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This Guitar Electronics book is Copyright 2008. All rights reserved. No

part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted by any means; electronic, mechanical, photo copying,
recording or otherwise, without written permission from the copyright
holders. You do not have any right to distribute any part of this book in
any way at all. T. Swike and Indy Ebooks are the sole distributors.
Violators will be prosecuted.

Adjusting, changing, adding, or removing the electronics in any device can be

dangerous and can cause injuries. This author assumes no responsibility for
personal injury or property damage caused by the use of this guide, or products
we sell, whether by accident, negligence, or otherwise. Please note that this book
is for educational purposes only. Only qualified personnel should carry out any
electrical work. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Please send questions or comments to: [email protected]

Several trademarks are used in this book for narrative purposes. Les Paul
and Gibson are trademarks of Gibson USA. Fender, Stratocaster, Strat,
Telecaster, Tele, are the trademarks of Fender Musical Instruments.
Guitarfetish, GFS, MODboards, and Xaviere Guitars are all trademarks of GF
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

WIRING A LES PAUL

UNDERSTANDING SWITCHES

5
83

UNDERSTANDING POTENTIOMETERS

117

UNDERSTANDING CAPACITORS

131

HOT ROD TECHNIQUES

146

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

181

HOW TO MODIFY A BOSS DS-1 PEDAL

216

ADDING ACTIVE PICKUPS TO YOUR GUITAR

224

DESIGNING YOUR OWN GUITAR WIRING

238

Why are musicians all over the world tinkering with their Les Paul guitars? Its because
they own one of the most versatile instruments ever created. And with a little fine
tunning, you can use your Les Paul style guitar to play blues, jazz, heavy metal,
alternative, fusion, and even punk music. But for most of you reading this book, the
Les Paul is the rock and roll king. Even though this guitar was actually designed for
jazz musicians and really hasnt changed much since the 50s, the Les Paul is officially
THE guitar for playing rock music. Nothing will get your blood boiling more than one of
these guitars combined with a vintage Marshall amp, cranked up to 10, or maybe even
11. Either way you look at it, its a very loud and proud guitar.
Every component in this guitar helps create the perfect tone. The powerful humbucking
pickups eliminate unwanted noise, and give the guitar a fat and crisp sound. The
mahogany body combined with a maple top also help shape the sound of this amazing
guitar by offering an almost unlimited amount of sustain and clarity. But lets get to the
main reason why you are here: to learn about the lifeblood of this guitar: the
electronics.
Here are some basics. The electronics on the Les Paul are setup similar to a two
pickup guitar, with the addition of a 3-way toggle switch and a separate potentiometer
for each pickup. So the bridge and neck pickups get their own volume and tone
controls. The Les Pauls 3-way switching allows you to play through one or two
pickups at the same time. And potentiometers, or pots, are increased to 500K to bring
out more of the highs in the signal. In other words, they prevent part of the signal from
leaking out of the electronics. 250K pots, which are used in Stratocasters, leak out
more of the signal, and end up giving you a little muddier sound. The Les Paul is
already setup to have a somewhat muddier sound with two humbucking pickups and a
mahogany body, so the 500K pots are great for balancing out the tone, Now lets
examine the tools that you will need to work on your Les Paul style guitar.

TOOLS FOR THE JOB

Here is a close-up of the 3-way switch, potentiometers, output jack, vintage style wire,
and capacitors. You will only need two capacitors, but there are many types to choose
from. Pictured below are ceramic, paper, polyester, and polypropylene caps. Check
out the chapter on capacitors for more info on which caps sound the best.

The picture below is a gun style soldering iron from Weller. When you pull the trigger,
you will get up to 350 Watts of power (700 degrees). When you release the trigger, it
quickly cools down. The gun soldering irons have a larger tip, so they work best when
heating large amounts of solder.

Below are some of the wire cutter and stripping tools that you might want to use.

You will need 60/40 rosin core solder for your guitar wiring projects. Every hardware
store or Radio Shack should have it in stock. Below is the.032 diameter solder sold in
a plastic tube.

Below is the thicker .062 rosin core solder. This is the solder I use on all of my
projects. The manufacturer is Bernzomatic out of Medina, NY. This stuff works great.

If you dont have a set of socket wrenches, then I would recommend these guitar
nutdrivers from stewmac.com. These come in real handy when installing
potentiometers, output jacks, and switches. They cost around $7.50 per wrench.

You might also want to pick up some heat shrink tubing from your local hardware
store, or online. If you have to solder two wires together to lengthen a pickup wire,
then the heat shrink tubing will cover up the bare connection. Just heat it up with a
lighter for a few seconds, and it will shrink to form a tight fit around the solder joint.

On the next page, you can see the path that a Les Paul style pickup takes. This is a
basic explanation of how the guitars signal travels, or appears to travel. The signal
moves from the pickup to the audio taper volume potentiometer, and then goes out to
the linear taper tone pot and 3-way toggle switch. The signal leaves the 3-way switch
and exits through the output jack. Note: all of the (black) ground wires should be
connected to one another. Also, dont forget to connect the bridge ground wire, which
comes from one of the tailpiece post holes. The bridge ground touches a metal post,
and can reduce the risk of shock and unwanted noise. Both of which are pretty
important.

The middle lug on a potentiometer is often thought of as the

potentiometer output.

Notice how the 3-way toggle switch works on the next page. One side turns the treble
pickup on, and the other side turns the rhythm pickup on. The middle selection turns
both pickups on. Note: if you have a 4 lug switch, then the inner two lugs will need to
be soldered together. Some Gibson style toggle switches will have only three lugs,
one for the treble pickup, one for the output, and one the rhythm pickup. The far left
and far right lugs will connect to the 2 volume potentiometers. Also, a ground wire will
be attached to a lug on the back side of the toggle switch.

There are four lugs on the front of a typical 3-way toggle switch.

The ground lug is often on the backside of the toggle switch. It is thicker than
the other lugs.

Here is a 3-way Switchcraft toggle switch from a 1956 Les Paul.

Here is an import style toggle switch. The ground lug is on the back side.

The rest of the wiring is pretty simple. Add the .020 uf capacitors to the tone pots and
make sure that every pot has a ground wire soldered to its case. Also, solder the
ground wire from the bridge post to one of the potentiometer cases, where the other
ground wires are connected. All ground wires will need to be connected to each other.
Now take a look at the output jack below. A hot wire from the toggle switch, and a
ground wire will get soldered to the two lugs. The ground lug will always be on top.
The hot lug is lower, but will touch the tip of your guitar cable.

Here is a close-up of an output jack.

Here is the finished wiring. This diagram and the one on the next page are often
referred to as modern Les Paul wirings, or wirings from 1970 to the present. These
modern wirings allow the capacitors to be connected to the volume pot ground, or tone
pot ground. Also notice that the ground wire gets soldered to the lug on the back of the
3-way switch. Keep in mind that when the guitar is actually in a playing position, the
volume and tone pots for the neck pickup (#1) will be the closer to your head. The
bridge pots will be closer to your feet. So you are looking at the inside of the guitar
cavity in the diagram below.

Here is another way to wire a Les Paul. In the example below, the tone capacitor is
wired to the volume potentiometer, just like in typical Fender Stratocaster wiring.

Want an easy way to to blend the pickups together in the middle position? This
is my favorite Les paul wiring. Just switch around the hot wires on the volume pots,
and you will have an independent volume control for each pickup in the middle
position. So you can have 10% of the neck pickup on and 40% of the bridge pickup on
if you wanted to. (With stock wiring, each volume pot acts like a master volume control
in the middle position.) Each tone potentiometer (T1 and T2) will still act like a master
tone control when both pickups are switched on.

Here is a 1950s vintage style wiring from the 1959 Les Paul. In the vintage Les Paul
wiring, the middle lug on each tone pot gets soldered to its own case, and each
capacitor get soldered to middle volume pot lug. This wiring will also use 500K audio
taper CTS pots, .02 microfarad Bumblebee caps, and a Switchcraft toggle switch. Also
notice that the ground wire that gets soldered to the thick lug on the back of the 3-way
switch.

Why go with a vintage setup? Because the early Les Paul wiring bleeds out less treble
to ground, and actually adds some brightness to the guitar. Plus, when you cut the
volume, the tone control will leave more of the highs in place, mainly cutting the
midrange and bass. This produces some unique sounds that many believe you cant
recreate with the modern Les Paul wiring.

Note: Gibson has always experimented with different wiring schemes

over the years. So there are some early Les Pauls out there that do not
have the caps soldered to the volume pot middle lugs. They also used
300K pots for volume and 100K pots for tone during the 1970s and
1980s. Even 700K pots were discovered in a few guitars.
The caps are connected to the middle volume pot lug in this 1956 Les Paul.

Instead of having a separate hot and ground wire coming out of your pickups,
your Les Paul might have a hot wire hidden inside of a metallic braided ground
wire. If this is the case, then the ground wire will get soldered to the volume
potentiometer case, and the hot wire will go to its appropriate lug. Creating a
charge around a hot wire will help send any unwanted noise to ground.

On many of the older Les Pauls, one wire is used to ground all of the volume
and tone pots. This saves time when doing wiring jobs. To recreate this, just
take the cloth off of the vintage style wire, and solder it to the four
potentiometer cases.

Here are some straight and right angle Switchcraft toggle switches from the
1960s. You can buy them here: http://stores.ebay.com/P-S-I-Love-You

Here is the Black Widow. A beautiful 1971 Les Paul Custom owned by my
friend, James Distler.

Here is a closeup of the neck volume and tone pots.

