Menehune Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 A while back I bought a 1993 Hamer Studio from an HFC member who owned it just long enough to decide he really does prefer 25.5" scale guitars. It came with a DiMarzio Virtual Hot PAF at the neck, a Duncan Pearly Gates Bridge, and high-ratio Schaller tuners with ebony buttons. It also, surprisingly, came with Jin Sung 500K linear taper volume and tone pots. That's how the selling HFC member got it. I'd love to know the backstory on that transplant. So besides now having a platform for the set of Charlottes that were cooling their legs in my pickup parts box, I needed to rewire this girl. A short order to Mojotone for 500K audio taper pots, some cloth-covered wire, an orange-drop .022 µF cap, and some amber top hats, was delivered quickly. I also wanted to add treble bleed bypass circuits to the volume pots, but was disinclined to buy a bunch of resistors and caps and cobble together test circuits with alligator clips to find the best compromise. So I bought two V-Treb circuits, which have a trim pot that lets you vary the R of the RC circuit to dial in the amount of treble bleed. After making a crude wiring jig out of cardboard and mounting the potentiometers into it, I wired them up. The Charlottes came with chrome covers - Josh recommended them for, as I recall, balancing the strings' output. The bridge Charlotte mounted just fine, but the Studio's neck pickup pocket is a hair under-routed, and that pickup with cover would not fit into the pocket. So off came the covers (damn!), in went the pickups and, with final soldering, the thing came together. Amber knobs replaced the gold ones to complete the job. There's a little buzz in the first fret of the D, G and B. Might be that second fret needs a little love in its middle from the fretting hammer, or maybe just leveled a shade. But the Charlottes sound great, and the action is very good. I'll hang onto this one for awhile. Still tinkering with the V-Trebs across multiple amps. Glad I went with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtrdaddy Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 2 hours ago, Menehune said: There's a little buzz in the first fret of the D, G and B. Might be that second fret needs a little love in its middle from the fretting hammer, or maybe just leveled a shade. Try putting just a bit of relief in the neck first if you haven't. It may just be a bit too straight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGale Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 Zat Virtual Hot PAF going anywhere? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Menehune Posted February 15, 2021 Author Share Posted February 15, 2021 25 minutes ago, gtrdaddy said: Try putting just a bit of relief in the neck first if you haven't. It may just be a bit too straight. Yes, I should go back and recheck neck relief. The guitar arrived with a huge amount of relief, which I eased up to flat and then then backed off a smidge. I'll also need to check string heights in the nut slots, and then recheck bridge height. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Menehune Posted February 15, 2021 Author Share Posted February 15, 2021 19 minutes ago, JGale said: Zat Virtual Hot PAF going anywhere? I don't know yet, but you just got first dibs if it does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toadroller Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 Excellent decision with the amber knobs. A subtle and striking difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Menehune Posted February 16, 2021 Author Share Posted February 16, 2021 On 2/15/2021 at 2:39 PM, Toadroller said: Excellent decision with the amber knobs. A subtle and striking difference. Thanks. They do go well with this very-cherry top and its amber flames. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Menehune Posted February 16, 2021 Author Share Posted February 16, 2021 After some more measurement and adjustment, it now has only a slight buzz hard plucking a D# at that first fret. Time to play and let it all settle down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.