedals. That'll get you on the right track, then doing anything in the guitar will be easy.
 
Roubster

Roubster

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Here's another question. I know that Log Potentiometers are a better for the volume control due to our hearing...but what's the difference on the TONE control using linear and log pots??? In the case of the TONE Control, would the Linear Pot be better in this situation for a smoother and better control of the taper?
 
Jack FFR1846

Jack FFR1846

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If you have a cheap guitar (or at least cheaper guitar), you can practice and find out things by experimentation. Doing series/parallel/reverse phasing and listening can tell you a lot with the cheapo guitar. I did that with my Sublhouette, which has some really cool sounds with 2 6-way switches.....but when performing, I have stuck with combos that I can easily do with push/pull coil splitting (which I did on my Axis). For soldering, a basic skill is to be sure that before you add solder, you have a good mechanical tie. So....a wire is either threaded into a hole or hooked and squeezed or twirled around something so that the solder is not holding it together. Also....solder goes towards heat, so if you heat up the far side of something, the solder will go to it.

Impedances matter and wiring matters. So a pickup may sound very different with a 500k pot from how it'll sound with a 250k pot. You can pick up a few different pots for $5 each and try different ones. Yah....better quality ones will cost more, but for that experimenting guitar, it won't matter.
 
jamminjim

jamminjim

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Roubster said:
Here's another question. I know that Log Potentiometers are a better for the volume control due to our hearing...but what's the difference on the TONE control using linear and log pots??? In the case of the TONE Control, would the Linear Pot be better in this situation for a smoother and better control of the taper?
Click to expand...

You can use either, whichever suits your needs, both will work just fine for a tone control. Have a read through this thread link for why....

Tone Pots: Linear or Audio? Why?
 
TNT

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Hey Pat,

How about a little more info on the soldering iron!!

Do you happen to sell this product?? Is it the 936-11 (small) - the one for guitar ir is it the medium? Also, is that cord long enough (I couldn't see it in the pic)

I reall do not care for the Weller at all - always problems!!! Thanks Pat
 
Larry

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TNT said:
Hey Pat,


I reall do not care for the Weller at all - always problems!!! Thanks Pat
Click to expand...

Really? I've never had a problem with my Weller WESD51 and I've used the crap out of that thing! While the iron I mentioned is probably over-kill for what your looking to do, I've never heard anyone have a problem with Weller, they make a very good product IMO.
 
jamminjim

jamminjim

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TNT - google it yourself - it ain't hard :rolleyes:

The HAKKOs are good....
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Hakko-936-ESD-Safe-Soldering-Station/dp/B000ARU9HW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1267009941&sr=1-1]Amazon.com: Hakko 936 ESD-Safe Soldering Station: Home Improvement[/ame]


the WELLERS are good....
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Weller-WLC100-Soldering-Hobbyist-Yourselfer/dp/B000AS28UC]Amazon.com: Weller WLC100 Soldering Station for Hobbyist and Do-It-Yourselfer: Home Improvement[/ame]

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Weller-WES51-Analog-Soldering-Station/dp/B000BRC2XU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1267010213&sr=1-1]Amazon.com: Weller WES51 Analog Soldering Station, Power Unit, Soldering Pencil, Stand and Sponge: Home Improvement[/ame]

It's individual preference, I was looking t a Hakko but couldn't find it at a reasonable price years ago, so I bought the weller... I do like the iron on the Hakko. Weller has 7 year warranty and Hakko has 2 years. I've never had to use the Weller warranty.

There's also PACE (spensive)
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Soldering-Station-IntelliHeat-Digital-TD-100/dp/B000GBLDTA/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1267010280&sr=1-4]Amazon.com: Pace Soldering Station, ST50, IntelliHeat, Digital, TD-100: Home Improvement[/ame]

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Soldering-Station-ST-25-Analog-PS-90/dp/B000GBHT7K/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1267010280&sr=1-8]Amazon.com: Pace Soldering Station, ST-25, Analog, With PS-90 Iron: Home Improvement[/ame]

I used Pace stuff for many years and it's high quality but a little overpriced IMO
 
bkrumme

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