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Huxley posted:I put in one of the no-solder Obsidian wiring things today and it was amazing. Luxurious. Thanks for the trip report! I finally had some time today to start fiddling with my planned Squier upgrades -- I looked at both the Obsidian and Mojotone kits before buying one from a guy on ebay that was marginally less-expensive. Whoops! The big difference between those kits and the one I bought was a solderless connection for the output jack, which it turns out I need -- Thankfully, the return process was easy. I went with the mojotone, since one user (on another forum) who had tried both said there was a little more "wiggle room" with the wiring from the output jack, which I suspect I'll need for mine. I went ahead and bought a new control plate, even though I got the cheap Harbor Freight reaming tool when I bought the e-bay harness -- there may be a toothpick and some wood glue in my guitar's future -- I figure it's good to have options. Anyway, I'll let the thread know if my experience with the Mojotone was as good as Yours was with the Obsidian in any case -- probably in a couple of weeks.
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Jul 9, 2022 20:24
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 08:29 |
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Last week, I promised a trip report on my Squier upgrades in general, and specifically on the Mojotone solderless harness kit, so here goes: Before -- Stock except for the compensated brass saddles:  Old control plate:  Output jack disassembly:  Bridge and pickguard off:  Stripped:  This would have been the perfect time to knock down some of the finish on the back of the neck, but I chickened out. Oddly, after completing the electronics, I think I changed my mind -- we'll see how ambitious I decide to get over the weekend. Turns out I *didn't* have to fill'n'drill -- the control plate I bought lined up perfectly:  Old pickups removed from bridge & pickguard:  Parts bag filling up quickly:  New Pickups -- Fender Deluxe Drive -- The sections of surgical tubes are different lengths for bridge & neck, FYI:  First snag -- the pickups came with body-mount screws -- which were too long -- and the Squier pickguard-mount screws were the wrong diameter to fit:  After a trip to my local Ace Hardware:  Pickups in -- the bridge pickup ground (short blue wire) was almost TOO short -- but it worked. Not sure why Fender was stingy with the length of that one wire, I had plenty of room to work with all the others:  I was a little annoyed that the Fender mounting screws were flathead when Squier uses Phillips ... the absolute fidelity to what Leo used in 1952 is quite frankly, ridiculous. Now for the part you've all been waiting for:  This right angle for the "tunnel" between the output jack rout and the control cavity forced me to come up with a creative solution for running the wires:  Kitchen twine, tied around a screw (for weight) dropped down from the cavity into the rout and ... voilą:  Worked like a charm:  Output jack reassembled -- the old one had a bushing and a plastic/rubber washer on the inside of the plate that didn't fit the new jack, but I think it'll be fine -- if not, I'll make another trip to the hardware store:  Wiring harness mounted to the new control plate -- I forgot to peel off the backing to the adhesive that sticks the solderless gadget to the control plate -- whoops:  All wired up and ready to go:  The new control plate was a slightly "fatter" radius than the old one, so I need to remove some material from the pickguard. I'm thinking maybe trace an arc, use a file followed by a razorblade to clean it up, followed by fine sandpaper? Any suggestions? I plugged it in, touched a screwdriver to both pickups to make sure I was getting signal, then re-strung it -- BIG improvement once I was finally able to play it -- definitely a success! After, back on the wall with the rest of the family: 
brushwad fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Jul 22, 2022 |
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Jul 22, 2022 22:53
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Also, nice swag:
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Jul 23, 2022 00:42
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Spanish Manlove posted:all this work and you still put the plate on backwards Do you mean backwards as in "bottom-side-up?" or as in "it's cooler to have the 'flipped' volume-tone-switch arrangement?" If it looks "bottom-side-up" in the final photo, I think that's an artifact of the plate being slightly proud of the body due to the pickguard issue I described -- I assure you, it's right-side-up -- promise. The reversed arrangement was sadly out-of-stock, and with the limitations of the pre-wired harness, I didn't have enough wire slack to do that myself without a soldering iron. 
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Jul 23, 2022 02:28
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Spanish Manlove posted:It's a joke about a semi-secret setup for tele control plates where you flip them around and change the order of the pots so it goes volume, tone, switch. I'll learn to solder ... one of these days -- for now, I've got a better-sounding guitar -- it's something!
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Jul 23, 2022 04:21
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Spanish Manlove posted:You don't have to solder anything for the change, just unscrew the pots from the plate and swap them. the wire from the switch to the volume isn't long enough
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Jul 23, 2022 13:27
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 08:29 |
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landgrabber posted:i feel like now i know why there aren't that many bands that come out of north carolina. Superchunk, Let's Active, The Connells, The Db's, Archers of Loaf, The Avett Brothers, Corrosion of Conformity, Sylvan Esso, Jodeci, Southern Culture on the Skids, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Watchhouse/Mandolin Orange, Steep Canyon Rangers, Ben Folds, Petey Pablo, Maceo Parker, George Clinton, Nina Simone, me and John Motherfucking Coltrane all respectfully disagree.
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Jul 26, 2022 01:12
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