I had been having some troubles with an old guitar of my Mrs. (a 1978 Cortez Telecaster copy). I was having trouble setting the intonation and getting some hum from the pickups in the neck/bridge switch position. Well, I found gobs of sites for setting intonation on a Telecaster style guitar, along with some tuning tricks I had forgot about since my younger days. That didn't suprise me as much as looking up the hum problem did. I expected to see Fender's site and a few other guitar sites, but instead I found Guitarnuts. This site is not for the technically uninitiated...and by that; I don't mean computers....I mean real solder and switch guts electro-mechanical type guys. I would have been impressed by the detailed pictured procedures that litter the site....but the detail of technical explanation and theory is astonishing. In just 10 years this guy has gone from buying his first guitar to putting 68 years worth of guitar techs to shame. I've had my share of guitars open over the years, and the one thing I always did was reground the unit to a single point (ala his "star grounding"). His capacitor replacement recommendation is right on the money, whenever I see a ceramic disk cap on any audio controls, I want to replace it with a metal film cap (he says replace it with a cap you'd like to eat :D )
This guy is like the ultra ham-radio geek for guitar wiring...just amazing.
I solved the intonation settings on the Tele, but I've yet to "quiet the beast"....seems like a weekend project...
Like I've got time for that!?
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