Recently i installed my spare pickups to my Fernandes FR 55, they are Duncan Designed hotrails pickups and a quadrail pickup(brand unknown). It is temporary until i get the pickups i want,though. but here’s some problems i encounter when i installed them:
– can’t find the right phase for all pickups
– cable colors are confusing
well, it’s actually only two problems, but i spent the whole day to get the right phase for these pickups. you can solve this problem with an AVOmeter, but since i don’t have it, i have to try it one-by-one with cablejacks and miniamp to test the connectivity.
and this is what i got from that:
FYI: i forgot to draw the unwrap cable output from pickups, but i solder them all to ground. and consider that some unknown brand using different cable color for hot and ground. this was my real problem with the unknown brand quadrail pickup.. it has the same cables colors, but when i connected them according to seymour duncan cable coding, it is gone out of phase. the pickup wiring diagram above is exactly what I’ve done to get the right phase.
the sound i got from that pickup wiring diagram:
i use the coiltap to split all the pickups. so in lifted-coiltap, i have S-S-H pickups formation. AND, in pushed-coiltap, i have the H-H-HH pickups formation.
the output is actually awesome, BUT, my pickups are the default factory ones, so, their sound quality isn’t that good. can’t get more clarity, since the default pickups usually are average-to-bad pickups. it’s muddy, but i can overcome that with compression pedal.
but, i tell you, this could be awesome if you have high-quality hotrails and quadrail pickups. the hum-cancelling works perfectly. there are no noise on my guitar sound output. the tone is actually hum-free with very good sustain. but i need better hotrails and quadrail, though, to get the wood tone comes out of my guitar. (my fernandes is maple neck and mahogany body, tough one)
well, this is embarrassing. i read some pickups modification and had decided to do pickups wax potting. actually it was my fault. i just didn’t get the thermometer and my wax was overheat. here i share you the fail guitar pickups wax potting pics:
they are destroyed Fernandes pickups. the plastic shrunk and i totally fucked up this time. they are not in reversible shapes. but one thing that interested me.
Fernandes pickups destroyed after wax-potting, only G&L pickup were survived
from all those destroyed pickups, there is one survivor. i have a G&L pickup which is not affected by the heat.. it is in great shape and ready. it was the same process since I’ve put them together in the same time and duration.
from this DIY guitar stuff this is my worst ever. actually i kept the wax in moderate heat.. but the pickups plastic material just couldn’t stand up against the heat. well, thanks to G&L pickup which stand by my side. it is tough enough to defend me against the shrunk pickups case.
it’s a hard lesson for me. and all i can conclude are:
– depends on what kind of pickup plastic materials, wax potting could be freakin dangerous to your pickups.
– MAKE SURE THE HEAT IS APPROPRIATE. it’s 65 degree Celsius or better below. don’t worry about pickup magnetism against the heat. i did this and check the magnet were totally fine. you need to pay attention more to pickups plastic material.
– be ready to buy new guitar pickups. if you’re in low budget, postpone the wax potting until you get enough money to cover your loss.
– if you consider your pickups are antique, just let them be. or you can take the chance to be like me, who curious about any guitar stuff.
well, since I’m a curious guy, I’m gonna put those destroyed pickups into my guitar (my first guitar, which become my lovable experiment objects.
shoot, it was a big failure but i feel so HAPPY … this is what I’m talking about in guitar learning process.
what makes me wonder is, how all virtuosos can be hum-free? i have an old 90’s Fernandes guitar which has noise-pickups. it is HSS and still i couldn’t find solution possibilities for this until couple hours ago. this is what i got so far in searching the hum problem for my guitar Fernandes FR-55. it’s been over a year ago and finally i got the closest possible solution on this.at very first i thought it was the circuitry. so i learn about soldering the components and find out what caused the hum. as far as i could get before the next one is 60Hz cycle hum. It’s called “60 Hz cycle hum” because it’s a signal that oscillates at 60 Hertz – sixty cycles a second. too complicated, why is it audible, since 60 Hz is so low in frequency range? here’s why. we can hear it because it cycles, its harmonic notes is what we heard. 60, 120, 240, 480, 960, 1920, 3840, 7680, 15360, 30720,.. there we can hear them all ringing loudly. creating ground loop is the very first idea in my mind for my guitar, and hum cancelling with humbucker pickups came to next.
but, it against the fact that my guitar is HSS which means i got humbucker, why is it still humming?so i went deeper search about it and still, i couldn’t find the solution. I’ve double-checked the soldering part and grounding, and my fernandes was very neat and i couldn’t take soldering/grounding as the main problem. (it’s japan-made and its circuitry is one of the most neat working i’ve ever seen). even i considered to change the pickups, while i know my fernandes pickups sounds good actually , no need to replace the pickups with the expensive one (Seymour Duncan® works best on my spalted maple tele, but…it means more $$$!!!! ) …the best thing i got so far from learning soldering and grounding is how to keep bright tone when guitar volume knob is being lowered.
if i just could remove the hum…
then, out of nowhere (actually like something already deep inside was screaming).. i had a thought to do modification on pickups and DIY pickups making, and i began to analyze what exactly was wrong with my Fernandes. I’ve written it on paper somewhere which i lost it now, but here they are:
– my humming pickups can’t stand the high gain – it has very low noise in clean tones, but it gets humming when i raised the amp volume – when i had fun with the whammy bar, the guitar springs sound creaking into pickups – when i knocked the body, the pickups deliver the knocking sound, louder than my other guitars
it’s like my pickups act like a microphone. so i whine to Google , just write these words “guitar pickups act like microphone!”
and the miracle came.. this guitar-pickup-act-like-microphone problem is called microphonic feedback, which is unacceptable for pickups. a normal pickups will deliver the strings vibration only, and that is what should happen, it is just the very basic idea for guitar pickups.
back to my pickups problem which has the very similar symptoms, the best solution for my fernandes problem is pickups potting. the idea is to wrap the pickups with wax in order to make them in fixed position, so they can’t vibrate and deliver sound other than guitar strings vibration.
now i know exactly what I’m gonna do this time for my Fernandes FR-55. i’ll get the “pickups potting process” into preparation right away. hopefully it works. wish me luck
Recently i found something interesting on the internet. something that bothers me all these years and left unanswered. when we play some blues, the volume knob is the key of music dynamics. Anyone would never get satisfied by the mumbling tone when we reduce the volume via guitar volume knob to get less distorted tone in creating smooth clear overdrive sound. and now i got the one of solution on how to keep bright tone when guitar volume knob is being lowered.
to accomplish that, i needed to go to local radio shack in my town and bought a 0.001 uF capacitor and 150k resistor. it was too cheap, so i bought three of each so i can install them on my other guitars. it worth 0.1 dollars for all of them. if you think it isn’t worth for your expensive guitar, you can get the higher quality. but for me, 0.1 dollars works fine on my guitar.
0.001 uF capacitor and 150k resistor
so, how this 0.1 dollar stuff works? first, connect those in parallel. surely i prepared my solder and soldering iron for this. and here is the result:
parallel-connected capacitor and resistor
then open the back cover of the guitar, find the volume pot, solder the legs to volume pot. i can’t get better picture of this, but the diagram below will explain where to put the legs.
actually it’s like adding some value to the volume pot, i made a video recorded my activity in installing this component, i found it also reduces humming when the volume pot is in half-full position which is great. i recommend you to do this on your guitar. it’s just cheap and works perfect.
here is the video on YouTube guitar learner channel :
this post is dedicated to my inspiration and my idol Robin Williams.what inspires me beside guitar are movies and actors. somehow the stage performance is related to film acting. every each of learning and guitar exercising are elements of our stage act. you need to read the scripts, practice them, and act them naturally as the story need. you will see some great virtuosos are similar to Oscar winner actors such like Robin Williams. it’s a sad news came couple hours ago, Robin Williams died at age 63. He is my favorite actor and comedian. i laughed at every of his jokes and get fascinated to his acts. name them, the hilarious Jumanji to the cold-blood killer Insomnia.
Robin Williams and Al Pacino “Insomnia”
so there’s August Rush. there are scenes those made me feel deeper fans-to-idol connection with him. he and his appearance, holding guitar, somehow made me me give him a big respect as guitarist. his play is totally hypnotized me. it’s like “he’s the one who love guitars deeply” while i’ve never seen him performing musical instruments as musician. but it’s just like he could play it good.
Robin Williams “august rush”
his appearance was a totally Bono U2 for me. and that was so GREAT because I’m a big fan of U2. even for non comedy movie, Robin Williams never lost his taste of humor and sensibility as a man who can read the audiences’ mind and make a great jokes about it.
Robin Williams | Bono
it is a great lost for me. i knew some post noted Robin Williams Found Dead From Apparent Suicide and it made me sad.
His wife, Susan Schneider said: “This morning, I lost my husband and my best friend, while the world lost one of its most beloved artists and beautiful human beings. I am utterly heartbroken. On behalf of Robin’s family, we are asking for privacy during our time of profound grief. As he is remembered, it is our hope the focus will not be on Robin’s death, but on the countless moments of joy and laughter he gave to millions.”
see you in the next life mr. Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014), Rest in Peace
To answer the many questions on the whole re-amping case I’ve decided to write this note on several ways to re-amp your guitar signal.
Basically there are two ways to get a dry signal recorded:
1) Split the signal coming from your guitar and send one of the splitted signals into your setup and the other into your interface/recording unit/mixing desk, etc….
2) Run your dry singal straight into your interface and use a modelling plug-in (Amplitube, Revalver, Eleven, Guitar Rig, Amp Farm) to record your guitars with. This way the sound recorded will remain dry, but you will still be able to hear and play with distortion.
Which way you choose doesn’t really matter, but I firmly believe that a guitarist’s playing is determined by the sound he’s using at that moment, so make sure you get a sound that’s as close as you can get to the actual sound you would like to achieve.
There are 2 ways to send the dry-signal to your favourite amp, FX, modeller or whatever:
1) If you’re using an interface or recorder with only two outputs you need to make sure that the only thing on one of the channels (either Left or Right) plays nothing except for your dry signal. You can do this by panning all the tracks to Right and only the dry signal to the Left. Then use the Left output to go into your amp, FX unit, etc.
2) If you’re using an interface with more than 2 outputs you can assign the dry signal to a 3rd or 4th ouput. Be aware that in this case you sometimes have to plough through the settings of your DAW or Interface to make sure it only plays back the dry-signal. Then use that output to feed the input of your desired amp or modeller.There are 3 ways of recording the re-amped signal:1) Run the signal through your amp and put some mics in front of the cab. Return the mic-signal(s) into your interface’s input(s).
2) Run the signal through your (pre)amp and connect the line-out or effectsloop-send to the input of your interface. Then you can use a plug-in modeller to simulate a cab and mic’s. Make sure that when you’re using a tube-amp you set it to only use the preamp section, or run it into a cab simultaniously to prevent the power tubes from dying.
3) Run the signal through your modeller or effects-unit and run it’s output (with or without speaker simulator) into de input of the interface. If it doesn’t have a speaker simulator build in yet you can again use a modeller plug-in to do it.
If all your favourite sound come out of plug-ins you don’t need all the hassle above. Just duplicate dry-signal track and equip every single track with a different setting or plug-in. Then use the fades or mute buttons to experiment with your favourite sounds.
Furthermore there is this thing called phasing: Every sound has different peaks and dips in the frequency spectrum and sometimes (especially when using mics) some frequency’s or the whole sound comes later than on a different sound. Some waves of the sound get cancelled out that way and make it sound very different than just one sound + the other. You can use this to your advantage or try to get rid off it.
When using microphones you can move one of them closer or further away than the other. When they are exactly alligned the signal is in phase. If it’s not and you’d like to get in in phase I usually use a delay plug-in (set to 100% wet) and adjust the delay time by tiny milliseconds. You’ll notice when doing this the sound changes dramatically when you’re only setting the delay one millisecond further! You could also try to zoom into the wavefile until you can literaly see the waves going up and down and compare it the the other tracks which should be moving slightly similair. If the waves go up and down at the same time they’re in phase. If one goes up and the other goes down they’re out of phase.There’s no right or wring with phasing, but generally people like to use or hear in phase.
Here’s what I did for Equisa’s upcoming debut album:
It started out with a borrowed Axe-FX standard. This machine sounds killer and I’ve made a patch on it which I used for all the rhythm tracks. The sound was really massive, big and thick, with plenty of gain and quite a tight response due to the overdrive pedal (Fat Rat) I’ve put in front of the amp (Energyball). This simulates an Proco Rat pedal in front of an ENGL Powerball.
