Semi-Active Guitar Wiring - Simple and Effective

Today I would like to present my guitar wiring project based on an active buffer. The wiring is connecting together: a common, passive tone control, and an active buffer with a volume potentiometer.

The target is to get an quite clean signal transport (more transparent tone), a clean working volume potentiometer (no treble losses), and a passive tone control – so there will always be the way to get some warmer tone, typical for passive guitar wirings.

The project can be done basically in every kind of an electric guitar. No matter what kind of pickups and wood it got.

Diagram:

Alessandro Alessandroni - The Guitar Tone Legend

Do you remember these spaghetti westerns directed by Sergio Leone: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; A Fistful of Dollars; For a Few Dollars More or Once Upon a Time in the West?

Maybe you already know, that their soundtracks are composed by Ennio Morricone - but who played this awesome guitar riffs? It was Alessandro Alessandroni.

Alessandroni is famous from his twangy guitar sounds, which are ringing when Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson is starting to be mad and danger. He's also a good whistler, and player of many other instruments.

Alessandro Alessandroni was using probably a Fender Stratocaster guitar for his records for Morricone.

Guitar parts in Morricone's compositions are not very complicated, but they are very powerful and well fitted to other instruments. Morricone's melodies + Alessandroni's guitar tone = very good record.

Here are some links to soundtracks (YouTube):

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly theme (most famous Alessandroni's riff)

For a Few Dollars More theme (cool whistling)

Once Upon a Time in the West theme (my favorite riff)

Links:
www.alessandroni.com - official site
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro_Alessandroni
www.pollodelmar.com/mart/morricone - about spaghetti western themes

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Cool Tracks With Guitars IV - Western Movie

On this playlist, I'm presenting three cool tracks, based on western movie vibes (hell yeah!). Do you remember old-school spaghetti westerns, where Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson is giving the one way ticket to some bad guys? Always with some nice backing track (usually by Ennio Morricone).

Of course, selected songs have some great guitar riffs.

| Click to listen |

1. Sundance Kids - Dead Cowboy
2. Long Desert Cowboy - Face in the Sand
3. 6 Notes - Goodbye Old Alliance


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Guitar Wiring Ground and Other Connections - Quick Guide

If you will make the ground in your guitar wiring in a wrong way, your instrument can:

• not work
• add a lot of hum to the signal
• be too sensitive to vibrations, so there will be a lot of strange noises (it's because of poor connections)

Five main things, that you should keep in your head, when you're making a guitar wiring ground

1. Avoid loops
2. Try to keep „the star shape” (star ground system)
3. Keep it short
4. Make a plan before you start soldering anything. You can also test connections with jumper wires.
5. Don't use old or crappy looking wires. They can be broken inside.

Cool Boss DS-1 Mods by YT Users

Boss DS-1 is a kind of constructions, where many parts can be changed, and many circuits can be modified. This is why there's so many modded „orange boxes” on the market.

Some mods are just making the pedal a little bit warmer, colder or boosting more middle frequencies. Some of them makes a new kind of guitar effect stomp-box from the stock DS-1. 

Here are some good demos from YouTube, which can show you, what MOD really means.

Guitar Tone Capacitor Values - My Faves

Today, I would like to present my favorite values of tone caps in guitar wirings. It will be the selection for a common type of a tone control: volume pot + capacitor. It's something well known from most of guitars on the market.

If you are thinking about changing the tone cap in your guitar, this short article can be helpful.

This is how I describing my two main purposes of using the potentiometer based guitar tone control:

A:

For soft, warm and jazzy smooth tone, or for the „woman tone”.

Works nice with a well tuned pot - not on full – if you want warmth and smoothness. If you want to get the „woman tone”, it can work well on the maximum turn-on.

B:

Good for making the tone a little bit smoother and well balanced. Works nice if the knob is turned only slightly. Good for small interference of the tone control circuit.

Magic of Simple, Single Pickup Guitars

Sometimes a simple electric guitar with one pickup is enough to get many cool tones. In this post, I would like to present some inormation and music videos about this kind of axes. It will be about simple, but quite iconic guitar constructions, used by famous guitarists.

Edward Van Halen

Home made Frankensteins or Frankenstrats, Charvels and Kramers are guitars, that Eddie was using frequently to reach many famus hard rock vibes and tones. This guitars were usually equipped with one humbucker, one vulume pot, and the Floyd Rose bridge. 

Edward van Halen - Cathedral - Kramer

Van Halen - Panama -  Kramer

Van Halen - The Full Bug - Frankenstein

Neck Pickup Switch (Gilmour's Strat)

In this post I will show you a wiring diagram of the neck pickup switch. This is something uncommon, what David Gilmour has got in his signature Stratocaster guitar - Black Strat. It allows him to switch-on the neck pickup, when the selector is connecting only the bridge or the bridge and the middle single-coils. In this way, he can play on the „neck + bridge” pickup configuration, or even on all single-coils together.

Diagram:

Simple Tone Switch

In this post I will show you, how to mount in your guitar a simple, but useful tone switch.

This circuit can help you cut-off a little bit of high-end (high frequencies) from the guitar signal. It means, that your guitar tone will be a little bit fatter and more round after using the switch. It will not work just like a classic, potentiometer based tone control. It's more subtle, and it can be switched only on and off, by a toggle (there's no pot).

The circuit is based on one SPDT on-on mini toggle switch and one capacitor.

Diagram:

David Gilmour Without a Guitar

What can David Gilmour do without any of of his guitars?
Also great music. For example, he can:

• just sing,
• play on a saxophone ,
• or on a banjo.

(links to YT videos)

photo by deep_schismic

Very creative person.

