[Arnold's Carnival]

After not having much luck with a custom type guitar aimed at getting some of 'that sound', i decided to perform some Jerry type mods on one of my existing guitars. For pure ease of modification, i chose the strat. I modded it to include waldo's buffer and an OBEL with fralin steel pole 42's. It sounds quite good actually; however, the strat never has and is not likely to ever be my first choice in guitar. I truly love the feel/sound of my LPs, and i am never going to get a strat to sound like a LP (why should i?)....

The only problem is when using the LP, the Qtron is obvioulsy limited by volume adjustments on the guitar. It has a wider range of use than my other guitars, but still extremely limited when compared to the OBEL setup.

So, how would i go about adding a UGB/OBEL to a LP type guitar to include the standard PAF type p/us? I do not want to drill any extra holes in the top for coil taps, OBEL switch, etc. and i do not use a pick guard, so the whole Jimmy Page switches on the pickgaurd isnt an option either!

isnt there a TRS jack that acts as the OBEL switch? Any schematics kicking around for this type of mod?

[JonnyBoy]

You may run into a problem, like i did, with the two volume knobs and the OBEL because of the way each pickup is wired with its own tone and volume section. it is not a mono volume and tone wiring for two pickups, which would be the best for the OBEL we all know and love. I posted a topic about my paul and my attempt to keep it stock but add an OBEL, which I wound up putting 3 PKups in and a 5 way because adding an extra volume AFTER the obel was the only way to have it work properly. It was kinda neat to have a pre obel and post obel volume control to tweak the envelope sensitivity from the guitar. Once the guitars volume was set right, I could leave that slone and only use the post volume. But that's all over with, In the end I rewired to have only one volume after I added the new pickups and 5 way.

The switch thing at first glance doesn't look like it will work, but they do make all kinds of switching jacks, but with the obel plugged in you will have to yank out your cord to turn it off then plug it in to turn it on... that's seems problematic maybe... The on/off switches only work from insertion and removal of the plug in a switch jack. Good luck, it stumped me, but that may not be saying much either.

Peace , Jboy

[Pete B.]

I would use an "Outboard Buffer/eLoop" (lets call it an "OBEL") pedal, and go to town on yer 'Paul.

[JonnyBoy]

There you go! Problem solved.... Think outside the box,,, or inside,, or about one.

[Arnold's Carnival]

thanks for the replies and ideas!

If i go the onboard route, i guess id use a mono volume & two tone controls. Maybe utiilze the extra volume route for the OBEL switch? I can commit to a second route on the side of the body for an OBEL jack, as that is somthing that can be covered/filled if needed donw the road. the control cavity is pretty roomy due to the depth of the body, i think i could fit a battery and UGB in there without any further routing.

If you go with a all-in-one peadal, you obvioulsy dont get the benefit of OBEL pre vol, correct?

[JonnyBoy]

thanks for the replies and ideas!

If i go the onboard route, i guess id use a mono volume & two tone controls. Maybe utiilze the extra volume route for the OBEL switch? I can commit to a second route on the side of the body for an OBEL jack, as that is somthing that can be covered/filled if needed donw the road. the control cavity is pretty roomy due to the depth of the body, i think i could fit a battery and UGB in there without any further routing.

If you go with a all-in-one peadal, you obvioulsy dont get the benefit of OBEL pre vol, correct?

You can set the volume to a constant on the box and yes, modify that from the box, which can be attached to your guitar strap, or use a volume pedal.

Yes you are right wanting a pre volume situation too, but the way they wire a les paul it is a different schematic and wiring structure completely. Off a strat the juncture point is at the 5 way switch and that is BEFORE it reaches the tone and volume in the wiring so the signal goes to OBEL from there pre Vol/Tone. In a paul the junction point is a 3 way switch which is AFTER the volume and tone in the guitar. Trying to send it to OBEL is pointless unless you have it go through another volume after the obel as a master when it gets back to the guitar.
The deal is, the way a Les Paul is wired, you can't have the tone and volume post OBEL. It will have to be rewired to do so from scratch. The signal goes from the vol and tone then to the 3way switch in the paul. so if you take the signal off the 3 way switch and go out to the OBEL it will be vol/tone before. I had yet to figure out a way to do it differently without a total rewire, which isn't that hard to do, I don't mean to make it sound impossible. Jerry's guitar follows a Strat approach if any, so the les Paul will have to also to have similar wiring.

[tigerstrat]

get yourself a spare control cavity plate... mount the loop jack in that, so the loop cable plugs into the back of the guitar. Very easy to put back to stock condition.

[Arnold's Carnival]

get yourself a spare control cavity plate... mount the loop jack in that, so the loop cable plugs into the back of the guitar. Very easy to put back to stock condition.

thats actually a really good idea tigerstrat!

Would this type of wiring schematic be closer to one of JGs Travis Beans?

i looked at the hub bub, but obvioulsy you dont get the benefit of OBEL pre volume, so i dont think that would improve the sound over what i already get with the LP, which isnt bad.


Thanks to all for the replies!

PEACE!
AC