3PU LP Custom Build

DannyP

Yeah, I'll try without. I got the bridge with roller saddles to try to alleviate that potential problem.

DannyP

I could do with a bit of guidance on sorting the ground wire to the bridge post. I'm not sure which way to drill the wee tunnel.

Options seem to be:
1. Control cavity into bridge post hole - easiest angle but also easy to miss the hole
2. Bridge p/u cavity into bridge post hole - Easy to hit the hole, but do I want the ground wire exiting near the top of the p/u cavity?
3. Bridge post hole into control cavity - easier to hit the target but a difficult angle
4. Bridge post hole into bridge p/u cavity - difficult angle

WezV

Bridge post hole to pickup cavity is the  easiest, in this situation, but only whilst you have downward pressure on the bridge, you wouldn't want to swap to a wrapround as this would put a lot of pressue on the area you have just drilled

Bridge post hole to control cavity is a little trickier here without a stud tailpiece, which sits closer to the cavity.  Still possible though and probably considered to be the proper way to do it

I would actually be tempted to try tailpiece bracket to cavity since you have a bigsby, which is the way Gibson did it in 52.  Drill a smaller hole at 90 degrees to the edge of body, then drill your angled hole from that, the shallow hole prevents the drill slipping prevent slipping

roberty

Both my aftermarket Bigsby Gibsons go post to pickup cavity, it works well but Wez's method sounds tidier

DannyP

Thanks guys.

I've gone bridge post hole to pickup cavity. Another squeaky bum moment overcome!

DannyP

Moot point now, but out of interest @WezV - by tailpiece bracket, do you mean the part of the Bigsby by the strap button, go in that way?

roberty

Looks great @DannyP

WezV

yeah, from the bracket.  its how I have done it on the last two I made with a tailpiece 

on the 52 trapeze les pauls there is a second wiring channel for the earth wire that goes most of the way to the tailpiece so they only had to drill a small hole from the outside.  The channel is actually still there on some slightly later ones


by the time they switched to wraparounds they were doing exactly what you have done, but note the crack above the wire hole because its too close to the pickup and puts a lot of strain on that area.  You see thesame on juniors till the moved the pickup forward a bit


Generally its fine for a tune-o-matic though


pics form here:
http://www.rickn-guitars.com/electricals/gib_electricals.html

DannyP

Interesting, thanks @WezV ;

DannyP

I put shrink wrap around the wires to the switch cavity for neatness.

I abandoned my phase switch idea for a simpler wiring scheme. More on that later.

DannyP

Distance between pickup rings = exactly 6x stolen coffee stirrers

andy_k

I like the accuracy of the spacing method, but if I was in your position, I'd do a last minute check that the pickups aren't being pushed forward towards the neck.
I have never used a 3 pickup Gibson, but I'd be looking for the widest range of tones, so I'd prefer the bridge pickup to be as close to the bridge, and the neck pickup to be as close to the neck to get the widest spread, the middle should be- in the middle.
I'd be checking the routs under the pickup surrounds to ensure I am as close to being centred on the holes as possible, maybe with the bridge pickup slightly biased towards the bridge.
As a last check, before drilling, I'd want to have some strings on there, after all, that is what you will be seeing once finished, nothing worse than having a screw hole a single width out.
Looks really nice, those pot holes look tiny.

DannyP

Too late @andy_k, all done! In reality, the routs were pretty tight, and everything was getting pushed back as much as possible starting from the end of the fretboard. 

The pot holes look small because of all the finishing gunk that's still in them. Reaming them out is one of the next jobs on my list.

I strung it up and had a play with truss rod and bridge height. Unfortunately, there are two high frets: 4, and coincidentally 16.

ICBM

I have a wiring scheme for these which uses the original ‘special’ 3-way switch but gives a wider and more useful range of sounds, at least for me...

The original scheme is:

Neck pickup (via neck controls)
Bridge + middle pickups (via bridge controls)
Bridge pickup (via bridge controls)

Which is very limiting.

Mine is:

Neck + bridge pickups (via both controls)
Middle + bridge pickups (via both controls)
Bridge pickup (via bridge controls)

So with the switch up, it’s basically a normal Les Paul, and in the top two positions you can turn down the bridge volume to get either the neck or middle pickup alone as well, if you want.

I don’t normally like multiple volume controls at the same time but this does allow extra sounds while keeping the original control layout, which I also prefer.

DannyP

Thanks @ICBM, I'm trying to get to a schematic with 2 push pull switches so that when both are down, it's a regular LP, when both are up, it's an LP Junior with one P90 and when 1 is up and the other down, I get the P90 added to all the regular LP options.

ICBM

I think you've made it more complicated than it needs to be - the switching needs to be between the volume pots and the output, not between the pickups and the volume pots. Doing it the other way would also allow you to wire the volume pots the right way round - pickup to end terminal, middle to switch/output.

DannyP

@ICBM like this?

ICBM

Yes, I think that will work - still more complicated than it needs to be though, you can switch the output of the 3-way toggle rather than the pickups going to it. The more switch connections you have, the less reliable (potentially) it is. You can make the switching very reliable by connecting both poles of the same switch in parallel.

DannyP

Ah gotcha, yes, I'll do it like that!

DannyP