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Schecter C-1 and Solo Wiring Mod

Today I would like to present a wiring diagram with modification for Schecter C-1 and Solo electric guitars. The mod is based on a toggle switch, which is in the place of one of volume pots. The switch will allow you to get a new, extra tone - more crisp and with better dynamic. It's based on Charvel's one pot wiring.

The modification is quite economical. To make it, you need only one mini toggle switch - DPDT on-on type. The rest of parts can be from the stock wiring.

Diagram:

Ibanez Stable Bridge Designs

Edge Tremolo bridges are one of famous parts of Ibanez guitars. People are saying many things about them, but what about Ibanez hard-tail, stable bridges?

I'm a fan of hard-tail. A bridge type really has a matter for a guitar sound. I think, that stable bridge, with good „touch” to the wood is something great for a guitar tone. It help makes a deeper, more woody sound.

If you think that hard-tail bridges are simple, and there's nothing special in their construction, I have a proposition. Lets look at some beautiful Ibanez designs. 

• Tight-End bridge in RG
• Gibraltar Standard bridge in RGA
• another Gibraltar Standard in RGA
• Gibraltar Standard in RGA (7 strings)
• Gibraltar Custom bridge in Destroyer

They are pretty good also in making stable bridges.

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Tone Switch in Gretsch Style

In this post I will show you my idea for a Gretsch style guitar tone switch. It's a three position (cap1 - off - cap2) low-pass filter selector. It can be a very useful tool, if it's well tuned.

In my circuit, I'm using different capacitors values than Gretsch. I'm also using a SPDT on-off-on toggle switch, which is easy to buy and comfortable in mounting.

The lower value tone cap will help you in getting fat overdrive tones.

The higher value capacitor is good for clean, really smooth sound.

I've got three version of this wiring. One is for classic Filtertron pickups (Gretsch, TV Jones). Second is for use with Fender style single-coils.  Third is for PAF style humbuckers and P90's.

Diagram:

Cool Tracks With Guitars III - Blues

Here comes another playlist. Today I'm presenting songs in blues vibes. They are showing few different schools of blues guitar. You will find here some modern licks and some portion of vintage, old-school way of playing.

| Click to listen |

1. Still Nameless - Pure Truth

2. Doctor Blues - America

3. Gleb Bones - Opposite street

4. Chino - La noche da para mas

5. Nicolas Larouche - Dawn Rock

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Leslie West - The Guitar Tone Legend

It's time for another guitar tone legend - Leslie West. This guitarist is a „concentrate” of best blues, rock and heavy metal things. You can find in his songs just whole history of rock music. Heavy, memorable riffs and awesome, really fat tone are typical for Leslie's music.

Leslie is a great part of The Mountain band. He's got also many good solo projects.

He is a very influential person for other guitarists - like Eddie Van Halen, Michael Schenker or Richie Sambora.

Leslie is well known from using Les Paul Junior guitars (my wiring mod). He's using also Flying V (another of my wirings), his signature guitar made by Dean, or some headless stuff from Steinberger and Ed Roman.

Lets listen:

Mountain - Southbound Train

Mountain - Mississippi Queen

Leslie West - Never In My Life

The Leslie West Band – Money

Mountain - Don't Look Around

Links:

www.mountaintheband.com

www.dinosaurrockguitar.com/new/node/66

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_West

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_West#Equipment

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Guitar Wiring a la Frankenstein (Eddie Van Halen, Charvel)

You can build your own Frankenstein guitar like Eddie Van Halen. This is not so difficult today. I will show you my idea on how it can be done from the electronics wiring side.

My wiring is designed for use with a Stratocaster style guitar.

I'm suggesting a Strat, because it's a very comfortable guitar for modifications. It has got easy to change pick-guard and electronics. Many on-line stores are selling parts for these instruments.

The market has got a lot of Squiers and other, economical constructions stylized on famous Fender. You can also use some MIM Strat or even Warmoth parts.

My wiring design is based on one pickup: single-coil sized humbucker (or full size for Fat-Strat). The circuit is quite original - it's not a copy of the Frankenstein. It has got three signal controllers: volume control, tone switch and killswitch. I think, that they can be very useful for fans of shredding and heavy rhythms.

Diagram:

Gibson Les Paul Jr and SG Jr Wiring Mod

Today, I would like to present my wiring modification diagram for Gibson's Junior guitars: Les Paul and SG. I really like P90 pickups, so I decide to make something especially for them.

My wiring design has got a few extra options. It can work like a typical "volume + tone" circuit, or with some special tone shaping tools.

Extra parts: two 500K push-pull potentiometers, 0,033uF film capacitor, 4,7nf ceramic cap, 500K resistor. You will need also some additional wires.

Diagram:

Fender Jazzmaster Wiring Mod

Fender Jazzmaster is a very versatile kind of an electric guitar. Four pots and two switches are giving a lot of tone configurations. It's also something interesting for me, as someone who like to get his own way of signal control.

I made a customized diagram of the Jazzmaster wiring. The basic difference is in the way of controlling brightness and darkness of the guitar tone. My wiring has got many options for both pickups. The original Jazzmaster circuit is offering more for the neck, than for the bridge position.

Diagram:

Custom Wiring for Explorer, Flying V, ML, Razorback

In this post I would like to present a custom wiring diagram, designed for electric guitars with high output pickups and three pots. Something right for many metal guitarists. It can be done, for example in: Gibson Explorer, Flying V; Dean ML, Razorback .

This guitar wiring will help you get more screaming and distinct tones.

Main parts: DPDT on-on toggle switch, 500K volume pot, 250K volume pot.

The diagram: