Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: badgermark on September 21, 2007, 10:28:26 AM

Title: Piledrivers ordered
Post by: badgermark on September 21, 2007, 10:28:26 AM: Woo! My first set of BKP is ordered. Took me long enough, been a member here for ages but never bothered upgrading.

Piledriver set shall be whapped into my mexi tele, picks and some clips shall follow as soon as I receive these bad boys.
Title: Piledrivers ordered
Post by: 38thBeatle on September 21, 2007, 03:54:37 PM: I'd be intertested in hearing what you think.Dare I say it? -are you gonna get the 4 way switch too?
Title: Piledrivers ordered
Post by: badgermark on September 21, 2007, 04:00:40 PM: I am tempted by a 4-way. I'll chuck them in and decide later, I imagine the two piledrivers in series will be brutal.

One question about the 4-way switch- does the earth from the neck cover have to be specially grounded? A guide I found mentioned this but I don't get where it's coming from.

Then again I love the simplicity of a three way switch... Decisions.
Title: Piledrivers ordered
Post by: 38thBeatle on September 21, 2007, 04:19:58 PM: I am not sure about the wiring as I did not install them in my guitar but I would presume you'd get a diagram with the switch.
Title: Piledrivers ordered
Post by: badgermark on September 21, 2007, 04:27:49 PM: Groovy.

Anyone got any idea how long I have to wait, I realise I put my order in on a friday morning, do the pickups get made 'on order' or does Tim have a store-room that would make Zeus himself jealous?

I don't know why Zeus is involved...
Title: Piledrivers ordered
Post by: HTH AMPS on September 21, 2007, 04:33:13 PM: I'd imagine there's a small amount of stock held rather than winding everything to order, but I could be wrong.

:twisted:
Title: Piledrivers ordered
Post by: gwEm on September 21, 2007, 05:01:12 PM: modern business thought is huge amounts of stock in a warehouse is a bad thing. but like HTH I reckon they have a few of the popular ones - say black uncovered mules - ready to go.
Title: Piledrivers ordered
Post by: Philly Q on September 21, 2007, 05:48:58 PM: Quote from: badgermark
One question about the 4-way switch- does the earth from the neck cover have to be specially grounded? A guide I found mentioned this but I don't get where it's coming from.

When you add a switch to put two single-coil pickups in series, the "ground" wire from one pickup is no longer grounding the end of the coil, instead it's "adding" that pickup to the second pickup. This doesn't cause any problems with uncovered pickups (like Strat pickups).

However, on a regular Tele neck pickup the ground wire is grounding both the pickup coil and the metal cover. So in series mode, the cover would no longer be grounded - it becomes part of the live circuit. Result - a lot of hum.

Therefore the cover needs its own separate, permanent ground wire, soldered to the back of a pot. It's basically doing exactly the same job as the bare fifth wire in a 4-conductor humbucker cable.
Title: Piledrivers ordered
Post by: badgermark on September 21, 2007, 06:16:58 PM: Thanks Phil, understand the theory behind it. So a wire just gets soldered onto the metal cover then to a pot? Any part of the metal plate be alright?

Might do this fo' sho' then, I liked the sounds from the Baja tele clips on youtube.
Title: Piledrivers ordered
Post by: Philly Q on September 21, 2007, 07:05:20 PM: There's usually some kind of connection between (a) the point where the ground wire is connected to the pickup and (b) one of the little tabs holding the cover on. I don't have any BKP Tele pickups, but it should look something like this:

(http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p216/phillyq/10_lg.jpg)

In the picture the silvery-looking wire is going right through the eyelet on the pickup then connecting to the tab on the cover. So all you'd need to do is carefully snip that wire near the eyelet, then desolder the bit still connected to the cover. Then solder a third wire to that same point on the cover.
Title: Piledrivers ordered
Post by: badgermark on September 21, 2007, 07:17:55 PM: Hmmm I see. I noticed the wiring when I swapped over scratchplates, just not too sure of what each bit was for.

Thanks peeps, Philly as joined Wez om my list of the tech dudes I am gay for. Thanks.
Title: Piledrivers ordered
Post by: Philly Q on September 21, 2007, 09:16:12 PM: Quote from: badgermark
Thanks peeps, Philly as joined Wez om my list of the tech dudes I am gay for. Thanks.

Thanks... I think...

Glad to help. Wez is a proper guitar builder - I'm just a tinkerer. But I have been tinkering for a long time, I guess.
Title: Piledrivers ordered
Post by: badgermark on September 21, 2007, 09:32:05 PM: It's great though, I'd rather ask you guys than search google. I hate google, so big and recently I can never find anything I'm looking for.
Title: Piledrivers ordered
Post by: badgermark on September 22, 2007, 11:34:08 AM: Well $%&# me that was fast- piledrivers arrived 24 hours after I ordered them. Time to get dressed and get the soldering iron out then.

Woo!
Title: Piledrivers ordered
Post by: Philly Q on September 22, 2007, 11:35:18 AM: Quote from: badgermark
Time to get dressed and get the soldering iron out then.

Why waste time getting dressed? But watch out for solder splashes...
Title: Piledrivers ordered
Post by: badgermark on September 22, 2007, 11:49:59 AM: Postman woke me up, the one day that I sleep past nine and some hairy bar-steward wakes me up to give me some shoddy pickups.

Shocking I tell you.

Clips will be attempted later.