KX36 Posted July 17, 2010 Share Posted July 17, 2010 I've had the parts to do my Jimmy Page mod for a while now and when I've had time I've been perfecting schematics, wiring diagrams, plans of how to do it, testing different parts to decide which would be the best everywhere, prototyping with crocodile clips and in the last week I've actually been doing the soldering... About an hour ago, I finished !!! Tested it, all worked perfectly!!! (although the effects of the coil split, phase and serial switches was far less than when i prototyped it up with crocodile clips) about 45 minutes ago, I tried to put the knobs on the pots... Epi knobs were too loose, I was told that these needed "USA sized" knobs, so I had already bought genuine Gibsons. The gibson pots were too tight, but partly because they have lots of little slots and Epihone, Allparts and MightyMite pots have fewer, bigger ones, so I was expecting a tight fit the first time anyway... The Gibsons were a little TOO tight, but they eventually went on with a lot of brute force, but the problem was they couldn't go down as far on the shaft as they don't have room for the nut to be hidden for some reason. (Is the nut recessed into the wood or somethong on a Gibson?) I tried to take the Gibson knobs off, but the whole pot shaft came out with them! #-o #-o #-o #-o #-o #-o #-o #-o I have opened up the back of the push-pull pots and assessed the damage and although I could potentially fix it, it would be pretty bloody difficult as I'd have to superglue 2 pieces of plastic together around a piece of metal without gluing the metal to the plastic all while trying to fit the switch mechanism back into the hole which is spring-loaded; made worse by the fact that the shaft has to be fed through the top of the pot, I can't fix the shaft to the switch and then put it back through the pot after... So I reckon that's set me back about £17 for 2 new pots and 2 days soldering, not to mention I can't free the knobs from the shafts and new Gibson knobs are worth £4 each (set of 4 is £16) and it's going to be a pain in the arse trying to re-solder the bridge circuit while the neck circuit's still in the guitar. I'm pretty bloody irritated right now that I tripped and fell AFTER the very last hurdle. Since I'm a good sport, here are some pictures so that you all may enjoy my pain and laugh at me: The little C shaped white bit of plastic here has to fit to the big white block of plastic with the pin on the end of the metal shaft in the gap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianh Posted July 17, 2010 Share Posted July 17, 2010 No biggie, just throw the pot away and order new. Also put those knobs in the parts drawer and order the correctly flanged jobs. Stew Mac, All Parts or another vendor should have the exact knobs for those shafts. Call them if the catalog page isn't clear enough. It'll all work out, goodonya for trying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KX36 Posted July 17, 2010 Author Share Posted July 17, 2010 No biggie' date=' just throw the pot away and order new. Also put those knobs in the parts drawer and order the correctly flanged jobs. Stew Mac, All Parts or another vendor should have the exact knobs for those shafts. Call them if the catalog page isn't clear enough. It'll all work out, goodonya for trying.[/quote'] The problem with sourcing the knobs is that these pots from MightyMite claim to be all USA sized, but in truth they seem to be mostly metric, standard asian parts, but not exactly. But yeah, I've already decided to buy new pots but the eBay user I bought them from before seems to have blocked me from buying from them again (no idea why, I paid quickly and left good feedback, they left me good feedback) and they're the only source I could find for those particular pots. But it will be even more of a pain to solder them in now as I can't take the whole harness out of the cavity without desoldering the neck pickup and switch, which are unaffected, I'll have to do almost all of it inside the cavity except for a couple of connections between the 2 new pots. Mostly I'm just annoyed at myself (and a bit annoyed at the labelling of MightyMite pots saying they'd fit "USA size" knobs, which I took to mean imperial rather than metric and therefore fit Gibson rather than Epiphone, when really they're in between. On the plus side, I know it all worked exactly as I predicted before I broke it and the neck pickup still works and I know how to fix it, which is a lot better than the position I am normally in when I wreck a project. Just goes to show, you can plan and plan and plan, but if you're a 'tard, you can still mess it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bender 4 Life Posted July 18, 2010 Share Posted July 18, 2010 When they say "USA sized" that could mean Gibson shafts, or Fender shafts, or Carvin........ There are several shaft configurations on USA made guitars....... instead of e-bay, try getting the pots and the knobs as a matched set from the same supplier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KX36 Posted July 24, 2010 Author Share Posted July 24, 2010 Replacement pots came yesterday, so now I finally have a working Jimmy Page modded guitar . The problem I have with sourcing pots was that I wanted a 500K push-pull short shaft linear pot that I could get in the UK, preferably branded rather than generic, preferably with no drilling involved, and that doesn't leave much option. I got the Epiphone knobs to fit, only 2 of them were loose and I just gently shoved a screwdriver into the split shaft of the pot to widen it by the fraction of a milimeter it needed. The next problem was that the 3-way switch I bought from Allparts fell apart after not much use, the top fell away from the bottom. I soldered the 2 together but I'm not really confident in the joint. It seems to be holding for now but I'll order a switchcraft before it fails again. --- So, £300 for the guitar, 2x £85 for the pickups, £85 for the electronics, £45 for new tuners. Excluding a dodgy setup, lots of strings, various delivery charges, a hard case; this guitar's cost me £600 (so far, and I'm looking at replacing the nut and leveling the frets in the future once I find a guitar guy who actually improves the guitar). Was it worth it? Well to resell the guitar, I probably wouldn't get anywhere near that amount, but then I'm not going to sell it. The guitar has a great look and a great sound, it's very versatile. It's getting near to the £660 price tag of a Gibson Studio faded or a decent Ibanez, not quite to the £850 of an american strat or the £1000 of a Gibson Studio, but I'd say apart from the obviously lower build quality than the Studio (uneven neck/frets); it stands up to them all and it's personalised to my taste. :) I'm really pleased with this guitar; these mods are something I did instead of buying another guitar as I've been 3 years without any GAS relief, so I don't mind spending 100% of what the guitar originally cost me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blindjimmy Posted July 27, 2010 Share Posted July 27, 2010 Hi, i also did the jimmy page wiring on an epi lp standard, there was one unintended result : with all 4 knobs pulled up, or engaged, thus.. split coils on front and back, out of phase, and in series , there was no sound coming out of the guitar.. this isn't much of a real world problem, since i probably wouldn't need that particular combination, but can someone explain what's going on there . thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KX36 Posted July 27, 2010 Author Share Posted July 27, 2010 The way it should be is that when the pickup selector switch is on the bridge pickup "treble", and you use the switch to put the pickups in series, the sound is killed. This is simply because of the way series is wired, you can't have independant volume and tone controls for a pair of pickups in series and so the neck controls become the master controls. When you want to use the series switch, put the pickup selector switch in either the middle or neck "rhythm" position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blindjimmy Posted July 27, 2010 Share Posted July 27, 2010 Well , thank you. now that you've explained it that way, i feel a little like " duhhhh " Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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