Here is the 1971 Black Widow wiring. Each cap is connected to the left lug on
the volume pot in this example. This guitar really sings when both pickups are
on and the tone is at full tilt.

This three pickup Les Paul has one volume control for each pickup and one
master tone control. This setup is a little different, turns on pickup 1 and 3 in
position one, all three pickups on in position two, and pickups 2 and 3 on in
position three. Notice the tone control sends the hot signal to V2, which keeps
that pickup on in all three positions. Also notice that the volume control for
pickup 1 (V1) will be closer to your feet when you are actually playing this
guitar.

PAF HUMBUCKERS
If you are interested in the vintage Les Paul sound, then the wiring is only part of the
equation. The pickups also play a large part in the Les Pauls tone. The PAF pickups
designed by Seth Lover in 1955 were originally labeled with a sticker that said patent
applied for in the 1957 models. By 1962 the labeling changed to PATENT NO
2,737,842. However, this number is thought to be a mistake, or a clever way to prevent the
competition from discovering the real PAF data, because the patent number actually refers to
the Gibson tailpiece, and not the PAF pickup.

These Alnico (aluminum, nickel, cobalt) PAF pickups were wound by machine with 42
AWG wire, and had around 5000-6000 turns, but the number was not exact, they were
wound until they were done, and each coil had a different number of windings. Some
coils were off by more than 100 turns, adding some punch to the pickups sound.
(Equal windings in each coil would smooth out the sound a bit.) Since each guitar
varied a little, so did the tone. So in order to find the right tone for you, you had to find
the right Les Paul. These pickups varied from 7K Ohms to 9K Ohms, and the magnets
were described as being long. Later on, the 2.5 vintage magnets were shortened in
length to 2.3, which decreased their strength a bit. However, Gibson began using the
stronger alnico V magnets in their pickups to increase their strength. Note: some
early PAF pickups were actually scatter wound, causing a change in the winding
capacitance and resonant peak, basically giving the pickups more top end.

Here are some PAF pickups from 1959. Expect to pay a few thousand dollars for a set
like this. You can find pickups and vintage guitar parts like this at:

http://stores.ebay.com/the-parts-drawer

Since the original PAFs are rare and quite expensive, you might have to look for a
similar vintage tone with some aftermarket pickups by Seymour Duncan, Gibson, or
Dimarzio. The SH-55 Seth Lover pickups by Seymour Duncan yield a well balanced
sound and are not too muddy, especially when turning down the volume. The output is
moderate to low, but they are not overly quiet. The neck pickup has a resistance of 7K
Ohms, and the bridge measures at 8K Ohms. Plus, these pickups are not wax potted,
and the magnets are not polished, just like the original PAFs. Note: A pickup that is
not wax potted can pickup signals caused by the vibrations of the copper wire, causing
some serious high pitched feedback to occur.
Another popular choice for the vintage Les Paul sound is the Gibson Burst Bucker 1.
This is a scatter wound Alnico II magnet pickup that is also not potted. The magnets
are unpolished, too. This pickup has a medium output and a sweet, warm sound with
plenty of sustain.

The P-90 Pickup

Before the PAF became popular, Gibson used a scatter wound single coil pickup in
their guitars, called the P-90. It was wound with 10,000 turns of copper wire. Although
this pickup was not noise canceling, it did have a pretty unique sound and look. This
soap bar pickup was often described as bright sounding, but with more midrange
and thickness than the early Fender single coil pickups. The DC resistance was
measured at around 8K Ohms on the P-90s. The early Fender single coils measured
in around 6K Ohms.

A very nice 1952 Les Paul from Elderly.com.

If you have a Les Paul Jr., the wiring is pretty simple. No switches are needed. A one
pickup wiring diagram is all you need. The black wires go to ground, and the colored
wires carry the hot signal.

The wires can be quite colourful on some of the Les Paul style guitars from
overseas. Notice how the solder joints tend to be a little rough looking.

Here is another example of an import guitars electronics.

CHANGING THE ELECTRONICS IN AN IMPORT GUITAR

If you cant afford a real les Paul or Epiphone, then you might have to settle for a
guitar that looks like a Gibson, but sounds quite different. You can, however, modify
the pickups, potentiometers, capacitors, and 3-way switch, leaving you with a decent
sounding guitar. And thats exactly what we are going to do here. We are basically
going to change out the electronics on this guitar.

1. The first step involves removing the strings. Also remove the tailpiece from
its posts.

If you pull out the post closest to the control knobs, you will see the hole that is
used for the bridge ground. This allows the bridge ground wire to touch the
metal post, which touches the tailpiece and the strings. If you look closely, you
can see the smashed wire inside the post hole.

2. Next we are going to remove the plastic covers that protect the electronics
and the 3-way toggle switch. You will need a small screwdriver for this.

Below is an example of two types of shielded wire. One has 3 wires, and the other has
2 wires. You can find shielded wire like this at stewmac.com.

Here are the paths the 3-way switch, pickups, and ground wires will take. Notice
the holes in the body all lead to the main electronics compartment on the right.

3. Next, you are going to unscrew the pickups, 3-way switch, and output jack.

4. Cut the wires from the pots. Here is what you have left. You have 2 wires
from the pickups (each with a hot and ground), a wire from the 3-way switch
(with 2 wires, and a switch ground), a wire from the output jack that goes to the
3-way switch (with a hot and ground), and also a bridge ground wire. If you want
to keep the existing wires and pickups in your guitar, then leave these in place.
If you want to change them, then just pull them out of the body cavity.

Here is how the output jack wire and switch wire connects to the 3-way switch.
Notice that wire A has a hot and ground, and wire B has 2 hot wires and a
ground. In this example, the output jacks ground wire connects to the 3-way
switch ground lug in wire A. There is also a ground wire located in the other
wire (B) which connects the switch ground to a volume potentiometer case,
allowing all the ground wires to connect together. Often, the output jacks
ground wire just connects to the closest volume potentiometer case. Either way
works. The main thing to remember is that all the ground wires need to be
connected to one another.

The cover is ready to be put back on.

4-WIRE CONDUCTOR PICKUPS

If you have a 4-wire humbucking pickup (four wires plus a ground wire), then you will
need to connect the two finish, or series wires together, unless you plan on hot
rodding your guitar. Once the finish wires are connected, they will form a series link,
which will boost the output. This will leave you with a hot wire that goes to the volume
pot, and 2 ground wires that go to the volume pot case. The diagram on the next page
shows a humbucker that uses the same wire color codes as a Seymour Duncan
pickup. Black is hot (+), green is ground (-), red and white for the series link, and the
remaining bare wire always goes to ground.

Here is a pickup that uses the same color codes as Seymour Duncan pickups.
On the top coil, black is the start wire, and white is the finish wire. On the
bottom coil, green is the start wire, and red is the finish wire. The red and white
wires form the series link. Often, these are described as A, B, C, and D.

Here is a wiring diagram with a 4-wire Gibson pickup. The red wire is the start,
black is the finish, and the white and green wires are soldered together to form
the series link. The bare grey wire goes to ground.

PICKUP COLOR CODES

Here are some of the common color codes for 4-wire conductor pickups.

Here is a beautiful custom paint job from John Gleneicki. If you plan on painting
your Les Paul, be sure to check out www.paintyourownguitar.com to learn
how to do it right.

Almost every guitar has some type of switch on it. They are essential for turning
electronics on and off. So if you are going to be doing any type of wiring on your
guitar, then you are going to have to know your way around switching. Most switches
on Les Paul guitars will be either straight up or right angle toggle switches. Below are
examples of both. Each switch has 5 lugs, with one of them being a ground. Each
switch also has six pieces of plastic that separate the lugs. Note: The right angle
switch has its inner two lugs on the top part of the switch.

Notice the ground lugs and how they can be located on different sides of the
switch. The ground lug is the thickest metal lug on the toggle switch.

As you can see, both types of switches are setup with the same four lugs and
an additional ground lug.

In the diagram below, A and B are the two pickups (B is usually the neck
pickup), G is the ground wire, and O is the hot output wire. The middle two lugs
have been soldered together, so that both pickups remain on when the selector
switch is in the middle position.

Lets look at how these switches work. Gibson style 3-way toggle switches, for
example, have 3 or 4 lugs and can turn on 2 separate devices at the same time
(pickup 1 on, both on, pickup 2 on). Check out the Gibson style toggle switch on the
next page. Wiring them is fairly simple. You have two inputs and two outputs. The
ground wire gets soldered to the thickest lug on the front or back of the switch. You
will need to solder the middle two output lugs together if you want to turn on both
pickups when the switch is in the middle position.

In the middle position, all lugs are touching one another, sending the hot signal
throughout the switch. Both pickups are on.

In this next example, the right two lugs are touching, completing the circuit. The
pickup on the right is on, and the other is off.

This example shows what happens when the opposite side is turned on. The left
pickup is now on.

When the switch is flipped over to the left side, the left two lugs are touching
and the right two lugs are separated from one another.

If your switch has 5 lugs and a ground, you can wire a 3 pickup Les Paul like
this. N goes to the neck pickup volume pot, M goes to the middle pickup volume
pot, B goes to the bridge pickup volume pot, and G goes to ground. The O goes
to the output jack hot lug. Also solder the inner two lugs together, just like in a
normal 3-way Gibson style toggle switch.

Some Gibson style toggle switches only have three lugs, but still work in
the same manner as a four prong toggle switch. On the next page you
can see that he ground lug is on the opposite side of the switch.

