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Instructions and FAQs

Posts and pages that contain instructions or answers to frequently asked questions.

Hardware and License Sales Suspended

Posted by on Sep 27, 2015 in Articles & Tutorials, Instructions and FAQs, Non Lutherie

It is with a heavy heart that I announce that I have chosen to suspend the sales of hardware and EndurNeck™ licenses as of today 27 September 2015. This is NOT for protectionistic reasons, or even because of abuse, but simply because I am in a phase of building the company that I need to prioritize everything that I do. Strandberg Guitars was founded on a platform of openness and sharing, which hasn’t changed one bit. But, I will any day rather do a few things well than many things poorly, and I simply don’t have the time to support those of you that have questions about the hardware or licenses at the moment, or even to pack things up for shipping. Once a few more milestones have been cleared, and I have the staff and process to manage these things in a good way, sales will open up again. I would ask for your kind understanding, and also ask that you don’t e-mail and ask when they will be available again, as responding to those kinds of questions is the exact reason we have suspended the sales. If you have already purchased an EndurNeck™ license and/or information kit, I would kindly ask that you refrain from using it...

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Lace Alumitone 5-Way Mod

Posted by on May 27, 2015 in Articles & Tutorials, Electronics, Instructions and FAQs

The Lace Alumitone™ pickups, like the X-Bar, which we use extensively, is based on a non-conventional technology (which we will not go into here) that provides noise- and hum-free high definition full range sound in a beautiful and lightweight package. They don’t consist of two separate hum canceling bobbins like a humbucker, so when wiring them, there are less options. The option that they do provide is a “split” which is more similar to a coil tap, but it is again not a conventional coil tap because it does its magic without a dramatic loss in signal. But it changes the voicing of the pickup in a very nice way. Connecting one of these pickups, using the split option, can be confusing because rather than shorting out one of the bobbins or part of the coil, you actually choose a different ground but leave the hot (signal) wire alone. For a humbucker sound, connect the white/black cable to ground and leave the white cable disconnected and for the single coil sound, connect the white cable to ground and leave the white/black disconnected. (Leaving the white cable completely disconnected is important – resist the temptation to connect it to the other white cable, or shorting it to ground.) Here is...

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#65 Wiring

Posted by on Feb 15, 2015 in Articles & Tutorials, Electronics, Instructions and FAQs

While I’m at it with schematics, here is the one for #65, which is a little more interesting. It has a Lundgren humbucker in the bridge, and Bare Knuckle single coil in the neck, and switches through combinations of the different humbucker coils in combination with the single coil using a 5-way switch.   And the DIYLC file. Again, this may be modified and shared under Creative Commons...

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#61 Wiring

Posted by on Feb 15, 2015 in Articles & Tutorials, Electronics, Instructions and FAQs

As I was digging through piles of handwritten notes – some written on both sides of a sheet of paper, many without description what the actual schematic did – to find a starting point for a schematic, I decided to make a serious effort to retain documented schematics for posterity. From a Google search, I found the free software DIY Layout Creator (diylc.org), which turned out to work really well. Apparently, it is a favorite among stompbox builders. (Note that on MacOS X , you get a random error message trying to run it, and you have to allow running apps downloaded from “Anywhere” in order for it to work.) Here is the schematic for #61, which is an HSH guitar with two three-position mini toggles that switch the humbuckers into series/parallel/split (outer coil) mode, and combines the humbuckers with the middle pickup in position 2 and 4 of a 5-way blade switch. Enjoy!   And the link to the DIYLC project file. Feel free to enhance, correct, and...

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The impact of wood choice in an electric guitar

Posted by on Dec 28, 2014 in Articles & Tutorials, Instructions and FAQs

There are continuous debates on various topics that I am often asked to contribute to with my opinion. I usually decline, because it’s rarely important what my opinion is when it comes to the instruments I produce – it has to be the musician’s opinion that counts. So let’s start by the question “Which tonewood is the best” and just answer it with “The tonewood that gives the musician the sound and feeling he or she is after” and then we can leave it at that. My son David did a school project about a year ago now, and I have been meaning to publish it for a long time. What prompted me to do so, was stumbling onto a “myth debunking video” the other day, which draws all the wrong conclusions in the name of science. Here’s what David did: Created four identical test rigs out of scrap wood from my workshop. They are all 725 x 35 x 47 mm in size, and weigh 651 grams (Alder), 618 g (Koa), 537 g (Swamp Ash), and 818 g (Zebrano). They obviously don’t exactly mimic a guitar, but should for the sake of the test resemble the type of tensions and forces that a guitar body with a neck is...

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“Blower” Switch Mod

Posted by on Jun 7, 2014 in Articles & Tutorials, Custom Work, Electronics, Instructions and FAQs

Charlie Griffiths of HAKEN, the owner of #53, realized that he didn’t need a tone pot and that he also needed to move the volume pot out of the way – and in place of the old volume put a “blower” switch. This switch sends the bridge pickup in humbucker mode straight to the output jack, bypassing the 5-way switch and volume knob, for a “solo mode”. The switch itself is a push-push switch that simply protrudes out of the top. Mounting one, however, is not necessarily the most straight-forward operation… What I came up with was a bracket that is wedged in between the top and bottom inside the control cavity, to secure it depth-wise, and that is secured in place by the volume pot + a small screw that holds it in the side.         The hole for the volume pot:   And the switch mounted:   Finally completed:  ...

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