Strat with OBEL project

[Counterstriker]

I've decided instead of risking ruining my carvin, or spending 300$ having someone else do it, I'm going to put the OBEL with Waldo's buffer in my strat. With the 3 stick single coils. Only problem is I don't have a schematic, I believe another rukinder has done this, was hopeng he sees thing!

I'd have it 1 master volume and a master tone aswell.

[waldo041]

peace,
waldo

[Counterstriker]

Thanks alot! Once the goods arrive from online I should have this built if all goes well!

[Tennessee Jedi]

Good luck ... Post up some pics when its done
I have had the OBEL & buffer for a year now and love it

[Counterstriker]

One question! for the 5 way switch, do you put a jumper to the other side for each pickup? I'm looking at the old 5 way switch and it has quite alot of wires.

Thanks again. I'm gonna start a new build journal

[Counterstriker]

All parts ordered, had to order the final small stuff (shielding and 5 way switch) I gutted my strat, only keeping the pickups. I made room for the TCP1 and soldered some copper from some romex (thanks Brad Sarno for the idea!) to the bridge so i can attach all the grounds there.

When taking it apart I noticed this



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See the screw going into the wood with the wire, that was attached to one of the wires going to ground. Why was it there? It's just in the wood, it wasn't on copper shielding or anything.


I ordered some extra jacks for making the junction box. Does the box have to be metal for grounding issues? Or could I use a heavy duty plastic one and just shield the inside?

[foolofships]

It looks like the cavity was shielded with shielding paint instead of foil; that's what the screw and lug are touching.

The junction box must be shielded; either using a metal enclosure or shielding a plastic enclosure will be fine.

[jamtech]

Straight up tiger wiring in a strat, what a concept
Pickups: Two creme DiMarzio Super 2's & A DiMarzio SDS-1 in the neck position.
New old stock Aerovox tone caps. Did the 250/500K Mod-pot mod with alpha pots.
Routed a cavity for the Wald-electronics OBEL to rest in, the OBEL board itself is velcroed to the pickguard.
Pickguard is made by warmoth (natural tort) The toggles inbetween the knobs with red tips tap the super 2's and the Green tipped toggle is Loop on/off.
Also routed out a pocket in the back cavity for the 9V battery , instead of under the pickguard or in the output jack cavity.
Frets have been leveled and polished up nicely. Rebuilt your tuners for you the washers were pancaked and the tuners were slipping.
Check your pm box, need to get that info from you.









-mike.

[al.hurst]

Straight up tiger wiring in a strat, what a concept

New old stock Aerovox tone caps. Did the 250/500K Mod-pot mod with alpha pots.


-mike.

DUDE!! This is exactly what Im working on right now! Except mine is a light blue one with all gold or brass hardware and im doing the alligator brass style electronics plate but im using the tortoise shell for the pickups part.

But what pot are you using for this? I got a 250/500k vol tone pot that is CTS but im not sure if i got the right pot... Does yours have two separate shafts that controls each "half" individually? Because mine does and im not sure if thats right..

Also how tight of a squeeze was it to fit in there? Did you have to route any besides for the buffer?

[Mr.Burns]

I think he means he made one himself by combining two individual pots. But I could be wrong.

[Counterstriker]

Wow! That looks beautiful! Can't wait to get it!

[jamtech]

The work around on not having to spend $150 on a $3 part ie: Allen Bradley 250/500K Linear mod pot is to buy Two Alpha brand dual gang pots valued at 250K and 500K linear. Remove the backplate of one pot and swap it with the other. This costs about $8 to do it and you end up having a pair of 250/500K pots for $8 hard to beat. Those CTS pots work fine I've worked on another guys wolf guitar and it has the 250/500K CTS audio taper in it, sounds great, works fine. Just FYI in most cases in passive pickup guitar circuits you can sub out linear pots with audio pots or vice versa, the sweep is the difference they'll work either way, its most noticeable in the volume pot you roll back a little and it reduces volume a bit to quick. Some active pickups ie: emg, bartolini, seymour duncan you need to use linear taper pots and usually lower values, dont think that matters as probably 90% of the folks around here myself included all run similar pickups and they're not emg's




Space saving: If you wiring a strat up tiger style using stranded wire be prepared to have a "ball of shit" clumpy looking wiring harness in your guitar unless your prepared to spend 10 hours dressing the wiring harness to be workable then I suggest taking some co-axial rg-6 (Cable tv cable) strip the outer jacket and use the center conductor its good quality copper, bends well and holds form, get all the electromechanical hardware installed pots, switches, jacks, toggles etc then make precision bits of wire from point a-b and skin them with heatshrink tubing for isolation. This is really time consuming and tidious but if your wiring tiger into a strat you need to conserve space, theres not allot of hiding spots on a strat especially if you want to use the tremolo at all.. You can make a central Ground by twisting 2 strands of the rg-6 copper together with a drill, bend it into a 1.25" square U shape and 90* the ends of the U and mount it up using the 2 screws on the 5 way, you can see the ground rod in the pics above...

Mount your obel board to the pickguard too, if you need to service it and its attached to the body it will be a pain in the ass to work on...


I'll post up some better pics once its all finished, maybe I can get counterstriker to make a vid

[barefootdave]

That does look great, and I am totally digging the yin-yang sticker.

[TI4-1009]

But what pot are you using for this? I got a 250/500k vol tone pot that is CTS but im not sure if i got the right pot... Does yours have two separate shafts that controls each "half" individually? Because mine does and im not sure if thats right..

Not exactly the right pot. If you use that one you have to figure out how to fuse the two shafts together to work as one with one knob. Do the wafer swap on two Alphas, there is a thread here on this- plus a Waldo video on how to do it (with great soundtrack). I did it for my Tiger and it works fine.

[al.hurst]

Those CTS pots work fine I've worked on another guys wolf guitar and it has the 250/500K CTS audio taper in it, sounds great, works fine. Just FYI in most cases in passive pickup guitar circuits you can sub out linear pots with audio pots or vice versa, the sweep is the difference they'll work either way, its most noticeable in the volume pot you roll back a little and it reduces volume a bit to quick. Some active pickups ie: emg, bartolini, seymour duncan you need to use linear taper pots and usually lower values, dont think that matters as probably 90% of the folks around here myself included all run similar pickups and they're not emg's
)

Okay so I can use that pot, cool. The only thing is do you control the top and bottom of the pot separably or together? Because mine has two separate concentric posts on it.