Putting it all together

Now I have all the parts I ordered and the guitar itself. Plenty of things happen right now but already now I can see that this won't be so easy as I thought.
Pickguard is too small and too big. Neck pickup hole was too small, but it was also too big from the neck pocket part and also from the bridge. Knife is a great tool for this. If this was a telecaster pickguard I'd be pissed, but here it is ok.
One part I missed completely - jack plate. I didn't realise that it was missing. So I need to get one.
Closest place to get one is a really nice place called Uraltone. They have nice boutique amp kits, guitar stuff, tools, tubes and also imported cheeeeeeep guitar parts. Query for a jackplate gives me this kind of options.

Now all is set and everything is soldered. New strings and all. Sound is great. Neck sanding and jack plate is missing. Guitar is good. Tone is nice and all. Only that 5-way switch really bugs me. Its touch is too smooth and it feels like really unreliable.

Look at that beauty! Behind it lies a Fender Pawnshop '72. 102's body is so much more smaller. 

I went with the plastic Les Paul jack plate. Hole in 102s is 25mm and metal  jack was for 7/8inch hole (22.5mm). 

Guitar weighs 3.5kilos and plays really well. Now is time to trim it and record some footage with it.

Nut and switch are the weakest parts here. Guitar is really low noise on high gain and plays well both acustically and electrically. G-string pops out on lower fret bends. 

TomTop parts

This kind of package came today. Looking good. 

So everything else but guitar is here.

Ey parts are here

Got the EyGuitarParts yesterday. Everything ok, quality seems better than ok. One problem rose when tried to fit neck pickup on pickquard. I need to make the hole bigger. Quite a lot actually. New holes are needed too. Nothing drastic but maybe some small washers are needed. 

2nd thing is this 5-way-super-switch. It is also quite wide. Will it fit in to the cavity?

Sanding the neck

I like the feel of un lacquered neck. Whether it is polyurethane or nitrocellulose lacquer they tend to feel quite sticky to me. Sanded and oiled wood is just perfect. You kinda bond more to the vibrating neck when there is nothing between hand and wood.

I bought some sandpaper from hardware store.

There are plenty of different methods how to do it.

1st one is more traditional. You sand the lacquer away. It is done here (and in many other places).

Other option is to smooth the sticky lacquer with really fine grit. Galeazzo Frudua does it here in his video tutorial. I've actually done this to my Eric Johnson strat. It made way better and faster too.

Then again - I don't know the status of the 102s. Is it already sanded? Fretboard at least is über shitty.
Plenty of tutorials and ways to get over this issue, but old toothbrush and lemon oil are key tools here. You might even use very light mix of some detergent and toothbrush in the beginning if shit is tight.

Shielding and foam (something while waiting)

Guitar is coming next Thursday 19th of June, so I have some more time here to prepare myself. I decided to cover a bit the idea of shielding.
It is a way to minimize all the unwanted buzz and interference coming out from the electrical parts.

You can google all day and there are plenty of tutorials how to do it, but the easiest way is to do it with aluminium tape and cover all cavities and pickguard (from the backside). It all roots back to Faraday cage. Copper tape would work too but it is not cheep at all.

3M has different versions of it but any harware store has it on different brands. As long as it is adhesive it will work. Then again - does it help at all - is a question to be asked. Tone guru (and guitar too) Eric Johnson does not have any shielding inside his signature strat.

Any way. There are many magic or voodoo things to do with your guitars. Some of them are really cheep too. Nice article on that on premierguitar.com

This is a nice one too. Jol Dantzig puts some foam underneath the pickups. I guess that's what we're gonna do too. Article is here.

Costs and progress

Got the pickguard today. Looks awesome. I was also happy to receive credit card bill in snail mail.
TomTop 8,47€
GuitarsElectric 21,75€
EyParts 42,87€
Together that is 73.09€ + Guitar 70€, so we are now in total sum 143.09€.

Let see whether it is worth the work and money.

Lifesaver mod

Now as I am still waiting for the parts and guitar to arrive I've done some extra planning here.
I decided to do "lifesaver" mod, where in possible electrical failure current running through guitarist as low as possible.

Here is the picture of it. It is done by guitar guru Fox and here is link to this thread (in Finnish).

I found it also from Metroamp.com forum.

The circuit consists of 1nf min. 500v cap and a 220k preferably 1w resistor in parallel.

I think I have these parts lying somewhere around.

Wiring Diagram for this project.

While waiting for the new parts to arrive. I have time to tinker the actual wiring diagram.
Using the Seymour Duncan schematic converted with Artec info and bits and pieces (volume treble bleed) I should be able to build the proper wiring diagram.

As I earlier already decided and explained what to do. We have only Volume treble bleed case open.
Here is a really nice info of it at Rowbinet - Guitar Rewiring 101.

I decided to go with the Seymour Duncan version of it.

So here it is after 5minute editing.

Wiring diagrams and schematics

Now there is plenty to do with two humbuckers, volume and tone. Easy way is of course to google around. Seymour Duncan has the easiest aroung. Schematics are clean and easy to understand.
Of course we are using here Artec-pickups, so we need to fiddle a bit. But first lets have a look at the one that I decided to use.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=2hum_1vol_1tone_super5way

It uses a super-5-way-switch. It has way more lugs to solder. These can be expensive.
Original Oak Grigsby 21$ at StewMac http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Components:_Switches_and_knobs/Oak_Grigsby_Super_Switch.html

As we're going super cheep. Here 11$ at Eyguitarmusic.com
http://www.eyguitarmusic.com/Super-5-Way-Level-Switch-w-ScrewsSuper-SwitchesFor-your-Wire-Custom_p_848.html#

Now here this fiddle part. Colors go like this in Artecs.











