DaLefty's 2015 Harley Benton Guitar Challenge - It is photo intensive

Dalefty · May 2015

A quick update from my Laboratory of Mayhem before the girlfriend and I head over to Ireland for a long weekend, she thinks I'm actually interested in visiting her family, little does she know that I actually plan to hunt down fat midgets who dress in nothing but green, I think you call them Leprechauns.

Anyway ever since I installed both of the strap buttons in the traditional locations I've regretted not placing a third one in thje centre of the four neck screws, and to be honest it was nothing but ppure laziness that was stopping me from doing that, so since I was only going to be working a half day today due to my little get away coming up, I decided to pull my finger out and put a strp button in the position where I regretted not putting one in the first place.

So here is the back of the guitar befre the new strap button was added:

So this is what the back of the guitar looked like before the third strap button was added, I planned to add the third strap button to the centre of the ppieve of dowel that I used to fill in the hook hole inbetween the four screws for the guitar neck, it's extremely simple to do, I even got a bit lazy and cheated a little.

The area where I intend to install the extra strap button:

So this is the area where I plan to install the extra strap button, you can actually still see the dowel through the tattoo ink, I plan on installing the strap button in the centre of the piece of dowel that I used to fill in the hook hole that was inbetween the four neck screws.

Cheating and making things easy for myself:

In order to cheat and make installing the strap button as easy as possible for myself I decided to pre drill a pilot hole in the center of the piece of dowel I'm going to install the new strap button in, this will make it easier for the screw to get a ghrip and bite into the wood it is being screwed into, and it will also stop the screw from slipping around and scratching up the guitar body. For drilling the pilot hole I decided to go with the big boys of drill bits, and use a 1mm drill bit.

The pilot hole drilled:

Here is the pilot hole drilled in place, even though it's a good bit slimmer than the actual scre thet will be used to hold the strap button in place, it will make screwing in the new strap button a hell of a lot easier, the pilot hole was only actually drilled into the piece of dowel perhaps to a depth of 2 or even 3mm, just enough to stop the screw from slipping around and to give it something to bite into.

Another one of my cheats:

Here is the actual screw that will be used to hold the new strap button into place, what I like to do with screws that wilkl never be removed from a guitar or piece of wood in general, is to cover the screw in strong wood glue before I screw it into the wood, that way it is given extra support, from the glue as well as the screw threads.

The new starp button installed:

Here is the new strap button installed, as with the other two strap button that I had previously installed, I again went with a bass guitar or an 'oversized' strap button which measures 20mm in diameter instead of the usual 15mm like the standard strap buttons.

The back of the guitar body with the new starp button installed:

Here is the back of the guitar body with the new third strap button installed, you can clearly see the other two strap buttons and their position in this photo.

I now have one less regret for this build, and can finally sleep at night.

Tools Used;

Bass guitar or oversized strap button
Philips head screw driver
White wood Glue
Drill
1mm drill bit

Total Cost So Far;

£3.00 for three ply scratch plate blank
£2.99 for the black mother of pearl inlays
£15.00 for the set of six locking machine heads
£136.00 for the Wudtone CP Holy Grail bridge

Number Of Fingers Lost; 0

DaLefty

Dalefty · May 2015

So today in the Laboratory of Mayhem, well actually yesterday, this arrived and got me all excited, worked up and even breaking out in a hot sweat it was that exciting and anticipated that much. As soon as I heard that it had been delivered I bolted out to my delivery address like a man possessed, my arse was a blurr I was moving that fast, crutches where of no hindrance to me yesterday I was that much is a hurry to get my parcel that I was out pacing Mo Farah while on crutches, the contents of this parcel had the power to cure all as far as I was concerned. In short I was excited to say the least.

The contents of the package:

Incase you couldn't work out what was inside the parcel by the shape and size of it, here it is. The pickups that will power my challenge guitar, I spent so much time looking at different manufacturers, and of those manufacturers which models interested me, or which combination of manufacturers if I was planning on mixing them, the choices and possibilities where huge, but I eventually managed to narrow it down to one manufacturer. In the end I decided to go with Bare Knuckle Pickups, they have never let me down, given their quality and their level of customer support I consider them to be great value for money.

I must admit I was very surprised that I stuck to one manufacturer for all three pickups, especially as this is a H,S,S, pickup layout guitar.

So let's get to the great reveal and the unboxing of these beasts.

