Doing Things Wrong

All Together Now

All assembled and strung up with D'Addario round-wounds. The action fell into place with just a little adjusting. I set the intonation with a yardstick, which works better than you'd think. Add 3/16" for the E string, 0 for the G, and split the difference in between.

Apart from testing the wiring, I have not yet plugged it in. I'm going to let it settle under tension for a week or two.


rat's nest

One of the fun things about building electric guitars is wiring them up. Factory wiring tends to be simple, minimizing the amount of fussy handwork required. Many manufacturers keep strictly to 'classic' designs, seldom if ever changing anything. These designs are generally simplistic, often crude or even stupid, and sometimes outright flawed. There is no need for you to do this. I don't. Here are some of the things I have done over the years. I don't claim to have invented any of this, although some of these schematics I have never seen anywhere else, and had to derive them myself.