New volume knob place for Redline

My playing style has a sweep of hand which makes it hit something placed near the bridge pickup. Recently I started recording music and while recording you don't want anything to distract you. Guitar manufacturers place the volume knob next to bridge pickup in strat models, because it has been the style since Fender created Stratocaster. I have heard that it's for volume swell effect. But who is using volume swell anyway? No more than 5% of players and you know what they say: 5% of people are homos. Yes, only homos use volume swell. Besides Godin Redline is a heavy metal guitar. Ever seen any heavy metal guys use volume swell in EMG pickup guitar?

This is the original place of volume knob in Redline.

This is the situation on the back side. The control cavity is big enough so I didn't have problems to locate a new place. Notice the extra battery for EMG 18V mod.

I have already drilled a hole for the pot from the front side. Then I had to figure out how to make that small round cavity without a router (don't have one). I started by drilling circular outline.

Removing the wood was actually simple. Just cut chips with knife following the grain of the wood. The sides of Redline are made of poplar which seems to be quite soft wood, much like agathis.

Finished with chisel. I didn't use a hammer with chisel, just pressed hard and moved from side to side to carefully remove the rest of wood. And there it was. I didn't even have to solder anything, because the wires were long enough to move to the new location.

Since I was using freehand drilling the knob didn't end up completely straight, but it's nothing I care about.

And here it is. It was nice to find out that the original hole was actually finished inside and the edges were smooth so I didn't even have to cover it.

Presonus Studio One V2

I've been using Pro version for couple of months. It was around 350€ so it's one of the least expensive DAWs and it's a pro version without any limitations. The great thing about Studio One is that it's damn easy to use. The user interface is well designed and doesn't require you to read help files to figure out stuff. It's really easy to start writing songs and try out different things.

The number of built-in instruments are limited, but maybe it's just good. You don't get lost in having too much options. There are four built-in tools: Mojito which is a monophonic synth, Impact (sample player with sample library), Sample One (basic sample player) and Presence which has some kind of internal sound type with a number of options to tweak the sound, including effects section.

There is also a good amount of effects to lay over sounds. You can also use Ampire XT as an effect. It's a virtual guitar amp with stomp box section, having the typical effects of a pedal board.

Then there is Native Instruments stuff you can download, including Reaktor, Kontakt and Guitar Rig. I haven't really tried out them that much, other than Guitar Rig. It had a huge latency and ridiculous amount of noise coming from some mystery place so it's not good for recording guitar.

Studio One (64bit version to be exact) doesn't have an internal engine to run 32bit VSTs like some other DAWs, but that's more the problem with VST developers, because there should be 64bit native versions to run in 64bit DAWs.

Home studio

I had an idea to build a home studio. Cheap one of course. The main equipment is my new Zoom R16. It's an affordable mixer/recorder with 16 mono tracks and 8 XLR/TRS inputs (2 stereo inputs at the same time). I think it's the only piece of equipment in its price range with a nice set of features.

Then there is Roland E09 keyboard, it's also new equipment. I wanted to get instuments like drums directly from the keyboard without using a DAW. I want to play everything live without starting up PC and confusing myself with DAW. Output section is Alesis RA150 power amp and two Philips speakers from my old stereo set from 80's. Those speakers aren't actually reference monitors which they tell are needed to get truthful sound, but they have to do until I get reference monitors. Notice also that Andexinger piano chair. It's probably the most expensive piece of gear in proportion. And yes, even though not part of the studio setup it's Ibanez Airplane Flanger. Had to have that one.

I still have to get a split stereo Y-cable to connect Vox Tonelab for guitar and bass. I've already tried to record music, but I was disappointed about my drummer skills. It looks like I simply can't record drums first and keep the song together. It's not timing, but the structure of the song. Playing live is difficult, but I'm going to make it happen. I think it's perfectly possible to record guitar first with metronome and then drums. That way, because I'm mainly a guitar player, I can perform the song properly. Or that's what I hope anyway.

