The pickups are on snap connectors, you can see the two white links, but the rest is soldered. Weird that the wires from the connectors to the volume pots are unshielded, but this explains at least some of the noise issues.
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What's On Your Workbench?
- Thread starter HaMMerHeD
- Start date
The pickups are on snap connectors, you can see the two white links, but the rest is soldered. Weird that the wires from the connectors to the volume pots are unshielded, but this explains at least some of the noise issues.
I've got it! At the end of the show, when you smash it on stage into pieces, it might still work!
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,589
- 221,970
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
No excuse, either way!
This is with the pickups switched by in. The pots and switch give a sense of scale.
that's insane - no clue why that would have been done
Original wire lengths were spec'ed in feet. Factory thought those numbers were meters.
Original wire lengths were spec'ed in feet. Factory thought those numbers were meters.
That might work. For comedy, the wiring lengths are:
Bridge pickup to volume pot: 17 inches.
Neck pickup to volume pot: 31 inches.
Bridge pickup volume pot to switch: 16 inches.
Neck pickup volume pot to switch: 27 inches.
Switch to tone control: 22 inches.
Tone control to master volume: 22 inches.
Master volume to output jack: 26 inches.
This gives us 13.4 feet (4 meters) of cable in total. That isn't the full picture I guess, as the pickups have their own halves of the circuit, which join at the switch. So... the neck pickup has 10 feet of cable from pickup coil to output jack and the bridge pickup has a mere 8.6 feet of cable (of which 5.8 cable is common to both circuits). The wires for the neck pickup are especially excessive. Epiphone actually double it back on itself into a little bale that is then zip-tied and hooked below the neck pickup in the cavity.
This embolism of wire was already loose in the guitar when I picked it up:
The wires are so long that Epiphone bunch them twice. Once behind the neck pickup and once in the cavity, as seen above. Gross.
I've made a stunt double of the rear of the guitar top to help me build up a new wiring harness.
The blocks are marked off per this photo of an unfinished body:
You need a wee bit of slop in the wires to route them all around the blocks, but there is a lot of fresh air in this guitar! In theory this should make fitting the wires easier...
A little something I'm working on for a fellow TB'er:
Still need to be trimmed flush and sanded off.
Still need to be trimmed flush and sanded off.
We're baaaaack! 
Got the workshop in somewhat serviceable order, still needs some organizising, but goodnuf to get back at it, yay!
Got the workshop in somewhat serviceable order, still needs some organizising, but goodnuf to get back at it, yay!
We're baaaaack!
Got the workshop in somewhat serviceable order, still needs some organizising, but goodnuf to get back at it, yay!
You're Carl Thompson, and I claim my £5.
Now THAT is Man Cave central. Put in a bathroom and there’s really no need to ever leave. Okay, Christmas break or birthdays, but otherwise....
I was at a family event yesterday and my brother asked me to "restring" a banjo he acquired. I have zero experience with banjos, but I figured it's a stringed instrument, I should be able to string it up.
When I looked at it, I realized that while I could just put strings on, it surely could use a lot more work.
I took the strings off, one of the tuner knobs disintegrated in my hand as I was spinning it, one of the other keys was already broken off. I'll have to see about replacing them. This thing has obviously been played hard and put away wet, in a non-smoke free environment. This is probably the first banjo I've held in my hands, but this must be a cheap one, based on the fingerboard and inlays. There are saw marks in the fretboard and the inlays are poorly done overall - they are proud and not well fit into the holes. I'm taking this into consideration for how much much time I'm putting in (and it's a favor to my brother). A couple of "after pics" I leveled the frets and sanded everything down.
I could spend a lot more time on the fretboard as you can see, but I think I'll stop here, it will play better than before, but really frets should be pulled, inlays redone etc, just not worth it on this instrument - my brother is expecting only new strings, so he should be happy.
It smells like old cigarettes (blech!), I wiped a lot of smoke residue off the thing.
I took the resonator (is that what's it's called?) off and I'll clean up inside there as best I can. While I could probably do a better job by taking the head off, that's a lot of nut turning. I'll see, maybe I'll do that if I can't get it clean enough without taking it off.
When I looked at it, I realized that while I could just put strings on, it surely could use a lot more work.
I took the strings off, one of the tuner knobs disintegrated in my hand as I was spinning it, one of the other keys was already broken off. I'll have to see about replacing them. This thing has obviously been played hard and put away wet, in a non-smoke free environment. This is probably the first banjo I've held in my hands, but this must be a cheap one, based on the fingerboard and inlays. There are saw marks in the fretboard and the inlays are poorly done overall - they are proud and not well fit into the holes. I'm taking this into consideration for how much much time I'm putting in (and it's a favor to my brother). A couple of "after pics" I leveled the frets and sanded everything down.
I could spend a lot more time on the fretboard as you can see, but I think I'll stop here, it will play better than before, but really frets should be pulled, inlays redone etc, just not worth it on this instrument - my brother is expecting only new strings, so he should be happy.
It smells like old cigarettes (blech!), I wiped a lot of smoke residue off the thing.
I took the resonator (is that what's it's called?) off and I'll clean up inside there as best I can. While I could probably do a better job by taking the head off, that's a lot of nut turning. I'll see, maybe I'll do that if I can't get it clean enough without taking it off.
I didn't pull the old tuners yet, but it looks like these will fit (famous last words), I took the $10 risk.
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I pulled the old tuners out and it appears the ones I linked above are correct, the hole in the headstock is ~8mm. I did end up pulling off all the tensioners and buffing the aluminum under them. It looks a lot better, it's still a cheap banjo though. After 4 or 5 coats of fingerboard oil, the fingerboard is looking much better too. I think this will end up looking pretty good.
Hmmmm.... might have to order a set of those tuners. One of them literally fell apart removing it, now it’s a three string banjo. Those are 2 on a side, right?
I got the tuners in yesterday, they fit perfectly in the hole, although the screw holes on the back didn't line up perfectly, the lower one was close, the upper one was way off. I filled them with toothpicks, redrilled and installed them. I was reluctant to pull the fifth string tuner out, it's a press fit and I had visions of the neck splitting open as I pull the tuner out. I just drilled out the hole on the new tuner wing and installed it on the existing tuning mechanism. The mech worked fine, probably one of my smarter moves.
I did a bit more clean up, and put more oil on the fretboard, arm rest and bridge. The fretboard is still absorbing oil, it was bone dry.
The strings get here today, don't expect any sound files from me, this thing is a mystery, but I'm sure I'll try to plunk a few chords out just because. I did a few searches for this banjo online just in case I'm working on the Stradivarius of banjos, I'm not. I'm working on the lowest end banjo and I've seen the sound described as "tinny" many times (aren't all banjos tinny?). I'll take one more pic with the strings on.
I did a bit more clean up, and put more oil on the fretboard, arm rest and bridge. The fretboard is still absorbing oil, it was bone dry.
The strings get here today, don't expect any sound files from me, this thing is a mystery, but I'm sure I'll try to plunk a few chords out just because. I did a few searches for this banjo online just in case I'm working on the Stradivarius of banjos, I'm not. I'm working on the lowest end banjo and I've seen the sound described as "tinny" many times (aren't all banjos tinny?). I'll take one more pic with the strings on.