Fractal Audio Axe-FX
It was the first time I ever used this piece of gear so I wasn’t fully sure yet wether it would fit in the mix decently when I got there. Therefore I plugged my guitar lead into a pedal first which has 1 input and 2 outputs. One of the outputs went to the Axe-FX and then into my interface to record the sound of that preset I made. The other output went straight into my interface to record a completely dry, non-distorted sound.
Now it’s been a couple of months since I recorded all rhythm tracks that way and whilst mixing I noticed that the guitars became fuzzy and muddy and not clear and airy enough. I decided to run the dry signal into my R&R Sound Solo, then rout the line-output into the Axe-FX and use that only for a 4×12 V30 cab with an SM58 simulator, then straight into my interface again. That way I could turn and twist knobs on the amp and Axe-FX to see what settings suited best in the mix of each and everything song, without having to play and record it all over again. Very time-efficient!
Recently I installed the 101 sustainer kit by Fernandes in my self-build guitar made from an oak coffeetable. I’ve made another of these guitars and I wanted this one to be as close to the original only with an added sustainer pickup and circuit. However, I had to compromise on some things:
The original features Ibanez V7 and V8 pickups with their RG 5-way switching allowing the following pickup combinations: 1. Bridge humbucker
2. Bridge and neck pickup splitted
3. Bridge and neck humbuckers
4. Neck pickup wired with parallel coils
5. Neck humbucker
I Mostly use setting 1, 2 and 5. To get those 3 pickup configurations I need both pickups to be splittable. The biggest problem is that everything runs through the PCB circuit board which makes it nearly impossible to trace the signal path and therefor come up with alternative switching. The instructions only feature schematics for a Les Paul type guitar with 2 humbuckers (no coil split), a guitar with 2 humbuckers and a single coil and the same with active pickups.
I’ve searched days looking for wiring diagrams using the above mentioned 2-humbucker 5-way switching used on Ibanez RG‘s. None seem to exist.
I’ve contacted both Ibanez and Fernandes about this but both left my questions unanswered.
Therefor I decided to use the LP switching, give up splitting the neck pickup and try to use a Push/Pull pot to split the V8 pickup. This pickup features 3 conductors instead of the usual 4 or 5. I figured that the red was Hot, the bare Ground and the white would than be both coils attached to each other making it able to split the coils. However it doesn’t really sound that single coily to me (which is the pickups fault probably) so I left that white conductor unwired.
After I hooked up the pickup I noticed it was out of phase with the neck pickup. Not my favorite sound. Another thing I noticed was that the Sustainer’s Normal mode worked great but the Harmonic mode was weak. When I swapped the Ground and Hot wires of the bridge pickup both pickups were in phase with each other, but the sustainer worked in the opposite direction, having a powerful Harmonic mode but a weak Normal mode.
Here I decided to go with best of both worlds and convert the unused push/pull switch to a phase switch on the bridge pickup. This switch now also functions as the mode switch for the sustainer giving both options with strong results.
Here’s something important:
Everything is connected to the circuit board with wiring clips. Each wire is fitted with a tiny metal clip which is housed (sometimes together with a few other wires) in a white clip that’s clipped onto it’s counterpart on the board. Although every wire delivered comes with these clips the bridge pickup of course doesn’t feature these metal clips. Searching for them is highly annoying and I had the luck I had an old unused bass-preamp laying around which featured the same wiring clips, so I could use those wires to solder to the pickup conductors.
Things to consider when installing a Fernandes Sustainer kit:
-You will most likely need to route a large cavity in your guitar to make room for the circuit board.
-For ease of installation, stick to one of the 3 schematics provided with the instructions.
-For ease of installation, use a Fernandes, Dimarzio, Seymour Duncan or EMG bridge pickup for these feature clear instructions in the manual how to wire them.
-Make sure you get some spare metal wiring clips of the right size.
-When one of the modes remains weaker than the other, consider using a phase switch on the bridge pickup.
self-build guitar made from an oak coffeetable by Sebas Honing
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FYI: i forgot to draw the unwrap cable output from pickups, but i solder them all to ground. and consider that some unknown brand using different cable color for hot and ground. this was my real problem with the unknown brand quadrail pickup.. it has the same cables colors, but when i connected them according to seymour duncan cable coding, it is gone out of phase. the pickup wiring diagram above is exactly what I’ve done to get the right phase.
