Jim's Jerrycaster guitar -- skip to guitar pictures Back to Jim's Bio Page
Jim's FX control pedal -- skip to pedal pictures
Jim's FX rack and amp -- skip to rack and amp pictures
Here's a mod I did to an old dead guitar I had but wasn't using. It started out painted black. IIRC it was a Mexican strat. I'd experimented with several different pick-up arrangements prior to learning the info I needed to do the mod but none were getting that Jerry tone that I was after. One day, after visiting the dozin.com website and looking at the various information there I began to realize that if I wanted that tone I'd have to do my best to duplicate the rig and guitar Jerry used. With a lot of help from the information Chris had posted at dozin and after asking him a few questions I began to formulate a plan. (Thanks Chris!) It wasn't until after I was mostly done with the guitar that I joined dozin's list server group (gearheads). Ok so I was reinventing the wheel in part but for me learning the lesson meant figuring it out myself. Don't get me wrong! There were many tough spots and the members on gearheads helped out with them. Thanks to the folks on gearheads!
The basic process:
I stripped the electronics and paint from the old guitar for starters. Once I had a bare piece of wood it was easier to determine just what needed to be done. The old guitar had a tremolo system in it. I have no need for a tremolo system so blocking the hole left from the tremolo was first order. Knowing I had to allow for a space for the unity gain buffer and a battery I made use of part of the tremolo cavity for that.
Next was making sure the body cavities would fit the new pick-ups. The guitar was pretty cut up from previous pick-ups installed so I decided to replace most of the wood and then re-route the cavities so as not to make the mass of the body too light. This also allowed me the opportunity to divide the pick-up cavities and shield them individually. I didn't want to have a pick guard on the guitar plus the change in pick-ups meant new holes anyway. I wanted to leave the guitar natural wood but wanted something nicer than poplar. I made the decision to make the face curly maple and some other darker accent wood that would double as the pick-up cavity cover. My dad had given me a nice piece of curly maple from his stock that was 3/8" thick. I found some Spanish Cedar at a local wood finishing store. I needed to reduce the overall thickness of the body by that thickness so I routed off the face of the guitar to the appropriate depth. I then glued the new woods to the front of the body, shaped them and routed them and I had a brand new guitar look.
Other items of particular note not quite obvious - I made the dual jack plate from aluminum and took it to a local metal finisher to have it chromed. Worked out nicely. The ENTIRE cavity in the guitar is covered with aluminum muffler tape. Each piece was electronically connected to every other piece by overlapping each joint then perforating both pieces. The mashing effect of those perforations mechanically connected the entire cavity so it was acting as one continuous electronic shield. It really aided in keeping the hum in the pickups to a minimum. The knobs came from a local music store called Music Star. Chrome barrels with abalone inlays on the top. The unity gain buffer came from CAE electronics. The finish was brushed on, water based polyurethane. 4 to 5 coats were all that was needed due to how thick that kind of finish goes on. I wet sanded that finish then polished it with rubbing compound.
The rest of the process was pretty straight forward simply following the schematic posted on Dozin of Jerry's Tiger guitar made by Doug Irwin. As a matter of fact most of the mod was done from this information, pictures of Jerry's guitar and asking Chris some questions. In retrospect I wish I'd have taken pictures of the entire process. Next time.
The short nondetailed description : Out of convenience I wanted to be able to have all my pedals behind me at a height that made making adjustments easy. Jerry had several rigs that employed this same idea so again back to the internet and books to get the info. It took me several months of teaching myself electronics before I could understand the full scope of the project so that I could mod it how I wanted it. Some of the folks on gearheads pointed me in the right direction of a good DIY looper strip that gave me a starting point for the pedal. After several more months of learning and experimenting I finally settled on a final design that was tailored to my needs. The biggest trick was understanding the importance of using a schematic design that completely disconnected each pedal when not in use to avoid losing tone due to the pedals impedance without benefit from the pedals onboard buffers. Once I got past that hurdle the rest was simply a matter of assembly. Several other minor challenges later I had a final product.
The enclosure came from Hammond. Switches, PCB making supplies, heat shrink tube from Banzai. Belden cable, EDAC and Neutrik connectors, hookup wire from Mouser Electronics. LED's, resistors from Jameco Electronics. 28pr shielded snake cable from Guitar Center here in town.
I'll post a schematic once I've had a chance to update it to reflect the modifications I made in process. It differs quite a bit from the DIY page schematic in that there are several features that required schematic changes of my own. The true bypass principle remains as it is on the DIY page.
The FX box was designed around using specific pedals stompbox type pedals. So I included two trays on which to affix the pedals. They pull out for making adjustments. The FX box connects to the pedal control using an EDAC 56pin connector and 28pair snake cable with Neutrik connectors. The snake cable coils up and fits into one of the doors on the FX rack. I allowed for 4 rack spaces in the rack mount portion. I'm currently only using a 13 band dual channel EQ and Alesis Quadraverb. I'll probably put a rack mount tuner and furman power strip in the other two slots. The amp is the same as when I bought it. I have plans to make some upgrades. Not sure of the amps age. The serial number does not match up with the several guides I found that described how to date fender amps.
Because many details in the process were omitted feel free to e-mail me with questions. sagetrader@verizon.net