#152746  by milobender
 
What pickups are you using and what guided the choice?
The two humbuckers are DiMarzio 36th Anniversary PAFs and the single coil is a DiMarzio Area 61... Both requested by Joe; and they seemed like a perfectly good choice to me.
Why does it make sense to have internal effects rather than using outboard gear?
Again, this was a request/choice from Joe. As far as 'make sense', it's really more a matter of preference than sense... although, I know from experience with an onboard TS808, that it's really handy to be able to change the effect parameters from the guitar rather than having to do it on the floor... In a rack mount up at a reasonable level is a better choice than the floor, but this is about preference.

I work co-creatively with the people that commission work. If I see a problem, or what I consider a 'better' direction, in what they desire I'll offer my opinion. But when it gets down to strictly preference, it's anything goes "o) There's really only one way to find out what you really like, and that's to jump in... preferably the deep end :smile: :smile: :smile:
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 #152747  by JDB30
 
milobender wrote:
What pickups are you using and what guided the choice?
The two humbuckers are DiMarzio 36th Anniversary PAFs and the single coil is a DiMarzio Area 61... Both requested by Joe; and they seemed like a perfectly good choice to me.
Why does it make sense to have internal effects rather than using outboard gear?
Again, this was a request/choice from Joe. As far as 'make sense', it's really more a matter of preference than sense... although, I know from experience with an onboard TS808, that it's really handy to be able to change the effect parameters from the guitar rather than having to do it on the floor... In a rack mount up at a reasonable level is a better choice than the floor, but this is about preference.

I work co-creatively with the people that commission work. If I see a problem, or what I consider a 'better' direction, in what they desire I'll offer my opinion. But when it gets down to strictly preference, it's anything goes "o) There's really only one way to find out what you really like, and that's to jump in... preferably the deep end :smile: :smile: :smile:
Yeah, those are the pickups that are in the latest Ibanez Cowboy Reissue. How are you wiring them? Will the buckers have coil split capability? OOP? How are you wiring the middle single coil?

Re: onboard effects, I have to wonder if creating 2 large cavities in the body of the guitar to accommodate them could compromise the tone of the guitar. Also, seems like for an on board effect to be useful, it would have to essentially be a one-knob kind of effect (like a boost/buffer or a simple compressor). To dial-in a useful envelope filter, for instance, could easily involve 5 or 6 settings that have to be "exactly right" or else you're likely to be disappointed with it. Just my .02¢ but, well, there you go. Also, wondering if you considered putting in an active EQ like Weir used back in the day on his Ibby's.
 #152750  by milobender
 
Yeah, those are the pickups that are in the latest Ibanez Cowboy Reissue. How are you wiring them? Will the buckers have coil split capability? OOP? How are you wiring the middle single coil?

Re: onboard effects, I have to wonder if creating 2 large cavities in the body of the guitar to accommodate them could compromise the tone of the guitar. Also, seems like for an on board effect to be useful, it would have to essentially be a one-knob kind of effect (like a boost/buffer or a simple compressor). To dial-in a useful envelope filter, for instance, could easily involve 5 or 6 settings that have to be "exactly right" or else you're likely to be disappointed with it. Just my .02¢ but, well, there you go. Also, wondering if you considered putting in an active EQ like Weir used back in the day on his Ibby's.
We haven't decided on the hb switching yet. I'm leaning toward trying a switch for hum/single/parallel first; I imagine it will be that or a phase switch. I don't know what you're asking about the middle pup... it's a two wire single coil.

The two large cavities will definitely not 'compromise the tone'. Will it change it? Yes. But the design is a neck-thru, and most of the 'tone' comes from the neck materials. If you've looked at the pics closely you noticed I left a fairly substantial amount of wood between the neck and cavities where the bridge is connected. It'll be interesting to see/hear how it turns out... I'm shooting for a combination of a solid body neck-thru with a touch of ES335.

As for the on-board effects, all it takes is being familiar with the controls... I don't know of a good effect that simply has one knob... I think you are limiting your thoughts to an imagined handicap.

