MOTORIK II - Final pics on page 21 - new owner!

[brännjak]

Gah! Wow, that's such a cool guitar!

[theworkoffire]

Thanks guys

Just applied the decal so I can do the rest of the headstock clearcoats over the weekend:

[theworkoffire]

And now the shielding is done. I've always had issues with this stuff not sticking in the past - wiped the cavities out with meths this time and it seems to be ok.

[PorkyPrimeCut]

Mmmmmm. Horns.

[theworkoffire]

Wiring headache/joy tonight. Trying out a new soldering iron, which I love:



Ran all the wires through the holes between cavities - had to drill the bottom one out more to fit all the wires through:



It wouldn't be one of mine if it didn't get a bit excessive on the wiring. I wanted the Jag's bass-cut switch in there somewhere, and I found a couple of 1Meg push/pull pots left over from the Buickmaster's first incarnation three years ago, so I wired the bass-cut onto the volume. I figured if I have one push/pull I might as well have two, so the tone pot pulls up to reverse the phase on the bridge pickup:



The rotary switch gives Bridge/Parallel/Neck/Series - that and the lead controls have enough slack that the guard can be flipped over to work on it:



The rhythm cavity. These bits are wired in situ, flipped over and screwed into the guard as it's lowered on (with no wriggle-room whatsoever - it was a bit touch-and-go):



Finally, testing with it plugged in:



Nothing worked at all, no noise when I tapped the pickups, no hum, no change in background when I switched anything...then I saw I'd forgotten to plug it into the amp

After that, everything apart from my brain worked pretty-much perfectly on the tap test. I remembere I'd forgotten to ground the shielding on the pickup cavity, but they're well shielded by the claws anyway and it's very, very quiet - I'll rig something up later. Also, the rotary switch sometimes cut out if I put too much sideways pressure on the knob. Possibly something is too close to the sides - again, I'll have a look at it later.

Getting desperate for the neck, now. I have a new sprayer coming on Tuesday, so I can't do anything until then. The headstock just needs a couple more coats of clear to cover the decal, then we're in business. Really can't wait. I haven't had an electric guitar since I swapped the Buickmaster about 4 months ago, so things are getting a bit fraught with all this messing around and waiting.

[Con-Tiki!]

that's hilarious.
When I built my guitar in the spring, I tried some different wiring, hooked it up, and nearly smashed it before realizing it wasn't plugged in.
I feel better, thanks.

[theworkoffire]

My new spraygun arrived today, and I just managed to get the neck sprayed before the monsoon set in:



On a whim, I've just ordered some white button klusons to try out with it:



Had fitted F-tuners before, but I'm on a white plastic tip right now.

[chase]

Gorgeous.

[Harvester]

white or cream buttons +1

this thing is looking amazing.

AP

[garyptaszek]

yet again I'm drawn into another one of your awesome projects! soo glad you're posting frequently again!

[fullerplast]

Very very nice....

[sookwinder]

Nothing worked at all, no noise when I tapped the pickups, no hum, no change in background when I switched anything...then I saw I'd forgotten to plug it into the amp

Happens to the best of us

Also, the rotary switch sometimes cut out if I put too much sideways pressure on the knob. Possibly something is too close to the sides - again, I'll have a look at it later.

This sort of thing happened with the EXII strat I built. One of the PUPs was shorting to ground. In the end I put down masking tape over the areas I had stuck the shielding to in the cavities which were close to where I thought the PUP was shorting out to. Worked like a dream

[theworkoffire]

Getting frustrated waiting for the white tuners. Apparently they've been posted but no sign of them in today's mail. Grrrr. Re-drilled the back of the headstock in anticipation today - the backs of them will more or less cover the old F-tuner holes. Bushings back in now, too. Took the guard off and made sure all the shielding was fully grounded, also discovered that the wire to the neck pickup claw had a bad solder joint so I saw to that, too. Multimeter reads less than 1ohm from the jack sleeve to everything metal now.

While I was at it I took the trem off and greased the adjustment screw and the trem pivot, and ran a little oil into the saddle rollers, too.

[the older brother]

Very nice!

I've not decided yet if the white button tuners will either complete the colour theme or just make it too much.... My guess is that I'll dig it completely...

[theworkoffire]

That's exactly how I feel. I figured it was worth a shot, since all the other accessories are white. If it looks too much, I have either the chrome set in this pic ready and waiting, or I can just go back to the Fs.