Well...finally got around to finishing up some custom wiring in my guitar. The volume was too sensitive, and tone controls seemed too dark, so I replaced the pots and caps with what I feel has better tone. What better to do then record I just threw together a crude improv in the key of C over a backing track I nabbed off the net.

Heres my guitar after fresh strings and a cleaning for those of you that wanna see it...

Click here for jam track! (opens m3u file)

More to come later, now that my guitar is finished, and ready to play
~Bryan~

nice guitar, and nice playing too!
Im not into playing instruments, i do play keyboard though. I got a pair of decks too, but they are starting to gather dust lately ^^

What guitar is that btw?
i could'nt tell, but i would have to say fender, because my dad has one which looks very similiar, expect his is red.

Ar, ye olde Fender Stratocaster :up: Solid dependable axe, that. Wish I could hear how it sounds but alas, work PC is sans audio (IT punks). Love that natural finish though, very nice looking weapon.

We want to know the details! What pot values (before and after) + cap values? Did you start off with the stock 250K vol & tone pots?
Did you swap linear for log on the vol?

Hmm...didn't know there was many guitar techies around here so heres the low down...

- Hand selected alder I found on Ottawa (driest I could find, but at the cost of three pieces)
- Canadian maple one piece neck, with rosewood skunk strip, and fretboard, finished in tung oil
- '84 Custom Shop Fender pickups (pulled right out of the guitar for me for $200)
- 250k pots and .22uf caps, handwired by me, with custom layout (B, B+N, M, M+B, N)
- Body was rubbed down with a few coats of 'clear' that ended up tinting the wood to a yellowish (very retro IMO)
- It had a tremelo on the bridge, but I blocked it from behind (more sustain, better tuning stability)

Overall it cost about $500 to build, and took me roughly a month (excluding all the breaks I took)

I've got shets load of pictures, but my camera is pretty crappy so if people want specific shots I'll post them...
~Bryan~

I'm a big fan of the natural finishes - tung oil necks are lovely too, I've built a few from scratch and like to use Tung oil on the necks.
One good mod for strats as well as the different pup selection is extending the 2nd tone ctrl to the bridge pup as well, to take the harsh bite out of it. It's only one wire to solder in and it makes the whole tone a lot more versatile.

Yeah ATM I have a tone for the neck, and a tone for the bridge, I rarely use the middle pickup alone anyways. My master volume actually gives me some natural distortion right out of the guitar (think old Fender Bluesman amp) That recording was guitar > stereo (untouched, just boosted) > computer (untouched) Pretty damn satisfying
~Bryan~

Nice guitar. I'm half-heartedly shopping for a 5-string fretless bass at the moment but I really shouldn't.

Came across some bad news today actually; Pete Stevens closed the Electric Wood workshop in August. No more Wal basses for the foreseeable future. Pete's not very well, so there might never be any more Wals built. Expect prices on eBay to go mental.

Well you could always just get a 5 string bass and remove the frets, or file them to the board. It's really not that hard, if you are seriously interested I could go into details or send some tutorials your way.
~Bryan~

Oh I de-fretted a jazz bass about ten years ago. I just used a soldering iron to heat them up and a pair of needle-nosed pliers to pull them out. Filled the gaps and sanded, didn't bother coating it.

I prefer the look of a plain fingerboard though, and even if you match the filler to the wood the lines are still visible.

Wellll, you could always peel off the fretboard and make a nice new one to lay down? But that is quite the extreme option that takes a bit of nifty work.
~Bryan~

Or I could just buy a fretless bass?

TBH my main bass at the moment is a '91 Warwick, and ever since I got it I've had a hard time liking any other basses. So I think I'm going to have to spend quite a lot on a fretless, and I'm sure I wouldn't be satisfied with anything I worked on myself (because I am rubbish).

Yeahh it really is true that you grow to your instruments. The way I have this thing setup is crazy. The fretboard is PERFECTLY fat, not a single degree of relief. Anytime my friends play it they just get drove up the wall with the way it feels (the neck was also shaved to Fender C spec, then shaved down further, then I came back and shaved it down ever further) The frets were filed down, crowned and polished, I hated it so I filed then down some more, and some more, and some more. Now nobody even bothers to pick up my guitar just because they can't play the damn thing It's great.
~Bryan~