Dave here

[Dave Sloven]

I think my soldering iron tip has seen better days.

Making progress with the mods to the Epiphone Explorer though

Spec when current mods are done:

Bareknuckle Nailbomb pickup set (alnico bridge option)

500K Mojotone CTS neck volume pot

500K Mojotone push-push bridge volume pot wired as 'blower switch' (bypasses wiring harness so that when engaged the bridge pickup goes directly to the jack)

Snakebite Custom Guitardesign diamond plate mirror-finish aluminium pickguard

Switchcraft jack and custom fully-shielded MilSpec wiring harness

Switchcraft short style selector switch mounted in the neck volume position (hole reamed larger to accommodate)

Tone pot has been deleted

In the standard selector switch position I have installed a DPDT on/on toggle as a series/parallel switch for the neck pickup

Tone Pros Nashville-style locking bridge and tailpiece set

Grover auto-locking tuners

All hardware changed from gold to chrome

Front strap button moved to Gibson position (neck heel) and DiMarzio ClipLock strap system installed

D'Addario XL117 11-56 strings tuned to C F A# D# G C

Shielded with conductive paint

Liquid Electrical tape used in the selector switch and jack tunnels to avoid shorts

 

[Dave Sloven]

You know, I have never bothered with isolating my controls from the shield. I figure that the hot path is always isolated from ground anyway within the switches, pots, and jacks, and that all of them are somehow connected to ground anyway to earth the guitar. So I just worry about making sure that the hot connections don't touch ground and I haven't had any problems. As the hot connections on the pots are generally well clear of ground I haven't had to bother with those other than to use a bit of shrink tube just to be extra sure, but on the Explorer there is the issue of me getting conductive paint into the tunnel where the jack sits, and sometimes the contact of the jack can rub on the side of that tunnel and short out when it hits that shielding. So I painted the liquid tape over that. The same around the contacts on the DPDT switch I am installing in the old selector switch channel. I also need to make sure that the hot contacts on the selector switch do not touch the conductive paint on the sides of the control cavity in the Explorer, so I painted some liquid tape around there. I might make double sure with some more shrink tubing though. Nothing more frustrating than a guitar suddenly going silent due to an over-diligent shielding job!

 

[Dave Sloven]

Used the SG at band practice tonight, the rest of the band thought that the 500K pots, 0.022uf PIO caps, and '50s wired and fully-shielded harness made a big positive difference. They also liked that my neck pickup was working again, they had forgotten how good that sounds on the higher registers.

 

[Dave Sloven]

Still struggling to get the Explorer back together. Just burned out the tip of my soldering iron!

Here's some photos of what I was playing through this afternoon. Peavey 6534+, Orange PPC412 4x V30 cab, Ashton 4x V30 cab, Pedaltrain 2 loaded with MXR EVH Flanger, TC Electronic PolyTune Mini, MXR/CAE Boost/Linedriver, Boss LS-2, Boss PS-6 (with FV-500L as an expession pedal), Boss DD-7, Boss RC-1, MXR 10-band EQ, ISP Techologies Decimator G-String II, MXR Black Label Chorus, MXR Carbon Copy, EarthQuaker Devices Ghost Echo.

 

[Dave Sloven]

Well I got my Explorer back together (minus that pesky push-push pot) and used it at the gig last night. I make a few mistakes in these videos (especially when I went to the neck pickup and it started screeching) but here they are, warts and all. You can see my big stack on a very small stage!

Our set currently consists of two originals ('Autogenocide' and 'Death of a Sloven') and a cover (of Celtic Frost's 'Dawn of Meggido') in the middle. We are currently working on a new song, 'Simian Apocalypse' ...

 

[Sérgio]

Pretty good stuff, what pups are in that explorer?

 

[Dave Sloven]

Pretty good stuff, what pups are in that explorer?

Bare Knuckle Nailbomb set, alnico bridge magnet option, with 550K CTS volume pots, no tone pot (or capacitor). Amp is a Peavey 6534+ (lead channel) through two V30 equipped 412 cabs. The other components of the main sound are MXR/CAE Boost/Linedriver, MXR 10-band EQ (set fairly flat), and EQD Ghost Echo reverb (I turn this off in palm-muted sections and for the first half of the Celtic Frost cover). Other effects are MXR Black Label Chorus (used on the fast chord section on the first song) and an MXR Carbon Copy (used in droney section of first song and the lead break of the cover when I was using the neck pickup, but not well this time!). At the end of the final song I kick in effects each bar: first the Carbon Copy, then the chorus, then the Boss DD-7, then the MXR EVH Flanger, and finally the Boss PS-6 (set two octaves down and tremolo effect on the S-Bend setting through an expression pedal) and a Boss RC-1 looper for that improv noise outro

On the new song I actually use the neck pickup in parallel mode on the clean channel (!) and the flanger for a more gothic sounding section ...

 

[Dave Sloven]

If you look at that area around the jack hot it is pretty close to the jack. Well I found that in the playing position when there was even the slightest pressure on the cable the guitar shorted out. So last night I opened it up again and put black electrical tape between the jack and the shielding.

Here are some photos of my other instruments.

My heavily modified 2013 Squier Vintage Modified '70s Jazz bass:

My 2011 SG Standard and 2006 SG Junior, alongside my 2007 SG Special Worn Yellow as it looked when I first bought it:

Me playing my SG Junior in a punk band I used to be a member of, Terania: