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Magnetic p'up mounting

OK.. a green horn question.

I am looking to build a CBG with a magnetic p'up, for lap slide playing.

I have read the SmokeHouse Advanced CBG Construction manual. ONE AWESOME TUTORIAL..... GREAT WORK SmokeHouse and thank you very much for putting it together. I learned a TON!!

However, I'd like to keep the construction more true to a CBG and not use a body cavity insert to fill the box, while maintaining a thru-body neck. Since the p'up is deeper than the neck is thick, I can build-up the neck w/in the box to maintain constant flow or add thickness at the neck-heel and cut my pocket to the "top" of the box bottom, running it to the tail. Keeping in-mind, that I want to still be able to open the lid for any maintenance work and not cut a rear access panel....

My question is: Is it better to run the p'up mounting screws/bolts thru the box lid only or sink them into the neck? And would it make a difference if I used a single coil or a traditional humbucker (non-stacked) p'up

Any light shed on this subject would be greatly appreciated. I am fastly approaching paralysis-by-analysis.

Thanks;

Kidd

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Permalink Reply by Mike Bingham on August 3, 2011 at 11:41am

Hey Kidd. Been there 'n' done that with the paralysis by analysis - LOL. I'm no expert by any means, but here goes... I've built several CBGs with magnetic pickups mounted to the lid, and several traditional lap steels made from wood, with the pickup mounted to the neck/body. Both mounting styles sound fine. Magnetic pickups don't seem to be particular about what they are mounted to. Single coil or humbucker is a whole lotta topic, but I personally like to use four-wire humbuckers in all my builds. If you use the four-wire humbuckers you can add a coil cut switch very easily and turn one coil on or off as you choose. For a little extra effort you can wire it up with a spin-a-split circuit in which you use an additional potentiometer in place of the switch. You can then blend in as much or little of the coil as you want. If you get a little hum when you're using it as a "single coil" you can blend in a little of the extra coil to kill the buzz while keeping a lot of the single coil brightness. Here's a link for a BUNCH of wiring diagrams. Shoot a message to my inbox here on the Nation if you have questions. BTW - messing up on a build is a great reason to build another! Hope this helps!

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Permalink Reply by Kidd Filby on August 3, 2011 at 12:17pm

Mike;

WOW... that was fast. Sounds like you got more on the ball that I do... that's for sure. I just started building CBG's... I'm on my 2nd and 3rd builds right now.

I'm a humbucker fan, as well, and am leaning that way for the lap-slide build. It's great to talk with someone that's been there already and is willing to share it. That's one thing I love about this site. Once I get more knowledge, I'll be returning the favor. Box-Top it is.

I've been studying the spin-a-split arrangement, for a week or so now.... funny that you brought that up. There are a few "stock" axes that actually had this ckt and they were VERY versatile, giving you loads of control and a truck-load of tones. However, what I have read, in more than one site discussion, is that the POTS are proprietary and you just can't go and put any old POT in there and expect the same results. Must be gibberish...since you have done it already. Thanks for sharing that with me. I was surfing the web for parts off one of those axes to have for this or a future build. Now, I don't have to bother.

I hear you on the messing-up part. I tend to think too much when I'm building something new... maybe I should just wing-it!!! Sounds like it may be a funner time, just once.

Thanks a ton for the information. I only hope I can help you in return sometime.

Have a great day;

Kidd

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Permalink Reply by Kidd Filby on August 3, 2011 at 12:28pm

whoops... Hey Mike. You mentioned a link that had ckt diagrams,, but it wasn't in your post. Could you please add that?

Thanks;

Kidd

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Permalink Reply by Mike Bingham on August 3, 2011 at 12:44pm

Sorry Kidd - I'm eat up with the dumb-butt sometimes - LOL. Here's the link: http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/. I've used 500k audio taper pots with no problems. It seems like most of the response is at one end of the pots' range but it's more than useful. If the link doesn't come through this time, Google Seymour Duncan and look at their wiring diagrams. I get my pickups from GuitarFetish. They have overwound humbuckers that can be used with the Seymour Duncan wiring diagrams in the clearance section. I wire the pickup into the spin-a-split pot then feed that into a "humbucker with 1 volume and 1 tone control" circuit. Holler if ya need anything.

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Permalink Reply by Kidd Filby on August 3, 2011 at 1:00pm

Hey man.. that's OK... my better 1/2 thinks I'm Homer Simpson sometimes, with some of stuff I manage pull off in the DUH.... moments.

Thanks for the link. It came thru just fine. I've been to their site, but haven't checked this out yet. I was admiring (Slobbering over) the Stacked Humbuckers!!!

Thanks for the heads-up on the GiuitarFetish site.

I was just dreaming about the TV Jones PowerTron Plus in the Stew-Mac catalog. WOOOO. This lap-slide is for a real professional Axeman who rocks the house, so I want it to have some real HARD punch. I'm looking for a suitable Punch Box to go with that idea.

Thanks again for all the tips and links. When she's done.. you'll see her on my page. Along with a video of the owner playing it... I hope.

Kidd

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Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on August 3, 2011 at 1:01pm

I made two of my Queen B guitars with the cheap single coil pups from CB Gitty. The come pre-wired with jack, tone and volume.

One I ran the adjusting screws into some wings I glued to the sides of the neck, the other I just installed it right into the lid. Both worked fine, and you can access the guts by opening the box lid up.

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Permalink Reply by Kidd Filby on August 3, 2011 at 1:14pm

Hi Dan;

Thanks for the info. Adding the wings is a great idea.

How thick was your neck, for the lid-mount version? And was it a thru-neck build? The reason I ask is that I figure the p'up is thicker than the neck, on most CBG's anyway, so I was expecting to have to layer the neck at-least where the p'up is to have a thru-neck build.... if I were after standard string-height distances. It really wont matter on this lap-slide, I reckon, since the p'up can be above the lid higher. But I haven't measure anything yet... I could be wrong.

Thanks for the reposne;

Kidd

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Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on August 3, 2011 at 1:26pm

This pic kind of shows what I was talking about. Those are the ears I added to run the screws through. Probably not the right way to do it, but it worked.

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/queen-binside-002?context=user

If you have Skype, you should join our audio chat group and chat over voice with other CBN users.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on August 3, 2011 at 1:33pm

I actually cut away kind of a lot of the original neck material to make room for the pickup, so I made sure I reinforced the neck with some wood screws and some 1/4 inch stock. You can see a bit of the screw hole to the right of the spot where the wire comes out.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on August 3, 2011 at 1:35pm

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/group/cbn_on_skype

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Permalink Reply by Kidd Filby on August 3, 2011 at 1:37pm

Dan;

Oh... That helps. Thanks for the photo. Nice job, BTW. I like how you did that.

I have Skype, but rarely use it. Seems like every time I get on for a business call, a slew of people try to connect up with me.... most of which... I don't really care to... iffen you follow my drift. However, I would consider it for CBG discussions. What's the link/group and when I get a chance, I'll hook up to it. I gottah run now... Pool Tournament tonight.

Thanks Dan;

Kidd