/diy/ - Do It Yourself

[Anonymous No.1700497]

http://www.strinberg.com/products/guitar_detail.php?id=2&category=1&style=1

So, I have the guitar of the link and picture. It costs around $120 new and I bought it used for $40. I'm not from the US and the price of repairing it pretty much put me two-thirds of just buying a new one. I'm back to playing the guitar and the one I have need some repairs and maybe some rewiring to have a tone that don't suck balls all the time.

1. Apparently the bridge saddles needs adjustment and I have no idea where to start.

2. At least 2 frets on the first string just fret and don't play the note I want, and I want to ajust that and don't know how. It might have something to do with bridge saddles, though

3. How the fuck can these people fuck that much up on pickups that the tone feel like a discarded boot sole with noise? Isn't a guitar pickup just a copper coil around some magnets? Can't I just find some neodymium magnets and tactically place them somewhere in the pickups and the tone would get better quality instantly?

4. Maybe finding better components for the potenciometers and better cables might help, what should I be looking for?

Thanks.

[Anonymous No.1700507]

>>1700497
1. Bridge adjustment is part of a normal set up. It's the primary factor in intonation(notes being in pitch) and action(string height above the fretboard). The nut plays a role but usually those are serviceable. Look up some setup videos and you should be fine.

2. Might be a bridge issue, could be nut or neck relief(truss rod adjustment). Could be an issue with unlevel frets. When you say 1st string I assume you mean the high e. What frets?

3. No, extra magnets won't help. You might just be describing what a strat pickup set normally sounds like. Single coils are prone to picking 60hz/50hz hum. Could be some bad solder joints or ground, worth checking out.

4. More expensive pots generally will just have better reliability and maybe a tighter tolerance, which won't affect sound. Tone caps are a myth. A better cable will only help if yours is damaged, like pots more expensive cables just tend to be more reliable.

[Anonymous No.1700513]

>>1700507
>when you say 1st string I assume you mean the high e. What frets
Second and seventh

>Single coils are prone to picking 60hz/50hz hum. Could be some bad solder joints or ground, worth checking out.
Not just hum, it general tone sucks. For what matters, I have a cheap Behringer low-noise interface and use mainly digital effects like amplitube, but I have one of those x-vamp little pedalboards and I still can't get any pleasant tone out of it. I don't have any amps.

>pots
Duly noted. The volume pot have bad contact close to the top threshold, it goes down and I need to wobble it so it go up again, so if I'm re-wiring her I'm probably changing this pot too.

[Anonymous No.1700525]

>>1700513
That sounds more like an issue with fret leveling. You can check by fretting 2nd and trying to slip a piece of paper between the string and 3, 4 etc. The string shouldn't be making contact with anything but the 2nd fret, same for the 7th. You could try loosening the truss rod a bit and see if that helps. If it's an Allen wrench make sure to use the right one, if you round it out you're SOL without some fancy tools or ingenuity. You can check neck relief pretty easy with feeler gauges but bit my bit until it feels right works too.

Pick up adjustment might help. Just try adjusting them while listening through your interface or whatever. Try raising them, you don't want them to contact the string while it's vibrating(obviously) but too high could make the sound harsh and theoretically reduce your sustain because of the magnets.

Not a bad move to replace it if you're in there already, before that you can try cleaning with contact cleaner or even a bit of rubbing alcohol.

[Anonymous No.1700532]

>>1700525
Thanks. Years ago that stuff sounded really arcane to me. Truss rod stuff still do, and these springs on the back of the guitar pulling the brigde are still a mistery to me, but nothing like a good google search to solve this. I just found out how to adjust saddles for tuning and that was a mistery.

I still want to modify something to raise quality like re-wiring or changing the magnets for stronger ones, since I'm convinced they used terrible materials because this guitar is at least 15 years old. I'm even thinking about weaving the pickups myself and isntantly have some crisp boutique guitar I can re-sell for $300 to some dumb hipster with parent's spare money, haha.

[Anonymous No.1700542]

>>1700497
Dave's world of fun stuff. YouTube. You will learn all you want to know.

[Anonymous No.1700551]

>>1700542
Oh, yes. That's something, thanks.

[Anonymous No.1700860]

Keep us updated bro. I've gigged with a few cheap guitars that played and sounded like shit out of the box.

[Anonymous No.1701686]

have built a few kit guitars and for most part are very playable, as it known that to keep cost cheap low end hardware is used.. bridges, pot's, pickups, etc. suggest to upgrade pot's and pickups to brand products and locate luthier in your area that can do proper setup, will cost a few $'s but you should be in very playable shape. other path is buy med' quality brand used but cared for piece and avoid the tinkering but still gonna cost something to get playable...

[Anonymous No.1701711]

>>1700507
>Tone caps are a myth.

I disagree, they can help in some cases, in others the choice could be critical. Have a look at this, it's pretty interesting: http://diyaudioprojects.com/mirror/members.aol.com/sbench102/caps.html

[Anonymous No.1703318]

>>1700542
It gooched he already wasted his money, now he is waisiting his and our time

[Anonymous No.1703540]

>>1701711
There's a difference in importance of: One treble cutting capacitor inside of a guitar vs dozens of capacitors doing various roles inside of an amplifier.

You're also into hifi. You can practically and literally get away with murder in or from a guitar amp.