DaLefty

Dalefty · May 2015

The neck pickup:

For the neck pickup I decided to go with Bare Knuckle Pickups 'The Sinner' single coil pickup, according to the advertising propaganda from Bare Knuckle Pickup's very own website:

Our hottest true single coils based on the ferocious output of the legendary ' über ' Sinner bridge with massive bottom end, grinding mids and extreme pick attack.

When it comes to output, The Sinner single coils will give any humbucker a run for its money and allows players to maintain the look of their Strat without having to hack it about. Unlike a humbucker or hum-cancelling coil, The Sinner set retain the extended frequency response of a true single coil with deeper lows and more presence in the highs. The bass tracks extremely quickly for fast, palm muted riffing while there is plenty of weight in the upper mids and highs for a screaming lead tone that really punches through. Although designed for the hi-gain rock player, step off the overdrive and ease back on the volume pot and The Sinner coils produce a solid contemporary clean tone.

Neck DC: 15KΩ *
Magnet: Alnico V

So here are the options I went for on 'The Sinner' neck pickup:

Magnet: Flat Profile

Polarity: Stock

Colour: White

Zinc Plated Steel Base: Yes

Aged Coils / Cover(s): No

The Packaging:

Here is what the actual box or packaging that the pickup or set of pickups if you buy a matched set of pickups comes in looks like, it's nice enough, it could be better, made out of a sturdier material like plastic so that you could store a pickup in the box if you had bought this pickup to replace another pickup, but seeing how I binned the pickups that the kit guitar came with, this doesn't really matter to me.

Opening the Box:

Inside the box you get a free pack of Bare Knuckle Pickups branded RotoSound strings, which include a extra hight E string, 10 to 46 gauge, not my brand, nor size, but they will not doubt make somebody very happy, plus a free guitar pick, I think the pick is more for souvenir purposes than use it's that sort of quality, nothing that you would want to use to be honest, more of a case of the branding on the pick, than the use you will ever get out of it, or want to try and get out of it.

Under the strings:

Under the free set of strings and guitar pick you then have your 'limited lifetime warranty' and manual / instructions - more on the instructions and manual later.

Under The Warranty:

This is where you start to see the proper propaganda, I must admit a beer mat with a catchy slogan printd on the reverse of it is a lot better especially nowadays than the 'Congratulations you have bought yourself the best X that money can buy and will no doubt enjoy years of pleasure from our expertly designed product.....' bullshit.

Under The Warranty:

And here is their actualy slogan 'Wound Made And Played The Traditional Way By Hand!' not bad as far as propaganda or slogans go, I know I've seen worse, far far worse. But at lest the free beer mat they have thrown in is far more likely to be of any use than the pick that they have thrown in for free, at least it is actually usable, unlike the free guitar pick.

Under the beer mat:

And under the first useful thing in the box, namely the free beer mat, you guessed it more propaganda, at this rate I have a feeling that the pickups actually only cost around a fiver, the rest of the costs went into printing and graphic design, but by the looks of things this is the last layer of crap before we get to the goodies.

At long last the neck pickup:

Finally our first look at the neck pickup, and I have to say that it doe look very nice indeed, almost worth the effort and risks of paper cuts digging thjrough all of the promotional and propaganda crap. There is no doubt that this is a quality product, it is weighty, very weighty for a single coil pickup, in fact I think this may well be the heaviest single coil pickup that I have held and own, it really does just shout quality workmanship.

The back of the neck pickup:

Here is the rear of the pickup, you can clearly see the zinc plated steel base, it's not trying to hide, you can really see it, there is a good amount of material in it which is nice to see. This is also what I consider to be and the one and probably only area in my eyes that Bare Knuckle Pickups let themselves down and they do it big time here, the only thing that indicates that this pickup is for the neck position is a sticker on the base plate, other than that sticker which will easily come offf as some date everything on that base plate is the brand name engraved and 'hand wound in the United Kingdon', it would of been great if they could of engraved not just the pickup position here, but also the pickup model name as well, so in this pickups case that would mean having 'The Sinner' 'Neck' engraved on the base plate along with 'Bare Knuckle Pickups' 'Hand Wound In The United Kingdom', that would of been worth more to me than the free beer mat, pack of strings and guitar pick all put together.

The pickup out of the box:

Here is the pickup out of the box and packaging, you can see instead of the traditional screw and springs they have got some rubber system in it's place instead, I honestly can't see myself using it, I will give it a try, but I can see myself going back to the traditional screw and springs pretty quick.

DaLefty

Dalefty · May 2015

The Instructions:

I mentioned these earelier but only briefly, the instructions and manual that you get with the pickup or a matched set of pickups if you go that route, they give you a diagram, a very good and easy to follow one of the traditional three single coil pickups, one volume and two tone controls, A.K.A. the traditional Fender Stratocaster layout if you purchase single coils from them in either a matched set, or individually, not only do you get an image and a well labled one at that with a nice and easy to follow and understand key, but they also describe it in great detail in text on the reverse of this diagram, this may not sound useful, but every once and awhile it's nice and you need to have something 'explained' to you in a more indepth or step by step approach than a diagram offers. Plus there is their website it's not full of different pickup combination diagrams as some of the more established brands like S.D.website is, but they are getting there and are improving their catalogue / library of pickup layouts and connections, not to mention that they have a very active community willing and eager to help.

DaLefty

Dalefty · May 2015

The middle pickup:

Withe the neck pickup I decided to play it safe and went for Bare Knuckle Pickups 'The Sinner' single coil for the middle position:

Spec wise I went for pretty much the same as the neck pickup except for the polarity which I opted for reverse wound, reverse polarity, instead of the stock polarity.

Neck DC: 15KΩ *
Magnet: Alnico V

Here are the options I went for on 'The Sinner' middle pickup:

Magnet: Flat Profile

Polarity: RW/RP

Colour: White

Zinc Plated Steel Base: Yes

Aged Coils / Cover(s): No

Everything else was the same, right down to the free unusable guitar pick they give you with every pickup you purchase off of them, same image on the beer mat, same slogan on the back of the beer mat, same little propaganda picture on the piece of card, samew set of instructions and diagram of three single coils one volume two tone controls on the back of the 'limited lifetime warranty' card.

Basically the middle version of 'The Sinner' single coil set, so everyting is how you would expect a matched set to be, right down to the pain in the arse of refusal to mark the back of the pickups with anything other than a sticker that says either 'neck', 'middle', or 'bridge' and not engraving a position and model name on the back of the pickups like they know they should.

But at the end of the day that's an issue I can live with, I still think these are some of the best pickups out there, especially for the cost of them.

DaLefty

Dalefty · May 2015

The bridge pickup:

Due to the bridge pickup being the weakest link in the Stratocaster design in my view I decided to go with something 'very hot' pickup wise to make up for what I feel to be the short comings in the original bridge single coil. So I decided to go with this for the bridge pickup:

Bare Knuckle Pickup's Warpig Humbucker pickup, according to the advertising propaganda from Bare Knuckle Pickup's very own website:

Brutality with clarity! An extremely high output humbucker with a raw, guttural tone and smooth hi-end available in 2 formats to fine tune the response.

The Warpig humbucker was originally conceived as an all-out extreme metal humbucker capable of seriously dark and saturated tones. However it soon found uses as diverse as jazz and fusion establishing itself as a major player in the Bare Knuckle range.

The twin screw coil design produces an even and controlled treble response, working well with intense levels of gain. Bass and mid range response is monstrous and the different magnet options allow for the tone to be further refined to taste.

The default Alnico V magnet creates the smoothest hi-end with a totally organic mid range grind and deep bottom-end. For players looking for even more output, the ceramic magnet option delivers faster bass reaction, smoother mids and a sharper cut in the highs.

Bridge DC: 23KΩ * - though the website says 21.5KΩ
Magnet: Alnico V

So here are the options I went for on the 'Warpig' bridge pickup:

Bridge Spacing: 53mm

Conductor: 4 - I originally went with braided 2 wires but changed my mind after placing my order I was that indecisive.

Leg: Short 1/4

Pole Screws: Nickel Screws

Coil Colour: White

Aged Coils / Cover(s): No

Bridge Magnet: Alnico V

The packaging:

The packaging coulkd almost be described as identical to that of the packaging that 'The Sinner' single coils came in, in the above photo the two boxes to the left are 'The Sinner' single coils, while the box on the right contain the 'Warpig' humbucker pickup, the only difference between them is the image on the front of the box, the single coils have an image of single coils, while the humbucker has an image of humbuckers.

Box candy and propaganda wise they are identical when opening, you get the same free set of yellow Bare Knuckle Pickups branded RotoSound strings, you get a free Bare Knuckle Pickup branded useless guitar pick, though today while having a look through my standard shaped guitar pick collection I think I noticed that each of the pickups that I ordered from Bare Knuckle Pickups on this occasion came with a diferent thickness of guitar pick, I'm not 100% sure on that, but I'm pretty sure I was sent a different thicknes of pick with each pickup, all three pickups came with the same beer mat with the same slogan printed on the rear of it, and the same piece of paper propaganda as the final level above the pickup. Where there was a difference was in the instructions and manual which I will get to.

The actual Warpig in the box:

So here is the actual pickup in it's box,. I'm not going to bother boring you with photos of every little thing that came in the box, especially since it is identical to the first pickupo that I opened and uploaded photos for, the only difference in the boxes contents being the actual pickup, and the instructions and manual that they come with, this one comes with a different set of instructions and written manual than the neck and middle pickup did, but remember that both the neck and middle pickups are the same model of pickups, 'The Sinner' single coil, where as this box contain the bridge pickup which is a humbucker the 'Warpig'

The back of the pickup:

Here is the rear of the pickup, as you can see it suffers from Bare Knuckle Pickups dislike of labeling, this one so much so that they didn't even bother to put a sticker on the back of the pickup to let you know it is for the bridge position, but as you can see it is the four wire version, why they call it four wires I will never know as there are actually five wires, red, black, white, green and bare wires. The white and green wires came joined via heatsink as standard.

The written manual:

Here is the written manual, at least for the Warpig bridge humbucker, that I think is nothing short of amazing that Bare Knuckle Pickups go through the extra effort of providing, every pickup that I have ever bought from them comes with it;s own version on this, in the case of the Warpig humbucker, it is basically explaning how to set it up if you don't want to use the coil tap/splitting feature, and why the green and white wire cdome joined as default from the factory. The observant among you will notice that the DC Resistance stated in the photo - on the actual manual the pickups come with, state 23KΩ, though if you visit Bare Knuckle Pickups website, and specifically the page for the Warpig humbuckers it says there says 21.5KΩ, I actually got out my multi meter to check it and it seems that Bare Knuckle Pickups actually measure the DC Resistance across every pickup before they box them up and ship them out, as my meter was bouncing between 23KΩ and 23.1KΩ.

The instructions:

Here are the actual diagram instructions that the Warpig's come with, as you can see it has the instructions for setting up the standad two humbucker layout, neck and bridge, as well as how to set up coil splitting if you so wish to.

So that's all the pickup's for this project opened and uncovered.

Tools Used;

Stanely knife to open the packaging the pickups came in.

Total Cost So Far;

£3.00 for three ply scratch plate blank
£2.99 for the black mother of pearl inlays
£15.00 for the set of six locking machine heads
£136.00 for the Wudtone CP Holy Grail bridge
£220.00 for the Bare Knuckle Pickups

Number Of Fingers Lost; 0

DaLefty

capo4th · May 2015

One of the best build threads ever for detail and photos thanks for your attention to detail

GuitarMonkey · May 2015

Dalefty;648484" said:
... instead of the traditional screw and springs they have got some rubber system in it's place instead, I honestly can't see myself using it, I will give it a try, but I can see myself going back to the traditional screw and springs pretty quick.

Dalefty · May 2015

So some quick thoughts before I head home.

I'm aiming to have this project fully completed by the 08/05/15. and then due to threats against my family and so forth, even my ex girlfriend is getting harrassed over facebook now, so I will be severing all ties with this forum shortly, some of you will have noticed that I have begun this process already. The updates I will be making to this thread are going to become far les frequent, and go into far far less detail, to the point where I'm just goint to post pictures of what changes look like after they have been completed instead of the steps involved and how I arrived at the completed stage, in short I'm going to severly cut back the amount of effort I put into this thread and just concentrate on getting the project actually finished and up and running.

I'm not prepared to put effort into this when other members want to behave like keyboard heroes and make up stories about me and stir up a mob to abuse me and make up lies about me, to the point where my mailing address is being made public - thank fuck I don't actually live there, but I'm now going to have to warn an elderly gentlemen who is kind enough to act as my mailing address and accept parcels for me on my behalf, that there is a bunch of children playing internet vigilantes - which I have have no understanding why they would want to do such a thing as I have not broken any site laws, asked for anything from nor taken anything from any member of this website, in fact I've even gone so far as to decline offers of loans of stuff to try out from members.

DaLefty

Don't worry I won't be here for much longer, 2 to 3 weeks at the most.