Another switch that is very useful in guitar wiring is the mini toggle switch. The mini
toggle switch below is an on/on DPDT (double pole, double throw) switch, and
you can purchase one online for just a few bucks. The switch below is an on-on switch,
meaning it turns one side on, or the other side on. So when one pickup is turned on,
the other pickup is turned off. The on-on toggle has six lugs, 3 on the top (pole 1), and
3 on the bottom (pole 2). Each pole is not connected to one another, so a hot signal in
one pole will not activate any of the lugs in the other pole. The lugs that are hot, or
"on", are colored in black. The grey lugs are off. Remember, the poles are not
connected to one another. Thats why you might need to use jumper wires in some
applications, to connect one pole to another.

There are a few other types of 3-way mini toggle switches that can be useful in your
guitar wiring. Below is an on/off/on DPDT center-off switch. It is the same as the onon mini toggle switch with an additional stop in between the left and right settings. The
middle position cuts the power. So it is an on-off-on switch. Here is what it looks like.

The next 3-way mini toggle switch is an on/on/on DPDT center-on switch. It is used
for series/parallel switching, coil cutting, and phase reversal. It turns on the top left lugs
and bottom right lugs while in the middle position.

UNDERSTANDING VARITONE/ROTARY SWITCHES

The next switch we are going to discuss is the Varitone, or rotary switch with
the chicken head knob. This switch allows you to dial in specific tones for each
setting, and eliminates any guesswork associated with the subtlety of tone
potentiometers. This type of switch has 6 settings for 6 different tones. The first
tone is usually clean, so that leaves 5 other tones to chose from. These 5 tones
will be determined by the size of the capacitor that gets soldered to each lug on
the rotary switch. These switches are very easy to wire. Just solder capacitors
to certain lugs on the Varitone switch, and then connect the open ends of the
capacitors together. Send the signal out to the output jack and also connect a
ground wire to the common lug in the middle of the switch.

Below are some capacitor values that have be used on the Gibson 345 Lucille
guitar. These values are measured in microfarads. The bigger capacitors will
give you a muddier sound. You can experiment to find the tones you want by
using different capacitor values.
LUG 6 - 0.22 F
LUG 5 - 0.03 F
LUG 4 - 0.01 F
LUG 3 - 0.003 F
LUG 2 - 0.001 F
LUG 1 - no capacitor (clean sound)
Here is how you install a Varitone. First, drill a hole in the guitar body. Then
install the Varitone switch. Mark on the switch which lugs you will be using.
When you look at the side of the switch, you can see which lug is in use. This
particular switch has 12 lugs (6 per pole). We will only be soldering capacitors
to 5 of these lugs, so turn the switch through all 6 positions, and notice which
lug is completing the circuit in each setting. Then you will know which 5 lugs
need to have capacitors soldered to them. One out of those 6 settings is left
open, so it yields a clean, unaltered sound.

Here are the lugs that we will be using.

Here are the ceramic capacitors that I chose for this project. I wanted a muddier
sound, so I used a 0.1 uF capacitor as the largest cap.

Now solder one end of each capacitor to one of the lugs on the Varitone switch.
Solder them in ascending order.

Now solder all of the open ends of the capacitors together. These will be
soldered to a wire that connects to the hot lug on the output jack.

Solder the ground wire. It attaches to the common lug in the middle of the
Varitone switch, closest to the lugs you just soldered. From there, it gets
soldered to the bottom of one of the volume or tone pots. In other words, it gets
connected to ground.

Here is the output jack with two wires connected to the hot lug.

Here is what the finished wiring looks like on a Les Paul. Connect the
rotary switch to the hot output jack lug and also send it to ground.

Here is a 2 level rotary switch with 4 poles (2 poles per level). You can wire
the most complicated schematics with this type of switch.

Question: How do you wire a PRS style Les Paul? The PRS wiring with two 4-wire
humbuckers and one 2-wire pickup will yield some useful series/parallel/coil cut
sounds. The 6-way rotary switch has a top half (A) and a bottom half (B) that are
shown in the diagram. There will also be a master volume and master tone control.
Here is what you can expect with this setup:

In the diagram on the next page, A is the top half of the

rotary switch when looking at it upside down, and B is the
bottom half. In A, the common lugs are inside of the main
lugs. In B, the common lugs stick out pretty far from the
main lugs. If you are going to try this wiring, make sure to print
out a color copy from the ebook version, or website.

Type this address in your web browser for a larger color version
of the diagram above.

Here is a beautiful sunburst guitar painted by John Gleneicki at

paintyourownguitar.com.


A potentiometer, commonly referred to as a pot, is a variable resistor with a tap that
slides. Basically, a potentiometer changes the signal that is going through it.
Potentiometers have three lugs, a reference, signal and ground. Here is all you really
need to know. As you turn the knob on your volume or tone pot, you increase or
decrease the signal that gets sent to ground. So if you have your volume set at 0, then
100% of the signal will be sent to ground. Normally 250K Ohm pots are used with
single coil pickups to add warmth to the sound, and 500K Ohm pots are used with
humbucking pickups to add more treble to the sound. A 1 Meg pot will give you an
even brighter sound.
Part of the signal will always leak out to ground in any potentiometer, even when the
volume is turned all the way up. A 1 Meg pot will leak the least amount of signal to
ground, and a 250K pot will leak the most amount of signal to ground. In the case of
the tone potentiometer, a capacitor is added to the circuit, which only allows the
highest frequencies to pass through to ground, leaving a muddier sound with more
midrange and bass.

VOLUME AND TONE POTENTIOMETERS

The volume pot receives the signal from the pickup selector switch, or in the case of
the Les Paul, the pickups themselves. The volume pot then sends the signal out to the
output jack, or to the toggle switch, and also out to the tone pot. The tone pot then
receives the signal from the volume pot, and sends the high frequencies out to ground
via a capacitor.
Volume potentiometers are usually described a being audio taper, or log taper, and
tone potentiometers are described as having a linear taper, or straight line taper.
Taper describes how the resistance increases or decreases in a potentiometer. Audio
tapers work just like you would expect a volume potentiometer to work. When the
volume is at 10, its at its loudest setting. At 5, the volume is half as loud. And at 0,
there is no volume at all. Now with a linear pot, things are a little different. At a volume
of 10, the signal is at its loudest. However, at 5 it would still be at its loudest. And at 0,
there would be no volume.

In reality, when a linear taper pot is set at 5, it truly is sending 50% of the signal to the
output jack and 50% to ground. So a signal at 10 is twice as strong as the signal at 5.
This works well with tone controls. However, when an audio taper pot is set at 10, the
signal is actually more than double the signal at 5. The signal at 5 maybe only 1/10th
of the whole signal. This is because the human ear does not respond linearly to
loudness. It responds to a logarithmic taper, which produces the illusion of a linear
taper volume control. When the volume of an instrument actually sounds twice as loud
to a human, it is really much louder than that. This is because the ear does not have
as much sensitivity to volume changes at higher sound levels. The main thing to
remember is this: dont use linear taper pots as volume controls. You can, however,
use audio taper pots for both volume and tone controls. Note: many import guitar
companies are now using linear pots as the volume controls, and audio pots as the
tone controls, so the quality of the potentiometer you are using also plays a large role
in the guitars overall tone.
Below is an example of the control shaft, or control knob, in a potentiometer. If this is a
500K pot, then the resistance from the far left lug to the far right lug should be around
500K Ohms. The left lug is the signal input. The center lug is the signal out.put The
right lug connects to ground. So when the knob is set at 0, far left position of the wiper
arm, there is very little if any resistance, and the whole signal flows out of the center
lug. When you turn the knob to the right and add resistance, then less of the signal
flows out to the center lug, and more of the signal is sent to ground. If you turn the
knob all the way to the right, maximum resistance is applied to the center lug,
therefore, the signal will be at minimum level or zero.

Here is a popular way to wire the volume and tone pots in a Les Paul. This type
of wiring is very similar to the Fender Telecaster wiring, except in the Fender
guitar, the volume pot receives the signal from the pickup selector switch, and
the OUT signal goes to the output jack, and not the 3-way toggle switch. The
right lug on the volume pot is soldered to its own case in order to send the
signal to ground.

BLEND POTENTIOMETERS
A blend pot is a potentiometer that controls two pickups. Its actually a unique
substitute for a pickup selector switch. However, it doesn't just turn on a pickup like a
switch does. It can turn on a percentage of a pickup's output. Basically, one direction
increases the output of pickup A, while decreasing the output of pickup B. Turn the
knob in the opposite direction, and it increases the output of pickup B, and decreases
the output of pickup A. In the middle position, both pickups are at 100% output.

Notice that the blend pot below only has one shaft for one control knob. A stacked
concentric pot it totally different, and has 2 shafts for two different knobs.

Here is the side view of a blend pot. It has two inputs and two outputs.

Here is a Les Paul with a blend pot acting as a pickup selector. Since there is a
master volume and master tone, you wont need a fourth potentiometer, or a 3way toggle switch.

STACKED CONCENTRIC POTENTIOMETERS

Another type of potentiometer used in guitars and basses is a stacked
concentric pot. This is basically two potentiometers attached on top of one
another, and controlled by two separate shafts (a thick one and a thin one), so
unlike a blend pot, each pot is totally independent of one another. This allows
you to pack in two potentiometers in the space of only one potentiometer. A
special type of knob is used for this setup, one that has two moving sections for
each shaft. You can find stacked concentric pots and knobs online at the
ALLPARTS website.
http://www.allparts.com

PUSH PULL POTENTIOMETERS

A push pull potentiometer is basically a combination of a DPDT on-on mini toggle
switch and a potentiometer. This type of pot is designed to conserve space inside your
guitar. Otherwise, you would need to drill a hole in your body to add a mini toggle
switch. Think of it like a separate potentiometer, and a separate DPDT ON/ON toggle
switch stuck together. When the knob is in the up position, it turns on the top 4 lugs.
Note: there are two poles, or channels in each push pull pot (left 3 lugs and right 3
lugs). So in the diagram below, the black lugs are on (top 4 lugs), but the left and right
sides are not connected to each other. For more info on DPDT ON/ON switches,
check out the section on switches.