With Seymour Duncans they go like this:

With this piece of information from MyLespaul.com, I came in to conclusion, that wires are as in SD but Black is Green in Artecs.

I also wanted to put some easy mods here.
TrebleBleed helps to keep sound fresh when turning volume down:

http://rowbinet.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/treble_bleed.jpg

Parts were easily available here, 1.50$:

http://www.eyguitarmusic.com/Volume-Treble-Bleed-_c_246.html

Capacitor for the tone was 0.50$
I had to choose it blind as I'm not familiar with the pickup. These are easy and relatively cheep to change afterwards.

http://www.eyguitarmusic.com/Capacitors_c_95.html

Deciding what value would be best is very well explained here on PremierGuitar.com site:

http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/auditioning-tone-capacitors-part-ii-2

Last thing that were missing from this build was potentiometers. Usually 250k with singlecoils and 500k with humbuckers. In Gibsons they have 300k in stock. Beefier sound that is.

http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/76144-300k-vs-500k-pots/

Pickups

Now as this Yamaha 102S has only two single coil pickups (as it is a some sort of a telecaster anyway) I wanted to put something extra here without changing the bridge or mutilating the new pick guard.

With pickups there are plenty of options. Cheap pickups too.

Guitarfetish.com or GFS has plenty to choose from, but I wanted to go a bit further as even their pickups can be a bit pricey.
http://www.guitarfetish.com/

Plenty to choose from and all the other parts are there too.

Now I dug a bit deeper and found this place EyGuitarMusic. What a name, but they seemed to offer reasonably priced stuff. Some of them brand stuff (ok entry level brands like Artec), but still.
I wanted to with rail pickups. Single coil sized humbuckers. No humming, more gain more clarity and stuff.

They actually seemed to have plenty to choose from. From stacked (two coils on top of each other)  to normal side by side setup.

http://www.eyguitarmusic.com/Pickups_c_34.html

I decided to go with this Artec TRA73 on bridge 10.56€

http://www.eyguitarmusic.com/Artec-Alnico-V-Hot-Rail-Blade-Tele-Bridge-Pickup-BlackTRA73-BK_p_611.html

And this SBA73 on neck.

http://www.eyguitarmusic.com/Artec-Alnico-V-Hot-Rail-Blade-Strat-Guitar-Pickup-BlackSBA73C-BK_p_610.html

All 4 wire conductors for splits and stuff. 8.30€

So for the pickups 20€ - That's nothing man. But we're going here Cheep!

Knobs and strap locks

I wanted to have chrome knobs for volume, tone etc and because we're going ultra cheep here i found this place.

3 chrome knobs for 4.15$

http://www.tomtop.com/3pcs-chromed-metal-dome-knobs-knurled-barrel-for-electric-guitar-parts-silver-i165.html

Straplocks - Schaller copies. I actually need only parts that will be screwed to guitar, as I have plenty of those originals attached to my straps. 3.46$ each.

http://www.tomtop.com/silver-schalla-copper-strap-lock-pins-for-guitar-i47s.html

No additional delivery charges. Ultra cheep I'd say.

New plastic parts

So I needed a new pickguard.
Yamaha 102S is not the most common guitar but I was lucky to find pickguards from ebay and webshop.

http://www.guitarselectric.co.uk/product/productyamahapac102scratchplate

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SCRATCH-PLATE-Pick-Guard-to-fit-YAMAHA-PACIFICA-PAC-102-102S-Guitars-5-Colours-/191006327991?pt=UK_Guitar_Accessories&var=&hash=item2c78dd44b7

They also have control cavity plates for Yamaha 102S

http://www.guitarselectric.co.uk/product/productyamahapac102cavitycovers

I decided to go with red tortoise and black back cavity plate.

Dings and dents on body

Now You could call this guitar naturally reliced as these mutilations seem to be done by players rather than being dragged on a parking lot.
One tuner has been replaced with a Gotoh one.

Guitar without pickguard

My friend was kind enough to recycle that horrific diy-pickguard. Now some people refer to these as scratch plates. Maybe so. I prefer pickguards as Leo Fender did too. Same difference.

Without pickguard we can see how beaurifully they've managed to cnc wood. 

Yamaha Pacifica 102S

So the core of this guitar is Yamaha Pacifica 102S(X). I'm not yet actually sure whether if it is S or X-version (this could be natural satin). I think it should be SX, but I need to see the guitar myself first. Guitar is now on my friends home 250miles away from Helsinki where I live. I'll get it in 2 weeks when comes over.

Anyway.

On Yamaha website they tell about their already discontinued guitar this much.

http://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical-instruments/guitars-basses/el-guitars/pacifica/pac102s/?mode=model

On Yamahapacifica.com you can find some info and pics. It is solely fansite.

http://www.yamahapacifica.com/

Here is another place to find some pictures of Pacifica guitarss.

http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/pacifica,yamaha/Recent

Trying to create a kick-ass cheep guitar

I'm a big guitar freak. I must admit that. I think of them all the time and spend most of my money on those poor things. The reason why I'm writing this is to just possibly show that you don't need a huge amount of money to build you a nice guitar.

So as a finn my sources of guitars are a bit different than they would be in USA. We don't have Craigs lists or nice yard sales exactly, but similar things. One of the best and most famous is muusikoiden.net which is aimed for musicians. It is a bulletin forum that has plenty of users and very active sales forum. So 30th of May this year (2014) I saw this really nice Yamaha Pacifica 102S(X) for 70€. It was in this kind of shitty condition, but the wooden parts seemed to be ok.
Plastic parts were either missing or new diy-design. One of the tuners was replaced, neck pickup was gone and body was scratched.