Dalefty · May 2015

@lloyd

Just for clarity do you mijd pointing out to people which fingers I'm not telling the truth about having severed and having to have reattached, and when this supposedly happened. Plus while you are at it, do you mind pointing out the phototgraphs that in your expert opinion - that of a failed lawyer who sits at the childrens table in the profession of academia, making other people coffee and cleaning their desks for them, in other words you can't even get a job teaching or babysitty primary school children with your degree, what photo, or photos should show scarring, and what sort of scarring they should show, please in your expert opinion point these things out to people and myself, not to mention why not point out when the accident happened, I did.

I never got round to mentioning how I got M.R.S.A from crushed vertebrae in my lower back due to a fuckwit I have now since fired who was too stupid to unlock lockable casters on a rack of solid state pre amps while trying to move the rack unit, nor the non sterilized titanium pins and screws that where put into my back that almost killed me a few weeks later that gave me the M.R.S.A., I never got round to mentioning that since I was drowned out by children like you and decided to ignore it and leave it be, so please, put your money where your mouth is, or should that be the fingers you use to send women death threats and rape threats now over facebook while you can hide safely behind a monitor on the other side of the country - tough man you are, aren't you, that she is now afraid of using facebook to keep in touch with family and friends on the other side of the world.

By the way, Marley is the dogs name, not mine, not hers, we both use the same photo of him a lot it appears as we got him while we where still together when he was just 4 weeks old - he might of been 6 weeks, but we got him while we where still a couple and he was 'our' dog until the relationship ended when I was last hospitalised - for refusing to let paramedics put me into an ambulance after my kidneys and liver had already failed without a bottle and a few ounces and my muscles where in the process of breaking down, that's why she dumped me, I refused to be hospitalised under emergency circumstances without alcohol and weed - like I said for being an idiot that almost killed himself with stupidity, that's why a doctor dumped me after a relationship that lasted almost 5 years, and one that I moved to the other side of the world with.

So why don't you put your money where your mouth is and point out to people which photo or photos should show scarring.

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/37352/how-a-righty-became-dalefty-if-you-re-easily-offended-you-probably-want-to-skip-this-thread/p1

I did and explained exactly how it happened all those years ago.

Like I said don't worry I won't be around much longer I'm in the process of lkeaving this site, and reason why I only posted photos of several of my guitars, the Gretsch, the signed candy ap[ple red piece of shit I had never heard of, the couple of Revelation Offsets that I have and I think one or two others - I can't remember the photos have since been deleted, was because people like you where desperate to find out where I lived so you could report to my local police station and MSP that you guys where not happy that I had a band breed of dog in this country - see the Pitbulls and turtles thread, since that thread, I vowed that every photo I posted would be from within my electronics workshop, and that I would never post any photos from my house just incase one of you lot decided to try and get my dog killed, boy am I glad that I followed that rule strictly and only posted photos from within my electronics workshop, not even the main workshop, but the small cupboard off to the side of it only.

And the police have since been informed, and as per their suggestion I'm ending my association and all dealings with this website.

DaLefty

TTony · May 2015

[posting as admin]

This thread has just been flagged, so I've had a quick read.

Anyone who wants to question Dalefty's approach or techniques should do so with basic respect for someone who's taken the time to create and contribute a lot of content to this thread. Anyone who wants to use this thread to continue unrelated discussions / arguments from elsewhere should desist.

@Dalefty - use the flag button if there are further posts that are inconsistent with the above. If you want to leave the site, I can facilitate that quite quickly & easily - it's certainly not a process that needs to take 2 to 3 weeks.

lloyd · June 2015

Ok I'll address this. No photos show scarring on your fingers, I'd expect some scarring-my brother lost his finger a few years ago-it's a mess, it looked like shit when reattached. I can't be arsed going through your thread to find the offending ones-they're there for all to see. I've never even on Facebook to stalk you or Any women and certainly haven't sent death or rape threats, that's laughable. Post them up on here or PM the mods, but you won't because there is nothing like that-it's more in keeping with your constant lying on this place. The shit about your dog is just weird, why would anyone want to have your dog killed? In short I'm calling bullshit on everything you've wrote and leave the ball in your court re the threats I made....If you send any proof out to the mods I'll pm them all my personal details so that the police can contact me directly at home.

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DaLefty's 2015 Harley Benton Guitar Challenge - It is photo intensive

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