When the knob is in the down position, it turns on the bottom 4 lugs.

What are capacitors and what do they do? A basic capacitors, or condenser,
are made up of two isolated conductors (separated by a non-conductive substance, or
dielectric) that stores and release energy, similar to a battery in some ways. When
there is a difference in the value of each conductor, then the capacitor charges up.
When the value is equal on both conductors, it discharges and quickly releases
electrons back into the circuit. So what does all of this mean to a musician? It means a
capacitor can actually resonate the signal, or smooth out the fluctuations in the signal,
making it appear like the signal came from a smooth and constant source. Thats
important in all types of electronic devices, including amplifiers. But what about guitar
caps?
In guitar wiring, capacitors are unique in that they release only the highest frequencies
out to ground, and keep the lower tones in the circuit. Basically, capacitors make the
tone of the guitar muddier, because the lower tones are not able to pass through the
capacitor. Guitar caps nowadays are smaller, cheaper, and pretty accurate for their
size. They are measured in units called farads. The guitar capacitors cutoff
frequency is measured in microfarads represented by the symbol uF or MFD. The
bigger the number, the more bass your guitar will have when the cap is connected to a
tone control.
In the diagram below, the electrons fill up on the negative conductor. Once that
conductor is full, the electrons discharge and flow to the positive conductor. The
electrons then enter back into the circuit. The dielectric is the non-conductive material
between the 2 conductor plates. In guitar electronics, the non-polarized capacitors
used will have wires that can be either the positive or negative lead.

Lets get back to the guitars tone. Probably one of the easiest mods used to change
your guitars sound is to change the capacitor. I am not just talking about adding more
or less bass to the sound, but actually changing your guitars character. For this task,
you are not going to need just any capacitor, but a vintage style one. The vintage
capacitors are considered to be less harsh sounding than the new caps on the market
today, and are getting a lot of attention as of late. Luckily, there are companies that
make replica capacitors, and they are pretty close to the ones from the 50s and 60s.
First a little history. The .047uF Bumble Bee capacitors, painted like a bee, are the
holy grail of caps. They sound smooth and creamy, partly do to their oil content.
These were used in guitars, TVs, and even stereos. You can also look for the Black
Beauty Spragues, which work well in most guitars.
Fender used Cornell-Dubilier brand .05uF/150v and .10uF/150v wax coated caps in all
of the premier instruments from 1950 to 1961 (Tele, Strat, Jazz, Precision and
Jazzmaster {.02uF and .03uF}). The student models used the cheaper Astron Type
AM capacitors in a 200v size from the amplifier assembly line. In 1961 they switched
all lines to lower voltage ceramic caps from a variety of manufacturers.
Gibson used Cornell-Dubilier brand .02uF/400v Grey Tiger caps from the late 40s until
1956, when they switched over to the Sprague made .022/400v Bumblebee Telecaps.
These were replaced in 1960 with the Sprague .02uF/50v ceramic discs. Although the
Sprague .022/400v Black Beauty Telecaps do turn up in some high end models, they
were used exclusively in the re-launched Les Paul guitars in 68 and 69.
Many people, especially Ebay sellers, will try to sell other kinds of capacitors as
genuine, but often they are taking advantage of the gullible, or un-educated. The
original equipment manufacturers of the day ordered parts in large quantities to save
money, so the types of capacitors used are fairly easy to keep track of over the course
of the years. Genuine vintage caps are very hard to find. But a few lucky sellers do get
their hands on them every now and then.
Back to the Bumblebee caps. The Bumblebee sound comes from the minutely slower
response caused by the combination of large plates and the oil-soaked dielectric
paper. They are a dry cap, unlike the Vitamin Q type caps, which have a very warm
and creamy sound due in part to the foil and dielectric floating in a bath of oil inside the
metal canister.

The holy grail of all capacitors, the Sprague Bumblebee .022 MFD 400V. These
capacitors have axial leads, or metal wires that come out of each end of the
cap. You can buy them online here:

http://stores.ebay.com/P-S-I-Love-You

Here are some Sprague Black Beauties, also available from the seller above.

Here are some rare .02 MFD 400V waxed capacitors used by Gibson in the
1940s and 1950s.

This is a nice 02 MFD 600V Pyramid capacitor for the 1950s.

Sprague oil in paper Vitamin Q caps from the 1950s. These are .033 MFD and
300V.

Sprague Tan Beauties from the 1960s. These are .022 MFD 100V caps.

If you are looking for some good replica capacitors that are pretty much the
same as the ones used on the guitars from the 1950s and 1960s, then you need
to checkout Luxe Radio & Musical Instrument Co. They have the best selection
of reproduction capacitors and resistors.

http://stores.ebay.com/Luxe-Guitars

Each of my reproduction wax capacitors is made with the same materials and methods
as the original. The only difference is that instead of a foil and paper slug at the core,
I use a NOS Vitamin Q type paper and oil capacitor. These were manufactured from
the 1950s through the 1980s by various companies, like Sprague, for military and
aerospace use. Unlike other types of capacitors, the dielectric and foil in these are
sealed in a metal and glass tube, making them impervious to heat and moisture. They
do not degrade with time and they do not drift in value. They have the added bonus of
having an oil-soaked paper as the dielectric, which (and this is a popular topic for
discussion) has a more musical quality than any other dielectric. I confess that I do
not understand how this can be, its only electricity, and electricity doesnt care, but just
like a record sounds better than a cd, and a 55 Champ sounds better than a Peavey.
PIO caps just sound better.

I do not use Dykanol or any other chemicals in my capacitors. Most capacitors made
before 1956 were coated with a blend of pitch and petroleum jelly. This is the nasty
sticky stuff that radio guys hate. I make this coating with pitch and beeswax. It looks
the same, but it doesnt get all over the place.

What types of capacitors are used in most guitars today?

Most guitars will either have ceramic disc caps, polyester caps, or polypropylene
caps measured in .020uF to .050uF (Microfarads, MFD). The bright orange drop
capacitors with the hockey stick leads are good examples of polypropylene caps that
have a nice, warm, rich tone. These caps also have a higher tolerance than the
polyester caps, which are very inexpensive. You can see the polyester capacitors in a
lot of import guitars. The ceramic disc caps work pretty well, and can be used for
higher frequencies. They are known to be pretty dependable.

What does a treble bleed kit do? Capacitors only let the higher frequencies pass
through them. So the treble bleed kit is going to take the high tones out of the circuit at
the volume pot, and then throw them back in the circuit as the signal leaves the
volume pot. This prevents the treble from naturally bleeding out of the potentiometer
as you turn down the volume. This is often seen in Fender Telecaster wiring. Some of
the vintage treble bleeds also add a small resistor to the capacitor, as shown in the
example on the next page. A common example of a treble bleed is a .001uF capacitor
combines with a 100K carbon resistor.

Does the capacitor voltage matter? A guitar circuit only uses a few volts or less,
so a small capacitor is all that is required. Tthe voltage can make a tone difference
though. The higher the voltage, the higher the ceiling of the tone cap. Gibson
engineers preferred the 400 volt caps, never using the 200 volt versions, while Fender
always used the lowest voltage available from their suppliers. A larger cap of 600 volts,
or more, can also give the impression of increased capacitance, swallowing up more
signal than you might want it to.

Do some capacitors have polarity? Paper-in-oil, wax, mica, ceramic, film,

polyester and polypropylene capacitors have zero polarity. Only electrolytic caps have
a specific polarity, and they should never be used in a guitar anyway. They have a
positive side and a negative side. Electrolytic capacitors are marked with an outside
foil band or (-) symbol which is meant to be wired to ground, and that is for noise
reduction in most radios and amplifiers. Electrolytic caps are filled with a liquid, and
they can actually explode if they are wired the wrong way. So if you ever use them,
the negative side will be marked with a line, or a (-) sign, and will have a shorter lead
than the positive side.

What do the colors on a Bumblebee capacitor mean? Here is an old Sprague

chart. This chart is in micro-microfarads, so you have to move the decimal point 6
places to the left to get the regular mfd number. A classic Gibson style bumblebee is
labelled: Red-Red-Orange-Gray-Yellow so it translates out to 22 times 1000 (22000
micro-microfarads {mmF or pF}) which is .022uF, and the grey band is actually black,
standing for 20% tolerance, and the yellow marks a 400 volt rating. Check out the
Sprague chart below.

Do capacitors degrade over time? Yes they do. Paper and ceramic capacitors
often age poorly and can be damaged by high heat, but other types like plastic film
capacitors are pretty stable and age well.

What does the inside of a capacitor look like? Below are some capacitors that
have been cut in half. It is easy to see the dielectric in the ceramic disk cap. Below the
ceramic disk capacitor is a polypropylene cap.


The pros rarely play stock guitars like you or me. They usually incorporate some type of
modification to their guitars to get out more useable sounds. I am going to show you
some of the hot rod techniques that are both inexpensive and easy to do.

MOMENTARY KILL SWITCH

A momentary, or non-latching switch, is a special type of on/off button that connects to
your volume pot. When you push it in, the power is off. When you release, the power
goes back to the on position. Although this switch is not very practical as an on/off
switch, it is useful for achieving a special type of effect made popular by the guitarist,
Buckethead. This effect is achieved by pressing the button rather quickly while playing
around on the neck with your other hand. If you search around on youtube.com, you will
find a bunch of Buckethead solos, demonstrating this interesting technique.