There is no envelope filter, like a q-tron, on-board. The on-board envelope filter is more like a wah with knobs, so it's not nearly as fussy, it's about tone, not active tracking.

There are currently no plans for an active eq, but those sorts of electronic changes can always be implemented if the desire arises.
 #152751  by JDB30
 
Thanks for your reply. My question relating to the middle pickup was whether your plan was to wire it standard or reverse (hot to ground/ground to hot). Perhaps I didn't read your sketch well enough but I thought it shows one knob per each of the 3 on board effects. Is that incorrect? I like the idea of the neck-thru with a big block in the body, ala a 335. Seems like that should work well. What was the thought behind the tone wood selection vs. something more Weir/Strat-like (Swamp Ash)? Curious about that.

Also curious as to what it will end up sounding like. Will you string it with flat wounds? Perhaps you could post some sound samples when it's finished?

As for single-knob pedals, there aren't a lot of them, apart from some of the mini pedals. I think there's a new Klon boost pedal coming that's a single knob, if I recall correctly.
 #152760  by milobender
 
JDB30 wrote:Thanks for your reply. My question relating to the middle pickup was whether your plan was to wire it standard or reverse (hot to ground/ground to hot). Perhaps I didn't read your sketch well enough but I thought it shows one knob per each of the 3 on board effects. Is that incorrect? I like the idea of the neck-thru with a big block in the body, ala a 335. Seems like that should work well. What was the thought behind the tone wood selection vs. something more Weir/Strat-like (Swamp Ash)? Curious about that.

Also curious as to what it will end up sounding like. Will you string it with flat wounds? Perhaps you could post some sound samples when it's finished?

As for single-knob pedals, there aren't a lot of them, apart from some of the mini pedals. I think there's a new Klon boost pedal coming that's a single knob, if I recall correctly.
No problem "o) Reversing the wiring on a two wire pickup only changes the phase. I always hook them up regularly first, and occasionally I get a mismatch with another pup, where they are out of phase, and then I'll reverse one of them to correct it, but that's it...

It's planned now to have an on/off switch, one volume and one tone for each pup, and a phase or single/phase switch for each of the HBs; either a boost or stratoblaster preamp with gain adjustment (haven't decided which yet) and the 3 effects.

The decision about the body woods was two fold: I read that Bob was wanting to have a sharper/brighter tone than he was getting with Cowboy, and secondly, we wanted a 'prettier' guitar. With a neck-thru, the body woods don't make quite as much difference to the sound than with a set-neck/bolt on.

I'm not sure about his choice for strings yet... I can post samples, but I'm more curious to hear one from Joe :smile: :smile: :smile: I'm more of a Jerry type player...
 #152769  by tdcrjeff
 
milobender wrote:As for the on-board effects, all it takes is being familiar with the controls... I don't know of a good effect that simply has one knob...
Image

The BYOC Chorus has only 2 knobs, if it's this one:
http://buildyourownclone.com/collection ... log-chorus

I built one myself ~5 years ago and really like it, though I'm no tone junkie. I've got a partially built Envelope Filter from them as well, gotta get around to finishing that someday.
 #152770  by milobender
 
tdcrjeff wrote:
milobender wrote:As for the on-board effects, all it takes is being familiar with the controls... I don't know of a good effect that simply has one knob...
Image

The BYOC Chorus has only 2 knobs, if it's this one:
http://buildyourownclone.com/collection ... log-chorus

I built one myself ~5 years ago and really like it, though I'm no tone junkie. I've got a partially built Envelope Filter from them as well, gotta get around to finishing that someday.
:cool: I'd forgotten about that one :smile: :smile: :smile:

The BYOC Chorus is going in this build, 2 knobs. The BYOC Delay has 3, and the Fixed Wah/Filter has 4.
 #152772  by lovetoboogie
 
Absolutely loving this guitar...thanks so much for updating the progress. Really dig the inlay work on the fretboard as well as the body. Love your attitude towards working "co-creatively" with folks that commission the build. Eagerly anticipating this one getting done so we can check it out! ;)