Episquier ready to rock... or not

I did put it together couple of months ago:

It's quite beautiful I think, but there is one major problem. It's the locking nut that can't be removed, because strings would pop out. The reason is the straight headstock, it's not angled. So it doesn't stay tuned very well. A locking bridge would solve that, but it's difficult to find a fitting bridge for that narrow Squier stud spacing. I don't even know if such locking bridges exists.

The sound of agathis body with those big screws in neck is very bright and powerful. The neck is also great. If you spot cheap used Epiphones with that awful veneer body it could be wise to get one if you need a nice neck. The thing is that you can't cheat with the neck, it has to be made properly to prevent it becoming twisted and they sure knew how to make good necks. The only problem may be worn frets, but it's possible to replace them.

Episquier saga - part 6

Smoothing the edges of the pickguard with a file was quite easy, but it did took some time.

Holes were the difficult part, because drilling needs precision in both measuring and practice. At this point I thought it didn't matter how important it was to place the pickguard's outer connecting screw holes, but I was wrong of course. It's equally important to get them right just as pickup holes and screw holes for them. Switch and pot holes were drilled using much smaller holes, then shaped with a knife and finally with a round file. I didn't want to use big matching drill blades, because they seem to have unpredictable cutting behavior with the pickguard material.

This is after rough bevel filing. After this I finished the edges with much smaller and smoother file. The end result was quite nice. You can surely look closely and notice that it's hand made and has irregular shaping here and there. But the pickguard is doing the job even it's not perfectly shaped.

The next problem was the wiring. I found out that there are several different ways to connect everything related to ground wiring. I had removed the middle tone and was left with pieces of pots and puzzled mind. Then I remembered that I have HH-configuration ready in the Explorer. In this one pickups are connected to the switch, starting from ground wiring. It's an easy way to connect pickups, since you don't have to melt that annoying blob in the back of pots.

New pickups connected to the switch and ground wires in the switch ground. That was easy!

Wiring done. With Dimarzio's long pickup wires there was a problem how to place them. You could cut the wires shorter, but this is one way to deal the problem, just stuff them around somewhere.

Episquier saga - part 5

I needed to remove the neck to get measures for the neck pocket hole in the pickguard, since the neck is wider than the original.

I also painted the exposed wood with acrylic paint. Nice that the body is lamp black. It's an easy color to match.

I was using these tools for rough cutting. On the right is an improvised saw made from a spare blade and some duct tape. During the process I was convinced that if I ever need another custom pickguard I'm going to get a motorized jigsaw. There are nice portable models available.

Outer edges are done. At this point I started to drill some holes. Notice the drilling table. It's a Microsoft Multimedia Development Kit from like 1995. I knew that some day it would be useful some way.

Trying to get the exact cut for the edges was difficult. I even tried big scissors! Then I got an idea to use a knife as a chisel. With chiseling and carving I was able to cut the rest off.

Starting to make a hole for the neck pickup. I realized that it could be wise to cut pickup holes first, before anything else, because it's the critical part. You need to get the hole aligned properly with the screw holes.

It's almost ready. Next time I'm going to remove rest with a file. Also, I'm not relying on the drawing I have made with pencil. Instead I'm going to use a pickup cover to try if it fits in the hole and then adjust it more. When it fits it's easy to pinpoint the exact locations for screw holes using the pickup cover.

Episquier saga - part 4

I decided to use the neck screws from Epiphone since they were thicker. I used a regular electric hand drill, because I don't have any sophisticated drilling equipment. I placed a small tube on the drill blade to limit the drilling depth. Then carefully tried to drill straight and it went surprisingly well. New holes were actually 2,5cm away from the old ones and that was a surprise, but the flat part of the neck was still long enough to look ok.

Here is the neck attached. It went pretty deep inside the body, but there is still enough space for a single coil neck pickup as I planned.

I had to include the strap button of Epiphone since the strap screw was longer than the others. This image shows well how the neck starts to slope almost where the neck pocket ends so it was good to have that extra flat surface on the neck. Notice that I used the explorer neck plate, because both plates were exactly the same size and explorer plate's screw holes obviously mathced better with the screws.