Just send the middle lug to the hot output jack lug. The lug next to it
goes to ground on one of the potentiometer cases.

PHASE REVERSAL SWITCHES

Another way to utilize mini toggle switches involves phase switching. When you
change the phase of a pickup, you are changing the direction of the electrical current
flowing through the copper wires. Most pickups are wired to be in-phase with each
other, causing their signals to move in the same direction. If a pickup is out of phase
with itself, or another pickup, the signal will be moving in different directions in each
coil, or each pickup. So at least two coils or pickups are needed to get a thinner, out of
phase sound. The out of phase sound also has a lower output. Keep in mind that out
of phase single coil pickups can sometimes produce an unwanted noise, or hum,
called 60 cycle hum. Note: if you have two pickups that are out of phase with each
other, and one of them has a reverse polarity, then you basically have a humbucking
pickup configuration with no hum.

Here are two coils wired to be in phase. This is typical for most single coil
guitars.

Here are two single coils wound to be in phase and humbucking. The coils are actually
out of phase with each other, but by having a reverse polarity on one of the coils, the
signal gets put back in phase. This type of wiring is similar to a humbucking pickup
wired in parallel.

Type this address in your web browser to hear two pickups in phase and
humbucking due to the reverse wound/reverse polarity of one of the
pickups.

CLEAN TONE: HTTP://WWW.TINYURL.COM/3Y5LA3

Here are two single coils wound to be out of phase.

Type this address in your web browser to hear two coils out of phase with
each other due to one of the coils being reverse wound, yet both having
the same polarity. The sound is thin, lacking bass and midrange, and
sounds similar to certain types of acoustic guitars.
CLEAN TONE: HTTP://WWW.TINYURL.COM/24NLCD

Here are some pictures of the polarity being tested on a strat with reverse
wound/reverse polarity pickups. The polarity tester can be purchased from
stewmac.com for a few bucks. The white side up on the neck pickup means north
polarity.

The black side up on the middle pickup means south polarity.

The next example shows how to change the phase of one pickup using a DPDT on-on
mini toggle switch or a push pull potentiometer. Just send the signal to the mini toggle
before it enters the pickup selector switch, and also throw in some diagonal jumper
wires. You only need to change the phase of one pickup to throw it out of phase with
another pickup. It would be useless to change the phase of both pickups, since it
would just put them back in phase with each other.

You can wire your Les Paul this way to send the bridge pickup in and out of phase with
the neck pickup. To make this wiring work, the push pull pot receives the signal from
pickup 2 before sending it out to the 3-way switch. Keep in mind, a push pot is just a
potentiometer with a mini toggle switch stuck to it.

Here is the in phase/out of phase wiring on a 4-wire, or 4 conductor humbucking

pickup (4 colored wires plus a bare ground wire). Another pickup will need to be on at
the same time in order to get an out of phase sound between two pickups. A simple
on/on mini toggle switch or push pull pot is all you need. This diagram uses the same
color codes as a Seymour Duncan pickup. Black is hot, green is ground, and red and
white form the series link.

If you have a 4-wire humbucker, and want each coil to go in and out of phase with
itself, then the on/on switch wiring would look like this. The unshielded grey wire and
the green (-) wire both go to ground. The hot wire leaving the mini toggle goes to the
pickup selector switch, just like a normal 2-wire pickup. This diagram uses the same
color codes as a Seymour Duncan pickup. Black is hot, green is ground, and red and
white form the series link.

SERIES/PARALLEL WIRING
If you are looking to get more volume and midrange out of your pickups, you might
want to try adding a series/parallel switch to your setup. Parallel wiring between two
pickups is probably what you are used to by now. It's used in most guitars to add
clarity to the sound. Series wiring is a little different. It produces a longer path with
more resistance. This additional resistance prevents the higher tones from getting
through the circuit, and allows more low/midrange tones to get through. In series
wiring, the output of one pickup goes into the input of another pickup. In parallel wiring,
each pickup takes its own path to the output.

Here is a Les Paul style guitar with the series/parallel wiring. When both pickups are
on, just pull out the treble tone push pull pot, and it will switch both pickups to be in
series with one another. Push it back down for parallel wiring. All potentiometer cases
will have ground wires soldered to them, including the push pull pot.

If you have a 4-wire humbucker on your guitar, then you can add a series/parallel
on/on mini toggle switch like this. Another pickup needs to be on in order to get the
series wiring between the two pickups. The hot wire leaving the mini toggle goes to the
pickup selector switch, just like a normal 2-wire pickup. This diagram uses the same
color codes as a Seymour Duncan pickup. Black is hot, green is ground, and red and
white form the series link.

If you want each coil in each humbucker to switch from series to parallel wiring,
then the connections would look like this. The unshielded grey wire goes to
ground. This example also uses an on/on DPDT mini toggle switch. This
diagram uses the same color codes as a Seymour Duncan pickup. Black is hot,
green is ground, and red and white form the series link.

COIL TAP/COIL CUTTING WITH A MINI TOGGLE

By far one of the most useful guitar hot rod techniques is coil cutting. It gives you
the benefits of both worlds. With a 4-wire pickup you can create a strat sound and a
les paul sound at the flick of a switch. Note: coil cutting is often referred to as coil
tapping. Coil tapping, however, involves single coil pickups that have 2 leads and a
ground wire. Basically, the coil tapped pickup is wound halfway, and then a lead is
added. Then it is wound the rest of the way and another lead is added. Below is a
diagram of a coil tapped pickup hooked up to an on/on mini toggle switch. These
pickups are hard to find, especially since most sellers use the term "coil tapped
pickups" to actually describe "coil cut pickups."

COIL CUTTING is fairly easy to do with an on/on/on mini toggle switch or push pull
pot and a 4-wire humbucker. This setup will yield three different tones: north coil on,
both coils on, and south coil on. Only two wires exit the on/on/on switch, a hot lead,
and a ground lead. So it can be wired just like any 2 wire pickup once the signal leaves
the switch. The bare ground wire also goes to ground. This diagram uses the same
color codes as a Seymour Duncan pickup. Black is hot, green is ground, and red and
white form the series link.

Here is a two humbucker guitar wired with two on/on/on mini toggle switches. This setup
has a ton of useful tone options. A hot wire and a ground wire exit out of each mini toggle
switch. This diagram uses the same color codes as a Seymour Duncan pickup. Black is
hot (+), green is ground (-), and red and white form the series link. A black ground wires
also exits out of the mini toggle switch and goes to the volume pot case.

If you want to throw a few mods together on a 4-wire humbucker, then try this. Its an
on/on/on toggle that switches between series wiring, coil cutting, and parallel wiring. The
bare grey wire and the black wire go to ground. The hot wire leaving the toggle goes to the
pickup selector switch, just like a normal 2-wire pickup. The color codes are the same as a
Seymour Duncan humbucker pickup. The black wire from the pickup is hot, green is
ground, and the red and white wires form the series link.

Type this address in your web browser to hear this coil cut humbucker pickup. The first
tone is the humbucker in series, the second tone is the pickup with one coil on, and the
third tone is the humbucker in parallel.

CLEAN TONE: HTTP://WWW.TINYURL.COM/385TTY

Add a phase a reversal switch to the mix, and the wiring looks like this. The top mini
toggle switch is an on/on/on series/coil cut/parallel switch. The bottom toggle switch is
an on/on phase reversal switch. You need two pickups on in order for the bottom
switch to change the phase. The bare grey wire goes to ground. The hot wire leaving
the on/on switch goes to the pickup selector switch, just like any normal 2-wire pickup.
This pickup uses the same color codes as a Seymour Duncan pickup.

COIL CUTTING WITH A PUSH/PULL POTENTIOMETER

If you want to cut the coils on your humbucking pickup, but dont want to alter the
appearance of your guitar, you can use a push/pull pot instead of a mini toggle switch
to change from a humbucking pickup to a single coil pickup. The push pull pot is
basically an on/on switch (NOT an on/on/on switch) connected to a potentiometer, so
you get only two selections with this setup (humbucking or single coil). The diagram
below uses the same color codes as a Seymour Duncan pickup. Black is the hot wire,
green is the ground wire, the red and white wires form the series link, and the bare
grey wire goes to ground. You are left with one wire exiting the push pull potentiometer
that also goes to ground. The top part of the push pull pot, or the actual potentiometer,
can be connected just like any normal volume or tone potentiometer. Note: if you dont
know which coil is the north coil, then you can buy a polarity tester from stewmac.com
to find out which coil is north, and which coil is south.

The wiring is a little different if you want to go from both coils on, to the south coil on.
The hot wire from the pickup (black in this case) goes to the middle lug on the switch
section of the push pull pot. Another wire connects to that same location and goes out
to the pickup selector switch, where that pickup would normally be connected to. The
diagram below uses the same color codes as a Seymour Duncan pickup. Black is the
hot wire, green is the ground wire, the red and white wires form the series link, and the
bare grey wire also goes to ground.

