Rock Taxi

[BatUtilityBelt]

I will make this thing a black and white checkerboard pick guard after choosing. Before then, my choices are:

Wilkinson stacked P90s (black) or
Generic chrome P90s or
Gretsch staple-top P90s or
Buddha humbuckers

Too many choices, so I will wire them each without soldering to let my ears choose.

[BatUtilityBelt]

So the generic chrome P90s I already mounted sound pretty good, but I will try the others.

In the process of wiring up and testing, I realized this particular Reville guitar's neck is far from awesome. The action was too high to test it well, and lowering it I remembered why. It has more than a couple high frets, and they are scratchy too. It gave me reason to consider this other neck I've had waiting around for years (that I already put Fender locking tuners on). I just sighted down this neck though, and it doesn't look any better. Looks like a fret job is in order for the Reville.

[BatUtilityBelt]

I left the old neck on and adjusted out enough of the fretting-out to make it work for pickup tests anyway. This is kinda fun. I am just wiring the pickups in parallel to a terminal strip with no volume or tone or switch, so no soldering. The Gretsches are quite a bit hotter than the generic chrome covered P90s. They actually sound great for what they cost (straight from China).

[BatUtilityBelt]

I didn't want to figure out mounting to just test these, so I kept the guitar laying flat and manually 'hovered' the pickups to proper heights to hear them. The Buddhas are crisp, clean and articulate, but not as hot. They'll make another guitar pretty happy, but are not as crunchy as I want this guitar to be. They're for a nicer guitar I think, but I would have loved that look.

[BatUtilityBelt]

And the Wilkinson stacked P90s are too tall to go in without routing out more cavity, so they're out. I was able to get the neck pickup under the strings, just too close, but the bridge would not make it under. The neck sounded good considering it was too close, so those get to wait for another guitar.

[glasshand]

Rock taxi, you say?

I should break out that guitar again, I haven't been playing it much lately. I sold that amp a while back, but damn did it sound good.

[BatUtilityBelt]

Rock taxi, you say?

FB_IMG_1622726053336.jpg

I should break out that guitar again, I haven't been playing it much lately. I sold that amp a while back, but damn did it sound good.

Exactly! I just think it's a very fun concept.

[BatUtilityBelt]

So with the staple P90s, I tried an experiment. The only control I gave it was a blend pot. No volume, no tone, no pickup switch, nothing but a blend pot (a Bourns with a center detent, that in the center is supposed to put both pickups at 100%). The effect was weird. It had the mix graduation anyone would expect near either end, but just at the detent, it sounded nothing like both pickups wired in parallel - it was very dark sounding.

I checked my wiring again and again, and it was right. And anywhere else in the blend positioning, it did what I would expect. I've heard these pickups in parallel without the blend, and they are bright together at 100%. So I don't know why the blend would act that way, but I'd rather have a less variable switch than that going on.

[mozz]

What was the pot value?

[BatUtilityBelt]

What was the pot value?

500K

[BatUtilityBelt]

Abandoning the blend pot, but not giving up that flexibility, I experimented with a bunch of ideas, but settled on a final favorite for this guitar. I will give it 2 volumes and no tone control (all accelerator, no brakes). The volumes will go to a 3 way switch, and that will either feed the jack or a kill switch (just because I don't currently have a guitar with a kill switch).

Edit: I just realized you can make a kill switch with either a normally open or a normally closed switch! That is awesome given the choices I already have. You wire a normally closed switch between contacts of just the + wire leading to the jack. But you can wire a normally open switch to both wires leading to the ground so operating the switch grounds out the signal. Yay!

[BatUtilityBelt]

Well, I had the perfect big red anodized looking kill switch picked out, but no kill switch. I tried that one and quite a few others, both NC and NO, and every one of them imparted a small tick sound when switching. So no kill switch. However, she is wired in a way that makes my sensibilities and my ears very happy: 2 volumes, 1 3-way switch. It's divine to discretely adjust the mix between these pickups. And even without a shielded pick guard, it's quiet when not being played. So it just needs a pick guard. That's why the kleenex is in there too, because without a pick guard holding them in place, the volume pots short out on the cavity shielding, as I forgot to add heat shrink tubing for those points. This thing screams. Now to get busy on a pick guard.

[glasshand]

Well, I had the perfect big red anodized looking kill switch picked out, but no kill switch. I tried that one and quite a few others, both NC and NO, and every one of them imparted a small tick sound when switching. So no kill switch.

I am not much of an electronics expert, but wouldn't it be possible to add an anti-pop resistor to the kill switch, a la http://www.muzique.com/news/simple-kill-switch/ ?

[BatUtilityBelt]

Well, I had the perfect big red anodized looking kill switch picked out, but no kill switch. I tried that one and quite a few others, both NC and NO, and every one of them imparted a small tick sound when switching. So no kill switch.

I am not much of an electronics expert, but wouldn't it be possible to add an anti-pop resistor to the kill switch, a la http://www.muzique.com/news/simple-kill-switch/ ?

I'm no EE either, but I also wondered that. I discounted the idea because every example I googled up showed no resistors in the circuit. So my assumption was that resistors would impact the tone. But since you found an example that has them, that changes everything. I'll give that a shot, thanks. The way I have it wired, I can try it easily.

[BatUtilityBelt]

Well hmm. I tried it (pictured) with the 2 470R resistors and they didn't help at all. Then I tried it with just a 5.6K resistor on the + side, and it seems to tame the pop. It's still there in a small way, but reduced. If there is a tone difference I can't hear it, so I'm trying this because the switch looks too cool.

[BatUtilityBelt]

I have 2 of this model, and I was pretty sure that I would want to replace both guitars' pick guards. My old ways of fabricating pick guards didn't sound attractive for these, especially since I want to change this one's guard from one to 2 parts (the main part checkerboard, and the control plate part chromed). So I broke down and finally bought a scroll saw so I could make 1 template for both sets of guards. I already have the router table set up perfectly to follow up. After my first cut with the scroll saw, let me just say I will never turn back. It is so easy to get a clean accurate cut in this 1/2 inch MDF that this is obviously how I will make pick guards in the future, even if just one-offs. Sad I waited all these years to add this tool.

[toomanycats]

Okay, it's been two weeks since this thread was posted, and nobody has yet had the nerve to make reference to Brett Michaels' Hollywood Taxi HD Heritage Softail. I might as well be the schmuck who goes there.

Cool guitar BTW. Reville is completely defunct, correct?

[BatUtilityBelt]

Yeah, Reville is out of business. They had dirt cheap closeout sales for a few weeks and I grabbed more than a couple guessing they'd be future mod projects. They're really great guitars aside from cheap electronics. Even stock, they sound decent though.

[glasshand]

Okay, it's been two weeks since this thread was posted, and nobody has yet had the nerve to make reference to Brett Michaels' Hollywood Taxi HD Heritage Softail. I might as well be the schmuck who goes there.

Why did you have to post that? I've been enjoying my taxi-themed guitar for years, and then you had to go put a turd in the punchbowl like that..

But wait! Fortunately I found this - it's Annie Golden, of 1970s NYC punk band The Shirts - whom you may know more recently from Orange is the New Black!

[BatUtilityBelt]

It took me forever, but I finally decided on the final shape for the control plate (that will be chromed). No idea why it was hard after finally landing on this shape.

[BatUtilityBelt]

My first experiment with the checkerboard pick guard did not work out. I had a cool fabric with a checkerboard, and the white squares were slightly reflective. I used a spray construction adhesive (like for countertops) to attach it to the pick guard, and that went well. Looked great. Then I tried to acrylic over it, and the fabric went half-transparent. Fail... So I need to re-evaluate that, but have another attempt coming.

In the mean-time, I figured out the automotive chrome vinyl wrap issue I had with orange peel comes back even applying heat, after it cools. From what I read, that is always an issue with those wraps (at least the reflective ones). So I might live with this, or I might recreate the cover plate via CNC from aluminum and just have a different look.

In this picture, you can make out the orange peel effect. Also, note that I used a razor to cut away the edges, leaving exposed black plastic. That just looked better to me than the wrap folded all the way over the plate.

[BatUtilityBelt]

Well, it finally looks like I wanted. The checkerboard is actually an adhesive-backed shelf paper with 2 coats of satin clear on top, and the chrome is chrome auto vinyl wrap. Not what I thought I was doing, but it works. It plays and sounds great, and the kill switch is just too much fun to avoid playing loud! It has the brash personality I wanted for it. I shielded both plates, so the 60 cycle hum is reasonable regardless of the volume.

Edit: I found a mistake made by the idiot who wired this thing (me). One cold solder spot on a volume pot to ground makes a huge difference. After resoldering that, it's an awesome guitar.

[BatUtilityBelt]

After playing this thing (and no other guitar) for a week solid, I have one note to self. I could not be more happy with my decision to give it 2 volumes wired straight to the pickup selector switch. With these pickups particularly, dialing in nuanced mixes between the two pickups gives amazing control over the tonal character. I like it much more than having a tone control. That was a win. What I wish I also did, though, was add a master volume wired between the pickup selector and the kill switch. This, because setting the volume of each pickup for volume AND for tone, gives me a challenge at times. If I could adjust the individual volumes for tonal characteristics, then adjust the overall volume with a master, that would be easier in many songs. Of course, deciding where the master volume would go is another good question. No matter where it went, it would require more routing, but totally worth it for these pickups.