Tonefiend Forum

Greetings–I was visiting more seven or so months ago, and now I’m carving out the time to read more Tonefiend…and do projects. I’ve had the pieces for this particular project for a while, and it’s time to get back to it. I kind of lost momentum when I was trying to work out the wiring scheme, so this is just thinking out loud, and I’d be interested in hearing recommendations or suggestions.

The ingredients:

White Belmont guitarkitsusa body.
Eastwood Saturn neck (new, just happened to pop up on ebay, and I won it for $55)
Two Lace Alumitone P-90s.
Various hardware.

Undecided: hollowbody tailpiece or Bigsby B-5? If I’m honest with myself, I think I have to go Bigsby.

Wiring scheme: I thought I’d settled on one, but I’m still waffling. The tentative scheme was to be something like individual pickup volumes, master volume, master tone. Thinking five-way switch, for bridge only, both, neck only, with intermediates for both-out-of-phase and both-in-series. But I’m not entirely sure on that.

Also, I’ve been considering using those NS Jackpots that apparently have a switch at the top of the range, to take the pot out of the circuit entirely, for no inherent treble loss. Seems great…but I’m seeing that Lace recommends using 250K pots with Alumitones to keep them from becoming too trebly. I’m inclined to maybe go higher than that–maybe I could pull off some biting Rowland S. Howard tones, if I went with 500K or even 1M. But I could still have a master tone in there to pull it back.

Anyone work with Alumitones? What works best? Suggestions? (I’m wondering if I shouldn’t go TBX.)

That’s a really good idea, and goes well with the whole Res-O ethos of “open it up and do whatever you want.” Thanks!

I think right after I posted that, I learned about the Fender No-Load pots, which are basically the same as those NS Jackpots, but without a clickable switch–just a straight contact at the top of the range, at the end of the resistive material. And they’re a few bucks cheaper. (Lots of complaints about those from Strat players–I guess the Strat bridge pickup’s already trebly enough. But it sounds like what I’m looking for.)

Just to be ridiculous, I’d also bought a K&K piezo pickup set to go under the bridge, kind of like the original Belmonts, but I think the levels might not work with the Alumitones. Also, the control layout would start to get like knobmageddon.

Good point. I’m still undecided on the piezo.

In other news, I did epoxy the center block on today, and it’s good to make some progress. On the other hand, that two-part epoxy hardener is some nasty stuff, so I’m glad had a nice enough day to do that gluing outside.

It’s been a while, but after a long not-building, I’ve resumed construction on the Res-O, getting it this far:

Current wiring plan: toggle between pickups, output goes to 250K Fender no-load for volume, that goes to another no-load for the tone…which leads to a GFS varitone board. No piezo. I’ll admit to being inspired by Joe’s varitone posts!

Not wired yet, but it’s playable, even with the back off. The neck feels great. I’m considering two-sided tape under the old-school bridge feet to keep it from sliding when I use the Bigsby.