Imprisoned by unrelenting rain once more (apart from a quick drive to shops and travel agents), so I made a positive move and pushed ahead with some guitar building work. It was a time of constant fiddling, making mistakes and near death experiences. I was sorting the electric components, easily the worst bit for me and one that I tend to avoid or put off. Well the recent rain has left me no excusable alternative and so a full programme of horror, trial and error, the emphasis being on error followed. How many ways are there to wire up a three way Telecaster selector switch? I thought three maybe, seemed obvious. Turns out there are many, a number beyond any mathematical calculation you could make because a) there are many switch types, b) there are many wiring configurations and c) there's too much advice and bollocks on the internet that contradicts itself. I've now gone "off message" and "off piste" on this. The dark side beckons and I've responded.
My new simple method (ignoring advice etc.) is simply to randomly connect the various components with cold solder and experiment whilst tapping on each live pickup with a screwdriver - trial and error. Eventually it all works and sometimes the normal hum and buzz even subsides into some eerie clean tone. At that point the dangerously hot soldering iron is introduced and things are either burned or finalised, then rechecked, then done again because either I made an arse of it or I forgot to route the wires through some guitar body cavity first. It's a challenge but I'm learning and it's keeping me inspired and enthralled in between dull and partisan football matches watched with the sound down and creative food experiments involving boiled eggs, crusty bread and beetroot.
No comments:
Post a Comment