Next we are going to connect two 4-wire humbuckers to one push pull potentiometer.
The on/on dpdt switch section of this potentiometer has two poles, one on the left, and
one on the right, so it is easy to solder one pickups connections to one pole, and the
other pickups connections to the other pole. In the example below, when the coil cut
switch is turned on, the north coil will be on in the pickup on the left, and the south coil
will be on in the pickup on the right. If you wanted the north coil to be on in both
pickups in the coil cut position, then each pole would have the same connections, or
mirror each other, but each side would be connected to a different pickup. By knowing
which poles are north and south, you can arrange the coil cut switch to turn on any
combination of coils (outside coils on, inside coils on, north coils on, or south coils on).
You can easily mix pickups from different brands with this setup. Notice that the
pickup on the left has a hot wire that exits out to the pickup selector switch, and the hot
wire from the pickup on the right exits out of the middle lug on the toggle switch, and
then connects to the pickup selector switch. The 4 ground wires will go to the volume
pot case. The diagram below uses the same color codes as a Seymour Duncan
pickup. Black is the hot wire, green is the ground wire, the red and white wires form the
series link, and the bare grey wire goes to ground.

Type this address in your web browser to hear this coil cut humbucking pickup. The
first tone is the north coil on, the second tone is both coils on, and the third tone is the
south coil on. The north coil is closest to the neck in this pickup.

CLEAN TONE: HTTP://WWW.TINYURL.COM/2M82NZ

KILL SWITCH
Here is a simple kill switch. It will allow you to turn off your guitar quickly without
messing with the volume control. It uses an on/on mini toggle switch that connects the
volume pot to the output jack.

CUSTOM 2 POT GUITAR WITH MINI TOGGLES

On the next page is a custom wiring diagram for a 2 pickup guitar. Each pickup is coil
cut with an on/on/on mini toggle switch, giving you three selections for each pickup
(north coil on, both coils on, and south coil on). The tone control is also a phase
reversal push-pull potentiometer, so when both pickups are on, you can also get an
out of phase sound. This guitar has Seymour Duncan pickups, so the black wire is hot,
green is negative, and red and white wires form the series link. The bare ground wires
from the pickups will be sent to ground. The .001 uF treble bleed capacitor on the
volume pot is optional. It functions as a high pass filter and prevents the highs from
bleeding out. Check out this webpage for a large color picture of the diagram on the
next page:

Separate each of the pickup wires and connect them to the on/on/on mini toggle
switches. The red and white wires on this pickup form the series link.

JIMMY PAGE WIRING

Below is the famous Jimmy Page wiring. Keep in mind, this is just one example, if you
check online, you will probably find 20 different ways to wire a Jimmy Page guitar.
Basically, you have two push pull pots that allow you to coil cut each humbucker. Plus,
when the switch is in the middle position, both pickups will be out of phase with each
another. The color codes below are the same as a Seymour Duncan pickup.

The black wires (+) from the pickups are hot, green (-) is ground, and the red and white
wires form the series link. The grey bare wires also go to ground. Notice that the green

ground wire (-) from pickup 2 gets soldered to the tone 2 (T2) push pull pot. Normally
the hot black wire (+) would get soldered there. Switching them around on pickup 2 will
give you an out of phase sound when both pickups are switched on. Also notice that all
of the pots are connected to ground, even the push pull pot case.
Type this address in your web browser to see a larger diagram in color.

http://tinyurl.com/BVLV8Z

Question: Which lug on the output jack is hot, and which lug is a ground?
There are two lugs on a mono output jack. One of them is attached to the prong.
That one is hot. Sometimes the hot lug also has a different shape, and can be
notched.

If you are using active pickups, or a preamp inside your guitar, then you will
probably need to use a stereo output jack. It has one additional lug that connects to
the 9 volt battery. When the guitar is unplugged, the battery is turned off.

Question: What do the colors on the wires mean?

You have probably noticed by now that most hot wires on a guitar are colored, like
white, red, or yellow, and most ground wires are black. Although most pickup
companies do not use the same color codes, most ground wires on a 2 wire pickup
will be black. You should check with the manufacturer to see what color codes your
pickups use, especially when using 4-wire conductor pickups.

Question: Which pickups have more unwanted noise, single coil, or double
coil?
This problem, called 60 cycle hum, is common among single coil pickups. It occurs
when the pickup basically picks up interference from an alternating current that is
nearby, like from a computer or TV. Proper grounding and proper wire shielding
can reduce this unwanted noise. Humbucking pickups have less noise, due to the
in phase, in series wiring, but also have less treble. Many guitarists prefer single
coils for their vintage guitar sound, and humbuckers for their powerful rock sound.

Question: Do you have any soldering tips?

There are 2 common ways to solder. One way involves adding solder to all of the lugs
and wires before doing the actual soldering. The other way works great if you have the
stiffer vintage style wire covered in cloth. Just pull back on the cloth to expose the
wire, then put the wire in the potentiometer lug hole or switch lug hole, and touch the
soldering iron, wire, and solder to each other. Most switch and potentiometer lugs
have holes in them that 22 gauge wires can fit into easily.

Question: What is one way to prevent electrical shock?

Getting shocked while playing guitar is the result of faulty wiring, not necessarily in
your guitar, but in the outlets that your equipment is plugged into. Faulty wiring has
been a problem at some clubs. It all depends on who does the wiring, and if they
know what they are doing. One way to protect yourself is to get an AEMC Outlet
Tester. It can detect faulty wiring in three-wire receptacles, open grounds & neutrals,
and reversed hot/ground connections. You can get one at Amazon.com. You can
also get a wireless system for your guitar to increase your protection.
Or you can add a .022 capacitor and a 220K Ohms resistor in between the bridge
ground and volume pot case to reduce DC current. Check out the diagram on the
next page.

Question: What is the cheapest way to change the sound of my guitar?

Change the pickup height. The closer the pickups are to the strings, the stronger the
signal. The farther away they are, the weaker the signal. If your pickups are too close to
the strings, they can sound too thick and distorted. Or you can just change the strings
on your guitar. The thicker the strings will give you a warmer sound. Or change the
potentiometers. Higher value pots like a 500K or 1 Meg will give you a brighter sound.
Most Les Pauls currently use 500K pots. Last but not least, change the capacitor on
your tone control. A stronger capacitor will give you a muddier sound with more bass.

Question: What effect do magnets have on a pickup?

Basically, the stronger the magnet, the stronger the pull is on the strings. The stronger
magnetic field will slow down the string vibrations and give your pickups a warmer sound.
Weaker magnets will pull less, and give you a brighter sound. To test this out, raise your
neck pickup so it almost touches the strings. Notice how the sound is muddier than
usual?

Question: What is impedance?

Impedance is the resistance in a circuit, and can affect the tone qualities of a guitar
pickup. Adding more resistance in a circuit will cause a boost in volume, midrange, and
bass levels. This is one reason why humbuckers, which are wired in series, have a fat,
powerful sound.

Question: What is an active pickup?

It is a pickup that has its own preamp to boost the gain and volume, while reducing
unwanted noise associated with passive pickups. EMG 81 or 85 pickups, which are
played by many rock bands, are good examples of some popular active pickups.
Active pickups also need their own power source, like a 9 volt battery.

Question: What type of wire is used in guitar electronics?

Most pickups are wound using a very thin wire, 42 or 43 gauge copper wire. Its about
as thick as hair. The actual wiring harnesses use 22 gauge wire with a braided, or
teflon shield. The picture below is a rather large spool of 42 gauge pickup wire.

Question: How do you wire guitar that has only one 2-wire pickup?
Below is a basic wiring diagram using one humbucker, or one single coil pickup. You
can use this with either the bridge or neck pickup. The pickup will have a volume and
tone control. You can actually get plenty of good sounds out of this setup. If you want
to play around with the tone, you can use a stronger or weaker capacitor. Adding a
stronger capacitor sends more treble to the ground, and gives you more bass tones.

Question: How do you use a multimeter?

Multimeters can be used to check the resistance of pickups, potentiometers, leads,
and speakers. If you need to know how "hot" a pickup is, then just connect each
multimeter lead to the hot and ground pickup wire, and take a reading. Make sure the
multimeter is set to the 20K Ohms setting (2K - 20K range). The pickup shown on the
next page came in at around 5.76K Ohms. If you don't get a reading, then the pickup
needs repair. Hot pickups are usually 10-15K Ohms. The hotter a pickup is, the more
volume, bass, and midrange it will have. Lower impedance pickups (5K 6K Ohms)
will have a broader range, and more sparkle, but a lower volume.

Is your tone or volume pot working? Check it out by placing a multimeter lead on the
two end lugs. If you have a 250K pot, then you can expect a reading around 230K 260K.

Type these addresses in your web browser to hear these pickup wiring options.
SERIES IN PHASE:
SERIES OUT OF PHASE:
PARALLEL IN PHASE:

PARALLEL OUT OF PHASE:

Question: Where can I get good guitar parts and information? Here are some
great places to find guitar bodies, necks, switches, pots, wires, pickups, and more.

http://www.smallbearelec.com/home.html Tons of parts, and cheap prices, too.

http://www.stewmac.com/ They have pretty much everything for the beginner to
advanced luthier.
http://www.wdmusic.com/ Tons of stuff, even economy parts.
http://store.guitarfetish.com/ A great source for 4-wire humbuckers, mini
humbuckers for strats and teles, preamps you can add inside your guitar, and pretty
much everything else you can think of, even electric guitars.
http://www.guitarpartsusa.com/ The name says it all. They have everything, even
screws and pickup winding parts.
http://www.allparts.com/ Plenty of Fender factory parts and even concentric pots.
http://www.internationalluthiers.com/electricparts.php They have some good
prices on switches and pickups.
http://www.warmoth.com/ High quality bodies and necks.
http://stores.ebay.com/Luxe-Guitars Incredible vintage style capacitors. They
sound amazing.
http://stores.ebay.com/Classic-Clones-Amplification They have the vintage style
cloth wiring. I love this stuff.
http://stores.ebay.com/musicpartsplus111 Plenty of parts, potentiometers,
switches, knobs, etc.
http://stores.ebay.com/MMTG-Enterprises MMTG has tons of parts.
http://stores.ebay.com/MetalShopMusic-Guitars-Parts-Amps Amazing necks
and bodies, and they also have plenty of parts.
http://pickguardian.com/ Great source for custom pickguards to fit your favorite
pickups. They also have plastic control plates for telecaster guitars.

http://stores.ebay.com/Jamerson-Guitars A good source for necks and bodies.

http://www.noahjames.com/books.html Great book on building guitars and basses
from scratch.
www.stanhinesleypickups.com Great sounding hand wound pickups for your tele.

http://www.langcaster.com Great sounding low impedance pickups by Joh Lang.

http://wamplerpedals.com/ Some great boutique pedals by gear geek, Brian

Wampler.
http://buildyourownclone.com
http://stores.ebay.com/P-S-I-Love-You!!"!#$%&'!()*$+%!,)$!-./'&#%!01$&#*%!

+&1&+.')$(!&/2!3%(!4&*5!1&$'(6!
7''1899:::6%52%$5;6+)<!!"!#$%&'!15&+%!')!,./2!-./'&#%!3%(!4&*5(6!=7%;!7&-%!
>%%/!./!>*(./%((!,)$!)-%$!?@!;%&$(6!
7''1899:::6A.55%$-./'&#%6+)<!!"/)'7%$!#))2!()*$+%!,)$!-./'&#%!3%(!4&*5(6!=7%;!
7&-%!>%%/!./!>*(./%((!,)$!BCCD6!
7''1899:::6#*.'&$1&$'($%()*$+%6+)<9%5%+'$.+&5E')##5%(:.'+7%(67'<!!"!#))2!
()*$+%!,)$!0:.'+7+$&,'!')##5%!(:.'+7%(!,)$!F!&/2!?!1.+A*1!3%(!4&*5(6!
Question: Where can I get hand scatter wound pickups? There is nothing quite
like the tone of a hand scatter wound pickup. You just cant reproduce that type of
sound with a machine made pickup, no matter how much it cost to make. Stan
Hinesley has been doing just this for years. All hand wound in the USA by Stan
himself.

Question: What type of neck causes more string buzz? Basically a shorter neck
scale, like a Gibson 24.75, will have less tension and will buzz more than a longer
neck, like a 25.5 Fender neck. The longer neck will also have more sustain and
clarity. On the other hand, the decreased tension on a Gibson neck makes it a little
easier to play, which is great if you want to use a heavier gauge of strings.

Want a low impedance humbucker? Langcaster has come up with the answer, a
humbucking pickup called the Ultimate Lo (pictured above). The Ultimate Lo uses a
much heavier gauge of wire with only a tenth of the number of turns. This makes the
inductance 100th that of a conventional pickup. Self-resonance is as high as 56 KHz way beyond the range of human hearing. The resistance is a mere 120 ohms because
of fewer turns and thicker wire. Guitarists immediately react with favor upon hearing
their first chord played on the Ultimate Lo.
The preamp is designed with discrete transistors, so that an extremely low current is
drawn from the battery. Long battery life is assured, so that the battery lasts almost as
long as its shelf life. No compromise has been made in the output capability, either.

The buffer stage has a capability of driving the volume pot to 2.5 Volts RMS, which is
hardly ever likely to be required in normal playing. All Langcaster pickups are wax
sealed and use a copper/chrome plated pickup cover. There is no loss of power
caused by this cover, which happens often with high impedance pickups.

http://langcaster.com

Question: Can you explain the physics involved in pickup design and function?
INDUCTANCE: Inductance L has an impedance which rises with increased
frequency (Z = 2 f L). This Z is called reactance in electronic terms. Guitar pickups
wound in the conventional way may have an inductance of anywhere between 2.5 and
10 Henrys. High output pickups generally have a higher inductance, higher selfcapacitance, and therefore a lower self-resonance.
CAPACITANCE: A capacitor C has a reactance in the opposite way than an
inductor; the impedance falls with increased frequency (Z = 1 2 f C). The value of
C is in Farads. The coil windings have self-capacitance because the windings are very
close to each other. Inductors, being wound layer upon layer, have a winding
capacitance which resonates with the inductance at a frequency determined by the
formula: fres = 1 2LC.
SELF-RESONANCE: This self-capacitance of the windings resonates with the coils
inductance. This is known as the coils self-resonance. In the case of a guitar pickup
coil, the self-capacitance can be anywhere between 50pF and 300pF (pF = picofarads
= Farads x 10-15). Added to this capacitance will be the capacitance of the guitar lead,
which may add another 250 to 1000pF. For example, a pickup with an inductance of 8
Henrys, used with a guitar cable at 800pF, and a winding capacitance of 150pf will
have a combined resonance of only 1.8 KHz (1,800 Hz). This is sure to sound Ok for
some guitarists, but most would feel robbed of tonal quality. Turning up the treble
control on the amplifier will do little to help, except increase the hiss.

Q FACTOR: High impedance pickups range in self-resonance between 2 KHz to 5

KHz with a loaded Q of 0.8 to 4.0 or more. Q is a quality factor which engineers use to
express bandwidth and is calculated with the formula: Q = f0 BW where BW is the
bandwidth of resonance. It is the difference in frequency between the -3dB points of
the resonant curve. The f0 represents the resonant frequency. The Q factor is
decreased by the resistance loading the coil (the volume and tone pots), and by the
series resistance of the coil itself. A high Q factor gives a peak in the response, which
may be quite prominent. The peak may even be as high as +12dB. High peaks can be
annoying, as they emphasise only a narrow range of the frequency spectrum, but can
add character to a pickup.
SUMMARY: All this means that the standard high impedance pickup frequency
response will be limited by the self-resonant frequency, which can be as low as 1500
Hz or possibly as high as 5000 Hz, and is affected by the guitar lead capacitance.
After peaking at resonance, the output drops rapidly at 12dB / Octave. This is a limit
well within the audible range, and well within the range where the quality of sound can
be degraded. It is also in the range where the human ear is most sensitive. The selfresonance characterises what a pickup will sound like. Of course, the position of the
pickup on the body also determines which harmonics are most prevalent. Higher
order harmonics come from the bridge pickup because of the way a string vibrates.
Conventional pickup coils are a compromise between output level and tone. There is a
need for a pickup that eliminates these compromises, and builds on quality and tone.
One that will eliminate the effect of capacitance of guitar leads. It would be good, too,
if the pickup sounds clear and precise. It should not sound too muddy or weak. It
should make music.

Question: What is a ground loop? This occurs when you create more than one path
to ground for a particular electronic device. Ground loops can cause unwanted AC
hum.

Question: How hot are vintage sounding pickups?

If you want the vintage single coil sound, then you will probably want a pickup that is
measured at 5K Ohms to 6K Ohms on your Multimeter. This is not really a
measurement of impedance, but a measurement of DC resistance. But both
measurements are related. A low DC resistance will yield a lower impedance pickup.
And a pickup with low impedance will give you plenty of treble and sparkle in your
tone. The lower resistance is due to less windings of copper wire around the magnets.

Now, if you are looking for a hotter pickup with more punch, then you might be looking
for a pickup rated at 8K Ohms to 9K Ohms. And if you want a very hot, loud pickup, go
with one rated at 10K Ohms to15K Ohms.

Question: Where can you get vintage style 22 AWG wire? Bookmark this site
http://stores.ebay.com/Classic-Clones-Amplification
This wire is from the same manufacturer that supplied wire to Fender. It has a doublecloth jacket, waxed cotton outer braid, and a celanese inner braid. I love this stuff. It is
stiff and bendable; making it a dream to use. It comes in several different colors like
red, vintage white, and black, so you can keep your grounds all black and your hots all
white or red. No need to strip your wires anymore, just pull back on the cloth to expose
the wire. And when you are done soldering, just push the cloth back over the wire.

Question: Where can you get a custom made pickguard? Pickguardian.com will
make you a custom acrylic, plexiglass, or tortoise pickguard or control plate for cheap.
They offer a bunch of unusual colors, and can even make clear plastic pickguards and
covers. Check out the example below. Now you can show off your hard work.

Question: What is desolder braid? A desolder braid, or wick, when heated absorbs
old solder left on your switches and potentiometers. So if you reuse electronics parts
often like I do, this stuff will keep your work neat and clean. Once a portion of the braid
has been used to absorb solder, then that part of the braid is used up, and should be
cut off and thrown away when its cool. Desolder braid can be found everywhere
online.

Question: What is heat shrink tubing? Heat shrink tubing is a protective sleeve that
is used to cover wire connections. So lets say you need to extend the length of your
bridge ground, or pickup wire. Put a piece of the tubing over one of the wires. Twist
the two wires together and solder them. Then fold back the bare wires.

Next, take that same piece of heat shrink tubing, and move it over the open
connection.

Now heat up the heat shrink tubing with a lighter. You will see that the tubing starts
shrinking rather quickly. Be careful. Dont hold the lighter over the tubing too long, or
you can start a fire.

Question: Why do some people use shielding in their guitar bodies? Because
they have a problem with unwanted noise. Conductive shielding paint applied inside of
the control cavity will help reduce the 60 cycle hum and unwanted noise. If you have a
plastic control cover, you can use the conductive tape to shield it. For the body, you
can use the conductive paint. Then solder a ground wire to the dried conductive paint
inside the body cavity. If that doesnt work, you can always twist the ground wire
around a wood screw, and then screw it into the body cavity. Make sure you paint a
little bit above the body cavity hole, so that the control cover tape touches the
conductive paint inside the body cavity. Stewmac.com sells the paint for $28 a can.

Question: What are scatter wound pickups? True scatter wound pickups have
copper wire that is hand wound around the pickup bobbin in a random fashion, similar
to the Fender and Gibson guitars from the 1950s. This type of winding lowers the
pickups capacitance, and produces a unique vintage sound that is bright and clear.

Scatter winding will also change the pickups inductance, or energy stored in the
pickups electromagnetic field. The more inductance, the more low end a pickup will
have, even if it has a low DC resistance like 6K Ohms.

Question: How do you solder a ground wire to a potentiometer case? If you want
to add a ground wire to a pot, start by heating up the case with your soldering iron for a few
seconds. Then touch the solder to the iron and case at the same time. The solder should flow
out onto the case and form a liquid ball. Now remove the iron and solder. In order to solder a
wire to the case, just touch the soldering iron to the solder you just added, and heat it up until it
becomes a liquid. When it does, touch the ground wire to it, and remove the iron. It should dry
in a few seconds.

Question: Where can you get real vintage Les Pauls? Some of my favorite shops
for vintage guitars are Killervintage.com and Elderly.com. Below is a picture of the
Killer Vintage shop out of St. Louis, Missouri. One of the guys running the show, Dave
Hinson, was actually taught by Mel Bay, and has contributed to the

Question: What is current? Current, which is measured in amps, or amperes, is the

amount of electric charge flowing from one point to another. Current moves from a
high voltage source to a low voltage source. This idea is similar to a current that flows
through a river, except that gravity is the cause of the motion in the river, and a power
source, like a 9 volt battery, is the cause of the motion in an electrical current. So just
like a river, which always moves out towards the sea, the electrical current always
moves out towards ground, which is the lowest voltage point in a circuit.

Question: What is voltage? Voltage, which is measured in volts, is the strength, or

force a signal has. It is often referred to as the electric potential or potential
difference, and is actually the cause of an electrical current. Think of it like a garden
hose with water flowing out at about 100 gallons per hour. That measurement is
similar to the force that is measured as potential voltage in a current. Add a water
sprinkler to the hose, and the water sprays out into your yard at a different pressure.
The pressure in the hose, however, is still the same. The water is still flowing out at
100 gallons per hour. So the potential in a 9 volt battery, when the two terminals are
connected in a circuit, is 9 volts. Even if you add a capacitor or resistor that slows
down of the flow of electrons somewhere in the circuit, the voltage potential is still 9
volts.
The voltage in a guitars electronics will be very minimal, around 1 or 2 volts, or less. If
you have a guitar with active pickups, then a 9 volt battery will be used to activate the
pickups, which is still pretty low. Amplifiers, however, are a totally different story. They
have a very strong voltage, which can be very dangerous if wired improperly.

If youve been in a music store anytime since 1978, youve no doubt seen the
ubiquitous orange Boss DS-1 Distortion pedal. Universally recognized as a good,
inexpensive distortion pedal, youve probably even owned one or two in the past.
Although it houses a simple circuit design, it produces a very good distortion sound,
particularly for a mass produced pedal. Lets look a little more closely at the circuit and
check out some changes that are available to make this great pedal even better.

The circuit is a buffered bypass circuit with electronic switching, as are all Boss pedals.
The circuit comes in through R1, a 1K resistor, and then travels through C1, a .047
microfarad, or F, capacitor into the first buffer. This buffer goes out through C2 and
then into a JFET (junction gate field-effect transistor), which is part of the switching. If
the pedal is off, the signal goes out to the switching circuit and through the output

through Q7, which you can increase or decrease in value to adjust gain before the
next stage. Increasing the value increases gain, while decreasing it will give you a little
less gain overall but will tighten up the DS-1s low-end response, ridding it of the
flubbiness many people dislike. We can also decrease C3 to get this same effect by
not allowing as much bass to come through. I like to change its value to either .022F
or .033F if Im looking for a less flubby tone. To clarify, to me, flubby means a
deeply compressed tonality. C4, which has a value of 250 picofarads (pF) also filters
out some highs. Changing this wont do too much, although you may be able to coax a
little more brightness by changing it to a 100 pF capacitor.

The signal then goes out through C5 into the opamp. This opamp is used in a unique
way to clip the signal. R11 controls the gain in combination with the distortion knob,
R13 and C8. The gain control is set up this way to enable the clipping of higher
frequencies as you turn the distortion up. When its turned down, it allows lower
frequencies in giving it a muddy sound since the signal is clipped beforehand
through the transistor gain circuits, then clipped again when the distortion control is
turned down. The first stage clipping is still occurring and as a result, the pedal doesnt
sound as clear and articulate as many would like. R13 and C8 are part of this non

inverting opamp circuit which provides negative feedback to ground. This is important
for several reasons. The resistor value of R13 and the capacitor value of C8 basically
provide a frequency range where the signal is made to clip. In this case all frequencies
above 33hz is being clipped. To contrast, a Tubescreamer only lets frequencies above
728hz clip. This means that none of the lower bass frequencies are being boosted
and/or clipped in the Tubescreamer.
The signal goes out through R14, which is a 2.2k resistor, through C9, which is a
.47F capacitor running across two diodes D4 and D5 and then to ground. All the
usual diode tricks can be done here to allow more asymmetric clipping or different
clipping flavors. Here C10 JFET. These JFETs act as a switch, allowing the signal to
either go through the distortion circuit or out through the buffers, producing a clean
signal.
When the pedal is on, signal travels to Q6, through C3 and into a transistor gain stage.
R7 controls the gain of this circuit by changing the voltage bias, consisting of a 470k
resistor which is also in parallel with D4 and D5 and is used to filter out highs in
conjunction with R14. R14 and C10 form a low pass filter, cutting out high frequencies.
Go to indyguitarist.com/filter.htm and scroll to the bottom. Plug these values
into the corresponding fields to determine which frequencies are being filtered.
With the current values you will find its filtering everything above 7k, which helps to
smooth things out a little bit. If its too bright, replace R14 with a resistor valued at 3.3k,
allowing more highs to be filtered out, or try a 4.7k resistor to filter out everything
above 3.3kHz.

After traveling through the diodes and the capacitor, the signal goes through a Big
Muff inspired tone control. There are many things we can do to manipulate the tone
here, and a great resource is the Duncan Tone Stack calculator, available at
duncanamps.com/tsc/. Experiment with different values to find the tone youre
looking for. In the stock version of the pedal, the tone is a bit scooped meaning that
there is little mid frequencies allowed through making the tone a little thin sounding.
We can change that quite easily however. Check out the suggested changes in the
charts below to get a warmer tone, a scooped mid tone, or simply less highs.
After the tone control the signal travels through the level control and then out through
R18, which is a 10k resistor, and then on to Q7, which is the other side of the JFET
switching circuit. In its on state, it goes past Q7, through C13 which is a .047F
capacitor through yet another output buffer and then a resistor, a capacitor and
finally through the output.
Lets look at some modifications that will have your DS-1 doing your bidding in no time.

Note: Its a good idea to buy some desoldering braid to suck

up the old solder when dealing with pedals. Then you can use
fresh solder for the replacement capacitors and resistors, and
will prevent tearing up the traces on the pedal.

Classic JCM-type Marshall Tones:

Location

Change to

C3

.033 F

R17

15k

C2

1F

D4

1N4148 CONNECTED IN SERIES TO ANOTHER 1N4148

D5

1N4001 CONNECTED IN SERIES TO ANOTHER 1N4001

C5,C9

1UF

R13

OPTIONAL CHANGE TO 1k FOR TONS OF GAIN, IF

YOU DO THIS, ALSO CHANGE C8 TO A 1F

Modern distortion tones

Location

Change to

R16

1k

R14

10k

C10

.001F

C5,C9

1F

R13

3.3k

D4

LED

Vintage distortion tones

Location

Change to

D5

LED

C3

.033F

R16

1k

Location

Change to

C11

.01F

If you like the general sound of the DS-1, but are looking less highs and more of a
tonal range, change C10 to a capacitor with a larger value. Stock is .01F for a
frequency roll-off of 7.2kHz.

Less shrill highs

Location

Change to

FREQUENCY ROLLOFF

C10

.015F

4.8kHz

C10

.022F

3.2kHz

C10

.027F

2.6kHz

C10

.033F

2.1kHz

C10

.047F

1.5kHz

To sum it up, the Boss DS-1 Distortion is an inexpensive pedal that can rival many of
the best boutique pedals simply by changing the circuitry a little. While this may seem
hard, technical, and out of reach, it really is very simple if you know what to change
and where to change it. I hope that Ive given you the knowledge and courage

necessary to change your pedal from a mouse into a monster. Happy soldering! You
can get resistors, capacitors, and all the parts you need for this type of project right
here:
http://www.smallbearelec.com/home.html

Written by Brian Wampler. Brian Wampler is an author, effects designer/builder and

operates IndyGuitarist.com and Wamplerpedals.com. His books include How to Build
Effect Pedals, How to Modify Effect Pedals, and Advanced DIY Effect Pedals
available at http://www.guitartone.net.
.

Type these addresses in your web browser to hear active pickups with some
delay and overdrive added. Notice how you can hold the notes forever. If you
want major sustain and a super sweet tone, then these pickups might just be
for you.

HTTP://TINYURL.COM/56HSC2
HTTP://TINYURL.COM/5KK8R6
HTTP://TINYURL.COM/5QOMQF

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Our copyright lawyers regularly scan the internet, auction websites, and file
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