My USACG Esquire

[chptunes]

My precious #1. I built her during 2009. The body and neck are both Mahogany, hand-picked by Tommy at USA Custom Guitars. All hardware came from Bill Callaham. Fralin pickups.. a neck pickup is wrapped in electrical tape and tucked under the guard, which is strictly for eliminating the 60 cycle. The electronics consist of a 1Meg ohm Resistor, which is soldered to the jack.

It started it's life as a Telecaster, but esquire-mode suits me much better.

I did all of the assembly and wood finishing myself.. a local guitar tech/friend did the final set-up [bone nut, action, intonation, etc..].

[scotty]

Very rock n roll there. Not sure I could live without a volume and tone knob though.

[markT]

Very beautiful Corey! I'm with scotty though...I "play" my volume & tone controls, so I need them.

How do you do it?...




ps....I hate to tell you this...but...your neck is on backwards....lol ;D

[chptunes]

..backwards.. ;D

I think folks would be surprised by the range of clean to mean tones available without Pots. That being said, I just wasn't a player that valued tweaks with the volume and tone controls.. for years, I was unhappy with it. I started thinking.. well, if I'm not using my Pots anyway, why not toss'em and see if I can squeeze out some more dynamics.

Currently, I'm runnin' my Esquire straight through my simple "stealth box" into my Carmen Ghia.. then straight to the 3D112 Alnico Tubby cabinet. I can set Ghia's volume around 11 o'clock.. a light touch yields "conversation" level passages with sparkling tone.. a light strum compares to loud acoustic guitar level.. a heavy strum is darker and growly, exceeding the volume of my Baby Grand piano playing forte notes.. digging into single notes is sufficiently dirty and hot.

Really.

I've been playing guitar for 15 years, and this is the very happiest I've ever been with my gear.

Thanks for the comments guys.

[Mark N]

Corey, that is one super cool guitar! Without the volume and tone, it must really make a huge improvement on playing dynamics.....you got any way of making a few clips of this Esquire and the Ghia? I would LOVE to hear it!

[scotty]

I think maybe there's something wrong with Corey's camera... His Ghia is upside down, and the neck on his Esquire is backwards... weird!

[Mark N]

perhaps he's left handed too! lol!

[chptunes]

You guys are too much! Rest assured, I'm a righty.

Well Mark N, the only recording device I have is a blackberry.. Though, my wife has a little Flip Video device.. I don't know if I can operate and share successfully with it. I'll give some thought...

Thanks for the comments everyone. ;D

[chptunes]

An update!

Mark T gave me some good advice and I took it [thankfully]!! I mentioned that there's a neck pickup hidden out of sight.. Cancelling 60 cycle. Mark told me that I'd get a better tone if I'd lose the 'extra' pickup. Well, I was slow to take his advice because I didn't notice any tone degradation when I installed the 'extra' pup.

Today, I was thinking about it on my commute back home.. I ripped that puppy out asap, and ..WHAT!? Mark was right?!! The tone is more Robust.. noticable presence and clarity.

I'm an idiot. Mark's a genious.

[Mark N]

the lack of the neck pup, hidden or not, likely reduced the magnetic pull on the strings....that opens the tone of the guitar up a little more, allows it to be slightly more "alive" if you will. I noticed a difference one time when I took my Esquire and added a neck pup....It took a little life out of that guitar. I went back to stock form...one pickup

[chptunes]

Weirdly, I woke around 1:30 this morning.. congested, coughing, and restless. So, I went down-stairs.. got some water.. opened the laptop. I wound up printing some cool guitar mods and tricks from www.singlecoil.com. I went down to the basement and plugged in the soldering iron.

A few moments later, I'd finished installing some 50's style LP Jr wiring [Master Vol & Tone controls].. the old LP Jr's had the pots wired together in a very interactive way. Both pots have a smooth and consistent range.. minus "hotspots". The Tone pot is useable, even at minimum setting. WOW. First, I used a 0.0220uf Cap.. but, I wanted a little more darkness in the bottom of the range. I changed the Cap to 0.0470uf. By the way, the Cap value changes the overall feel of the guitar with this circuit [not just the Tone pot].. regardless of the settings. This circuit is a dream in my Esquire.

I also installed this Treble Bleed while I was in there.. made the Vol pot even less spikey. Both pots have a very linear affect on the tone/output now. No mud available from either control.

I am thrilled with this late-night Mod session. Boy, am I glad I couldn't sleep!

[scotty]

Glad you came to your senses and put some pots back on that thing! Ghia = 2 knobs. Esquire/ tele = 2 knobs. Match made in heaven!

[chptunes]

Feb 1, 2011 12:53:06 GMT -5 scotty said:

Glad you came to your senses and put some pots back on that thing! Ghia = 2 knobs. Esquire/ tele = 2 knobs. Match made in heaven!

Nice Scotty.. I like your thinking. 2 controls plus 2 controls = symmetry

I think this LP Jr circuit is such to my liking cause I really enjoy the tone of a vintage 50's LP Jr.

My little USACG Esquire is really a hybrid beast. Almost equal parts of 50's Gibson and Fender.

Gib'esque
Mahogany Body
Mahogany Neck
24.75" Scale
Master V & T (w/ T on V wiper lug)

Fend'esque
'52 Tele Body Shape
1in "C" Neck Profile
Vintage Ashtray Bridge
9.5" Fretboard Radius
Tele Style Fralin Pickup
6-Inline Tele Headstock

;D

[chptunes]

..a bit more talk about the new wiring...

Because the Tone control depends so heavily on the Volume control, it only has a subtle affect when V is full.. as V is rolled down, T has more affect. If V is at max, turning T all the way to minimum just softens the brightness some. I love it.

This allows me to set both controls around 70%, as a starting point.. the tone is nice and sweet at this setting [clear and full, not wimpy]. Increasing V yields a little more volume and glassy treble.. not because of treble loss when V is reduced to 70% [the Treble Bleed fixed that], but because T has progressively less affect when V is increased.

Instead of "bright versus dark", the words "hard versus soft" seem more appropriate here.

This level of interaction and effectiveness is something that I didn't think even possible. My view of incorporating guitar controls is now changed forever. I will be setting up my pedals and amp differently now.. to suit my use of guitar controls.

Happy camper here.

[chptunes]

I just scratched out my circuit...

[chptunes]

After further discussion with the professionals here, I've discovered that the Treble Bleed circuit is not needed with the 50's LP Jr wiring Mod. It's over-kill. I have removed C2 and R1 now.

This Mod has made my guitar controls mud-free.

[markT]

Feb 10, 2011 11:05:48 GMT -5 chptunes said:

This Mod has made my guitar controls mud-free.

Congrats on a mud-free guitar Corey!
Glad it's workin' out for ya~